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The formidable drama critic Richard Gilman said of a 1983 revival that the play, “a muddled and textbookish tale of sexual desire, is in no way ‘larger-than-life,’ and the effort to make it so is precisely what makes it so melodramatic.”

Having said that, they still command the love of an audience who greet seven textbookish new songs with all the disco-dancing giddiness they do the hits.

That notion, a bit textbookish to most citizens, is a good deal less abstract to the 2.1 million members of the American military.

Dr. Metz's running comment is on the textbookish side, but no matter.