Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 17, 1971 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday. Seotember 17. 1971 arts Lenny': By MARK ALAN FARBER Lenny, unlike Follies, and No, No, Nannette, is a show nminus the old stars, but about them. Or at least about a kind of star of the 1950 boho set: Lenny Bruce. Lenny Bruce, was a stand-up comedian who was always get- ting busted for obscenity. Mr. Bruce during the 1950's and ear- ly 1960's had the foresight to use such words as 'fuck' and 'cocksucker' on nightclub stages around the country. For this foresight he was continually persecuted and prosecuted. Lenny Bruce's humor was not that of the innuendo or of the dirty comic. He was a satirist in the vein of an Aristophanes, a Swift, and perhaps a Mort Sahl. He was a comic not of the one show in order to justify the reservations that I have about the production. A curtainless stage hung with netting and tiki-like heads. An abstract set suggesting an Af- rican primitive motif. Actors come on stage dressed in Afri- can tribal style. They are bang- ing percussion instruments. They come downstage and incite the audience to clap the beat. More of the tribe converges on the stage. Conversation begins, "I love the Lord better'n any- body in the tribe. I'm giving up nine rivers for the Lord. Write it down. How about you?" "Seventeen rivers, ten farms. That's for the Lord. How about you?" "Well, today I'm gonna be the best man in the tribe cause I'm . .iages Time b "THE BEST MAN IN THE TRIBE." "Why?" "Cause I don't do it, that's why. You do it-second best. And you who talk about it- WE'LL BLEST YOUR ASS. The stage clears. Some pieces drop from the flies, forming an impressionistic nightclub. A man appears on stage. He grabs a hand mike, and starts a monologue. What am I describing? Could this be a play about Lenny Bruce? Have I come to the wrong theatre? Perhaps it's a new play from the Black thea- tre? Maybe it's a communal rock musical? Or I could be de- scribing what it's like sitting at home, s-t-o-n-e-d; switching channels from a NET produc- tion of Missa Luba to the NBC presentation of theJohnny Car- son Show. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. This is the Brooks At- kinson Theatre. These are the beginning moments of Lenny! Why an African motif to a play about a Jewish comedian from Long Island? Yes, why indeed? Tom O'Horgan (evi- dently still obsessed with the communal spirit of Hair) has mixed Black tribalism with the 1950's equivalent of Alexander Portnoy (Lenny Bruce). This in- termarriage leaves even the most liberal - minded wishing for a pure race. Lenny suffers from a juxta- position of two conflicting the- atrical styles; the ensemble play, and the conventional dra- matized biography. The ensemble play can best be described as very physical. The stage flows with movement. It is composed of episodes, held together by a sameness of mood or idea, rather than a consistent storyline. It is the genre of Hair, Paradise Now, The Ser- pent, and Terminal. The dramatized biography, on the other hand, is a straight treatment of someone's life story. Emphasis is on a few major characters. The progres- sion of plot is well defined. The aim of the production is not so 603 E. Liberty DIAL 5-6290 3rd WEEK! Just a person who )rotects children and other living things much a particular mood, but rather an educational glimpse into the life of a famous person. It is the genre of Julius Caesar, A Man for All Seasons, Luther, and more recently Vivat, Vivat Regina. Lenny is sometimes a documentary using excerpts from Mr. Bruces routines. Other opted for visual effect and groping. Both of these styles that O'Horgan employs are in- teresting and well done, but the problem is that when com- bined they don't mix well: It's liking both pickles and ice cream, but somehow a pickle milkshake is not very appealing. Enough of matters gastro- nomic. Anothe problem with the, show, besides O'Horgan schizoid direction, is that its authors just couldn't decide if Bruce's satiric old nightclub routines were enough to keep an audi- ence satisfied. Should they in- clude the story of Bruce's life too? This question was partially dealt with by including half a story. There are choppy tran- sitions from the nightclub ma- terial to Bruce courting his eventual wife (a goyish strip- per named Honey.); their di- vorce; casual allusions to Bruce's mother and her show biz roots; and Bruce in court fighting his obscenity bust. However these scenes rather than satisfying, merely tease the audience with their incom- pleteness. However, Cliff Gorman as Lenny Bruce is superb ! From the moment Mr. Gorman (the former queen Emory of the Boy's in the Band cast) grabs the microphone and starts do- ing the old Bruce material, the stage becomes a tirade of ener- gy. Gorman is an impressive co- median, and his command of the style of a nightclub comic is as precise as it is free-wheel- ing. He does the best of Bruce just as well, if not better than the original. There is the Lone Ranger bit, teaching Johnson how to say Negro (Nigra, nu- gru, nagra, ah cain't do it! !), and other bits about Jews, Cath- olics, dikes, fags, and a hearty emphasis on other matters of sex. Gorman's performance is one not to be missed. Yet he cannot compensate for a poor script nor a medicore supporting cast that is large and undefined. Characters are always going on and off. Frequently the stage is cluttered by what is supposed to be a night-club audience. They do little else than applaud, laugh, throw in an occasional ARM/Michigan Film Society Jean-Luc Godard's the Rolling Stones Anne Wiazemsky 1968 color TONIGHT 7:30 & 9:30 $1 cont. NAT SCI AUD SATURDAY 9 8 line, or walk off insulted. Some- times the cast assumes the parts of characters in a Bruce routine. For example, instead of Lenny doing his bit about Christ and Moses visiting Saint Pat's Cathedral, the routine becomes a dramatized playlet, (complete with Bishop eShen1, Cardinal Spellman, and a nude Moses and Jesus.: In fact, Lenny might be bet- ter as a bare stage one man show: Cliff Gorman as Lenny Bruce (like Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain and Emilyn Wil- liams as Charles Dickens). However I know that this for- mat wouldn't be as effective when I recall the end of the show. Two policemen question two pusher musicians about some fatal dope. One musician says that they sold some to Lenny Bruce. The cops repeat the word "lennybruce," and decide not to bother. A section of the set is re- moved. A cramped bathroom is revealed. There is Lenny Bruce. Naked. A needle in his arm. Dead on a toilet. The cop photographer arrives to take pictures of the immoral comedian dead of an overdose. )mb that never explodes It's Apple Season Again TOM WALKER'S GRIST MILL. in PARSHALLVILLE Fresh Pressed Apple Cider and Doughnuts and Apples (of course) 20 minutes North on U.S. 23-left on Clyde Road ARM/Mich. Film Society Jean-Luc GODARD is the single most important forcehkeeping the art of film alive." -Pauline Kael "A movie experience of major importance." -Canby, N.Y. Times ROLLING STONES recording "Sympathy for the Devil" Anne Wiazemcky a young Maoist French actress, playing Eve Democracy "To be a revolutionary intellectual it is necessary, finally, to cease being an intellectual at ally" TONIGHT 7:30 &i9:30 $1 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 18 NAT SCI AUD Join The Daily D I SATURDAY & SUNDAY MATINEE AT 1 P.M. & 3 P.M. The Wayside Theatre will show the immortal classic of nostalgia, "National Velvet," with little Liz Taylor and Mickey Rooney. eVE ALL...tbereIs -Daily-Sara Krulwich .:........:.::::.:: ...:..:. ::.r.....::.............. . .............. . .. . ....:....:....:............,.. .. .. . . . .? ........v'0":CO MEtw::::::i O NE.....::, :. COME:f..... ALL......... ... .... ..... .r....::"":: '" .r}? ..Q LAW} SCHOOL"C .. :. . dn. ,...N" '.i:. ::f;i{: