9,. ...s...a 27r" Juu UdMUlr 'rir U M r14.i ...

Watch out for Lucy
Blessed with an amazingly warm voice, excellent songwriting skills and
an impeccable taste in covers (she hits Richard Thompson and Bill
Morrissey on her debut, "The Tide"), Lucy Kaplansky will open for
Livingston Taylor at the Ark tommorow night; there will be two shows, one
at 7:30 p.m., another at 9:30. Tickets are $12.50 in advance and are
available at Schoolkids'; call 763-8587 for more information.

Page 8
Friday,
February 10, 1995

'Merry Wives' proves truly merry

By Jenn McKee
For the Daily
Besides a few technical glitches
that usually plague any production's
opening night, "The Merry Wives of
Windsor" provided its audience with
a good laugh and some food for
thought.
The Merry
Wives of Windsor
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
February 9, 1995
When: Tonight and Saturday at
8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $16, $12, $6
students. Call 764-0450.
The story is that of SirJohn Falstaff
(Geoffrey D. Ehnis-Clark), a fallen
knight. He tries to woo two married
women for their husbands' money,
and they, being close friends and both
offended by his advances, decide to
exact revenge on him. They do this on
two occasions, then include their hus-

bands in the debauchery for one final
act of retribution.
Director John Neville-Andrews ad-
mitted in an interview to having prob-
lems working with the physical set, and
this was somewhat apparent in the pro-
duction. Physical holes existed that were
visible to viewers in the side sections of
the theater, and a window was stuck in
one scene - but the actors always
recovered well, much to their credit. In
the latter instance, the Host (Paul C.
Molnar) - after struggling with the
window, beginning his line, and pop-
ping it open - paused, stared
bewilderedly at the window, then con-
tinued. Thus, he turned a noticeable
problem into a laugh.
Other small problems - includ-
ing one actor heading to the wrong
door to exit, and the lighting going
from normal to darkness back to nor-
mal again in one scene while the ac-
tors carried on their dialogue - dis-
tracted the audience from the story at
times, but much praise and credit goes
to the actors, who kept the pace lively
and engaging.
The most notable - and most
enjoyable-performances were given

by minor characters, thus proving the
adage about there being no small parts,
only small actors.
Brandon Epland was hilarious as
the French, green-gartered Doctor
Caius, whose outlandish accent and
prissy stance and dress made him the
audience favorite.
Also, though a very small part,
Jared Hoffert made the most of the
role of Simple. His exaggeratedly slow
movement and ill-fitting costume
made him a misfit, albeit a terribly
amusing one. In this same vein,
Jonathan D. Berry and Matthew
Witten were laughable as a kind of
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum set
of servants, providing the production
with some physical humor as the pair
scurried around in order to carry out
their mistress' orders.
Jennifer Pennington, who was fea-
tured earlier in the season in "Three
Sisters," was impressive as the saucy
wench Mistress Quickly, with an au-
thentic accent and wonderful stage
presence. She helped bring home the
point concerning money in the play
most pointedly; she never performed
any task without holding out her palm.

This underlying theme concern-
ing money was brought out as much
as possible, and the Neville-
Andrews's goal was realized. With
all the exchange and talk of money,
the audience was assaulted with ev-
erything and everyone being mea-
sured in dollars and cents.
The costumes were designed with
the sole purpose of having more a feel-
ing of being clothes as opposed to cos-
tumes. Though the garments still defi-
nitely had an Elizabethan feel, they
were, for the most part, different from
what one normally sees in a Shakespeare
play. As "Merry Wives" focuses on the
middle class and their new position in
Elizabethan society, costume designer
Sarah Michelle Baum did her home-
work and accomplished the desired re-
sults. The costumes achieved the effect
of the characters being at home, liter-
ally and figuratively.
It seems futile to name individuals
because almost all the performances
were generally strong. I feel that I
must especially note, however, the
powerful and passionate soliloquies
delivered by Ward J. Beauchamp II as
the inconsolably jealous Master Ford.

"The Merry Wives of Windsor" plays through Sunday at the Mendelssohn.

There was also a lot of physical move-
ment involved with his scenes, which
he handled well.
A couple of adjustments in the
production's sound could have been
made. Initially, at the very outset of the
play, music plays at an overwhelming
volume. Itis appropriate and well-scored
by composerBruce Kiesling, but in this
instance, it was overbearing. Also, at
one point, the characters Ann Page
(Jaqueline Carroll) and Slender (Peter
J. Fletcher) are speaking when they are

supposed to hear dogs barking. Again,
the sound was too loud, onlythis time,
actors' lines were lost.
Other than the few small, mostly
technical problems, the play made for*
a very fun night of theater. Even
though Professors Bert Cardullo and
John Neville-Andrews wanted to drive
home points about social and eco-
nomic changes that were happening
in Elizabethan England, they didn't
lose a bit of the play's humor,-
fortunately for the audience.


Comprised of several faculty
members and students, the Comic
Opera Guild's production of Johann
Strauss' "The Fledermaus"
concludes this weekend with
performances tonight and tomorrow
at 7:30 p.m.; there will also be a
matinee at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Strauss' operetta has been
considered one of the world's most
popular for over a hundred years;
the Guild has revised their own
praised translation so it will appeal
to audiences of all ages. The
operetta follows Gabriel Eisenstein
(Daniel Schuetz) as he gets into a
series of misadventures, including
finding both his wife Rosalinda and
maid at the same party.
All of the performances will be held
at Tappan Auditorium at Tappan
Middle School; tickets are $6 for
students, $12 for adults and
children get In free with an
accompanying adult.

Cinderella is climbing their way back*

Spend a night with the Comic Opera
Guild as they perform Johann Strauss'
classic operetta 'The Fledermaus.'

A review of a 'Film That Was Never Made'

By Scott Plagenhoef
Daily Arts Writer
In 1954, movie mogul Darryl
Zanuck commissioned Samuel Fuller
to travel to the Amazon rain forest to
film an action picture starring John
Wayne, Ava Gardner and Tyrone
Tigrero: A Film!
That Was
Never Made
Directed by Mika
Kaurismaki; with Samuel
Fuller and Jim Jarmusch
At the Michigan Theater
through Sunday
Power. Fuller scouted locations and
filmed some preliminary footage but
the film was never completed. The stars
refused tojeopardize themselves traips-
ing through therainforest without costly
insurance policies, which Zanuck and
the studio refused to bankroll.
Forty years later, would-be director
Fuller leads indie directorJim Jarmusch
("Mystery Train," "Night on Earth") to
an Amazon tributary to reunite himself
with the Karaja -a tribe whom he
hopes to still be an indigenous folk -
and show them the film footage of their
elders that he made forty years prior.

Over the past forty years, the Karaja
have survived numerous forms of out-
side oppression and attempted coloni-
zation. Fuller discovers agroupofpeople
who have not changed at all, yet have
changed a great deal. The Karaja are a
community which stillpaintstheirfaces
and bodies, still initiatemales into adult-
hood by grating the skin on their legs
with piranha teeth, and still have tribal
fertility dances.
Yet the Karaja are also a group of
people that now clothe their children
in bad imitation Izods, play volley-
ball with uniforms and, incredibly,
have television. As one Karaja ex-
plained to Fuller, they have managed
to dispel the intrusions of the white
man, retain their highly traditional
and virtually peaceful community, yet
borrow from civilization what they
desire and discard the rest.
The first two-thirds of the Mika
Kaurismaki documentary concern the
persistence of the Karaja and Fuller's
relationship with the tribe, both in 1954
and 1994. Fuller's exhibiting the foot-
age he shot four decades ago to a com-
munity who have neither photography
nor video, but only their own memories
of their relatives is the highmark of a
film which begins poignantly and even-
tually turns self-righteous.
Fuller and Jarmusch, two dynamic
personalities, are honest in their admi-
ration and genuine in their awe of a

community which confuses the indig-
enous with the capitalist. The two film-
makers initially step back and allow the
tribe and the footage of them to take the
spotlight. The testimonials of those old
enough to recall Fuller's first visit and
the pastiche of Kaurismaki's cross-cut-
ting across eras creates a poignant por-
trait of the Karaja's attempts to secure
their basic human instincts amidst an
ever-exclusive world seeking to exploit
them.
Yet, drastically, the Karaja disap-
pear and Fuller and Jarmusch hang out
by the river bed, smoke stogies and try
to imagine just what a fantastic film
Fuller would have made had he gotten
the opportunity. Granted, this sancti-
monious display is what the title sug-
gests, more a film about the failed project
than about its would-be co-stars, but it
degenerates intoaonce-intriguing, sud-
denly-curmudgeonly individual wax-
ing about his lost opportunity to work
with the Duke.
Ah, opportunity lost. Fuller didn't
get to show the Duke just where on
Tyrone Power's jaw he wanted him to
land his fist. The audience lost the op-
portunity to enjoy, in Kaurimaki's
project, what began as a worthwhile
tribute to both art and humanity, much
like Orson Welles' newly discovered
footage of his failed Brazilian-based
project "It's All True," yet degenerated
into a trailer for a film that never was.

By Brian A. Gnatt
Daily Arts Writer
The clock struck grunge, and all
the bands changed but one. Cinderella,
Cinderella, put on that glass slipper,
CINDERELLA
Where: Harpo's (14238
Harper, in Detroit)
When: Doors open at 9 p.m.
Tickets: Call 313-824-1700
for more information.
leather and hair overdone, come once
again and show us rock 'n' roll lovers
how to have fun.
Cinderella, the gutsy blues rock
band that brought you "Don't Know
What You Got (Till It's Gone)," and
numerous other glam rock classics,
has returned after four years of si-
lence, with their new and thrilling,
good ol' screaming rock 'n' roll
record, "Still Climbing." Although
the band is enthusiastic about touring
back down that "Gypsy Road" again,
they have returned to a country that
has left rock music in a cloud of hair
spray, and gone on to the world of
grunge and punk.
"Unfortunately, sometimes
we're viewed as a has-been '80s
hair band," guitarist Jeff LeBar ad-
mitted. "We're not from Seattle or
New York City. To be totally honest
with you, we're fighting to stay in
this freakin' business, but we're
having a ball doing it."
Between 1990's "Heartbreak Sta-
tion" and "Still Climbing," which was
released in late 1994, Cinderella hit a
number of difficult roadblocks. Vo-
calist/guitarist/songwriterTom Keifer
lost his voice for two-and-a-half years,
until doctors finally discovered a cyst
on his vocal cords. LeBar got into a
fight and had his thumb almost cut
off, having to go through therapy to
be able to hold a guitar pick again.
Besides that, after firing original
drummer Fred Coury and also their
longtime producer Andy Johns, it took
the band over two years to record and
release "Still Climbing."
After tackling all the obstacles up
to the release of the record, Cinderella
found that the music industry's tastes
had shifted, putting them back at the
beginning of a new list of problems.
"We're having problems with

MTV right now," Keifer said. "Actu-
ally, before the release was when that
started. We were still mixing the
record, and MTV hadn't heard it yet.
They told our record label that we
shouldn't even bother making a video
because, this is a quote, 'Our genre of
music is over.'"
"It kind of rubbed me the wrong
way," Keifer said. "First of all, they
hadn't even heard the record yet. No.
2, as soon as someone uses the word
genre, that tells me that they are lump-
ing things together, and not really
dealing with the bands or the music
on an individual basis, which I think
is really uncool. I think MTV's really
fucking uncool right now."
The problems with MTV took the
band by surprise. "Ididn't think MTV
would ever give us a hard time," Keifer
said. "Only because they've always
played us in the past. They've always
been really into the band, and I think
that's what bothers me the most. It's
like, are you into the band, or aren't
you? Or are you just into making
money?"
Other problems Cinderella has
with the music industry go beyond
MTV's deciding of what's hot and
what's not. "I don't understand the
way music is anymore," LeBar said,
frustrated. "It doesn't seem like there's
much loyalty to bands. When I was a
kid, I was into Led Zeppelin and Alice
Cooper, and it was like, no matter
what they did, that was cool. It doesn't
seem to be that way anymore. I see a
lot of kids into the Offspring and

Green Day, and they're great band
and I'm real happy for them. I just
hope fans are loyal to them, but I
don't think they will be."
However, Keifer feels America is
only in a musical phase. "I think the
kind of music that we play is the one
that always comes back," Keifer said.
"I've seen this happen before to this
kind of music. At the end of the '70s.*
disco, new wave and skinny-tie mu-
sic took over and everyone was say-
ing 'Led Zeppelin who?' The Rolling,
Stones - forget them; and Aerosmith
couldn't get arrested."
"And what happened in the '80s?
Bang! Hard rock came back, bigger
and stronger than ever," Keifer said.
"The same thing is happening right
now. You got rap, which is basically
the disco of the'90s, and Weezer and
Green Day. That was a return to the
skinny-tie music, and that was a bad
idea the first time around. That shit is
gonna come down as fast as it went
up, and rock 'n' roll is going to be
there to pick up the pieces, just like it
always is."
Even with all the changes,,.
Cinderellaisplanning on sticking with
their music and their fans. "We're
gonna stick around as long as we can.
As long as people will have us, we'll
be around," LeBar said.
"Really, all the hard rock bands.,
from the '80s are being shut out,':
Keifer said. "Maybe some of thew
deserve it, and maybe some of them
don't. We're still kicking ass any-
way. That don't stop us."


For a free copy of the Summer Session '95
catalog, call 1-800-FINDS NU (in Illinois, call 708-
491-5250), fax your request to 708-491-3660,
e-mail your request to summer95@nwu.edu, or
mail this coupon to Summer Session '95, 2115
North Campus Drive, Suite 162, Evanston, Illinois
60208-2650.

v j j1
Cinderella has run into a couple of bumps on the 'Gypsy Road' recently.

ril