'Tuesday, June 14, 1977

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Five I


Tuesda,.Jn 4 97TEMCHGNDIYfeFv


Marceau
masterful


Marcel Marceau
FROM RICHES TO RAGS:
'Cinderella' suffers

By NINA SHISIIKOFF
THE AUDIENCE at the De-
troit Music Hall Center last
Friday came expecting to see
a performance by the world's
foremost mime, Marcel Mar-
ceau, but what they got instead
was a vision of pure poetry.
Marceau gave four perform-
ances this past weekend in De-
troit, one of the nine cities in
his current U. S. tour.
Friday's performance consist-
ed of two parts. Marceau's
"Style Pantomimes" were brief
sketches of people, liked "The
Sculptor" or bits involving
places, like "The Public 'Gar-
den". Each sketch was intro-
duced by a wonderful man hold-
ing a placard with the title.
Following intermission, the
"Bip Pantomimes" featured
Marceau's famous character in
various situations ranging from
lion taming to street corner
violin playing.
AS HARD AS POETRY is to
create, it's far harder to cap-
ture its essence on paper. It's
as insubstantial as the touch
of an imaginary bow to an in-
visible violin. Marceau weaves
a magic into his performance
that's hard to describe. Ie cre-
ates imaginary worlds with.
such ease that it's hard to rea-
lize just how difficult his execu-
tion of them really is.
Most of the time it was per-
fectly clear what Marceau was
portraying in his mimes. In the
most serious piece, "The Tree"
however, it was extremely hard
ummer Hour:
61 Church A2 995.5955

By RICHARD LEWIS
THE FINAL ATTRACTION of
M. M. Productions' "Celebrate
Spring" Repertory Company is
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cin-
derella, and an odd affair it is,
too.
Although a number of talent-
ed people have apparently
worked hard to breathe life into
this version of the well-known
fairy tale, Cinderella suffers
from an uninspired score and
unsure direction.
The lyrics show Oscar Ham-
merstein II as offering, in his
usual manner, a sort of marsh-
mallow creme rhetoric ("Do I
love you because you're beau-
tiful / Or are you beautiful be-
cause I love you?") in place of
honest sentiment. Richard Rod-
gers' music is similarly inof-
fensive, and as the evening
wears on, the Cinderella audi-
ence is subjected to a series of
pedestrian tunes with such ex-
citing titles as , "In My Own
Little Corner," "A Very Spe-
cial Day," -and "A Lovely
Night."
Hammerstein, in reworking"
the original story, makes the
Prince a rather sensitive type,
changes the Fairy Godmother'
into the "Plume Lady," and
eliminates the character of the
Stepmother. The show has also
been heavily padded with dance
numbers and unnecessary song
reprises, apparently in order to
stretch it into a full evening's
entertainment.
DIRECTOR JOHN BURGESS
seems uncertain as to whether
Cinderella should be aimed at
adults or children, and attempts
to please both~ groups in this
production, The result-is slight-
ly confusing - five minutes af-
ter a beautiful young nymphet
is introduced as part of the
"game" caught in a day's hunt-
ing, children from the audience
are brought up on stage to
dance with the remaining forest
inhabitants.

to follow most of the action,
leaving much of the audience
looking confused.
IT'S IRONIC THAT MAR-
CEAU, the master of silence,
is so effective in his use of
sound. Music introduced us to
a piece, setting the mood and
then fading out. Marceau's ex-
cellent choice of music also
heightened the dramatic effect
in several pieces, particularly
"The Angel", in which the
struggle with temptation is por-
trayed through voices from hea-
ven alternating with the sensu-
al music of the cabaret. Mar-
ceau also used the music to
choreograph gestures and move-
ments, transforming the sim-
ple act of putting on a pair of
tight gloves into a ballet.
At the end of his perform-
ance, the audience received yet
one more sample of Marceau's
supreme showmanship. The au-
dience gave Marceau a well-
deserved standing ovation,
calling him back again and
again. Then their hands got tir-
ed, and they wanted to stop,
but Marceau continued to re-
appear, bowing proudly and
neatly turning the tables on
them.
The last time he playedwDe-
troit, it was said that it would
be Marceau's last U.S. tour.
But the man at the backstage
door, who took programs back
for the mime master to sign,
laughed when asked about Mar-
ceau's imminent retirement.
"Never believe an artist,"
he said. "There've been so
many last tours.
So, we may relax and rest
assured that Marcel Marceau
will be ours to enjoy for years
to come.
Join The
Daily
Arts Staff
231 sputh se
Theatre Phoe 626264
Tonight at 7:00 & 9:00
Open 6:45
Rated 'PG'
Tonight at 7:00 & 9:05
I-;
Toni h at 7:00 & 9 00
R

Di-l Photo Gv ALAN OIL
Anita Banks as the Plume Lady


r

There is also a haphazard
quality about Mr. Burgess'.
staging that works against the
development of any consistent-
ly fast comic pace. Actors often
appear to get in each others'
way during songs, cues are
sometimes clumisly picked up,
and set changes are occasional-
See CINDERELLA, Page 6
OPEN 11 :00 a.m.
BILLIARDS,
BOWLING,
and PINBALL
af the
UNION

EPRTOR' '7
. - 'Kss Mo Rkpto
AJULY' 510
Dsire Undfr thl 9Bms
{ JU LY 26. 29 & AUGUS T 4, 7
'Wait Untill a
. JU 4f 200AUGST4
27JUY : 32, &AUGUS T 2. 5
StnAnd 4uperman.
s JULY23&AUGUST ss
k, 5,e POSER CENTEesi Ms, t e s inT, a n, t
n the POWER ^.EN TER for the performing arts

a