“Bide Dudley In New York”
St. Joseph News-
Only some portions have been included
[…]
Imogene Coca, a spry mimic, is the leading player in “The Straw Hat Revue” and she manages to keep the comedy vein from being shattered by dullness. In this she is ably assisted by a coterie of young men and women who seem to be enjoying it hugely. Danny Kaye is chief comedian and Danny knows how to burlesque matters without overdoing it.
[…]
“The Straw Hat Revue” isn’t an elaborate, expensive affair, but it is clean and hugely satisfying most of the time. I imagine it will be on Broadway well into the winter. It is written, acted and staged with skill and this fact is due largely to the ability of Max Liebman.
[…]
“The Straw Hat Revue”
The Montreal Gazette – Oct. 7, 1939
Only some portions have been included
The first intimate musical revue of the season arrived last week from
an outpost of the borscht circuit. It set itself up at the Ambassador Theatre under
a marquee sign reading “The Straw Hat Revue” and advertised itself as being the best
of the summer attractions presented by Max Liebman at Camp Tamamint near Bushkill,
Pa. Let us say at once that Camp Tamamint is all right. The Straw Hat Revue is bright
and impish, and if I argue that Mr. Liebman is no Noel Coward he is perfectly justified
in retorting that I am no George Jean Nathan.
The revue is timely and
topical without invading the dangerous field of social significance. It pokes fun
mostly at people and things in the theatre and does it with a high good humor and
no more serious bite than you get from a new pipe.
Chief among the performers
is Imogene Coca, a veteran of intimate revues. Miss Coca has been around before as
a sort of road company Beatrice Lillie and this time she has better material and
more opportunity. But she doesn’t dominate the stage because she has real competition
in the person of one Danny Kaye, a young man with a neat delivery and a rather wonderful
sense of comedy timing.
[…]