'Show Boat'

PHOTO BY MICHAEL COOPER

'City Of Industry'

able of the crooks; but even
though he's lost a brother, he's
here have been many good not very likable. And Rachel,
films made about robberies who has lost her husband and
gone wrong, ranging from has two kids to raise, loses
Reservoir Dogs to the cur- points for demanding money be-
rent release Blood and Wine. fore she'll help Roy.
But even though City of Industry
Adding to the movie's dis-
shares an actor and plot ele- agreeableness is a disturbing
ments with those films, it does misogynist strain that runs
not share their status.
throughout the story. Every
Harvey Keitel stars as
woman (at least the ones
Roy Egan, an experi-
with speaking parts) is
MOVIES
enced crook who agrees
told to shut up and is
to help out his brother
beaten or worse by men,
Lee (Timothy Hutton) on his including Roy. Even Rachel ends
first big caper: ripping off a up trussed like someone from
Russian diamond smuggler. The Perils of Pauline.
Joining Lee is Jorge (Wade
Harvey Keitel (Mean Streets,
Dominguez), a three-time loser Reservoir Dogs) is always fun to
on his way to prison as soon as watch, but the script gives him
his appeals run out, and Skip little with which to work.
(Stephen Dorff, who also was
Timothy Hutton comes off
in Blood and Wine), a young better, as the kid brother anx-
hood who proves to be untrust- ious to prove himself. But
worthy.
Stephen Dorff is unconvincing

T

PHOTO BY JANE O 'NEAL

‘1142i:MailtAM•r:,

Rated R

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein ll's Show Boat docics at the Masonic.

ere are two shows up and also has rewritten sections and
running at the Masonic, and made some of the implicit race
they are called Show Boat, material more explicit.
Act I and Act II.
Act II follows the ragged ends
The first act is a multilayered of the characters' lives in Chica-
story of young romance, racism go, and 28 years of plot is
and life aboard the Cotton Blos- brought juddering back to the
som, a show boat plying its trade levee. This act belongs to chore-
up and down the Mississippi in ographer Susan Stroman: Her
the late 1800s. In this act two dance montages of the in-
we meet Cap'n Andy
tervening years keep us
(Tom Bosley), his wife
glued to our seats.
THEATER
Parthy (Karen Morrow),
This Show Boat's
their daughter Magnolia
virtues are many. The
(Sarah Pfisterer) and Gaylord score, well orchestrated by
Ravenal (John Ruess), who will Robert Russell Bennett and
set things spinning when he William David Brohn, is impec-
woos and wins young Nolie: It's cably conducted by Derek Bate.
not every man whose proposal Visually, the feast is high in calo-
ends up as a first act wedding fi- ries — nothing is spared in the
nale.
expansive, motorized and con-
Joe (Andre Solomon-Glover), tinuously changing sets. And the
who sings and reprises "01' Man emphasis on black and white
cr) River," is the star of the first act, performers in a melange re-
• along with director Harold minds us of how theater can be
'-'-' Prince, and together they set the a liberating force.
gears of the plot. Prince reach-
Sarah Pfisterer is a first-class
52 es out just beyond Jerome Kern Nolie — a pliant soprano and
• (music) and Oscar Hammerstein a real character combined.
II (book and lyrics) to hitch the As Julie, Debbie de Coudreaux
1— act to a star, and it is anchored is less the tragic muse than
c) by Joe's reprises of "OF Man Riv- others before her, but she is
I-
appropriately blowzy. Regret-
if, These reprises signify the in- tably, Gretha Boston's appeal-
, exorable flow of life on the riv- ing Queenie is mostly confined
= er and on dry land, too. Prince to the first act — although she
is permitted to sing an enlarged
version of "Mis'ry's Comin'
Michael Margolin writes about
Aroun.' "
the arts.

90

Bosley and Morrow carry the
show, along with Solomon-
Glover, but they do not go far
into the material. Cap'n Andy
is so sweet and Parthy is so
evil-tempered that it's hard to
like either one, though they are
quite good at their respective op-
posite poles. Solomon-Glover
sings about the river with an ur-
gency, sadness and futility. But
the deep, deep sound of tragedy
and pain is not heard in "01'
Man River," nor in this produc-
tion.
Where this production stops
short is in cutting through to the
heartbreak that can be made
palpable. It doesn't happen:
Emotionally, the show stays in
the temperate zone.

(A0
1
— Michael Margolin

Bagel Barometer
®(),c).® Outstanding

0.es p

Very Good

Good

Fair

No Bagels

Awful

Harvey Keitel stars in John Irvin's City of industry.

When the job is completed,
Skip shoots his partners and
takes off with the loot. Roy goes
after him, enlisting the aid of
Jorge's wife Rachel (Famke
Janssen, from Goldeneye) and
anyone else he can.reason with
or bully. Skip in turn sics some
thugs of his own on Roy while
he tries to fence the diamonds.
After a lot of gratuitous, and bor-
ing, violence, the two finally
meet again in the ho-hum con-
clusion.
Part of the film's problem is
that the audience is offered
no one with whom to sympa-
thize. Roy is the least objection-

as the bad guy, and it's hard to
tell if Famke Janssen is a weak
actress, or if her part is just that
poorly written.
Screenwriter Ken Solarz
started out as a journalist and
TV writer ("Miami Vice," "Crime
Story"), but this, his first feature
film script, seems phony. It's full
of obvious foreshadowing,
murky characterizations and
cliche-ridden plotting. Of course,
a cliche can work if handled in
a fresh way, especially with
actors the calibre of Harvey Kei-
tel. But on all counts, City of In-
dustry fails miserably.

1/2

Stephen Bitsoli is the former

entertainment editor of Detroit
Monthly magazine.

▪

A I Al

— Stephen Bitsoli

*