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CACTUS FLOWER. A playboy dentist (Barry Nelson) who has drilled himself into a trap of lies persuades his spinsterish nurse (Lauren Bacall) to fill in as his "wife" because his mistress (Brenda Vaccaro) won't agree to marry him until she meets his supposed spouse. Abe Burrows directs this daft farce with a deft touch.
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. High spirits and high jinks are the household gods of the blithe Sycamore family. The 29-year-old play is an American comedy classic, though its zaniness is less evident now than its tender and nostalgic reminders of an age of innocence.
THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN is a dazzling theatrical spectacle but fails to touch the nerve center of emotion and drama. Christopher Plummer gives a forceful interpretation of the stormy Conquistador Pizarro in Peru.
RECORDS
Pop LPs
MARY POPPINS EN FRANCAIS (Vista). The Sherman brothers' songs "have made the rounds of the pop singers and the jazz bands and now turn up, very much at home, translated into French. Christiane LeGrand, the French soprano soloist of the Swingle Singers, tries to keep it sweet and simple but breaks into a bit of high-spirited scat singing in Un P'tit Morceau de Sucre and sounds, as they say in Paris, supercalifragilisticexpidelilicieux.
MAN OF LA MANCHA (Kapp). The cast recording of the season's most imaginative musical betrays the play's sentimentality but boasts a tuneful if obvious score by Mitch Leigh, who has composed everything from opera to TV commercials. Joan Diener exaggerates her trollop's complaints as she screeches "One pair of arms is like another," but Richard Kiley as Don Quixote does well by The Impossible Dream and Dulcinea.
THE BAROQUE BEATLES BOOK (Elektra).
This musical spoof sounds almost like Bach. The themes, of course, are pure McCartney-Lennon, but they are treated in authentic baroque style by some excellent classical musicians who call themselves the Baroque Ensemble of the Merseyside Kammermusikgesellschaft. Selections include a suite, The Royale Beatleworks Musicke, and a Cantata for the Third Saturday after Shea Stadium.
ROBERT GOULET ON BROADWAY (Columbia). Goulet attacks each show tune as though it came from Il Trovatore. He can make lyrics like "Say I'm your Valentine" sound like the declaration of dark passion and Hello, Dolly! become a grand official greeting. Much of the music benefits from being made to sound important.
THE SCREEN SCENE, STARRING PETER NERO (RCA Victor). Hollywood seems to be making more indelible music than Broadway. Thunderball, Forget Domani, The Shadow of Your Smile and Ship of Fools provide a varied program for nimble Pianist Peter Nero, who keeps an orchestra at hand to buttress his moods, among them humor: What's New Pussycat? and Help! get full and funny treatment.
MAY THE BIRD OF PARADISE FLY UP YOUR NOSE (Columbia). "Little" Jimmy Dickens, the country singer, has been getting some attention in the city because of the colorful malediction of his title song. The album's other lyrics, sung to interchangeable tunes, are a standard collection of complaints ("I got pockets full of troubles every payday"; "I can't get over me not gettin' over you").