Curtain Going Up

Unabashedly romantic and delightfully lighthearted, if sometimes a bit too cute, this first novel is an ideal summer read. Connecticut writer Sheila Devlin is beautiful, divorced and broke. Her ``sweet, gabby, cheerful'' widowed mother, Muriel, lives in Kansas, where she is ministering to the broken leg and thus far unbroken bachelor vows of Sherwood Pell, Kansas University's resident playwright, whose current play she's doing a job on as well. Before Muriel's complex doctoring can show results, Sheila blows in with out-of-work actor Val Keating, a natural for the lead in Sherwood's play. That's okay with Murielwhat she balks at, since the pair is glossy with love, is Val's youth and poverty. These detriments notwithstanding, Val reveals a talent so prodigious that Sherwood agrees to reactivate his New York theater ties and try to find backers for a Broadway run. Now complications threaten to overwhelm the plot, and although there are a few gummy moments, Scott pulls off her narrative with humor and verve. (August)