Neil Simon has developed a notable gift for light and amusing comedies that possess a kind of ingratiating charm of their own. His latest play, "The Star-Spangled Girl,"… lacks something of the brilliantly expert artifice that marked "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Odd Couple," but it is brightened by enough of his humorous and often witty inventiveness to provide an engagingly entertaining theatrical evening.

Here he has gone in for the basic situation of two young men and a desirable girl. The men are two youthfully ardent rebels living in penury in a duplex studio apartment in San Francisco, and hopefully trying to get out a protest magazine called Fall-Out. The girl is a scatterbrained Olympic swimmer, who is recovering from her humiliation over having been defeated by a contestant from a desert country. A somewhat elementary patriot, she disapproves of them violently because she is convinced that they are editing a dangerously subversive publication.

But don't think Mr. Simon is deeply preoccupied with issues of a free press and the right of youth to protest. Actually, he takes the approval of both subjects for granted, and, eventually, the girl concurs. What disturbs her at first is that one of the young men is making excessive gestures of romantic love in her direction. Later, she discovers to her alarm that she really is angered because the other youth is showing no signs of a similar attitude toward her.

All this merely provides the playwright with his springboard. Mr. Simon has a fine way with a freshly amusing line relevant or irrelevant, and for humorous observation of character and situation, but "The Star-Spangled Girl" is by no means just a succession of jokes or comic business. His plot structure may not be sturdy and there are certainly no big surprises in the development of his narrative, but his people are always likeable and essentially believable as well as amusing, and you are likely to be interested in what happens to them.

Despite the fun and ingenuity, the slightness of his story occasionally takes its toll, and there are moments when one begins to worry lest the delicate structure collapse and tumble in on him. And once or twice he has to resort to fairly obvious mechanics to prevent it. But almost unfailingly the charm, brightness, deft inventiveness and capacity for good, honest hilarity rush immediately to the rescue, something genuinely fresh and delightful pops up, and his play proceeds on its cheerful and unpretentious path happily….

"The Star-Spangled Girl" is a deftly likeable comedy.