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Show The Newspaper Thursday, February 18, 1982 Page B5 SnoQCBllflgM 'Barefoot' Should make by Rick Brough "Missed it by that much!", Maxwell Smart used to say, and the old catch-phrase may come back into style with "Barefoot "Bare-foot in the Park." The Park City Performers' production is pleasant enough, but it constantly gives off the sense of falling a little short. Director Richard Rich-ard Scott shows a capable hand in his first directorial effort, aided by Simon's well-written, meticulous script. Now if he can prod his actors into giving the extra oomph, "Barefoot" can become be-come a vital, delightful play! One of Simon's earliest successes, the play brings newlyweds Paul and Corrie Bratter into a New York apartment that would try men's souls. The bedroom is the size of an alcove; the skylight has a hole in it; the heat, in a cold February can only be summoned up via Divine Intervention; and the apartment can only be reached by an exhausting five-floor walk (giving birth to one of the funniest running gags in the theater.!) This is merely a challenge to Corie (Kathryn Haley) and the aging roue upstairs, Victor Velasco (Jere Calmes). But it's a pain in the neck for Paul (Craig Bergquist) and his kindred spirit, Corie's mother (Pat Whitfield). As Corie concludes, con-cludes, there's an opposition here between the Doers in this world and the Watchers. But after a wild dinner party, a marital spat, and a middle-aged romantic interlude, inter-lude, Simon's pair of Doers are brought a bit down to earth, and the Watchers learn to lose their inhibitions. inhibi-tions. ,i, i What we need is a quartet of great, lively comic per Weisberg mesmerizes crowd at the Egyptian Theatre by Michael Spaulding Flutist Tim Weisberg played to a full house at the Egyptian Theatre Sunday and Monday nights. Weisberg's band, consisting consist-ing of guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums, started with a high intensity fusion-style fusion-style music. But as the evening progressed pro-gressed the music became a little less frantic, settling back into some extended jams that allowed each soloist freedom to explore the jazz-rock terrain. formances. The Performers fall more into the "Yes, but ..." category. Kathryn Haley is genuinely genu-inely warm and radiant as Corie, whether stroking her apartment walls or "popping" "pop-ping" one of Velasco's exotic recipes. But she's not very funny. Her Corie doesn't have the kocky edge. She seems to have a genial common sense that would never tell her to walk barefoot in Washington Square Park. She is improving her skills as an actress, however. In her well-modulated drunk scene, Haley takes Corie's usual cheerfulness and makes it just a little more slap-happy. And she ends the scene with a funny crying jag. Craig Bergquist, playing a lead for the first time, needs more allowances from us than anyone, and hopefully director Scott has used his natural stiffness in the part to point up Paul's formality. But even so, there's room for improvement. Paul is a stuffy, analytical sort, but a sardonic sense of humor goes with him. He has more good one-liners than anybody else in the play and, with his lawyer's personality, person-ality, he uses them to make points against Corie. Bergquist Berg-quist should show a dignified relish when he cracks wise. Instead, he merely acts grumpy. This, together with his discomfort in the young romance moments, gives him problems. You can't understand why Corie was attracted to him. He behaves like one of those dull boyfriends in the old movies .whoiloses the girl to Jerry Lewis. rio'ioK gsjC- I Bergquist shows signs of mmmmmm Tim Weisberg Weisberg seemed most at home with the slower, more introspective pieces. There's a mystic quality to the flute that Weisberg's style seems more than suited for. His gyrations as he played could have been the dance of some tar Eastern shaman. If there were any snakes in the audience, I'm sure they were charmed. The audience was more than receptive to the music; at times they became part of the rhythm section, with foot stomping and hand clapping reacning a decibel level more of being a quick learner. I frankly didn't expect too much from an actor with little experience, but his timing is very funny in spots (his line about the difficulties difficul-ties of eating "brown salad"). And he carries his drunk scene off reasonably well. As for the supporting players well, I don't think Jere Calmes and Pat Whitfield Whit-field could be dull, short of rigor mortis. But they could be much better. Calmes seems to be on the wrong tack as Victor Velasco. Velas-co. He is curt and professional profession-al which hardly fits his description. (Paul says that he doesn't look like Douglas Fairbanks Jr., but he jumps like him.) I wish he would put more John Barrymore into his character. He needs more bounce in his flamboyant flamboy-ant movements, more ardor in his pursuit of Corie. Even so, he gets his share of laughs, the biggest when he takes a funny line and makes it funnier. Whitfield comes closest to a fine comic creation, as Corie's frantic mother, with her ducky little shuffle and constant consternation. Her mouth seems to be drawn in a permanent 0. But she is in danger of hitting the same whiny, confused note too often in the play. She probably needs to pitch that reaction at several different levels. Richard Scott shows signs of being a good addition to the directorial staff at Park City Performances. His people move around the set easily and naturally even when one of them or all of them are crawling around off stage in the small apartment rooms or outside on the ledge! Scott also brings a nice relaxed rhythm to photo Dy Micnael Spaulding matching or exceeding that of the band. Opening the show for Weisberg was Salt Lake musician Ed Pratt playing a repertoire of classic tunes such as "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", and "Mr. Tamborine Man". Pratt joked at the beginning be-ginning of his set that "Nobody really wants to hear the opening act." It turned out he was dead wrong, as he learned from the deafening ovation at the end of the set, calling him back for an encore. y I potential the kind of scene where all the characters are getting to know each other. (Note the scene where the group is sampling Velasco's eel concoction, con-coction, knichi.) But he falls down in the early scenes when Corie is rushing about to get her apartment fixed up for Paul and her mother. The jokes don't have the snap they should because the pace is sluggish. The most important factor Scott needs to work on is the famous stairclimbing gag, where virtually everyone staggers into the Bratter apartment in a state of cardiac arrest after climbing climb-ing the five flights (plus the stoop). It's a wonderful suspense joke. Every time a character starts up, the audience's eyes are riveted on that empty doorway. Simon's script comes up with new variations, but Scott's direction doesn't. Those entrances en-trances should be as exquisitely exqui-sitely drawn-out and timed as a Jack Benny one-liner, but they're too rushed. Among the stair-climbers is Glenn Artist, who gives his best performance yet at the Egyptian as the telephone repairman who appears at the Bratter door. In the first RESERVATIONS ARE NOW BEING TAKEN FOR ADVERTISING SPACE IN THE SUMMER PARK CITY To reserve advertising space call or stop by The Newspaper Office 419 Main Street, Park City 649-9014 appearance, he's a little uncomfortable. But his second appearance is a comic delight. (Amidst his duties, he suddenly notices that the battling Bratters are putting the freeze on each other, and his nervous efforts ef-forts to be helpful and or inconspicuous are hilarious.) The set designed by John Craigle ably fits the visual requirements of the play. And stage managers Demie Milliken and Anne Hersey presumably get the credit for giving it a handsome set of accessories. Finally, we must mention Fred Hightower's appearance appear-ance as an exhausted de-liveryman. de-liveryman. We'd call it a bit, but it was more like a star cameo, with the Hightower groupies in the audience cheering. Fred, fortunately, did not rest on his laurels, but made the most of his gasp-on. Now, the more difficult challenge to the "Barefoot" company is to make the most of their opportunities in the two-hour play. The play continues Feb. 18-20 and 25-27. Admission is $4 for Park City Performances Perform-ances members and $6 for non-members. For info, call 649-9371. The Park City Lodestar magazine provides visitors with information and interesting stories that guarantee their stay in Park City will be enjoyable. It creatively introduces intro-duces guests to the history, entertainment, sport, services ser-vices and idiosyncracies of Park City through informative feature articles, graphics and humor. 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