Ar'ts Entertainment THE MICHIGAN DAILY
At &E tran et Page Six Thursday, July 8, 1976
ITABLE TALK
Ken Parsigian
The other day Jeff and I were having dinner together, and the
tapc of conversation wa,( of Coursh, bridge. Jeff, an ardent dup-
licate ptayer, ws ,rging the merits of that game.
"Duplicate is the only truly skillful form of bridge," he said.
"It eliminates the tack factor. Everyone plays the same cards."
"True," I replied, "the lttck is eliminated. But so is the
excitement." Dstplicate players strive to always arrive in the
right contract, even if it requires the wrong person to play the
hand. If yo knot' ftll well that 4 hearts is a better contract than
3 no trump, hat yst also know that you will play 3 no trump
while ytstr palooka partner will flounder in 4 hearts, then you
should hid 3 no trump, play the hand brilliantly, make the con-
tract and apologize to partner for having put 2 hearts in with
your diamonds, which caused you to not support hearts. In
rubber hridge, the kizitzers will applaud your brilliant dummy
play, partner will happy with game, and the loss of the possible
20 extra points for making 4 hearts will go unnoticed. In dupli-
cate, all your efforts will be to no avail. If you bid and make 3
no trump you will get a zero since everyone else will get 20 extra
points for making 4 hearts. And you will get the same zero for
allowing partner to find a way to go down in 4 hearts. No my
friend, duplicate leads to boring bridge. It punishes the really
resourceful player, while rewarding the dull one. Why just the
other day I held a hand that illustrates this perfectly.
I was sitting south, and our good friend Phil (whom we
affectionately call Philthy) was my partner. We won the first
rubber when Phil forgot to finesse,. and dropped a singleton King
with 7 cards out in the suit, and he was feeling quite proud of
himself when he dealt this hand:
North
al 10 x
A x x x
Sxx
4 .AKQxx
EX-5-7-7-77-77 7=7-7-77.77 F77-^--FL-7 Xj-
!R
Reps S
By CARA PRIESKORN
H1ISTORY REPEATS itself, as Kathleen Con-
C lin proved Monday night at Power Center.
M indreds of spectators observed her, once
y again in the act of crucifying Jesus Christ.
n She is the director of the Michigan Repertory's
new Jesus Christ Superstar, a production which
is both an insult to the intelligence and good
tais te.
This atrocity opened with its overture being
played by something painfully resembling a
C Magnavox Color-Glow organ. The actors then
assembled on stage doing some kind of hop-
scotch boogie, desperately trying to appear
energetic. Some of the cast (I would not call
them actors) hovered above a doubled-over
Judas, played by Ken Ward - he is sick and
the play has hardly begun. He is left alone,
then grappled for the microphone, rises, and
does a bad, unintentional Diana Ross imitation.
C From this point the show goes downhill.
The production style was a mixture of Busby
Berkeley and "Soul Train" with too many
6 touches from Hair thrown in. Three dancers,
aptly called the "tormentors" and resembling
8 worms, squirmed in and out of the show to
provide movement for singers too rigid to
move.
ANOTHER GROUP of three women, the Soul
Girls, did a number rather like the Supreme
parody from Hair. The choreographer appeared
to be influenced by June Taylor, the Rockettes,
and a merry-go-round, all to no avail.
Janna Morrison played a virginal Mary
Magdalene, but she does have a pleasant
a voice. She had one touching moment, when
Judas ridiculed her before Christ, she got a
very sorrowful look, knowing that she would
never escape her past. One scene that might
have been effective was her song to Jesus,
"Everything's Alright" but she divided her
attention between Jesus and the. microphone
Q and I was never sure which she felt more
important.
Joe D. Lauck as Jesus had possibilities, but
realized few. He was not able to mesh the
characteristics of Christ the man and the god.
At points he was very human, particularly
when motioning for Judas to go away (and it
1 would have been better for everyone if he had
left then). But Lauck is very wooden and us-
uslly came off as a pompous individual.
The Priests (Chuck McGraw, David Shough,
John Bacarella) were modeled after the three
monkeys - See, Hear and Speak No Evil.
This was appropriate, as not one of them could
sing, act or dance. Their movement was about
as subtle as a slapstick comedy, with the
three of them standing hunch-backed with ears
bent, waitinng impatiently for their next cue.
ONE PROMISING performance was that of
John Wojda as Peter. Wojda is a bit unsure
!t
iperstar:
fS
of himself on stage, but he ultimately does
the right thing. He was one of the few who'
could sing well and do so convincingly.
Mark F. Forth did an adequate job as
Pontius Pilate; his voice is not strong, but he
made the best of it and was about the only
character who understood what he was singing.
This vulgarity, masked as a "rock opera,"
hit rock bottom in the House of Herod with the
king doing a combination Busby Berkeley,
Barnum-and-Bailey drag show. This pseudo-
Las Vegas extravaganza was the last affront-C
there is only so much a person can stomach
and that routine put me on the edge of nausea.
It was undoubtedly the most blatant display /
of bad taste I have ever seen on an Ann Arbor
stage. Conlin was ridiculing the very material
she was trying to present!
THE AUDIENCE is prepared for something
abusive as Herod (Mark Allen Mikulski) en-
ters singing, but with his back to us and
flanked by some pasty courtesans of question-
able sex. After several girls torment Christ
with their gyrations, Herod faces the audience 4
painted and plumed. He is wearing something
resembling a headdress of peacock feathers,
a sparkly fuchia bikini held together by an
assortment of macrame, and clown face, all
to horrifying effect. Mikulski then proceeds to
prance around the stage singing "King Herod's
Song" (catchy) and contorting himself for the
audience. His entourage then joins him in some
kind of song and dance number, and it was at
this point that I clutched my stomach and fled. (8
Conlin was determined to produce Hair,
whether that was the script she was working C
with or not. The opening scene could have
been Judas or Berger, and several scenes
employed action similar to that of "the bed."
The whole show is a haunting memory of the C
Vest Pocket Theatre years ago,.'
The choreographer (Mikell Pinkney) tried,'
to display every major dance trend of the past /
2000 years, without concern for connecting V
them in any way. The costumes were a tie- t
dyed assortment of monk robes drapped with
towels. Leather thongs tied around foreheads"-
completed the general ensemble.
Mary Margaret Barkley's set helped pull I
the action together as much as any set could A
have, It consisted of a series of platforms at ,
various heights, with action taking place on
and below them. Large sculptural figures ;
adorned the main platform as well as the sides .,
of the procenium.
The main problem of the show was the fact,
that the director had one idea in mind and that
the show was inconsequential. But the singing
and dancing were also bad, and these factorse
do tend to be important in a musical. Add
the lack of coordination to a bad script with
confused direction and the result is horrendous.
To say the show was disastrous would be C
polite, but to say it was unbearable is accurate.
West
V K Q J 10 x
f Kx
.T. Ox x x
East
A J x xx x
Y x x
* QJ
. J x x x
South
4 A K Q x
r xx
SAx xxxxx
Philthy bid 1 club, and East passed. I bid 3 no trump, and all
passed. Now many players consider it insanity to jump to 3 no
trump with a void in partners' suit. But, knowing full well that
the contract would probably end up there anyway (it so often
does in rubber bridge, and who wants to play S diamonds any-
way?), I would consider it insanity not to bid it myself before
Philthy had a chance to say no trumps first.
West opened the K of hearts, and I studied the hand. I had
3 spade tricks, 1 heart, 1 diamond, and 3 top clubs-eight tricks
in all, with no hope of finding a ninth. Then it came to me. I
ducked the first three heart tricks, discarding a diamond from
my hand, while East discarded a small spade. West continued
with a small heart, and I won the dummy's A, while throwing
another small diamond from my hand. East shed another small
spade. In dummy, I led the 10 of spades and held my breath. East
covered with the J, and I ducked! Surprised at having won with
the J, East continued spades, and I won my A.
At this point, West held 4 clubs to the 10, the K and a small
diamond, and the 10 of hearts, East held 4 clubs to the J, the
Q and J of diamonds, and a small spade, dummy had 5 clubs to
the A K Q, and 2 diamonds, while I held 5 diamonds to the A,
and the K and Q of spades. I cashed the K and Q of spades,
throwing 2 diamonds from dummy. West threw a heart on the K,
and then stopped to think. "Now I know declarer has a club left,"
he thought, "since he jumped to 3 no trump over his partner's
club bid. Therefore, East has only J x x of clubs, and I must keep
all my clubs to keep declarer from making S club tricks." And
with that, he discarded a small diamond blanking his K. Now it
was East's turn. He was in the same spot. He knew I had a club
left, so West must have 10 x x. Therefore, he had to keep all 4
clubs, and confidently he discarded the J of diamonds. I slammed
the A of diamonds on the table crashing both the K and Q, and
then took the last 4 tricks with my good little diamonds, never
touching the A K Q of clubs.
"Sorry partner," I said to Philthy, "I thought one of my clubs
was a spade, so ; went to no trump."
"That's OK," he said while marking up the game, "it turned
out all right, and that's what counts."
And he was right. That is what counts, in rubber bridge.
Meadowbrook concert so-so
By TOM GODELL the Italian and Spanish national
anthems, the latter being the
P R THE second week in a home countries of the compos-
row, the Detroit Symphony's ers featured on the program.
Thursday evening Meadowbrook Festival Music Director Aldo
concert was threatened by in- Ceccato then presented the To-
clement w e a t h e r. Although -relli Concerto in c minor for
dense clouds hung over the four trumpets and strings. The
Baldwin Pavilion throughout the work, hardly a virtuoso con-
concert they were quickly for- certo in the modern sense, pits
gotten as the orchestra began a strings against brass in con-
brisk rendition of the Star- certo grosso fashion. The or-
Spangled Banner, followed by chestra was cut in half for the
performance of this chamber
work. This might have caused
serious balance problems, as
the orchestra of Torelli's time
was considerably smaller, but
these difficulties were easily
surmounted. Instead of the tra-
ditional harpischord, Ceccato
chose organ continuo, and then
he carefully controlled the dy-
namic level of the various sec-
tions.
See DSO, Page 10