& ETHE MICHIGAN DAILY Arts EThursday June 3,nterta96inment Pacific Overtures: Slow, non-musicai By JEFFREY SELBST It is always an occasion when a new Sondheim musical hits Broadway. With Company, Fol- lies, and A Little Night Music, it was a time of rejoicing in the quality of art displayed by the master. Pacific Overtures de- serves a word that should be consigned to it alone: Snore. The play is on less-than-per- manent display at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway and 50th in New York. It won't be there much longer, so if you promise yourself (as I do) never to miss a Sondheim show, hurry. I must confess that the idea was a trifle disappointing from the first. A musical about the opening of Japan to the West? There seemed precious few op- portunities to burst into song with such premise as that. Hav- ing now seen it, I would say this: that the song possibilities were all milked dry, and that the initial boredom of the score results from the too-appropriate nature of the music's placement, and the music's general tune- lessness., The other idea that I didn't like upon first hearing was that the show was to be ersatz- kabuki, which I imagined to be the Japanese equivalent of bowl- ing alley-Chinese food. Kabuki theater is so stylized and .in- herently Eastern that I wonder- ed whether a bunch of Western theatrical people who are, I must add, the most gifted in Western musicals at the present, could possibly interpret their task correctly. The play is a curious mixture of Eastern mysticism and West- ern goo. It lacks focus, trying to bring too many people and toomany years of Japanese his- tory into the limelight at once. In a play about the affect of Westernization of a foreign cul- ture, the best approach might be to center about one family, or one set of people, and show how t h e y are affected by changes internal and external. Indeed Pacific Overtures is most effective when it does this. Equally, it is least effective when it tries for universality, and in rather pompous fashion at that. Haiku poetry of dubious meaning and questionable val- ues are quoted incessantly, to no perceivable end. The Reciter (played by Mako) opens the play by announcing "Nippon: The Floating Kingdom in the Middle of the Sea," which in fact it was. The first number "The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea" bore an annoying resemblance to "Tra- dition" from the equally-annoy- ing Fiddler on the Roof. It is a valid theatrical tenet that an audience ought to be shown the setting, ought to be given the cues and allowed to draw their own conclusions. This number, coming off somewhere between "If you want to know who we are" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and the aferomentioned Fiddler s o n g, leaves nothing to the imagina- tion. Surprisingly for Sondheim, it is also nearly tuneless, or as. close as I hope he ever gets. Unfortunately, most of the score is undistinguished as well. Two other numbers ."Please Hello," the second-act curtain raiser, and "Welcome to Kana- gawa," the song of the Japanese hookers, are clever, well-con- ceived, cute, and funny. The former resorts to Gilbert and Sullivan combined with Offen- bach and a little good old Broad- way high-kicking to get things moving. The lyrics are, unfor- tinately, topical-they are funny now, but won't hold up in re- vival. (Sondheim is no stranger to this phenomenon: Anyone Can Whistle will probably never be revived for much the same reason.) - The latter number plays on camp.- All the female parts in kabuki are played by men. Therefore the "madam" has a chance to mug fairly outrage- ously, coming off as one might in a show at the Continental Baths. An ancient haiku is quot- ed "Bird from the seas/ Not knowing pine from bamboo/ Roosts anywhere," and in a low voice, "madam" leers and says "Exactly." The story line as it stands is confusing, and the songs do nothing to clear up the murk. In a rare instance (for example, in "There is no Other Way") Sondheim combines Eastern and Western music to lovely effect. But in the perfectly poisonous number "Chrysanthemum Tea," he combines them to perhaps the worst possible. The much-vaunted: Sondheim wit in lyrics is missing, too. He writes now in pseudo-meaningful phrases, combined at lightning speed, . with numbing results. The final number, which at- tempts to show how Japan mod- ernized itself in 120 years, en- titled "Next," is a triumph of miscalculation. There isn't an ending to this show that could have been more ill-starred. The show has some incredibly strong moments as well, where the wisdom of the Orient is com- bined with Broadway wit. But those moments, as well as any with some kind of restraint, are largely absent. The only fear I have is that this may be the direction Sond- heim is moving inexorably in. There is no clear evidence of wit when lyrics are belabored and style is missing. Let us see another brilliant, savage show like Follies again, and we'll know we haven't lost our best show composer to the wicked demon Esoterica. unl ikely You know, find out where the audience is from ..." Evading the issue, they wouldn't com- ment on their use of Flash Paper and their bizarre behav- ior. "You'll like the next set ... like old times." The second set was more of those old tunes - stripped of the accompaning stage antics. Or, a rehash of selected smorg- asboard samples of the past -- Beatles hits, "Jopo, "''Jee- miahWas a Bullfrog .," How long will Americans let them "rub some nostalgia dcwn your throats" ... and .. "take you back to 1964" - a sad, path- etic end for a memory. TABLE .TALK Ken Parsigian" The other day, a friend of mine to whom I had taught bridge just four months ago told me he had just finished reading Clyde Love's famous work, Bridge Squeezes Complete. "I'm ready for anything now," he boasted. "I'm even as good as you!" I- told him that he wasn't setting his sights high enough, just hoping to be as good as I, and I also tried to convince him that good declarer play involved a lot more than just fancy squeeze plays. But he couldn't hear a word I said. "I'm playing in a club tournament tonight," he said, "and I'd like you to kibitz your star pupil in action." I cgnsented, and off we went to the tables. The first 10 or 12 boards were unexciting anO my friend han- dled them adequately. Then this hand came up; 465 V 843 * AKQ6 4 7643 493 V AQ1092 f J10S 4 Q95 4 AJ4 VKJ76 . 97 4 A t108 Hermits comeback By BLAIR CARROLL SECOND CHANCE, JUNE 1 - Herman's Hermits have re- turned after a three-year hiatus from the American musical scene, doing little to reinforce nostalgic memories of yester- year's hit band. Certainly the Hermits' limited repetoire of their golden oldies, Eagle's and early Beatles songs, proved the unlikelihood of their making a comeback in the United States. Twenty-seven songs later, they had run out of material; their encore was "Henry the Eighth," the same song with which they closed their first set. What has happened to Ameri- can music and the Hermits since the period between 1969-1973, when they toured the continent regularly? -Bands in America don't exist for long in their original form. Their audiences are young, af- fluent kids, who want to be en- tertained. Bands, therefore, eith- er have to style their music to fit the times, or change mem- b~s by regrouping -- to be known for musical talent. There is no longer a demand for yes- terday's band at todays concert price - records are cheaper. As for what has happened to the Hermits - like most mu- sicians the Hermits have fallen on rough times, "gigs are clos- ing down in Europe ... places like this are only open a few nights a week." So the Hermits are back on the road, sans Her- man, playing one night stands across the U.S. What's more surprising than their attempt at a comeback is their attempt to accomplish it with Eagles songs and out- rageous stage antics. Those stage antics, sexually sugges- tive, dominated the first set. "Well we've always done that. 4 KQ10872 'S * 8743 4K2 My friend, for convenience, is sitting south, and wound up in a 4 spade contract mostly as a sacrifice over West's 4 heart call, but he had visions of making the contract when he bid it. West ledthe 5 of clubs, and my pal studied the hand. He had 3 sure. losers - one in spades, one in hearts and one in clubs. There was a chance of an additional loser in diamonds, spades or clubs. There was nothing he could do about diamonds or clubs, so he had to concentrate on losing only one spade. Having decided his line of play, he played low from dummy, and East won the trick with the Ace. Back came a small club which my friend won with the King. It was time to start trumps, so my friend, realizing the need to lead up to his KQ10, led a small diamond to dummy's Ace, and led the 6 of trumps from the board. East ducked, and my friend won with the Queen of spades. Next he led another diamond to the board, and played the remaining spade .East rose with the Ace, and led a heart to his partner's Ace. West then led his last diamond, and East ruffed with his last trump for the setting trick. "Oh well," my friend said. "No one else will make it so it will probably be a good board anyway." While unfolding the trav- eling scorecard, he continued, "I could have made it if I had finessed the 10 of spades, but that was only a 50-50 shot. But, maybe there was a squeeze?" This question infuriated me, and I was about to reply when my friend saw the results. "So far we're dead bottom!" he exclaimed. "All but 2 pairs beat 4 hearts a trick, and one of those 2 pairs made the silly thing. I can't believe it," he added. "Some fish take the spade finesse and we get a cold zero." No longer able to restrain myself, I said, "I'm not so sure who the fish was on this hand." Without giving my friend a chance to respond I continued, "You were right to bid 4 spades, but your play and your comments about the play are all wrong. The hand could and should have been made, but not by a fatuous finesse, nor by one of your beloved squeezes. After winning the first spade trick," I continued, "you should re-think the hand. You know you want to get to dummy to lead trumps up to your ten- ace, but you should forsee the danger of a diamond ruff and come up with a plan to avoid it. It's actually a very simple play," I explained. "Before leading a second diamond to dummy, you simply lead a heart, to break communications. Either side can win the heart trick but neither can hurt you. Whatever is led you win, and then play a diamond to the board, lead a trump back to your hand, and make the contract losing only one more trick to the Ace of spades." The point that I later made to my friend was that fancy double-clash or hexagon squeezes were nice plays to know and fantasize about, but they aren't very practical. They simply don't come up that often. "Learn how to handle hands like this one first," I told my friend, "then worry about the squeezes." This is not to say that squeezes are worthless, they aren't. In fact, many squeeze hands will show up this summer in this col- umn. But, there will also be a lot of fairly simple hands that re- quire only very basic plays, like today's. By the way, today's play, although simple, has a fancy name -the Scissors Coup, so named because it cuts communication, So, next time you come, across a hand like today's and you make the right play, tell your friends that you made 4 spades on a Scissors Coup. It sounds impressive, but we know its not. Briefly in the arts The Ark is trying to reopen, but the age-old problem, known as lack of the American doltar, stands in the way. The hopeful solution is The Ark Benefit on Sunday, June 13 at the Power Center. There will bo two per- formances - two o':;locK and eight o'clock.' Featured artists include Leon Redbone, Itamblin' Jack Elliott, and John Prine. Be warned: these are two dif- ferent performances and each will be unique (which means the evening performance does not repeat the afternoon per- formance). This promises to be a day of quality enterttainmnt; at least a good way to spend a Sunday, while supporting the Ark.