ARTS Monday, November 19, 1990 'The Michigan Daily Page 7 !.Bizarre band * Evis by Greg Baise H ow can you compress "The History of American Music" into "Three E-Z Pieces"? If you're bizarre-tists like the Residents, it's E-Z! "The History of American Music in Three E-Z Pieces" is the subtitle of the Residents' latest magnum N ,opus, supratitled Cube E. The narrative of the two-hour per- formance, which is broken into three parts and an intermission, shows how the mating of cowboy trail songs of the 1850s and African- American influences, such as work songs, blues and spirituals of all forts, developed into rock and roll, producing Elvis Presley. The Hero to Most has been the pop cultural icon the Residents have been fixing their collective gaze - upon for their past two recordings, The King and Eye and Cube E. On these two, as well as in the third part of their live show, Elvis is ' deconstructed, demolished and demythified. Of course, the regurgitation of the music isn't as simple as the flow of the narrative. Many of the melodies are electronically distorted almost beyond recognition. Many songs are sung in manners which bring out some hidden meanings which may or may not have been intended by the songs' authors. And darkness tends to dominate the performance, revealing something about the Residents' views of human nature, perhaps, while certainly shrouding in darkness their own identities and that of their collaborators. In the dim past of 20 or so years ago, the Residents hailed from IN 'evi e Sweet Charity Express delivers yourself Carrying on where Kurt Russell as Elvis in Elvis and David Keith as Kurt Russell as Elvis in Elvis in Heartbreak Hotel left off, the Residents present their portrayal of the King. Shreveport, Louisiana, but moved to San Francisco and proceeded to become America's best cult-followed anonymous underground art band. That they might be the only one of those doesn't matter, for the Residents rip through performance genres as easily as they rip through the prestige that surrounds icons of all sorts. There are two cornerstones to the Residents' image: autonomy and anonymity. Their label, Ralph, preceded the mid-'70s boom in the flourishing of independent labels, and having their own label allowed them to do the kinds of things that might upset your average police officer from Royal Oak, both musically and visually. For instance, on the original copies of the Residents' second record, Third Reich 'n Roll, a Nazi officer on the cover looks suspiciously like Dick Clark, and the satirical graphics on the original copies of Meet the Residents were said to have upset the Rock in which the Beatles' Church was set - Capitol Records. Anonymity allows the Residents to present their art/product to the audience/consumer without hindering the presentation through the injection of any distractions like personality, although the collective has most definitely developed its own iconoclastic identity over the years. The number of actual Residents is even debatable. Does one include the dancers which are featured all throughout Cube E? Or perhaps one of the musicians is a guest musician, and not a true Resident. One can even envision a situation where the Residential masterminds pull the strings from the home base of the Cryptic Corporation while their envoys perform the actual road show. Much of the music does seem to be prerecorded.... It is generally believed that there are four Residents, as curtain calls reveal three bowing eyeballs and one bowing skull. Their contemporary look is much different from the eyeballs initially presented on the cover of the Eskimo record of 1979. Instead of those tuxedoed people wearing eyeball masks, the Residents are now body-stockinged people wearing giant, faceted eyeball suits. Of course, in commemoration of the theft of one of those original eyeball masks, one of the Residents continues to appear as a death's head. I'll bet some joker out there feels really proud. THE RESIDENTS weird out at the Michigan Theater tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16.50 (plus evil service charge) in advance at TicketMaster and $18.50 (without an evil service charge) at the door. It escapes me how I could emerge from A Little Night Music - one of the most exquisitely polished, professional shows ever to appear on this campus - earlier this semester and give it a highly critical notice, and then come out of Soph Show's unpolished Sweet Charity last night brimming with good things to say about it, too. Sweet Charity was one of the most charismatic shows I have ever seen. The players were teeming with energy and charm, and the most wonderful of all was Jennifer Watson in the title role. She did well with the choreography and kept an unusu- ally high energy level throughout the performance. She was a perfect mix of optimistic innocence and streetsmarts, sexy in her little black dress but never sly. Tracy Plester and Danielle Archer were a stunning singing duo in "Baby, Dream Your Dream," and the team was enhanced by the addition of Watson in "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" in which the trio complimented each other's voices beautifully. The rest of the parts were also well-cast, with the possible exceptions of Michael Kania and Kristin Barbour, who were awkward with each other and uncon- vincing as the "international film star" Vittorio Vidal and his jealous girlfriend Ursula. Pete Vassalo, on the other hand, did a superb job with Oscar Lindquist, the nervous but well-dressed tax accountant who al- most marries Charity. The most spectacular musical number outside of the two men- tioned above was "Big Spender," in which the lighting and the choreog- raphy gave a vivid impression of the seediness of the Fan-Dango Ballroom. The choreography was ex- cellent for all the dance hall scenes, despite the fact that the choreogra- phers seemed determined to pound it into the audience that Bob Fosse was the choreographer for the original Broadway show. I sympathize with the directors and producers; I am sure that it is difficult to get serious Music School students to find time to be in pit or- chestras. However, it would be nice to hear an orchestra that is not work- ing in opposition to the interests of the performers. The production was unpolished, but this did not detract from the per- formance. The overwhelming charm and enthusiasm of the cast was strong enough to overcome the few rough bits, making Sweet Charity a thoroughly enjoyable show. -Beth Colquitt A male dancer dons a zebra- striped dress and prances across the stage prococatively; a dancer leaps over her partners who lie on the floor blowing party whistles to the theme of Sesame street, she is then unceremoniously sprayed with silly string. Thus ended the BFA thesis dance concert. To End and Begin was a night full of drama, athleticism, and best of all, wacky creativity. The four women who created the concert gave a fine representation of the wide range of style and context that characterizes modern dance. Each choreographed a group number and performed in a solo dance. This for- mat gave the group freedom of ex- pression as well as a chance to dis- play their individual talent. Jill Moskow's choreography for "In Time" was inhibited by the heavy-footed dancers who didn't do her spritely themes justice. But it was a clever and entertaining inter- pretation of the baroque dance tunes of Handel and Corelli. Ironically, Moskow's most personal expression seemed to spring from her angry and passionate interpretation of Gay Delanghe's choreography in "Knock." Throughout the group numbers, it seemed that the dancers' simply could not live up to their choreographers' ambitions. However, Jennifer Bulgarella's tropical bird theme and Ginger Glenn's clever rendition of her experiences teaching children in "Before Things Got Complicated" were entertaining. Glenn's solo, "Regret," utilized a unique frame, depicting the frustration inherent in choreographing one's own piece. Glenn utilized desperate repetition and pained facial expressions, showing the personal investment that she placed in her choreography and assuring that this piece was above ordinary. But it was Lesli Cohen who stole the show. Her expression seemed to embody everything one hopes to see eminating from this "diverse" cam- pus. Cohen enhanced her solo per- formance by choreographing her piece, a wild and highly dramatic version of an urban hell. Cohen de- veloped the piece's theme of over- coming violent 20th-century oppres- sion by manipulating an imposing network of iron bars. She displayed intense theatricality when she broke out of a flailing and wild dance cycle with a sudden calm and innocent smile. With a skill that surpassed most beginning choreographers, she performed with creative strength and intellectual complexity and she performed without pretense. Cohen followed this overwhelm- ing work with "not quite different, completely absurd, yet all together uninteresting." This witty piece ended the concert with a musical col- lage that included Aerobics instruc- tion, an Almond Joy commercial and the sounds of bubbling water. The dancers flourished within this cre- ative context, integrating themselves skillfully with Cohen's bizarre in- spiration. Cohen made the piece fun but also creatively expressive - a difficult task to pull off successfully. -Elizabeth Lenhard This life is (not) most jolly "Can honor feed a man when he is hungry?" asks the excessive but lovable Sir John Falstaff. Quickly he answers "No." The School of Music Opera Theatre presented a wonderful interpretation of Verdi's Falstaff last Thursday, portraying the hilarious glutton as a bit more sophisticated than the traditional Falstaff we are all used to. The Power Center's stage was uniquely utilized. The audience watched Sir John Falstaff battle with Good and Evil on a stage of numer- ous ascending stairs toward "Heaven." The powerful and unique staging greatly added to the the more somber undercurrent of the comic opera. Aside from some technical problems with the 10 crosses in the final scene, Falstaff's "Martyrdom" in Windsor Park was intriguing and effective. Additionally, the dark lighting created an interesting mood but at times casted unflattering shad- ows upon the actors. The women, elaborately cos- tumed as angels with feathered wings, all had impressive voices. Especially good were the voice's of Mistress Meg Page and Nangetta (Clare Stollak and Karen Swan). Timothy Jones as Ford did a superb job as well, as did Richard Banks as Falstaff. However, because platforms were set far back on stage, the voices were sometimes lost before reaching the audience. Verdi's beautiful music was successfully joined to the text. Witty and symbolic, the whole production demonstrated a wide range of talent and creativity. From the inevitably unsatisfied Falstaff it is important to remember the final note of the opera - "life is but folly." -Julie Komorn :.t he_ act DAly- Winnipeg Ballet celebrates 50th .# by Urvi Doshi M N The grace and elegence of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will charm the audience tonight at the Power Center in a 50th anniversary celebra- tion. The company returns with a new artisic director, John Meehan. The performance will feature the one-act story ballet "Anne of Green Gables," a new work by Mark Godden, "Grand Pas Classique" from Raymonda and "Tarantella." "Anne of Green Gables" was cre- ated by Jaques Lemay to the music of Norman Campbell based on the tale created by author Lucy Maud Montegomery. The ballet tells the story of a young and precocious girl who dreams of growing up to be an elegant lady. But she can only imag- ine from inside the orphanage where she is being raised. Her life changes when she is adopted. The rest of the ballet tells the story of her trials and tribulations at a school as she tries to win the love of a man who is competing for the same academic scholarship as herself. The decor and costumes, designed by Mary Kerr, bring a fun flavor to the ballet. Mark Godden's untitled ballet, performed to Christopher Rouse's Symphony No.1 is a combination of classical and contemporary dance. The ballet, unlike "Anne of Green Gables," does not center on the ac- tions of a single individual. Instead, the collective movements of the group convey the themes of the bal- let. A piano is deliberately used to capture the curiosity of the audience in grasping the mood of the ballet. In addition to choreograph- ing, Mark Godden has been a soloist with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet since 1984. Godden performs a vari- ety of roles in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet repertoire including featured roles in Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake. Tonight's premiere is not his first attempt at choreographing. Godden's "Forms of Distinction" won enthusiasic praise at its opening performance as part of Dance Spectrum '88. The work went on to represent the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa. In 1989, he received the Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award for the ballet Sequoia which received its world premiere at the Banff Festival of the Arts. The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, al- though from Canada, has ties to Michigan. Principal Dancer Elizabeth Olds began her dance stud- ies in Ann Arbor with Nancy Abbey and Marjorie Randazzo. She joined the Royal Winnipeg ballet in 1982 as a member of the corps de ballet and was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1989. THE ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET appears tonight at the Power Center at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the Union Ticket Office. ......... . rtteD iy S5n letter to -}20.,;.Ma...:.....d:.::>:o r The:M:hig.n:.il.on.MT Career Opportunities at Morgan for U niersity of Michigan students interested in Operations Management RiesearchI Sales Please plan to attend our information presentation on Tuesday, November 27 7:0pmn Michigan Union, h uenzel Roomn A11rmajors vwelcorne MICHIGAN vs. OHIO STATE Michigan Wolverines vs. Ohio State Buckeyes Friday, November 23, 1990 Kickoff the Toys for Tots Collection Saturday, November 24, 1990 Yost Ice Arena Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Don't forget to bring new unwrapped toys on Friday, November 23