Saturday, January 18, 1975

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

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Prine

repertoire
By MARNIE HEYN
John Prine entered the hotel
room, just barely managing to clutch
a glass of hydrogen peroxide be-
tween two fingers of his right hand.
"We were recording, and the wind-
ing came off my G string," he apolo-
getically explained. "I tried to just
rip it off, but it came loose and shot
through my finger just like an
arrow."
The versatile singer was trying
to take advantage of his last few
hours of rest before opening a na-
tionwide concert tour Thursday
night at Power Center. He had only
recently completed recording his
fourth album in Los Angeles.
"Stevie Goodman and Bonnie
Kulac have this club in Chicago
r where they invite performers' to
play a couple of sets, and then cook
a meal for their audience," Prine
explained. "I said, 'What do I eat?
I eat trash.' So I ordered 1500 White
Castle hamburgers. They were all
stale and reheated, and the French
fries were cold.
{-- "Then there was the hottest bowl
of chili ever. This guy worked for
three weeks on the recipe. Every-
body stormed the bar and then ran
out of the place. Some guy stood up
in the middle of my set and said,
'John, this is the most tasteless
thing I've ever seen in my entire

goes
life.' I bowed and said, 'Thank you'."
Prine talked about the relative
merits of performing for TV, in
clubs, at festivals and in concert.
"I did a special for the Earl of Ole
Town in Chicago, and they only
played it about three times a day.
The only reason I ever do those
things is that we have fun. ...Boy,
working in clubs you're all scrunched
up, and you have to relate to win-
dows and stuff like that, and be-
sides that, you're doing three shows
a night six days a week. That drove
me up a wall.
"But festivals are always an in-
dividual thing. You can tell right
when you get there what it's going
to be like. It's all the people who
make it. If everybody does their job
ahead of time, then when the audi-
ence comes, they make up the fes-
tival. If it's good, the energy is just
incredible."
"I'm really looking forward to the
tour, considering that I haven't
worked since September," Prine said.
"I was in the hospital with gall
bladder or something. We've found
a lot of halls that we like for this
tour that range from 2500 to 4500
seats. We think they're really going
to be good."
When warned that the only per-
former who really liked the Power
Center was Marcel Marceau, Prine
said he had his fingers crossed.

liec ric

Prine talked about directions he
was exploring in his most recent
compositions, some of which he and!
his new band played later at the
Power Center concert.
"The only trouble is that this;
material is really different than the
stuff on the records, so people can't
really get into it until about the
last minute. It should work out once
the record comes out in about a
month."
Prine said he always wanted to
try working with a band. "I waited
until I got really tired of playing
by myself. I was writing parts for
other people to play. As soon as we
started putting a group together, I
went into the hospital. We've been
together now for about two weeks."
"We've got a couple of country
songs, one that Steve Goodman and
I play, a Chuck Berry song that's
really different from my early stuff,
some rock, some blues and the first
calypso piece I ever did. We tried it
in about six different styles, and
that's the only one that fit."
At this point, Prine inadvertently
drank some of the hydrogen perox-
ide and was pelted with several il-
legal home remedies for flu.
When asked what he planned to
do when the tour was over, Prine
replied, "Go to Maui and cut off my
feet."
re

MOVIETIME at HILLEL
Saturday, January 18,
"THE LAST ANGRY MAN"
8:30 P.M. COST-$1.00
REFRESHMENTS
at H I LLEL-1429 Hill St.
663-3336
 -MEDIATRICS
presents
Paper Chaseof
7:30, 9:30
Sat., Jan. 18
Nat. Sci. Aud.
still only $11 K
{C

Sloppy cO Coward' revu
finds audience unreceptii

Doiiv Photo by STEVE KAGAN
John Prine

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Last Saturday, the first quali-
fying round was held at the
Michigan Union to determine
the University of Michigan's
representatives in the Intercol-
legiate bridge tournament. Two
pairs tied for first place and
won the right to go to the semi-
finals at Central Michigan Uni-
versity. These were Jim Law-
niczak, Michael Karson, Susan
Wolff, and Frank Bell, your col-
umnisit. The winners at CMU
will go to the finals in Chicago.
A declarer error on the fol-
lowing hand, where the play
followed similar lines, gave each
winning pair a good match-
point result. At our table North
opened one club, I bid a frisky
two diamonds, and South made
a negative double. My partner
raised to three diamonds, which
was passed back to South, who
reopened with three hearts.
North raised to four hearts, and
all passed.
Neither Vid.
NORTH
Q 10 2
-V K10 4

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Failure to plan
carefully costs
contract.
by FRANK BELI
sluffing another spade.
My partner ruffedy
nine of hearts and und
ace of spades to my ki
ning the spade trick, I

By SARAH POLAREK I
The Professional Theatre
Program's production of the
musical revue Oh, Coward was
a disappointment in terms of
what Sir Noel himself called his
"talent to amuse."
The show starred Patricia
Morison, Broadway star of
Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate
who later appeared as Gertrude
Lawrence's replacement in Rod-
gers and Hammerstein's The
King and I. Miss Morison was
joined by Christian Grey and,
Dalton Cathey, and together
they performed some 50 Coward
numbers which span some 40
years of Sir Noel's career.
The revue, which was per-

The music hall setting, design-
ed by Helen Pond and Herbert:
Senn, was simple but adequate,
as were the costumes worn byE
the three performers. There was
no orchestra, and accompani-
ment was provided by two pia-
nists and a percussionist.
Coward is best known in thisE
country as a dramatist special-
izing in light and often satiric
comedy. And there was no doubt
that his witty, brisk songs like
"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" or
"A Marvelous Party" were re-
ceived by the audience as so-
phisticated and entertaining
humor.
Coward's sentimental songs,
notably "You Were There" and

with her
erled her
ng. Win-
returned

ery was not exaggerated enough
to produce the comtc reaction
which might have been possi-
ble.
In general, the whole produc-
tion was underplayed and thus
rapidly became tedious. The
problem was not that the basic
Coward material is neither
amusing nor entertaining, but
that neither the performers nor
the audience were allowed to
become adequately enthused
about it.
Noel Coward will not be time-
less, but he is not outdated yet.
Cook would have done better
to choose his road show cast
more carefully. For in their de-
ficiencies they have turned
what is to have been an ex-
tremely successful and amusing
Broadway show into a rather
dull and tedious exercise in
nostalgia which no one remem-
bers.

$2.50 8:S
FRI.-SAT.
the voice of "Bert & 1"
Marshall
Dodge

a diamond, promoting her heart formed cabaret style, was not "If Love Were All", were also
queen, to set the contract a at all tight or unified. The pac- well received by the audience.
trick. ing was at times unbearably Coward once wrote that he liv-
Declarer made his fatal error slow, forcing the performers to ed in a "world that took light
at trick two when he ruffed a seem ill at ease and poorly music seriously", and this at-
diamond in dummy, destroying matched. titude is most obvious in his
the power of dummy's third Although the enunciation was beautifully lyrical and com-!
trump. Instead of hurrying to often not as crisp as might be fortable love songs.
take ruffs in the dummy, de- desired, several of the numbers The treatment of Coward's
clarer should play to establish came off quite well. The most material by director and "de-
dummy's clubs, outstanding, of these was the visor" Roderick Cook, who also
Upon winning the diamond very funny song "Don't Put starred in the original Broad-;
ecl hould lead Your Daughter On the Stage, way production, is interesting in
club to dummy's ace and a Mrs. Worthington," in which the light of the Coward tradition.
small club. Then South can play three performers were able to "A Marvelous Party", for ex-
the ace of hearts andta heart to express different tonal atti- ample, was originally a giddy
the king. If the queen of hearts tudes. piece written for Beatrice Lilly,
has not dropped, he can now Perhaps the greatest disad- but Cook has wisely modified
run the clubs and sluff his vantage from which the- road the piece and given it to Chris-
spades.show production of Oh, Coward tian Grey, who delivers it in
Tus, e eWsuffered .was the inability for; a hungover manner, Bloody
th fifthe roundofcubfs, te a contemporary American au- Mary in hand. Yet Grey's deliv-
defenders will be able to she dience to respond to the brittle
defeners ill e abe t0cash; -4_V~n A. -A mt~ trhb

W103 FM
is what
Ann Arbor
needs.
LISTEN FOR IT
SOON!

.

DOWNEAST HUMOR
141I Hill SRET

WEST
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4 J 10 6

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A K QE8 5T4
EAST
4 K 9 3
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2 493
SOUTH

only one round of spades, and .and oten dated materal wnien
declarer will make five hearts. sthisCoward potpourrigrepre-
Notice that it is the third heart sents. Most of the songs were
in dummy which allows South to unknown to the audience, and
return to the dummy in order there was not the overwhelming
to cash the remaining clubs. applause of recognition which
This line of play requires vues
only a three-two heart break i
and no worse than a four-two
club split. True, some chances Be Careful with fire:
for overtricks are lost when the xl r aebb s
clubs are three-three or the a bab
heart queen can be picked up, in the woods.
but these are of minor import-
ance, even in match points,
when it comes to playing a
tricky contract, the fulfillment
of which will yield a good re-
suit regardless of overtricks.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN SOCIETY
ANNOUNCES
"YEOMEN OF THE GUARD"
MASS MEETING
Sunday, Jan 19-8:00 p.m.
Michigan Room, Michigan League
Where are your interest? On stoge? In the Orchestra?
Backstade? Behind the Scenes? Come to the moss
meeting and learn how you con help!
For information call: 663-5934 or 994-0221

4#8765
~AJ876
4 A 10 S
4 7
The bidding:
North South East West
14 2+ DBL 3
Pass Pass Pass Pass
44 Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of dia-
monds.
West opened the king of dia-
monds. Declarer promptly won
his ace and ruffed a diamond
in dummy. He now played the
ace and king of clubs, shiffing
a spade. Continuing with the
queen, he sluffed another spade
as I ruffed with the five of
hearts.
At this point, with careful de-
fense, the contract was doomed
on any shift. I actually shifted
to the three of hearts, which
rode around to dummy's 10. Ruf-
fing another club, South ruffed
his last diamond with the king
of hearts and led a good club,
UNIVERSITY THEATRE SHOWCASE
INWPIr~lft

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If you are interest-
ed in r e v iewin g
poetry, and music
or writing feature
stories a b o u t the
drama, dance, film
arts: Contact Arts
Editor, c/o The
MichgnDiy

yI
III
PAUL
NEWMAN WILLIAM
HOLDEN

20th CNTURYFOX and
WARNEt R M present
STEVE
McQUEEN
IRWIN ALLEN
pDooocuior o

Ps

FAYE


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