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Show Thursday, July 16, 1981 The Newspaper Shatfqri - La Ent. What good is Spring if you can't see it! window rleanlng by Shangri-La 649-6887 'Forum' has many laughs but some mix-ups not in script I PITCHERS l 2 FOR 1 Friday & Saturday 4:30 to 8:30 649 8600 Open daily for all vour favorite sandwiches. -argwuasMgeim i i li muni RESTAURANT Part Ci tij's Tinest Restaurant Open nightly except Monday 6:00-11:00 Sunday brunch 11:00-2:00 Live entertainment 1 Fri. & Sat. Tom Dislad 649-7177 m 1 mmwmt s - You Save K UM. By Rick Brough For the next two weekends, we won't be able to tell which is more blustery the canyon winds beating at the city tent in Swede Alley, or the knock-about farce being staged within. "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," presented by the Intermoun-tain Intermoun-tain Actors Ensemble, has a good share of irrepressibly humorous moments, but it doesn't hit the funny bone as often as it should. Crucial roles have been miscast, and actors who were funny could have been hilarious if they had pursued their characters charac-ters far enough. The Ensemble is, for the first time to my knowledge working completely in the round. That means, unfortunately, unfor-tunately, that the actors are sometimes playing with their backs to us, and the lines tend to fade away in the tent. But director Jean Piatt and choreographer Leslie Luyken have done an excellent ex-cellent job, given handicaps, in staging the musical as a four-sided play. And finally, it seems as if the gods themselves have frowned upon the play. The wiitds have a tendency to drown out the dialogue. And the Ensemble on the first weekend was plagued by occasional oc-casional black-outs in the tent. But the power outages only lasted for a minute, tops, and the troupe, to its credit, never missed a beat when the darkness suddenly struck. "Forum" is a play of disguises and merry mix-ups. mix-ups. It's the story of the crafty craf-ty slave Pseudolus (Ron Burnett) and the deal he strikes with his young master Hero (Spence Nelson). Pseudolus will win his freedom if he can match up Hero with the virgin he loves from afar. Unfortunately, Unfor-tunately, she's an item in the house of courtesans next door, and has already been sold by the procurer Marcus Lycus to a Roman centurion. When Hero's protective parents leave town, Pseudolus launches a plan that escalates into a series of deceptions. He convinces Lycus (Chuck Folkerth) that the girl is infected with the plague, and offers to take care of her. He poses as Lycus before the macho Roman captain Miles Gloriosus (Craig Sanchez) and dresses up his fellow slave Hysterium (Randall Gilman) as a veiled corpse in drag to convince the soldier his expectant bride has succumbed. Meanwhile, Hero's parents return home unexpectedly, with the results that the father, Senex (John Lehmer), is mistaken by the virgin for her captain, and Miles assumes the mother (Linda Martin) is a courtesan. The biggest mix-up, though, is the miscasting of the lead role. Ron Burnett looks more like Spartacus than Pseudolus. He's such a physically self-confident figure, one can't accept him as an underdog. This Pseudolus would have swindled swin-dled or fought his way to freedom long ago. Burnett is best with the physical schtick. He's very funny when he's leering at Lycus' courtesans, or dying a fake death, his legs flopping flop-ping spasmodically like a Biology 101 frog. But while he has the farcial energy and Pseudolus' mock-propriety, his handling of comic dialogue is often disappointing. disappoint-ing. Pseudolus is a character with a self-consciously melodramatic flair, and he has a lot of fun with his underhanded un-derhanded non sequiturs. When the slave urges his master to be the first on his block to free a servant ("Start a fashion"), Pseudolus should be at his most humble charming. Burnett speaks the line like a V grumpy command. For his comic lines, he either tosses them off uncomfortably, un-comfortably, or assumes a set of Uriah Heepish mannerisms man-nerisms to deliver them. Burnett is a confident enough singer, and only had trouble picking up a few of the lyrics in the opening "Comedy Tonight" number. But the show is stolen from Burnett by some excellent supporting performances. . Randall Gilmann as Hysterium is the standard that all the other actors must measure themselves against. He grovels with a permanent per-manent quaver in his voice and runs about like a bow-legged bow-legged chicken. In the midst of the chaos, he tries to soothe himself with a mar-velous mar-velous song entitled "I'm Calm" but only manages to sound about as tranquil as a man who is discreetly attempting at-tempting to pass a kidney stone. Spencer Nelson is a likable .young lover. He moves easily and gracefully in his leggings and short toga, and has the best singing voice in the cast. His only weakness is that he doesn't bring out the dimwitted side of the character. Linda Martin, as the mother, has been playing this kind of shrew so well for so long, she practically has a patent on it. (One should remember how skilled she can be portraying a more serious version of the stereotype, as in "Streetcar Named Desire." Her best moment is the number "That Dirty Old Man," where she shows the kind of loving she plans for her husband by dragging Hysterium in a headlock back and forth across the stage. The humorous choreography, chor-eography, I presume, is by Leslie Luyken. At times, she positions the actors around the tent's rectangular rec-tangular stage as if they were Roman statuary. For the "Comedy Tonight" number, they form concentric concen-tric circles around the central cen-tral figure, Pseudolus. When Miles Gloriosus sings his big number from center stage, the groveling extras radiate out from him like the spokes of a wheel which is probably the way Miles likes to see himself anyway as the center of the universe. At the end of the song, he blows them down in each direction with a huff and a puff. The three houses that figure in the story those of Marcus Lycus, Senex, and the old man Erronious have each been stuck in a different corner of the tent. And the audience's ticket entrance is used to represent activity coming from the outer streets of Rome. Piatt has directed the play so that the audience can expect that a new development develop-ment might enter at any time from any corner of the tent. The only problem is that the house fronts are stuck in the far corners, so characters charac-ters must make long, sprinting sprin-ting entrances to get to the center stage. (At the same time, Piatt can't move them forward to the point where the audience could see behind them. Their value as backstage concealment would be eliminated! ) John Lehmer as Senex, the father, is another example of miscasting he doesn't have the foibled dignity for the part. But his cheerful hor-niness hor-niness makes him likeable. 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The ebullient Chuck Folkerth as Marcus Lycus, the procurer, builds his scenes to a nice pitch of hysteria, but I yearned to see a bit more of the detailed wit he's capable of. For instance, instan-ce, he is just loud in a the scene where he displays his courtesans to Pseudolus, but toward the end of the scene, he starts to develop a wonderful won-derful rhythm in his sales pitch something like a used-car salesman or a TV evangelist. If Folkerth develops that satirical touch, future audiences may be in for a treat. Ruth Ann Fitzgerald, as the virgin Philia, looks like what she is supposed to be a short, cool drink of ambrosia. But her singing voice is not strong or well-controlled, well-controlled, and one wishes she showed the naivete of her role more. Craig Sanchez would be funnier as Miles if he emphasized em-phasized the character's vanity, but he's good for quite a few chuckles (especially when he yells angry threats from Senex's upper window, and then squeaks in fright at the drop). And Robb Sykes plays the decrepit Erronious with a realistic croak. Three actors portray the Proteans all-purpose extras ex-tras who appear as servants, soldiers, etc. Clayton Maw grovels especially well. His two constant companions are Mike Draper and Gordon Burton. Among the sexy courtesans, cour-tesans, the highest galvanic skin response was registered by Cathy Cohan as Panacea, the purring Leslie Luyken as Vibrata, and Annie Hersey, whose bumps and grinds were also recorded on the Richter Scale. (The courtesans cour-tesans were well- accompanied by percussionist per-cussionist John Garber.) But it was a little weird to see the adult actors ogling the Gemini, played by adolescent Heidi Burnett and Jilbette Fletcher. (First Blanche DuBois tried to proposition Mike Draper in "Streetcar," and now this. The Ensemble is doing more unwittingly to promote pedophilia than most radical theater companies do on purpose.) Other courtesans were Julie Kimball, Ingrid Mager and Cindy Nelson. Christin Rogers is an effective ef-fective accompanist on the piano. And musical director Margaret Reno has given her singers, if not uniform quality, at least self-assurance. self-assurance. The play will run July 16-18 and 23-25, starting at 8 p.m. in the city tent. Admission is $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for seniors and students. (j)mm(gMeg by Hick Brough A Classic Recommended (iood double feature material Ti;ne-killer For masochists only On Any Sunday II A smooth-paced documentary documen-tary that tells you everything you'd ever want to know about the various forms of motorcycle competition. com-petition. The film jumps from the Bonneville Salt Flats, where cycle speed records are set; to a 250-mile race across the desert (and one of the sport's most beautiful sights the desert plain shrouded in exhause from hundreds of bikes); to a huge indoor dirt mound converted to a motocross track (and one of the sport's most ridiculous sights hundreds hun-dreds of bikes bobbing up and down over the dips like jumping beans.) The film is good at dramatizing the private lives of . champion racers the biker who fights back a crippling injury to compete in the European Grand Prix, or the American kid who won't compete abroad. ("The food is good here, " is one of his reasons. ) The film has one of those wise-cracking narrators who works to keep the movie interesting in-teresting for us non-athletes, non-athletes, and occassionally he becomes rather patronizing. (He dismisses Japanese speedway racing, a sport that develops precision in the riders, avoids exciting crashes, and attracts quietly attentive crowds, "imagine 50,000 people on valium," he jibes.) The film makes for a nice change-of-pace, however. It takes us on an interesting excursion through the Wide World of Choppers without getting our hands greasy. Arthur We haven't seen a millionaire have this much fun since Scrooge McDuck wallowed around in his money piles. Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) is a tipsy young rich man who's never had to grow up. His addiction TTirivia Tesit .'4 V'. : V , I, I i ... : NUMBER II N SPORTS! 1780 Park Ave o Holiday Village Mall Bruce Savage Bruce Savage was the early bird who caught the worm, er, sandwich this week. For being the first person to correctly answer last week's Trivia Test, Bruce won a free lunch at the Main Street Deli-Market. Bruce knew that in "Wild, Wild West," Gordon and West's base was a lushly-furnished private train car; that George Harrison was tried on charges of plagarism for his song "My Sweet Lord;" and that the new women's soccer team is called the Silver Kicks. You, too, can win a free lunch. Just be the first person to correctly answer this week's mind-boggling mind-boggling trivia questions. Drop by The Newspaper office at 419 Main Street, or call 649-9014 649-9014 by noon Tuesday. This week's questions are: 1. Two well-known singers began as lead vocalists in musical groups. Which group did Kenny Rogers first reach fame with? Who did Janis Joplin sing for? 2. Which rock musician had his guitar smashed by John Belushi in "Animal House?" 3. What is KPCW planning to buy with the funds raised in their drive last week? goes deeper than alcohol. He's a money junkie, and since his family bankroll amounts to some $75 million, he doesn't have to worry about the supply running out. ("If I had a dime for every dime I had, I'd be a rich man," he says.) Moore's performance is blue-ribbon. As he cruises New York in his limousine, the streets echo with his hyena laugh, which is hilarious, even while it hints at the desperate unhap-piness unhap-piness and whine self-pity in the poor little rich boy. Moore is so gloriously crazy, that even the normally wacko Liza Minnelli, as the poor girl he loves, is the epitome of common sense compared to him. Arthur must give her up for marriage to a drippy debutante (Jill Eikenberry), or he will be disinherited. John Gielgud gives a jewel of a performance as the fatherly butler who gently boxes Arthur's ears when the need arises, and their relationship is the real heart of the film. Steve Gordon has effectively directed from his own script, even thoughUie story's tone is unevenly withering and warm, and the rich boy-poor girl romance ends on an unexpectedly cynical note. But Gordon's nimble dialogue at least gives Arthur a quip for every dime in his bank vault. The Great Muppet Caper In "The Muppet Movie," Kermit the Frog and company com-pany struck it big in Hollywood. But if the other Muppets knew Miss Piggy was going to hog the sequel, they might have gone back to the swamp. The movie bogs down with too many scenes centered around the Divine Swine including a Ginger Rogers take-off and an Esther Williams parody and as funny as they are, they're too much of one joke. The story features Kermit and Fozzie Bear as twin brothers ("You can see the resemblance better if I put on my hat," says the Bear). They're reporters trying to solve a series of jewel thefts afflicting the aristocratic Lady Holliday (Diana Rigg) who little suspects that the culprit is her playboy brother Nicky (Charles Grodin). Nicky falls for Miss Piggy, who in turn falls for Kermit. Grodin has been the Other Man in a lot of movies, but the ultimate ignominy must be his failure to woo a foam-rubber foam-rubber pig away from a talking frog. Most of the human actors (Jack Warden, Robert Morley, Peter Falk) are mere cameos, with one exception. ex-ception. When Miss Piggy tries to sneak into a mansion to pose as a high-born lady, she startles the real tenant, John Cleese, into a delightful double-take performance. ("There's a, uh pig climing up the side of the house," he explains to the wife.) The movie boasts several examples of Muppett magic (how did they rig Kermit and Miss Piggy to ride bicycles?) and the script cleverly weaves the numerous characters (Same the Eagle, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew) into tile plot. Die-hard Muppett fans will not be able to miss "Caper. '' Discretion is advised for the rest of us. |