Crammed from curtain to curtain with the antics of an ex-heavyweight champ, tuneful songs of a Harvard man, colorful dance arrangements and high-class special ties, "Hi Ya, Gentlemen" has come to town with a vim, vigor and verve making it a serious contender for the title of best musical comedy of the year. Incidentally, it proves what every sports-writer has always known: Max Baer is at heart the clown, not the fighter, and is better off by far in the former role.

Following the precedent of "Brother Rat" authors Monks and Finklehoffe have located the story in a college and have filled it with glamor-boys and pretty co-eds. This time it is dear old Bailey U. that takes the alma mater honors and the life is quite a revelation. Armed with forged Groton diplomas and a beer-hall background, Maxie and stooge Sid Silvers crash Bailey to run an underground bookie racket and take the students for an expensive ride on the ponies. From there on it is a mad chase from physiology classroom to basketball floor to the girl's dormitory to R.O.T.C. drill field to Junior Prom, with Maxie and Sid double-crossing their chief on a fixed race just in time to save the solvency of dean, faculty and students.

Johnny Green has set this mad frolic of college life as students dream of it to the varied pace of a sparkling and melodious score. Swingtime "Go 'Way Blues" and sweetly-sentimental "I Heard You Were Lovely" attest to his composing versatility. Other songs we are likely to hear more of are "You're a Character," "America Marches On," and "Never a Dull Moment." Ella Logan gives a personality-plus presentation of the hotter numbers, while Christina Lind and Harry Stafford romance through the softer strains. As for the indispensable sex-angle, Audrey Christie leads al the other fifty-odd girls in the cast in laying it on with a capital S. Her dormitory-room strip-tease coached by Maxie and Sid gives the Old Howard touch with a riotous overlay of belly-shaking comedy that is burlesque at its best. It certainly makes Harvard seem a deathly dull place.