The Theatre: New Musical in Manhattan, Jan. 24, 1944

Jackpot (book by Guy Bolton, Sidney Sheldon & Ben Roberts; music & lyrics by Vernon Duke & Howard Dietz; produced by Vinton Freedley) is a large-scale musical that ran to telephone figures and adds up to zero. Considering how many smart people are involved in it, Jackpot seems almost like a conspiracy of dullness.

And it is not even dull (as Dr. Johnson said of Thomas Gray's poetry) in a new way. The book, the tunes, the dancing all follow proved Broadway formulas. The trouble is they never catch up with them.

Jackpot tells...

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