The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 10, 1982-Page 7
The hills aren't that
alive with music


*A HOLIDAY TREAT FOR THE FAMILY K

/A _ DECEMBER 8-11
m Michigan Theatre
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre _ . 8:00 p.m.
presents Sat. Matinee 2:00 p.m.
Michigan Theatre Box Office:
T' .Sat. 12-8
Box Office:
668-8480
of M usicand m .,
by Rodgers and Hammerstein f

1

Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte play cops and robbers in waiter run:
4 '48HRS.'
~Mu rphy and
Nolte team up
t s

By Dave Kopel
A TTENDING a find production of
The Sound of Music is a wonderful
holiday activity for the whole family.
But, families, and students too, will
have to wait until December 22-23,
when the movie version arrives at the
Michigan Theatre. The Ann Arbor Civic
Theatre production running through
Saturday at the Michigan is an am-
bitious undertaking that never gets off
the ground.
The acting is terrible. To be fair, one
must admit that musicals rarely
provide their characters much
emotional depth to work with. But
there's no denying that most perfor-
mances were flat and wooden.
When Maria pleads with Baron Von
Trapp to think about his children, when
Vono Trapp stands up against Naziism,
or when the nuns discuss how to handle
Maria, we have no sense that the
characters have any particular goals to
achieve. They merely stand on stage,
reciting their memorized lines.
Two minor characters do turn in fun
performances. Herr Detweiler-would-
be promoter of the Von Trapp Family
Singers-talks like the train conductor
from last year's McDonalds' contest;
but his animation and energy are a
welcome contrast to the rest of the cast.
And in Elsa Schraeder-Baron Von
Trapp's finance-we see a woman
determined to catch a man.
But the audience comes to see Von
Trapp and Maria. And Charles
Sutherland (Von Trapp) and Rebecca
Boeve (Maria) are not worth the effort.
Von Trapp displays almost no variation
in mood or expression. Being a stuffy
Austrian aristocrat shouldn't mean not
caring about what is happening.
Maria's few efforts at displaying
variation in mood or movement look
phony. When she tries to become child-
like, swinging her legs while sitting on
the Mother Abess' desk, she is awkwar-
dly artificial.
Part of the weakness of the acting,
understandablystemssfrom the needs
of a musical. After all, if a director has

a limited amount of time, he has to
spend it on the music, not the acting.
Unfortunately, the musical side of the
show is not much more than mediocre.
While Maria's singing is adequate, her
voice does not fill up the Michigan with
the joy and exuberance we want to
hear. Lack of projection hampers the
rest of the singers too, who are often
overshadowed by the orchestra. (The
orchestra, by the way, is a delight to
hear.)
The best part of the evening is the
children. One hundred and four
children auditioned. In response to the
strong turn-out, the producers double-
cast all but the oldest child's role. Blon-
de and brunette casts of children alter-
nate nightly. In the blonde cast (per-
forming Friday, and in the evening
show on Saturday), Anne Sawallich and
Mark Ligeski are especially interesting
to watch.
Even if technically imperfect, the
children's musical numbers have
charm lacking most of the time in the
adult songs. With the exception of "No
Way to Stop It," none of the grown-up
numbers comes close to the freshness
of the children's.
One other fine part of the show is the
Nuns' Choir. In Latin or in English, the
Nuns' well-trained voices add a touch of
class.
Some good songs, however, do not a
musical make. While the grandmother
types in the audience enjoyed seeing a
nice group of clean young people being
friendly to each other, more demanding
theatre-goers should go elsewhere.
LI

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r . r

0K4DAVE BRUBECK
lit etg..m ..E~d 55UUS5*i

SECOND ANNUAL
FIESTA DE LA POSADA
A FAMILY CHRISTMAS SHOW
Ann Arbor Cantata Singers
Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra
Abbott Elementary Sch-ol SChoir
-Tues., Dec. 14
8 PM Hill Aud.
ANN ARBOR
ALSO: Brubeck Quartet
Featuring Madcat Ruth
Tickets 8.50, 7.50. 6.50 on sale
at Michigan Union ticket of-
fice, and all CTC outlets.
For Into cal:313) 7636922
Group Rotes Available
coil (313) 763,5924

Ti

I


By Joshua Bilmes
W ALTER HILL'S 48 Hours is one of
the best movies around, and it is
noteworthy for managing to make the
unusual combination of crime drama
and comedy work, and work well. The
film is able to do this largely through
*the surprisingly good pairing of Nick
Nolte and Eddie Murphy, yet it is a
shame that the groundwork for the
pairing takes so long to get going.
Y Nick Nolte is a detective for the
police, a pariah who has a macho
opinion of himself as demonstrated by
such lines as: "What makes you think I
got any clean shirts over at my place?"
He persuades two detectives to let him
tag along when they go to investigate a
tip about Ganz and Billy Bear, escaped
convicts. The other detectives are
killed in a nasty shootout, so he sets out
alone to get revenge upon Ganz and
Billy Bear.
His only lead is a convict and friend of
the two, played by Eddie Murphy. Nolte
forges a "48 Hour" weekend pass for
Murphy, and in this way are Det. Jack
Case and Convict Reggie Hammons
united.
The chemistry between the two is the
highlight of the rest of the film. They
trade wisecracks, insults, and jokes
and do it well. The background to all of
the humor is the attempt the two make
to track down Ganz and Billy Bear in
the 48 hours they have. They track
down leads from bars, girlfriends, etc.,
and they never seem to be able to make
any progress without somebody getting
* pushed around and a shot or two being
fired.
Hill's film is not as good as it should
Dave been, though. It relies too much on
411 manner of copying and cliche. This
s quickly seen by an examination of the

basic scenario behind the film. The set-
ting is San Francisco. The good side
consists of a Detective who has a great
love of brutality and an even greater
love of inter-departmental conflict. The
bad side has two villians wh) like to
take hostages and shoot people. This
sounds an awfully lot like Dirty Harry
to me.
Another example of the fin's heavy
reliance on cliche can be frund in the
rather unoriginal chase seqiences. One
of them is the rather obligaory chase in
the subways. It seems af if it is im-
possible to have a movie'set in a city
with a subway and not useit for a chase
sequence.
Nevertheless, all of tb3 chases have
good albeit unimaginative music com-
posed by James Horner And somehow,
the bad bad guys always seem to get
away.
Also, Nolte is invdved in a rather
typical romance witi Annette O'Toole.
It is the rather typical situation where
the heavy workloac prevents the cop
from giving the gii the attention she
thinks she deserves Thankfully, it does
not take up too mich time in the film,
but if it is so uninportant, one wonders
why it bothered t> show up in the first
place.
And yet somelow the whole shebang
works. Nolte aid Murphy manage to
breathe new lif( into what is essentially
cliches with comic trimming.
Somehow, the novie manages to be an
exception to m rule of thumb that a
movie with tiree editors and four
screenwriters s probably not going to
be any good. f Nolte and Murphy are
not incentive mough to see the film, it
also has sony music by the Busboys.
And if that sill isn't enough, just take
my word fr it. 48 Hours is the best
thing I can aink of to see in celebration
of the lasy ay of classes, the last day of
finals, or any other occasion that you
can think f.

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