Between acts last night I jotted the following onto my program: "If you'll excuse an expression I use, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with a wonderful guy." These emphatically joyful words are from one of Mary Martin's songs in "South Pacific"; to see and hear her sing them is to see and hear at her very best one of the few genuine stars on the American musical stage today. Miss Martin's contribution to the show is prodigious, and I shall return to her presently. At the moment, I hasten to announce that anybody who possesses seats for "South Pacific," which is reported to be absolutely and positively sold out for its three weeks in Boston, will fall in love, fall in love, fall in love, fall in love, fall in love with a wonderful show.

That adjective "wonderful" applies to nearly everything about "South Pacific." Take the story, for instance. It was based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize "Tales Of The South Pacific," and the relationship of Oscar Hammerstein's piece to Michener's is closer than I would have supposed possible. There are, of course, the wonderful "characters," such as the lusty, nonchalant Luther Billis and the colorful, to say the least, Bloody Mary. There is also the love story of Lt. Joseph Cable and the native girl Liat, beautifully and simply told.

The main story, however, is chiefly Hammerstein's work. It is a love story, the pair involved consisting of a U. S. Navy nurse and a Frenchman who is approaching middle-age and lives in the south Pacific. I won't tax you with a synopsis of its details, but it adds up, despite a woefully slow first scene, to what is probably the first amorous relationship that has ever had any substance in the history of musicals.

As for the songs, they are the best Rodgers and Hammerstein have written in years. Just how many years I hesitate to say on one hearing, but my impression is that they outclass "Allegro's" songs by several leagues and run well ahead of "Carousel's." "Oklahoma!" probably has them beat on sheer quantity, but there was nothing in "Oklahoma!" quite so lovely as "Bali Hai," and nothing quite so boisterously whacky as "A Hundred And One Pounds of Fun," which contains, among other phrases of equal distinction, one that goes like this: "Where she is narrow she's as narrow as an arrow, and she's broad where a broad should be broad." There is also a bevy of ballads, "Some Enchanted Evening" being the most persistently plugged, and probably the best, among them.

And the production is wonderful--fast and beautiful and marvelously ingenious. And so is the supporting cast, especially Myron McCormick as Luther and Betta St. John as Liat. And so is Ezio Pinza, whose voice is such a miracle that it probably does not matter that the words he lavishes it on cannot be understood.

And Mary Martin. She can touch your heart as surely as she can tickle your funny bone, and she does both in "South Pacific." I could cite chapter and verse for a week, but will let it go with the statement that Mary Martin is wonderful. Which is what I started out to say in the first place.