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Show Page Bl Thursday, March 3, 1983 1 If 'Apple Tree' blossoms with Park City cast by Rick Brough "Apple Tree" can't disguise dis-guise the fact that it's a trifle. But it's an entertaining entertain-ing trifle, thanks to the inventiveness of director Richard Jewkes and his cast. The play consists of three one-act musicals. The first story, of Adam and Eve, is set against a child's playground. play-ground. "The Lady and the Tiger" fable takes on the rah-rah satire of a college-revue college-revue sketch. And "Pas-sionella," "Pas-sionella," has some punchy, hilarious moments. The play was a replacement replace-ment for the previously-announced previously-announced "Guys and Dolls," which had some casting problems. (The characters are mostly male, but the talent turning up for auditions was female.) By intention or not, Jewkes' production has focused fo-cused attention on the talented tal-ented ladies in town. "Apple Tree" has problems, but it can't diminish the dazzling moments from Susan Jar-man; Jar-man; Maggie Reno, in perhaps per-haps her most likable comic appearance; and especially, an appealing newcomer named Shari Summers. As Eve, Summers is a constantly sunny presence, from the first moment she glides out on her scooter and marvels at her own wonder-fulness. wonder-fulness. She has the right exuberance for the part. (She's constantly exploring, inventing and naming creatures. crea-tures. The lazy Adam, by contrast, is content to call the animals by such double-jointed double-jointed monickers as "loudmouthed "loud-mouthed fat-beak flyer." That's a parrot.) Summers' handling pf " songs and dialogue is somewhat some-what flat and elementary, but that fits the character. And her songs as the older Eve are especially good-setting good-setting a tranquil mood but letting the laughs in the lyrics get through. Under Jewkes' direction, Summers and Richard Scott as Adam establish a splendid, splen-did, snappy pace in their dialogue. Scott is often used to take Summers' jokes and amplify them. He makes her look better. (When she starts to "decorate" their spindly little hovel, his deadpan reaction is priceless. ) And he shines by himself, when he tries to invent "humor" and I A poster by Picasso now on display at the Family Jewels. instead devised the world's first cornball jokes; or when he tries to figure out what species a baby belongs to. You get the feeling, though, that Scott should devote more time to his soliloquies. His opening speeches were too rushed. And while he showed Adam's belligerent, defensive side, he didn't have enough of the character's comic bewilderment bewilder-ment at this new creature who can play the Creation game better than he can. (He has a handicap. It's easier for Summers, a fresh personality, person-ality, to fascinate the audience. audi-ence. Scott, who is familiar to us, has to reach for something new. ) As the older Adam, his speeches are quite moving, and from any other actor, you'd call it capable. But I just can't shake off the feeling they need a little more honing before they reach Scott's usual quality. For this segment, Jewkes didn't use trees or Garden of Eden fig leaves. Adam and Eve are, instead, dressed in summer clothes, and surrounded sur-rounded by a few playground effects a ladder, tetherball pole, and pond. When they are ordered out of the Garden, the playthings are rolled off stage. "The Lady and the Tiger" is a less substantial story, but the production goes wild bringing it to life. Jewkes combines the cockeyed pomp of a Roman-empire epic; the bounciness of a college rally; and the blissful incompetence of a bad afternoon after-noon on "Wide World of Sports." (Sports commenta-,r commenta-,r tors narrate the story of the condemned man who must chose between two doors-one doors-one concealing a lady, one a tiger.) There's also a message here when you see the tiger chomping on a victim, followed fol-lowed by the lady nuzzling the prisoner the movements move-ments look alike! The single funniest bit in the show is Maggie Reno's la-de-da entrance, as Princess Prin-cess Barbara, amid confetti, goosy dancing girls, and hysterical huzzahs. This is a crazy skit atmosphere, where someone leaps on stage every few minutes with a new plot twist. At the beginning, Reno fjALLEPY GUIDfc .m Musa.r,i dominates the proceedings with tongue lodged perfectly in cheek. (For instance, watch her trying to pry loose her handmaiden, coyly exotic exo-tic Amy Finegan, from her muscular boyfriend, the captain cap-tain of the guard. As the captain, Dave Sturges is too stiff, but he always looks a little exhausted ex-hausted (well he should), and that plays nicely against the princess. Later on in the sketch, the singing and action get rather raucous, smothering a few of the comic points that Reno might bring out in the story. In most of the play, John Ogden's musical direction is sure-footed and delivers the appropriate tone, but here he seems to loose his grip. For the third story, "Pas-sionella," "Pas-sionella," the director has no grand lunatic design just comic filigrees. The prologue pro-logue is his, when Ella the chimney sweep (Susan Jar-man) Jar-man) is surprised by Mr. TV Guide (Kurt Graf), appearing appear-ing in a cloud of smoke out of her set. From there, the story follows the script. Passionella is transformed into a "glamorous" movie star. (Actually she looks like a Barbie doll that's been run over byatrike.) Eventually, she finds happiness hap-piness with a man who, like her, has tried to adopt a disguise to attract love. (The scene where each removes their "padding" is another marvelous invention for the show.) Sometimes, you think that Park City theater is in another dimension when Jar-man Jar-man hits the stage. As she staggers through her melodramatic melo-dramatic sufferings, she acts like an exasperated puppet on the strings of some cornball dramatist. When she sings of her desire to become a "mooooovie star" the phrase gets dragged out to a bovine pathos. And her pneumonia-laden song of lament makes those cold-sufferers cold-sufferers on TV sound like they're fit, by comparison, to sing opera. But even she has trouble with the second half of the tale. ("Passionella," like "Lady and the Tiger" starts out with a great style and runs out of steam. ) The story drags off into overlong scenes of Passionella being -a. . Park City Gallery of Contemporary Art. 515 Main St. Open 12 to 6 daily, except Monday. Featuring foreign imports, international art posters, handicrafts han-dicrafts and paintings by local artists. Complete supply of artists' materials. Live classical guitar by Bob Weisenfeld 4 to 6 Saturdays. The Art Network - A cooperative gallery showing the work of Park City area artists. Mediums represented include stained glass and leather. Within these mediums are many new and unusual techniques such as double image stained glass by C. Geer and leather collage "paintings" by M. Johnson. John-son. Since new work is added on a daily basis, do keep stopping by. The gallery artists are most happy hap-py to accept commissioned work, do repairs and also to ship anywhere. Hours are 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily at 520 Main St. next to City Hall. Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Avenue, offers a variety of educational and cultural events throughout the year. Two new exhibits will open Sunday, March 6. Ceramics and drawings by Summit Sum-mit Park's David Fernandez will be featured in the Main Gallery. California artists Manuel de Arce and Mona Rowley will be showing colored pencil drawings and ceramics in the Little Gallery. For further information, call 649-8882. The Family Jewels, 591 Historic Main Street, regularly features Western prints as well as area scenes by local artists. Posters galore cover the walls of the Poster Parlour. These latest edition graphics change weekly. Ready-made frames and custom picture framing are also offered. Open daily 10-7, Sunday noon -5:00. surrounded, surveyed and;, adored by the public. (Jar-, man disappoints here, be-j cause she can't seem to find any comic wrinkles in Ella's ecstatic adoration of her newj self.) Larry Sheldon is quite, funny, however, as the fickle public's next idol a dog- eared Dylan with the tight ' jeans of Elvis and "the hair of Eleanor Roosevelt." The narrator of the stories is played by three people. Curt Graf, as the most pedantic of the three, carries himself with dignity. But in Act 3, his Mr. TV Guide is funniest when he preens a-little, a-little, in his all-white suit. I wish Graf would develop the comic edges of the part a bit more, instead of just narraW ing. i Jossey Sheya, the second,; surprised us as she played one of the temptors in the; Garden. Her early panto-; mime was sinuously, silently, effective, and you expected, her to be deadly as hell in the later dialogue scenes. But her vocals and actions lost the sinister quality. The third narrator, Connie Jean Boyle, wasn't distinguished distin-guished enough from Sheya when the two were temp-tors temp-tors in Eden, or sports commentators in "Lady and the Tiger." But in Act 3, as grubby housewives trailing through Passionella's story, they had a mute, forlorn quality that added to the comedy. If the songs were too loud, or the dialogue was dull, there was at least always something interesting going on in the chorus. These included, at various times, Richard Scott, Shari "Summers, "Sum-mers, Amy Finegan, Dave and Don Sturges, Susan Jarman, Larry Sheldon, and Maggie Reno. Some of these people also crept out to play bit parts, particularly Bob Toy. (I think I preferred his slick Hollywood producer, in Act. 3, to the blowhard king in Act 2.) With a cast that is enjoying itself, and a grab-bag of comic touches, the "Apple Tree" blossoms. It's worth a visit during the remainder of its run, March 4-6. Admission Admis-sion is $7.50 and $5.50 for members of Park City Performances. Per-formances. For further information, in-formation, call 649-9371. i . , Shari Summers as Eve contemplates her life with Adam sometimes exasperating, wonderful in a musical moment from Park City Performances' "Apple Tree." The directed by Richard Jewkes, runs both Friday and Saturday of this week. Monday is: r Mt'S A) r c- A 1 i" U'i CI - t I 1 M' S) . rVv J Nw .il l , t i i nu """r" n i i t x n .is -in r,n JllPil "" i"1" 111 " at Prospector Square h 'i V 649-8060 JiLM Park City's largest full service steakhouse serving the best of steaks, prime rib, seafood, and the famous 35-item Salad Bar. DIMHEE - Thursday 5:3010:30, Friday Saturday 5:3011 p.m. Sundays 510 p.m. LUNCH Monday - Friday 1 1 :30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. IT" ":: ii in i linn " '-"'I 'I urn ill mi ii r - ir ' - v i mi ' TP '"1 SUNDAY BUFFET BRUNCH 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. every Sunday year-round 8KU8 STEAK CATERING Hot and Cold Hors d'oeuvres Light Dinner Buffet Platters Complete Dinners Dessert Items Menu & Party Planning WaiterWaitress Service, Pickup at Restaurant, or Delivery-only Service Available Call Sue Haygood at 649-8060 At Prospector J'quare in Park City Just off Park Avenue on Highway 248. Ample Parking, next to the State Liquor Store. On the city bus line. For Information, call 649-8060 MMM sometimes production, 1mm ii V. s I MMf! mtummim innlilwlii i'nn,,M.fc.,liiliii |