Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Wednesday; August 9,
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday; August 9,
drama
Funny times on
way to Forum
By GLORIA JANE SMITH the performance was excellent
Don't look- now friends, but a . . . talent abounding.
laffable group of men and wo- The plot, complicated by a
men are in town, on stage, per- medley of mistaken identities,
forming A Funny Thing Happen- masquerades, loves sweet and
ed on the Way to the Forum. loves profane, ends happily in
Yes, here they are, the Mich- the eventual joining of the two
igan Repertory, offering "to young lovers.
"employ- every device to divert Outstanding in their per-
you," every gesture and con- formances are Bafficio and O.
tortion to amuse and confuse. K. Carson, who plays Senex,
the aging father of Hero, who
With few exceptions, their is also enticed by Philia.
performance last night at the But then none of the group
Power Center was high-energy appears short on talent. Under
humor and truly enjoyable. some fine direction by Robert
The tale is that of a young Chapel, they move quickly
man Hero (Kurt Lauer) desper- about stage capturing audience
ately in love with a fair young applause at appropriately-tim-
Philia (Jan Young) who has un- ed intervals.
fortunately already been pur- Facial contortions are im-
chased by an egocentric Captain pressive - bright,'dazed glares,
for her charming qualities-the circling eyes, twisted lips -
most valuable of which is her enthusiasm sustained through-
virginity, out,
Hero offers his slave Pseudo- Musical accompaniment, pro-
lous (James Baffico) freedom in vided by a band dressed in to-
exchange for procuring the maid- gas and entitled Hilaria and
en for his master. And so they the Tiberian Freaks, does more
visit the Roman home of en- than enhance the lively per-
slaved women who await pur- formance.
chase. Choreography, by M a r 1 e e n
Women, with such names as Rouse, was definitely an inte-
Woent l, win , th nme gral part to the success of the
Tintinabula, Panacea, the Gemi- entire performance
nae, Vibrata the Gymn sa, pour We are initially greeted and
out from the home, dancing en- then bid farewell by the song
'cingly jangling jewelry, wrg- "Comedy Tonight," which tells
gling flesh, in hopes that they u to expect "nothing formal,
will be purchased by the young nothing normal-indeed a fair
master and his slave. warning,
This is woman's main role in
this play, a piece of meat on A Funny Thing Happened on
sale to a world of male baffoons the Way to the Forum, the
An MCP Award to the Reper- fourth in the series of summer
tory for their script selection. In productions by Michigan Reper-
a community considered sensi- tory, will run until Saturday at
tive to the women's movement, the Power Center at 8:00.
it surprises me to find a student Tickets at $3.00 and $2.00 may
group performing this play, be purchased at the Power
But feminist allegiance aside, Center Box Office.
Everyone Welcome !
GRAD
COFFEE
HOUR
Wednesday, Aug. 9
8-10 p.m.
West Conference
Room, 4th Floor
RACKHAM
OUTSIDE ON THE TERRACEj
Fun, Food, People
NEW PEOPLE WELCOME
Phone 764-0558 to Subscribe to
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
A Funny Thing Happened ...
PINE KNOB:
Bringing back the fifties
By CHUCK BLOOM
The 1950's, a rather dull period
of time back then, has found a
home here in the 1970's. Hailed
as the original freaks, the "Lost
Generation" has influenced mo-
dern times with its clothes,
speech, and music. The greasy
look is definitely in as are lea-
ther jackets and bobby socks.
But most of all, the music of
the '50's has returned.
Given most of the credit for
the current surge of nostalgia
are 12 men, originally from Co-
lumbia University who call them-
selves Sha-Na-Na. They h a v e
come a long way in five years
from a bunch of college kids at
a trivia contest to professional
entertainers who earned $1 mil-
lion last year.
Sha-Na-Na made only its se-
cond appearance in Michigan last
Monday night at Clarkston's Pine
Knob Outdoor Music Theatre.
Their other appearance was near-
ly two years ago at Crisler
Arena for our homecoming con-
cert. Because most of the group
is still in school, Sha-Na-Na is
limited to weekend gigs except
for during the summer when
they find more permanent em-
ployment.
The headliner for the concert
was Richie Havens and he was
excellent. Playing for an hour
and a half and rapping with the
sellout audience of over 10,000,
been poured into them.
They played those "oldies but
goodies" before a crowd that
was for the most part, too young
to remember when the songs
first came out: Old time hits like
"Get A Job," "Tears on My Pil-
low," and "Blue Moon" put the
entire crowd back into the '50's.
Johnny "Kid" Contardo's beauti-
ful and heartbreaking rendition
of Ry Peterson's classic "Tell
Laura I Love Her" sent many
reminiscing of the days of drive-
in movies and American Band-
stand.
Scott Powell (alias Captain
Outrageous) did his imitation of
Elvis with "Jailhouse Rock"
complete with pelvis and a per-
petual sneer to enhance his stage
image of the cool stud; Bruce
Clarke's boyish innocence shined
through all the grease w h i 1e
doing "Teenager in Love" and
Elliot Cahn told of love lost on
"Runaround Sue."
But the single number that
really electrified the audience
was Screamin' Scott Simon's
piano-busting version of "Whole
Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." After
Simon was through twisting,
twitching, shaking, and playing
his piano with his white bucks,
the 10,000 present let out a
scream that nearly blew out the
shaky sound system at P i n e
Knob. Such a reaction has yet
to be heard in Ann Arbor (which
is a good hint to those in charge
of concerts in Ann Arbor).
Sha-Na-Na was so good, if a
fact, that they had to do four
encores, the most for any group
to date at Pine Knob. The first
was obviously planned, but the
remaining three were definitely
spontaneous reaction. After
"Heartbreak Hotel,"."G r e at
Balls of Fire," and "Lovers Nev-
er Say Goodbye," the audience
was just too tired of clapping
and too hoarse from yelling to
ask for another.
Overall, the quality of t h i s
type of concert pointo up t he
fac that the Detroit area has
needed a place like Pine Knob, a
comfortable place to watch good
acto of all sorts, for a long time.
It has helped to revive a cul-
turally dying area. The Fabul-
ous Rhinestones who opened the
roncert weren't all that fabul-
ous, but adequate. Ritchie Hav-
ens who ended the concert was
absolutely g r e a t But t h e
night belonged to Sha-Na-Na.
Johnny Mathis and Henry Man-
cini will appear together in con-
cert at Pine Knob through Sa-
turday at 8:30.
Upcoming on the Pine Knob
schedule are the Fifth Dimension
with Bill Withers on Sunday, fol-
lowed by Stephen Stills and Man-
assas on Tuesday, and Chicago
for a five-day run beginning on
Wednesday.
Tickets at $7.00, $5.00 and $3.00
are available at the Fisher Thea-
tre Box Office, all J. L. Hud-
son stores and at Pine Knob.
S
"COMEDY TONIGHT"
8:00 P.M.
MICHIGAN REPERTORY 72's PRODUCTION OF
THE TONY AWARD WINNING MUSICAL
AT HAPPENED ON THE
y WAY TO THE FORU
In the air-conditioned Power Center
Tickets $2 & $3 Box office open 12:30 to 8:00 Phone 763-3333
Good seats still available. Additional performances Aug. 10-12
lea-Na-Na
Havens performed in a rather
low-keyed manner with a basic
humanistic theme. His finale,
"Freedom," went on for fifteen
minutes and brought the crowd
to its feet, stompin' and clap-
pin',
Havens is a great entertainer
but one would have to label his
music as progressive folk. Sha.-
Na-Na on the other hand plays
nothing but greasy rock 'n roll.
This strange mixture for a con-
cert was evident in the crowd.
Half of the crowd were greasers,
who had come to see their hero-
es, while the other half consisted
of sophisticated freaks.
Still, Detroit is basically a
hard rocking town and Sha-Na-Na
satisfied the crowd's love for
rock 'n roll. The group saunter-
ed onto the stage looking tough
and cocky. They posed for the
crowd as they ran combs
through their hair, which was
plastered down with tubes of
water-soluble grease. The Sha-Na-
Na dancers came out in skin-
tight gold lame outfits w hi c h
looked like the energetic trio had
m