Hermione Gingold is a very funny lady. That, plus a talented cast and a lot of first-class material, make "It's About Time" entirely irresistible. And that's a lot to say about a musical revue.

First, Hermione Gingold. As she will tell you herself soon after the show begins, it's pronounced "Hermy-oh-nee." She is a performer with a flamboyant earthy style that takes you by storm. She flounces about like a whirlwind, lifts her skirts slyly, twists her string of pearls, tosses off innuendoes, and grimaces. When she has good material, and luckily that is often, she is howlingly funny. For example, her discussion and demonstration of some obscure comp o s e r's "Grasshopper's Dance" is a genuine delight.

Ronnie Graham is featured with Miss Gingold. There is something a little unearthly about the way he rolls and pops his eyes, but the fact is he's one of the cleverest comedians around. His humor leans toward the macabre, a fact that is quite refreshing in itself. The young man's monologue as a marijuana-smoking bop musician is fast and witty.

The material in "It's About Time" is partly new and partly culled from three of Miss Gingold's London revues.

For the most part the sketches are excellent fun. There are some good songs, including "General Effect," "Knock Wood," and "Coo Coo Jug Jug." Toward the middle of the second act there is a barren stretch of four dull and sometimes insipid numbers that Director Walter Crisham could cut with no trouble. Without them the show would move quickly all the way, and would come closer to a reasonable length.

Many of the songs and sketches have a slight English music-hall tang, but only occasionally do they seem a little wheezy. There are two excellent parodies in "It's About Time." "I and the King" aims some expert barbs at the more ludicrous elements in the current Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play. Miss Gingold, wearing a red wig, burlesques Gertrude Lawrence as Anna in two songs. Two lines from these songs might be quoted: "It's a beautiful morning in Bangkok--B-A-N-G-K--O K!" and "People will say we are us!" The other parody is a conglomeration of Menotti's "The Telephone," "The Medium," and "The Consul." Again, it is a skilled and highly successful job.

The supporting cast--a non-Brattle Theatre group--is almost uniformly spirited, talented, and versatile. Especially impressive performers include a very pretty young lady named Kay Coulter; Patricia Bybell and Bill Shirley, both excellent singers; and dancers Vera Lee and Peter Hamilton. Robert Fletcher's costumes and Miles Morgan's lighting are excellent, although Robert O'Hearn's set seem a little hasty. On the whole, "It's About Time" is a revue with lots of gusto and good, low, comedy. It, and Miss Gingold, deserve the hearty welcome that they are bound to get.