ARTS TheMichigan Daily Frankie Tuesday, April 12, 1988 Page 8 Paul romances dancehall style By Todd Shanker Get ready to throw down your beach towel, curl your toes in the hot Jamaican sand, and watch a cranberry sunset melt into the ocean. Tonight at the Blind Pig, the leg- endary Frankie Paul's wave-splash- ing reggae will transport you to the Caribbean and refresh your imagina- tion, as well as your dance-step, like never before. Blind since birth, Frankie Paul has become internationally known as a sixth-sense creator of good-feeling Caribbean love songs. As a child growing up in Kingston, Jamaica, Paul began to perfect his snake-oil smooth tunes at the bustling reggae dancehalls that abound nearly every- where in the Caribbean. At the age of 12. Paul won the prestigious "Kingston Reggae Dancehall Com- petition" and beat many top singers such as the famous Yellow- man and Josey Wales. Through his teen years, amazing reggae icon Dennis Brown took Paul under his wing and was completely fascinated by his warm sincerity and joy-dipped dancehall love songs. In 1984, Paul rose through the ranks of the Jamaican reggae charts with his sensational first album Pass the Tu-Sheng-Peng. By juxtaposing tight clusters of exotic reggae rhythm with finely sculpted, sun- ripened vocals, Paul created an LP which has come to be known as one of the all-time great dancehall discs. In 1985, Paul recorded the excep- tional Tidal Wave LP - an album loaded with sultry island sounds and simple, yet bulls-eye songwriting. Since Tidal Wave, Frankie Paul has continually churned out melodic, top ten reggae-dance hits.Warning, Paul's latest LP, features his bounc- ing, marshmallow-soft vocals ac- cented with thrilling reggae scat-rap flourishes. Paul's lightning-charged live shows have gained an international reputation, as well. Resembling a delicate transmutation of School Daze film director Spike Lee with a huggable FAO Schwartz Teddy Bear, Paul's radiant energy is imbued with jive blasts of movement, his emo- tional fizz bubbling like seltzer wa- ter through his highly carbonated reggae-dance explosions. Audiences go wild over his little-boy-with-a- milk-moustache mischief and hyper- active, ants-in-his-pants delivery. No one can cajole a romantic reggae rhythm like the illustrious inamorato named Frankie Paul. His magically soulful jams are the epiphany of the tropical Caribbean sound. So tonight, get ready to skank with Frank, as the sorcerer himself whips the crowd into a sweltering reggae frenzy. One mango daiquiri, please! FRANKIE PAUL will be per- forming at the Blind Pig tonight. Doors open at 9 p.m. and tickets are $8- a Records Frankie Paul Warning RAS Records Since stepping into the gluttonous, lewd- lipped, slack-shack, DJ-rap ring in 1984, Frankie Paul has consistently cranked a fireball of sustenance into this overcrowded reggae styling. Paul's unmistakable charm and petal- kissing romanticism has razed the thrones of such sex-grunge growlers as Yellowman and Charlie Chaplin, among others. The key here is sincerity, and Frankie Paul always sings his Lovers-rock reggae with his innermost feelings exposed without stooping to sloppy sex ribaldry. Paul's Warning is another boomerang-beauty of an LP that will singe Jamaican reggae charts, snap-and-crackle through the cross-cultural boom of many African countries, jack the beat in Eng- land, be virtually ignored in the United States, and then come flying back into the hands of Ja- maican Rastafarians in Kingston. Although it is likely U.S. listeners will con- tinue to frisbee many hot reggae discs, Warning deserves more attention as it should appeal to a wider audience. Examples are "Hungry Belly".and "Ragamuffin," both buoyant toe-tinglers that will send droves of skank-tanks onto the dance floor. On the title track, Paul shreds the dancehall rhythm with his zipping montages that suggest parents should try harder to "teach the youth them right!" Although Paul's lyrics are at times rhetori- cally jejune, they are always sensitive, and better yet, the rhythms are delightfully danceable. Complete with ice-bong smooth melodies and sheen gleam DJ-raps, Warning is an easily em- braceable collection of warmhearted, tropical reg- gae. - Todd Shanker 0 Blind since birth, Frankie Paul has become internationally known as a sixth-sense creator of good-feeling Caribbean love songs. 'Angel City finale salvages the show By Avra Kouffman The best thing about the University Players' production of Angel City becomes immediately apparent upon entering the Trueblood Theatre. Set designer Robert Weller has created a black, white, and chrome environment that serves the production's needs perfectly. Angel City is about the overlap between films and reality, and Heller's set reflects this theme. Heller has positioned a large video screen behind the actors, and surrounded the screen with mirrors. This equipment is functional as well as decorative. The screen displays a variety of film footage, while the mirrors allow the audience members to carefully peruse both themselves and the actors. The added dimension of incorporating film footage with live theater lends interest to Angel City. Unfortunately, the actors are often overshad- owed by the commotion on the screen behind them. This may have been an intentional choice on the part of director Patricia Boyette, meant to underscore the idea that film can be more overwhelming or dis- tracting than real life or in this case, theatre. Strangely enough, Angel City is most interest- ing in its failures. Boyette seems to have planned the production around the idea of remedying or masking faults in the original script. When this tactic isn't successful, one is left wondering where to place the blame. Certainly, Shepard's script is ridden with cliches, but perhaps this is intentional. The play, after all, centers around the notion that Hollywood is nothing but a giant cliche-producing factory. One-dimen- sional characters, however, make for tedious view- ing; not only for film audiences, but for theatre au- diences, as well. Although the play drags at times, it is far from being a total failure. Production values are generally strong; the use of makeup, special effects and set design are outstanding. In general, the cast makes the most of somewhat limited roles, with Elizabeth Richmond and Thomas Pasley turning in especially effective performances. Angel City may be worth seeing for the last 20 minutes alone. A well-choreographed dance sequence crescendos into a powerful surprise ending. In this finale, the production does manage to rise above the problems of the script. ANGEL CITY continues its run this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Trueblood The- atre in the Frieze Building. There is a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the Michigan League Ticket Office or at the Trueblood one hour prior to performance. Admission is $4 for students with I.D. 'Au Rev succeeds By Andrea Gacki Tragic historical events generally inspire great films. For example, such movies as Richard Attenbor- ough's Gandhi and Oliver Stone's Platoon occupy themselves with the good and the evil insthese events; both of these films also happened to be the personal obsessions of their makers. The obsession of Louis Malle resulted in his film A u Revoir, Les Enfants, the story of the seizure of his Jewish friend from their boarding school in Nazi-occu- pied France. Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Screenplay, Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children ) was a ten year cinematic undertaking for writer, producer, and director Malle. While the films Gandhi and Platoon are clearly noble and inspiring en- deavors that cause gut-wrenching emotion, Malle's film is simpler, more insidious, and more delicate - but no less effective. The film does not embark upon an overt moral crusade to expose the with oir, evils of the Germans, but the result is as though Malle bludgeoned the criminals that captured his friend. The rendering of his boyhood experience is empathetic to the emo- tions of the boy yet objective in the reality of the event, and thus A u Revoir, Les Enfants is an exquisitely powerful film. The autobiographical character of Malle, Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse), is returning to his Catholic boarding school, a safe haven for wealthy boys in war-torn France. He is a smart and seemingly worldly boy, but he privately aches to return to his mother in Paris. As the best student in his class, Julien meets true competition in the form of Jean Bonnet (Raphael Pejto), the strange new boy who stares in won- der at the religious statues and is in- capable of reciting a Hail Mary. In the course of their rivalry, Julien discovers that Jean's real surname is Kippelstein and that he is being har- bored from the Nazis. Jealousy forces Julien to reveal his knowledge to Jean, and it binds the two boys as friends. The strengths of the performances of the two child actors propell En- fants . Pejto as the plodding, fearful Jean and Manesse as the incorrigible Julien create a n'ost eloquent friend- ship. This relationship is the core and essence of Au Revoir, Les En= fants, and Malle provokes skillful characterizations. An event which changes one's life is usually, and quite understandably, altered to exhibit the grandness of the event. Malle reportedly took some liberties with his life-changing experience, such as strengthening the relationship of the boys, but he does not destroy the simplicity of it. De- spite or perhaps because of this sim- plicity, he deftly succeeds in conveying the shock and the pathos of the incident. Au Revoir, Les En- fants is the embodiment of a great director's obsession, and his obses- sion is, in a word, sublime. AU REVOIR, LES ENFANTS is being shown at the Ann Arbor Theatre. Le s Enfants' simplicity 0 ...just a Little Out of the Way from High Prices SALES HOURS SERVICE HOURS Mon. thru Fri. Mon. thru Fri. Sat. 9 am- 3pm -i Sat. 9am -2pm Chrysler Motors is proud to present College Graduate Finance Plan The College Graduate Retail Finance Plan offers you the opportunity to purchase a new Chrysler Motors vehicle with no established credit required. The plan also reduces the down payment for qualified buyers...lower than that required for most other buyers. In addition, special preferred financing terms are available through John Colone Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge. E3 TO JAPAN DISCOUNT FARE FROM DETROIT (WEEKDAY DEPARTURE) The University of Michigan School of Natural Resources Distinguished Speaker Series Wednesday Aprl 13 Dr. Kerry Walter Scientist, Arnold Arboretum, Center for Plant Conservation, Jamaica Plain, Mass. "Prob'ems for Plant Pollination Caused by Environmental Pollution" 7:30 p.m. Matthaei BotanicalGardens Co-sponsor: Ann Arbor Garden Club All events free of charge 0 ALL NIPPON AIR NORTHWEST UNITED AIR JAPAN AIR $750.00 $735.00 $795.00 $850.00 - HOTEL PACKAGE - TOKYO HOTEL SUNSHINE CITY PRINCE 2 NIGHTS $160.00 (Single) OSAKA HOTEL NEW OTANI 2 NIGHTS $170.00 (Single) CHRYSLER Pymouth Choice of Easy Payment Plans Basic Requirement " soon to be a U of M alumnus Call for more information "We don't want to be the Biggest; we just want to be the Best" Tues. April 12 The University of Michigan SCHOOL OF MUSIC Early Music Ensemble Edward Parmentier, director Program includes motets by Bach, Schutz, Gesualdo, others. Works for wind and mixed ensembles. Blanche Anderson Moore Hall, 8:00 p.m. Ar; -- Ofh~zJ5 ff ;5 ) t:dJ:Vlb" t,- tI.4 /Y M 3- 1 -r -I-- h nk J m