The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, August 7, 1979-Page 7
Curry's more than a 'Horror'
By ANNE SHARP
Let's just get down to brass tacks and
ask, right out, what the hell this Tim
Curry fellow is up to. As an actor, Curry
appears to be unusually gifted. Anyone
who has seen him in The Rocky Horror
Picture Show as Dr. Frankenfurter,
that lascivious mad scientist/tran-
svestite from outer sapce, is struck not
only by the Pierre La Roche makeup
and Joan Crawford jump-me pumps he
wears in the film, but by the conscious
magnetic mastery of his performance.
Curry is no NBC method man; like any
other British thespian worth his salt, he
has polished his art via Shakespeare
and a number of ultra-cultural BBC
teleplays, and He might have gone on,
like any Olivier or Alec Guiness, to
devote his life to the cultural uplift of
the English-speaking theatre world.
His unexpected emergence as an un-
derground cult hero as the star of
Rocky Horror some five years after the
film's release might have frightened a
less adverturous actor; William Shat-
ner's career was ruined because the
public refused to accept him in any role
other than his most popular one, that of
Captain Kirk in Star Trek. George
Reeves, driven mad by an adoring
public's insistence that he was the part
he played, Superman, rather than what
he was, finally leaped to his death to
prove that he couldn't fly faster than a
speeding bullet. Still, Curry must have
wondered: "Am I to be remembered
through posterity only for wearing a
corset and ripped fishnets and singing,
'I'm just a sweet transvestite from
Transsexual, Transylvania'? -_what a
fate!"
LAST SUMMER, in an attempt to
catch a wave off Curry's underground
notoriety asa Sweet Transvestite, A&M
Records released, with a minimal
publicity campaign, his first solo album
in the U.S., Read My Lips. In
retrospect it seems to have been an
elaborate, costly practical joke per-
petrated by Curry and his producer,
Bob Ezrin, on those curious enough to
buy the album. It featured an atrocious
reggae version of the Beatles' "I Will,"
and several bizarre, quasi-theatrical
production numbers that no sane disc
jockey would allow on the air. Predic-
Medieval music
marks merriment
By GERARD PAPE
Bedecked in authentic costumes, per-
forming on original instruments, inten-
sely and joyously gesturing and
singing, the Ann Arbor Medieval
Festival musical performers were a
pleasure to behold.
The musical aspect of the Medieval
Festival - especially the vocal concer-
ts - was an education as well as an
entertainment. Informative program
notes as well as terse and interesting
musical observations by Thomas
Taylor, the Collegium's director, eased
one non-pedantically into the world of
Renaissance vocal music.
Noteworthy for her performance of
secular music, the troubedor music of
the 12th and 13th centuries in par-
ticular, was Janet Smarr. Ms. Smarr, a
member of the Broken Consort ensem-
ble, revealed herself to be not only a
talented vocalist but a witty and
vivacious actress as well. Although all
the musical programs were fine, the
most enjoyable was the Broken Con-
cort's Troubador Music set. In addition
to Ms. Smarr, the remarkable singing
and playing of various ancient in-
struments by David Barrick, Bruce
Carvel, and Matthew Steel cast a hyp-
notic spell. The troubador pieces
followed one another without a break
and there was a build in intensity as the
pieces progresses through lusty dan-
cing, and despairing moods. The
troubador set concluded eerily with the
last song of the last troubador who in
apocalyptic fashion bemoans the
ziefgeist that has heralded the death of
his art as well as the end of general
culture and morality.
THE CONCERT that facused on the
music of the late Middle Ages was,
disappointing, perhaps merely because
it had to compete with the troubadors.
The pure energy and enthusiasm that
reigned in the other two vocal concerts
here seemed lacking. There did not
seem to be any special effort on the part
of the Ars Antiqua group to draw the
audience in and even the aforemen-
tioned Broken Consort members
seemed a bit tired and not quite up to
the difficult job of making accessible
Cicconia's alien-sounding works. This
is not to say that Ars Antiqua or Broken
Consort performed poorly; rather that
the infectiousness that made the other
two concerts so vivid was lacking. The
energy of the other two concerts made
it possible to get swept up in relatively
unfamiliar music. Instead ofsintellec-
tual experiencing, an odd sounding
curiosity, one felt oneself wanting to, as
one little girl in the audience did, clap
along with the music, smile with it, and
be sad with it.
The Renaissance lute piece players,
Mark Cudek and Rodney Stucky, weree
stately, intense, lyrical, and funny in
their playing. Like the Broken Consort
at their best, these lutists infected one
with their enjoyment of the pieces they
played. One got a little taste of
Renaissance humor as the two lutists
literally followed Dowland's instruc-
tions to play one lute, four hands. The
image of the two lutists straddling one
another and frantically trying to aviod
colliding was hilarious. The only other
musical moment to rival this one for
hilarity was the opening musical
procession. The first singers solemnly
intoned "Alleluia" while a roguish rear
bunch sang to the same sacred melody
"I play solitaire, I always lose."
Unfortunately, I did not get to hear
the Instrumental Music Before 1700
concert. If it was anywhere near as ex-
pertly and joyously performed as the
best of the other four concerts, it was
indeed my loss. As it was, I feel grateful
to the Medieval Festival people for let-
ing me have such a substantial but not
overwhelming taste of what this early
Western music was like. .
tably, Lips didn't sell; nevertheless,
Curry recorded a second album,
Fearless, also with A&M, which he is
currently promoting on a frenetic pan-
American tour.
WHICH BRINGS us back to the cen-
tral question of this article: Who is Tom
Curry, and why does he want to be a
rock and roll star?
On his way to Chicago, Curry stiop-
ped in at the Punch and Judy, a red
plush-lined theatre in Grosse Pointe
that features "cult" films (including
Rocky Horror and live musical acts. He
performed two 90-minute sets there,
aided by a competent backup band.
I was there, and, frankly, after
hearing both of his albums played over
and over by my Curry-crazed girlfrien-
ds, I expected total disaster. On waxm
Curry sounds decidedly stiff and awk-
ward in his chosen medium of rock and
roll. He has a bad habit of "Talking"
the lyrics and adopting fake accepts
like an untalented kid trying out for the
high school forensics team. As the band
cranked up, the colored lights shot on,
and Curry, a smiling slender figure in
black with a mop of brown curls and a
red tractor cap pulled coyly over his
eyes, bounced onstage like a ball. I held
my breath, thought of the Daily, and
hoped I wasn't going to be too em-
barrassed.
I had underestimated Tim Curry as
an actor. Most of the audience beside
the adolescent screamers who were af-
ter his body had come to see Franken-
furter, and he politely ignored the fact,
despite the idiots who hollered "Do
'Sweet Transvestite!" at him at every
break in the music. He simply did what
any competent actor would do in front
of a cheering crowd with a backup
playing full tilt behind him: He
assumed the part of a rock star. With
graceful self-possession, he strutted,
jumped, sipped neatly from a bottle of
Heineken, played with his sweat towel
and microphone stand like im-
provisational theatre props. Sadly,
Curry's albums do not do justice either
to his vocal talents or to his con-
siderable personal charm. Curry has
a luscious, full voice that sounds more
at home on a stage than in a recording
studio; he roared like a lion when the
music was rowdy, and, in softer
moments, lowered his voice to a
shivering whisper. It was a remarkable
scene, since, old trouper that he is,
Curry has a well-trained voice and a
better sense of movement and stage
presence than your average lead
singer, and rather than parodying the
actions of other rock vocalists or
lowering himself to their level, he
413aiIV
is preserved on
~3mm NM DUOF
The Michigan Daily
420 Maynard Street
AND
Graduate Library
treated the sudience to a little musical
drama a Ia Edith Piaf. He has one of the
most playful, cutesy-tough stage per-
sonas I've seen on a music hail stage
since David Johanssen.
Curry might make it in the rock
world if his rather arcane taste in
music ever catches on. Most of the
selections he performed, mainly
gleaned from his albums, have strange,
dopey lyrics and undistinguished
melodies, with the notable exceptionof
a disco-funk number, "Paradise
Garage," which has a seductive hook
worthy of Soul Train. He also is fond of
Joni Mitchell tunes like "Cold Blue
Steel and Sweet Fire" and "All I
Want," which suit him amazingly well,
and for old Motown hits, which don't.
The question remainsof whether or not
Curry will find true happiness playing
Mick Jagger instead of lago. But the
man has talent - what he'll do with it
next is anyone's guess.
Attention!
Sorry, campers! Friday marks our
last day of publication, and the Daily
Arts Staff is taking off for a well-
-deserved vacation until school time
rolls around again in September. It's
been a great summer for art, theatre,
music and all that kind of cultural stuff
in the Ann Arbor area, what with the
Michigan Repertory Theatre, the
Medieval Festival, all those great con-
certs at Hill and Power Center and
Cobo Hall, and our own Ann Arbor Art
Fair - hey, no hard feelings, we were
just kidding around, we think it was just
terriffic. Us culture vultures are really
looking forward to September 6, when
we'll get get a chance to do it all again,
in our own witty, urbane, inimitable
fashion. We also hope to recruita whole
new generation of writers for the Arts
Page this fall. If you'd like to join us,
come to one of our meetings for
prospective Daily staffers (dates and
places to be announced) early in the fall
or just stop by our office in 420
Maynard. See you in the funny
papers...
ENDS TONIGHT!
"MANHATTAN"
6:20' 8:10, 10:00
I i ;. I
5h Avenue at Liberty St. 761-9700
Formerly Fifth Forum Theater
"People make love for so many
reasons-why shouldn't
money be one of them?"
-The gospel according to St. Jack
Ben
Gazzara
RUN,r
SAT, SUN, WED
1:50,3:50,6:, 8:00, 10:00
MON, TUE, THU 6:00, 8:00, 10:00