The new musical at the Colonial, "Texas, Li'l Darlin'," starts off promisingly enough. After the overture, a lantern slide of the cover of a large picture magazine, similar to "Life," is flashed upon a screen, to the accompaniment of March of Time-type music and the pontifical voice of a news commentator. The idiocyncrasies of the Luce Press are favorite sport among the satirists this season anyhow, and so--you say to yourself, perhaps--here is musical comedy's own gay potshot at grey-eyed, balding China-born Henry Luce. But disillusionment, as occasionally it must to all theatergoers, came last night to this reviewer. Yaleman Harvey Small (Luce) is soon lost in the shuffle of calico and cowboy boots and does not reappear until way into the last act.

It may be just as well. Judging from the remainder of John Whedon and Sam Moore's script, it seems doubtful that they are capable of the kind of light-handed satire required for the Luce spoofing; particularly since they ride so clumsily down two already well-worn musical comedy ruts--Texas and Southern politics.

Kenny Delmar, who appears on radio as Senator Claghorn, is making his stage debut in "Texas, Li'l Darlin'" as Hominy Smith, a dishonest, scripture-quoting State Senator in the Lone Star State. Mr. Delmar turns out to be a good actor and his Hominy Smith is a more toned-down characterization than Claghorn, and also more amusing. Unfortunately, Mr. Delmar can not sing, and this being a musical, he is occasionally called upon to do what he can not.

He is not the only one. Lenore Lonergan, another featured player in the show, and an expert comedienne, has no volume for singing, much less a voice, and she, too, is given songs to sing. Assuming that the lyric writer (Johnny Mercer, in the current case) has something to say, it would be good to hear what it is. Miss Lonergan can not be dismissed, however, as a total failure. In fact, in her non-musical moments she contributes more to the comedy than any of the other performers.

As might be surmised from the title--"Texas, Li'l Darlin'"--and the foregoing commentary, the plot makes no noticeable effort to avoid the cliches apparently inherent in a Texas theme. Though I do not share in the anti-Texas feeling one hears frequently voiced, it does seem that a whole evening devoted to variations on this single theme is too much to ask of anyone. All of the other rural jokes are there, too: the Scars, Roebuck catalogue, the outhouses are good for two laughs, and so on. Several of the lines are of questionable taste, and one remark goes beyond bad taste. It occurs when the political scum, Hominy Smith, toys with the idea of becoming president. "Why not," he asks, "Truman did it, didn't he?" That seems to me clearly over the line.

The love interest is supplied by Mary Hatcher as Hominy's daughter, and Danny School as a returned Air Force veteran. (One of Mr. Scholl's songs, in which he reminisces of his flying experiences, is called, believe it or not, "The Big Movie Show in the Sky." Typical line: "Its a funny feeling when you see St. Peter smile/And he says he's had a movie camera on you all the while.") The love situation is complicated when some of the disgruntled veterans put Easy Jones (Mr. Scholl) up to run against Hominy. However, as dishonest as Hominy is, he is colorful--as we say here in Boston--while this Easy Jones character appears to be simply a wholesome moron. I would vote for Hominy, myself.

The music by Robert Emmett Dolan and the lyrics of Johnny Mercer only seemed to be genuinely felicitous in a few numbers, notably in a yodeling song "They Talk a Different Language" and in "Love Me, Love My Dog." The direction of Paul Crabtree seemed to be striving for adolescent stage humor, such as having the men roll up their trousers to reveal garters, and allowing excessive mugging by the dancers, even to the extent of permitting one to feign illness and rush into the wings to vomit. Oh yes--there is a small girl in the show who re-unites the lovers and who looks very, very much like Margaret O'Brien.

"Texas, Li'l Darlin'" is nicely costumed, has some good dancing and an energetic and talented cast. By a great deal of work some good may come of it. But as it stands now, it is considerably below the level of some of the less-successful Pudding shows, and a good deal like some of them in that it falls between two chairs. Of course, the girls are real in this one.