| OCR Text |
Show II I I t ,-: A i e ; ) , I - .,V, - til Fine Performances Highlight Otherwise Disappointing Production i 1 f ' j f , I J"- If' i ' f i ' ! I ; V- " 1 - . lJ 1 J . - - , -y, ivn..,n i inm.ftMin mi m. - Jim Donner "Albert" and Susan Jarman "Rosie" fend off reporters in "Birdie" scene. by David Fleisher The Intermountain Actors Ensemble concludes its busy and. overall, successful summer sum-mer season with a disappointing disap-pointing production of the 10's musical. "Bye Bye Birdie." IAE drew plaudits, and well deservedly so. for eaulier summer productions of "A Funny Thing Happened Happen-ed on the Way to the Forum" and " ' Fantasticks" ; but. unfortunately, this latest, production is beset with a number of critical problems. How ever, a few bright spots did emerge to enlighten the otherwise dismal scene. "Bye Bye Birdie" takes a light-hearted look at another era. when teenagers chewed gum until it was coming out of their ears, wore pedal pushers and Bobby Sox, and spoke endlessly on the telephone. They also screamed scream-ed a lot, especially when in the presence of a handsome young rock star like Conrad Birdie. Our hero is about to be inducted into the Army but, first, as a big promotional stunt he will give one last kiss to one of his many adoring fans, Kim MacAfee who lives in Sweet Apple, Ohio. This last appearance before his induction is to be aired live across America on the Ed Sullivan Show, but things don't turn out exactly as they are planned; consequently, conse-quently, various subplots surface wherein lies the bulk of the action. Birdie's business manager, Albert, played by James Donner, has a lot riding on the success of the promotional promotio-nal scheme in that he owes Birdie money and the big I suggest he go see at least one Elvis Presley movie. Elvis Presley certainly was-not was-not a great actor, but he did know how to swivel his hips and make girls faint. The lucky girl who is to receive Birdie's farewell kiss, Kim MacAfee, is played by talented Amy Finegan who local theatergoers theater-goers last saw in "Fiddler on the Roof" as Tevye's youngest young-est daughter, Chava. While trying to act mature and cool, Kim is really quite excited about being on the receiving end of the big kiss. Finegan . does an admirable job releasing these twin emotions. emot-ions. She has a strong singing voice, though, her rendition of "How Lovely to be a Woman" in the first act had me sitting a little on the edge of my seat mainly because she seemed to be forcing the song, struggling, especially on the high notes. Amy Finegan, like Susan Jarman, is a disciplined actress and I think she has a bright future in theater to look forward to. Hugo Peabody, played by Clayton Maw, is Kim's boyfriend and he doesn't like the idea of his "steady girl" kissing anybody, Conrad Birdie included. Hugo is the opposite of Birdie, awkward and definitely not cool. Maw demonstrates in this play, as he has in other productions, a wide range of ability that I find impressive. He has an excellent stage presence, whether as Stanley Kawalski in "Streetcar Named Desire" De-sire" or as an English comedy actor in "Fantasticks". "Fanta-sticks". His drunken fall in act two of "Bye Bye Birdie" Please turn to page 58 kiss could get him off the . hook. Donner's performance is fairly consistent and believable although at times it seems his lines are delivered routinely and without with-out conviction. As a business manager he needs to elici more forcefulness and self confidence. Susan Jarman, as Albert's assistant, Rosie, wants the promo stunt to be a success because she wants to marry Albert, and she also would desperately like Albert to get out of the music business and take up a career as an English teacher. Jarman is absolutely marvelous in this part, her performance is by far the best in the cast. She is a disciplined actress and it becomes apparent whenever she's on stage. She seems to have an endless supply of energy, and she has also been graced with having a voice that projects well. As a result, her scenes are entertaining enter-taining and vivacious. It , should be noted as well that '? Susan Jarman is one of the premiere dancers in town, radiantly demonstrated in two second-act numbers, "Shriner's Ballet" and "Spanish Rose". It's truly a delight to see her back on stage after giving solid performances in previous productions of "Oliver," "A Delicate Balance," and "Romanoff and Juliet." Phil Corrado, as Conrad Birdie, is from a physical standpoint ideal as the teenage idol; however, as the saying goes, looks ain't evcrvthine. This role should be the combination of an almost animalistic nature with an intense "let-it-all-hang-out" attitude. For why else would all of his loyal followers scream their heads off just at the mentioning of his name? Because, to use the lingo of the day, Conrad Birdie is "cool.". But Cor-rado's Cor-rado's Birdie is lackluster and phlegmatic, totally without with-out charisma. His songs, "Sincere" and "One Las' Kiss' should electrify the stage; I mean, you've got all these half-crazed teenage girls panting and screaming almost to the point of hysteria, all because of Conrad Birdie. One could nearly over-act in this part and gel away with it, but Corrado goes in the opposite dircciion by under-playing it. Thursday, September 24, 1981 More Birdie Continued from Page 4B rnrin ncbunu Excuse the stereotype, but traditionally, Jewish mothers love to make people, particularly particu-larly their children, feel guilty by saying things like, "You want me to go? I'll go-" Dick Mitchell and Robin Kaari, as Kim's parents, deliver fine performances, as does Jere Calmes Jr., who plays Kim's brother. Of particular note is their song together in act one entitled, "Hymn For A Saturday Evening (Ed Sullivan)" " 1 is almost as memorable as his incredible death scene in "Fantasticks". In "Birdie," he' delivers a wonderfully funny performance; as Hugo, Hu-go, Clayton Maw epitomizes the perfect nerd. What is reassuring about Cathy Cohan's portrayal of Mae, Albert's meddling mother, is that it's not too schmaltzy. Cohan's timing, a most important ingredient for success in the role, is generally good; plus, she has the necessary knack of intentionally understating her strong objections to the way Albert is behaving which results in getting her point across even better. watching Lore Clark as the screaming teenager Ursula, and Leslie Luyken as one of Conrad Birdie's devoted fans. Seeing these two on stage, one is convinced beyond a doubt they are the teenagers of the times. Ron and Anne Burnett, directors for "Bye Bye Birdie," took on a lot with this production; indeed, it is a challenging task to direct a cast this large and considering consider-ing quite a few of the cast members are young and inexperienced. And Prospector Prospec-tor Square is anything but the ideal place to stage a play, a musical no less. The atmosphere is sterile and not condusive to the magic of live theater. The handsome and timely costumes were done by Linda Martin, Anne Burnett, Janice Klein and Teresa Williams. Conrad Birdie's attire is particularly noteworthy. note-worthy. The simple, yet functional set was designed by Jean Piatt and Ron . Burnett. "Bye Bye Birdie" continues conti-nues September 24-26, and October 1-3. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Another song, though, later in act two, "Kids," isn't sung with quite enough gusto. There are seventeen musical musi-cal numbers in "Bye Bye Birdie", several of which are memorable, thanks to the inspired musical direction by Maggie Reno. Anne Burnett's Bur-nett's choreography is well-conceived well-conceived throughout most of the numbers, and those that stand out include "An English Teacher," "The Telephone Hour," "Shrin-er's "Shrin-er's Ballet," and "Spanish Rose." Slides flashed on a screen, hanging above the stage, accompany the action. These slides are supposed to depict the location of the scenes; however, I don't think the slide show serves as an integral part of the action, thus making it totally useless. use-less. Also, the slides aren't convincing at times. For example, there's a shot of the Park City Depot. I think it requires quite an imagination imaginat-ion on the part of local audiences to believe that the Park City Depot is actually a train station in Sweet Apple, Ohio. "Bye Bye Birdie" has a large cast, twenty-seven members, many of whom are talented and sing in the Teen Chorus or the Adult Chorus. The Teen Chorus includes Leslie Luyken, Heidi Burnett, Burn-ett, Stephanie Burnett, Erin Calmes, Mike Draper, Belinda Be-linda Brown. Samantha Brown, Teresa Williams, Ingrid Mager, Randy Sheya, Rolf Sandberg, Steve Stan-czyk, Stan-czyk, Jillbette Fletcher, John Middlesworth , Barbara Bramble and Tim Morris. The adult chorus has John Lehmer, Teresa Williams, Rai French, Steve Stanczyk, Jossy Sheya, John Middles-worth Middles-worth and Hal Smith. I particularly enjoyed |
