Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 6, 1 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 6, 1 ~ theatre cinema= CERAMIC CLASSES at JANKA'S BARN STUDIO begin Sept. 8 High on the music wagon Midnight Co Stoneware, wheel-throwing for w b y' f ( begjinning and advanced students Section 1-7-10 P.M. Mondays Section 11-1-4 P.M. Tuesdays D ustncid sigann j111-7-10 P..Wednesdays Twelve weeks. $48.00 includes supplies J 'SBaRN-STU IL279:' e By LAURIE HARRIS The Gilbert and Sullivan So- ciety's production of Paint Your Wagon f i ts the definition of musical comedy -- but just barely. And therein lies both its strength and its weakness. If a musical comedy w e r' e judged solely by its lyrical con- tent then Paint Your Wagon is outstanding. But since a mini- mum of acting is needed to cre- ate a necessary balance, t h i s production just slides under this semantic wire. Individually, most of the per- formers have a flamboyant flair of expression but exercise little control over its variance. The players lack an understanding of the theatrical shadingsneed- ed to turn a role into a believe- able portrayal. The California gold rush days provide the backdrop for the story of Ben Rumson (Char- lie Sutherland) and his daugh- ter Janice Lent who find not only gold, but loneliness. As the only girl in a town of hundreds of gold-digging men, his daugh- ter, Jennifer, finds friendship by befriending an outcast Mexi- can. However, her father is deter- mined to turn Jennifer into a lady and sends her to Boston, only to establish the previous loneliness shared by the three characters. And when Jennifer returns she finds the gold run dry, t h e Mexican, Julio gone and her father remarried. Yet as the story ends, Julio returns, her father once again takes up the search for gold and follows his "Wandrin' Star." Charlie Sutherland creates a Ben Rumson who is appar- ently happy while betraying the loneliness of a man with no root-s and no wife. Almost inag- ically, his broad smile and often glistening eyes can por- tray a wide range of happiness. Yet through his songs, especial- ly the haunting "They Call the Wind Maria," he is able to ex- press the loneliness and sepa- ration of all those who have broken their ties and moved to the empty California territory. David Johnson as Julio so controls his emotions that he appears wooden in comparison. To some extent this may be jus- tified by his role of an outcast Mexican trying to uphold his royal heritage. However, Johnson's voice is majestic in its power and strength. And perhaps by only listening to him and ignoring his constant rigidity -both of character and motions-his por- trayal would become doubly powerful. Miss Lent has what is known as a "lovely" voice which is highly conducive to the sugary role of Jennifer. Unfortunate- ly, Miss Lent's performance is rigidly stylized into an indig- nant young girl and thus lacks any real variety. Cherry (Patricia Petiet, the French leader of the gold dig- gers' imported women is the epitome of musical happiness as she delightfully flirts and flaunts her way across the stage. The general staging of the production is excellent, esp- cially in the "On My Way" production which gives the feel- ing of real motions through a clever rotation of lights and characters. The male chorus of gold dig- gers is a carefully integrated group of strong voices and char- acter roles. But the female flooz- les, needed for the story, add little to the stage. DIAL 8-6416 "ONE OF THE BEST PICTURES I'VE SEEN THIS YEAR!' - .fn8 o'Gif lT. .'~ror , "A PICTURE OF DISTINCTION!" -Saturda;ykvie "FASCINATING!" -Tim* Moo~zn. R. LEE PUT Rsw A RAYMOND STRGSS PM UCTIO. ., STARRING RITA TUSHINGHAM BOB 7 .rttpin o a nl~ .. * ALSO * "IMPORTANT! POWERFUL!" - NENSWEEK MAGAI. "CERTAINLY THE MOST EXCITING AND MEANINGFUL FII#M IN VYARRI" By GORMAN BEAUCHAMP Two ways of looking at film are as an actor's medium or as a director's medium. If you think of Midnight Cowboy as a Dustin Hoffman film-or, more accurately, a John Voigt film- you'll probably like it. If you think of it as a John Schlesinger film, you probably won't. Or if you view the movies as a mixed medium, you'll probably have a mixed reaction. I did. The acting is good and the direction is bad. Voigt, as Joe Buck, the male whore with a heart of fool's gold. is flawless. A New Jersey actor, he has competely transformed himself into one of those dumb "good ol' boys" which West Texas harbors: a sort of if you can dig it) handsome, likeable Lyndon Johnson out to make his fortune through a more honest kind of hustling. He's got the drawling idiom, the hulking awkwardness, the belligerent yet beleagured swagger down pat-- a drugstore Hud. Hoffman is good too if a bit of a caricature), as Ratso Rizzo. a greasy, gimpy con-man about 42nd Street who proves there are other kinds of life just as bad as graduating and going into plastics. Repulsive and yet appealing, Ratso is a jetsam rebel, giving the finger to the world at large. The bond that unites this improbable pair is a common willingness to believe in each others pathetic illusions. And out of their kindness to each other grows a grubby kind of platonic love which makes each one something better than he would have been alone. The actors' problem is to keep this sort of relationship from slip- ping into maudlin sentimentality and, usually they do. At its best, in the final sequence, their at- tachment is deeply, genuinely moving. As a simple story of these two, Midnight Cowboy is effective and-well-valid. But then there is Schlesinger's direction. He is unfortunately a man with pretensionsnboth artistic and social. T a k e his technique of flashing back, for- ward, up, down, and between in a gimmicky attempt to provide a totally unnecessary psycholo- gical dossier on Joe Buck-you know, how the guy got that way. The first half of Herlihy's no- vel dealt with the boy's life, but the account was apparently in sufficiently sensational for Sch- lesinger who knows every hust- ler must have had a good film- able trauma. So we get a trau- ma - or snips and snatches of one, a bit here, a bit t h e r e. ooC-->o o """"0<-~>0<"""><""" o<-- o<"""> RENT STRIKE MASS MEETING MONDAY, SEPT 8 8:00 P.M.-Union Ballroom Organizers Workshops Sept. 9, 10, I11 a t 8: 00 ICN THE S.A.B. FOR MORE INFORMATION: CALL 63-3102, VISIT 1532 S.A.B. -Dailv--Richard Lee PILOT PROGRAM PRESENTS ALICE'S RESTAURANT OPENS AGAIN TONIGHT WITH PETER BOWEN ALICE LLOYD HALL FREE FOOD STILL ONLY 50c 9:00 P.M. nhii1111h1E11115 F -., - - -m - a o - I N !% ; I . ii li LI L - - i t I TONIGHT I WHAT IS THE --an all-campus orchestra! -sponsored by MUSKET and G&S! -performing 3 hit shows! DON'T MISS THE MASS MEETING SEPT. 15, 8 P.M.,-ROOM 3A-UNION UNIVERSITY THEATRE ORCHESTRA 7:00 and 9:00 P.M. TONM JONES "Better than Gunga Dinn." -Judy Wood TONIGHT Fine Bluegrass by and the HARMONY GRITS 1421 Hill St. 8:30 P.M. Free Food Coffee, lea 'r } } 1:: X+". I.. ii Im MUST HEAR THIS TO BELIEVE IT Dobro, Banjo, Fiddle Guitar, and Mandolin Q TON IGIET Saturdwy, Sept. 6 The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society PAINT YOUR WAGON A musical comedy by Lerner and Lowe, the mn who gave us Brigadoon, and Camelot. Ii TRUEBLOOD AUDIT ORIUM FRIEZE BUILDING ,- Saturday, Sunday, Sept. 6, 7 IVAN THE TERRIBLE -Throws wide its cinder block arms PART 2 Dir. SERGEI EISENSTEIN (1948) SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1969 Eisenstein's last film (in B&W with special color sequences) . A mammoth epic portrait of the crazed I Czar Ivan in order to stage COME AS YOU ARE 7 & 9 ARCHITECTURE 662-8871 7cAUDITORIUM Starting at 4:30 Post Meridian. WITH EVERYTHING FREE C in alphabetical order, sorter: Cinema Guild is in the Architecture A BAND- Auditorium in the Architecture and Design School which is located be . A BATHTUB, filled with Jello; tween Tappan and East University on Monroe. FILMS; o DRINK (essen mein kinder) ; '- OTHER PEOPLE, some standing on their heads; < A UNICYCLIST, if we can fit him in.