Saturday, November 16, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
wage rive
'DAMN YANKEES'
Sophs
By BE rH NISSEN
Damn Yankees, playing through Sa-
turday at Lydia Mendelssohn theatre, is
one of the better efforts of a UAC
Soph Show group in the last few years.
"Efforts" is a particularly appropriate
description; every member of the cast
can truly be credited with trying very
hard, although not always with com-
plete success.
Audience members who remember
Eric Riley's dazzling performance in
last year's MUSKET production of
Counterpoint were again reminded of
his remarkable stage promise. Riley
played the part of M'rr. Applegate/
Satan with a blackly wicked genius.
Riley is a human rubber band; a more
taut yet elastic human being is a rarity
on the stage.
His comic timing is clockwork and
his impressive collection of onstage tal-'
ents include tap dancing of audience
oohs and aahs, a richly toned and sup-
ported singing voice, and a mrvelous
face with perfectly controlled features
that can exaggerate any emotion into
an expression that should be patented.
In Damn Yankees, the devil Apple-
gate transforms feeble Washington Sen-
ator's fan Joe Boyd into young and
handsome baseball prodigy Joe Hardy
belt o
in exchange for Boyd's soul. Jeff Smith
does a barely passable portrayal of
the arthritic Joe Boyd, although both
his acting and singing are sometimes as
strained as Gerber's baby food.
As the metamorphosized Joe, Robert
T. Howard has moments of vibrant
excellence as well as embarrassingly
amateur stumblings. Howard's voice
started strong, but faded into bland
fAltness near the show's second half.
His solo "A Man doesn't know" had a
genuinely high quality, but his later
duet "Near to You" was wincingly off.
As the temptress Lola, Jill Lynn
Lindsey was sultry and convincingly, if
at times stiffly, slinky. Aided greatly
by some sleazy costumes, she man-
aged to be really tempting in the fam-
ous "Whatever Lola Wants" seduction
scene.
Sally Bublitz, playing the deserted
wife Meg Boyd, was one performer who
was cheated out of a deserved good
reception. Her voice, while not espec-
ially dynamic, was still lightly pretty;
yet Bublitz was almost inaudible, hope-
lessly drowned by a partially deaf and
unbalanced orchestra. -
The orchestra, conducted by Larry
Iser, seemed conducted in fits of hys-
teria; it sometimes sounded anemically
out
a
thin, sometimes brassily blasting.
Sometimes it whined with the strings,
creating the same effect on the spine
and nervous system as a handful of
chalk and fingernails simultaneously
screeched tortuously on a blackboard.
Several scenes overcame the orches-
tral failing with strong chorus p e r-
formance. The male chorus blended
very well in song, and was applaudably
coordinated during dance scenes. A
locker room song "Thought About the
Game" showcased Terry Arment and
Robert Neems, two very funny and
competent song-and-dance men who are
hopefully hooked on the stage.
The female chorus had some sharp
musical blending troubles and contain-
ed both lithesomely graceful and fatly
clumping dancers. Karyn Eskyn de-
serves some commendation for her
role as Gloria Thorpe, a tough and
brassy reporter. Eskyn's dancing was
smooth and well-timed, although h e r
voice had a high altitude thinness even
further diluted by the one-level dyna-
mics of the orchestra.
Marcia Milgrom should get the Suc-
cessful Stage Maneuvers of the Year
Award for the show's choreography.
Several of the synchronized d a n c e
movements were freshly imaginative
and well-planned in coordination with
vinner
Mendelssohn's rather limited s t a g e
space. Even the all-cast dance scenes
managed to look somewhat flowing
while avoiding mid-step collision and a
massive tangle of dancing legs.
The most blatant failings of the
show were the scene changes. The
stage crew seemed to suffer from se-
vere, comatose and contagious stage
fright. A delayed-reaction spotlight fol-
lowed the singing actor around like a
lost shadow; walls tottered and hung
in midair; whole pieces of scenery
were struggled with, put up back-
wards, and crashed together. Furniture
was clunked loudly backstage, and
curtains were dropped instead of rais-
ed, opened mid-scene, and caught on
sets.
Overall the stage crew demonstrated
some of the most drunken, oafish,
clumsy and bungle-footed stage maneu-
vers ever witnessed on an Ann Arbor
stage. As a subject of ridicule, the
stage and scene change mistakes at
least added to the general amusement
of the evening.
For even with the technical faults, the
musical production still managed to
satisfactorily entertain the audience;
it left them smiling and clapping blist-
ers onto the palms of their hands past
the final close of the curtain.
Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN
That devilish Mr. Applegate!
Mr. Applegate-also known by the alias "Satan" - is a devilish part of UAC's Soph Show
"Damn Yankees."' Playing Applegate, Eric Riley, raises hell here in during a demonstration
from the show held recently at the Pendleton Arts Center in the Union.
U Players Red Lantern'
forges revolutionary drama
Subscribe
to The Michigan Daily
By DAVID WEINBERG
The question that kept run-
ning through my mind was:
Why is it in this country that
the idea of revolution, of soli-
darity among the working class,
of collective struggle, seems so'
foreign, so, distant, so terrest'ial?
Thursday night at Trueblood,
the University Players opened
their "proletarian drama," The
Red Lantern. Originally anI
opera, and then a movie, Lan-'
tern was transposed into a
spoken stage play by University
graduate student John Carter.
The result is a 90 minute
drama which focuses on the
lives of a Chinese "family" and
members of the Communist
party during the war of resis-
tance against Japan in 1940.
The story line centers around
Li Yu-ho (Michael Raymond),'
his daughter Tieh-mei (Judith
Easton), and mother Granny Li
(Susan Wall). Actually none of
them are related by blood, but
become related within the con-
text of the struggle they share.
Li Yu-ho receives a secret
code to carry to guerrillas, but
is betrayed by his comradeG
Wang Lien-chu. He is threaten-'
ed by the local Japanese gen-
darme, Hatoyama (Kenneth
Steinman) and is finally tor-
tured and then alongside of his
mother, killed. Tieh-mei must
carry on the struggle alone, and
her emergence as the new
bearer of the red lantern sym-
bolizes the continuation of the
party.
The production bears the
trademark of Chinese drama in
its feeling of formality and of
the exotic, but the stress re-
mains upon content and not
upon form. Thus the sets are
small and simple, music is used
to connect fairly brief scenes,
and monologue frequently is
used to close scenes and, with
the music, create tableaux.
An important question to ask
in approaching such a produc-
tion is how one sees the charc-
acters, whether as real people
in a real drama or only as
archytypes of the larger strug-
gle.
Michael Raymond and Judith
befoe te sade ar se zzo~ri wretrng c.ar.p c-
, .i
BRIDGE:
Failure to attack
suits in right order
costs contract
by FRANK BELL
South, with his 17 points and
balanced distribution, opened
one notrump, his partner rais-
ed to three notrump, and West
led his fourth best spade.
NVUL.
NORTH
I! 4 2
V K Q 7
f A8532
4. J 10 4
EAST WEST
4 Q106 4 J 9 7 3 2
V A942 '1183
f Q9 *fJ1064
4.8732 .KS
SOUTH
V J1065
K7
4AQ96
The bidding:
South West North East
1NT Pass 3NT Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: three of spades
Ducking the firsts spade trick,
South said "Don't worry part-
ner." He won the spade return
with his king and led a heart to
dummy's king and East's ace.
East returned his last spade,
and South won his ace, pitching
a diamond from the board.
Declarer continued with a
heart to dummy's queen and a
heart back to his 10. West, who
had been counting, realized
that the only chance to beat the
contract lay in retaining his
spades, so he smoothly sluffed
the five of clubs. On the fourth
heart he pitched a diamond hop-
ing that his partner held the
diamond queen, while declarer
pitched another of dummy's
diamonds.
Now declarer cashed the king
and ace of diamonds ending in
dummy and led the jack of
clubs. When East played low
South went into a tank and
eventually played low. West
won his king of clubs and
claimed the rest of the tricks,
setting the contract two tricks.
"What could I have done
partner?" South asked. "They
defended well. How was I sup-
posed to know that West had
stiffed his king?"
"Simple," his partner ex-
plained, "Instead of knocking
out the ace of hearts first, you
should lead your seven of dia-!
monds to dummy's ace and take
the club finesse. If this wins,
then you can knock out therace
of hearts and claim nine tricks
in the form of two spades,
three hearts. two diamonds. and
entry before the spades are set Eso weetrnarspc
entry ttively, father and daughter of
you must take the club finesse, the revolution, but both clearly
which can only be won by the retained the sense of role of
dangerous hand, it becomes figure that they represented.
the first order of business." This is theatre of a sort that
Note that if you win the club we're not largely used to in
finesse you should immediately this country. It's political the-
switch your attack to hearts in atre written by the people; sung
order to assure nine tricks, nor and recited by the people. And,
must you repeat the club finesse in the end, lived by them.
after knocking out the heart Perhaps it's the sort of the-
ace, for a sneaky West might atre we need more of in this
have ducked the first club trick country, in its own form. Re-
in order to retain his only entry. gardless, John Carter and the
Of course if West has both the 'U' Players can only be com-
club king, heart ace, and five mended for their efforts to bring
spades then you must go down,1
but at least you will have given to life a critical point in
yourself every possible chance." Chinese history.
&1(g-MEDIATRICS
presents,.
Warren Beatty
Faye Dunaway
iBONNIE andCLD
SAT. SUN.
ii
( ov. 16 Nov. 17
}
one
hell
of a
musical
!4/SOPH SHOW
i,!
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Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN
()iw of (a pair
Andy Cohen and his unique twangoleum form one half of
a doubly exciting pair appearing this weekend at the Ark.
Spider John Koerner and his 12 string Blue Guitar fill up
the other side of the bill.
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EXPIRES SUN., NOV. 17, 1974
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