St. Louis Woman (book by Arna Bontemps & the late Countee Cullen; music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Johnny Mercer; produced by Edward Gross) shows something more than musicomedy's aspirations but something less than its appeal. An all-Negro period yarn of the '90s, it pins its faith almost entirely on its story and its music. But the story is too trite and trumped-up to deserve such prominent treatment. The music, which therefore needs to be specially engaging, is no more than agreeable.
This barroom-ballad of a tale concerns Delia Green (Ruby Hill), a loose...
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