Friday, September 20, 2013 - 5

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

ACCESSING GERSHWIN
MT&D spurs new
partnership

'U' opens the
Gershwin Initiative
to increase access
By MAX RADWIN
Daily FineArts Editor
"Love is Here to Stay" - and
so is the rest of George and Ira
Gershwin's musical legacy.
. The University now has
access to the papers, composi-
tional drafts and original scores
of famous Broadway and Holly-
wood musical composers George
and Ira Gershwin, thanks to a
new partnership between their
estates and the School of Music,
Theatre & Dance.
Access to those materials
will assist future musicians
- student and faculty alike -
trying to work with the scores
of George Gershwin and the
accompanying lyrics of his
brother, Ira.
"For the first time, musi-
cians are going to get the musi-
cal scores in a performable way
that reflects, as close as we can
understand, the vision of the
composer and the lyricist," said
Mark Clague, associate pro-
fessor of musicology and the
director of research at MT&D.
"Today, if you wanted to do that
with current materials, you'd
have to spend hours and hours

marking the scores, cleaning it
up, wasting rehearsal time."
The Gershwin Initiative
- which will result in new
courses, scholarly symposia and
future student performances of
the brothers' music - will cre-
ate the first-ever critical edi-
tion of their entire collection of
work.
"We have critical editions
of the works of Shakespeare
and we have the music of
Beethoven," Clague said. "But
this will be the first time ever
the music of George and Ira
Gershwin is given this kind of
rigorous scholarly treatment
that all the great music of the
European tradition has gotten.
It's American culture on a new
platform."
The critical edition will be
made up of around seven series
and between 35 and 45 volumes.
Students and faculty will have
access to the Gershwins' com-
positions, with commentary
and detailed analysis of scores
and numbers.
"To really understand what
George wanted," Clague said,
"you have to go back to those
little scraps of paper that he
wrote on when he was putting
something together."
George Gershwin, who was
a notoriously fast if not erratic
composer, died at age 38, before
he could make a lot of those

edits to his own works. In many
cases, other musical styles like
jazz, which Gershwin never
experienced firsthand, were
posthumously injected into his
music.
Yet, on the whole, changes
to the Gershwins' drafts and
scores will be marginal, Clague
said. "It's not like we're going
to discover a piece most likely,
though of course I hope to....
There's a couple missing mea-
sures, and there's a couple
measures that George actually
tried to cut out of the piece that
someone else put back in."
Clague also said there will
be an electronic mirror of the
Gershwin collection installed
in Ann Arbor's Library of Con-
gress.
Last Sunday MT&D put
together a .panel, moderated
by Clague, for those excited
about the Gershwin Initiative
announcement. A concert fea-
turing Broadway star Audra
McDonald, hosted by the Uni-
versity Musical Society, contin-
ued the celebration following
the panel.
Concerning the potential
the acquisition brings to music
scholarship within the Univer-
sity, Clague said, "There's going
to be a fresh excitement around
this music in the concert hall
and on stage that audiences are
really going to respond to."

"You better work, bitch.
The downspiraling of
Disney child stars

TV R EVIEW
Rcis~tS Das' withuWhmo

By ALEC STERN
Daily Arts Writer
In Jan., FOX execs gave an
untitled sitcom, from the writ-
ers of "Ted," a direct-to-series
commitment
based on the
supposed D7
strength of the Dads
pilot script and Dd
the creative Pilot
team attached,
which included Tuesdays
"Family Guy" at 8 p.m.
creator Seth
MacFarlane. FOX
It's a rare move
for a network to make; typically
it'll wait until a pilot has filmed
until it makes the decision to
pick up the series. This week,
the previously untitled series,
now "Dads," finally aired, caus-
ing critics and audiences alike
to let out a resounding, "What
were they thinking?!" You've fallen so far, Oz.
"Dads" is a sitcom that
caters to the lowest common it comes from the mouth of an
denominator and succeeds in animated baby or a teddy bear,
not evoking so much as a grin it doesn't really have the same
throughout the entirety of the effect when it comes from four
pilot episode. While it's mind- privileged white men.
lessly offensive and unbeliev- One of the biggest issues the
ably racist, "Dads" 's biggest public already has with "Dads"
crime is that it's a comedy that is the scene in which Song's
just isn't funny. character is forced to wear a
"Dads" focuses on two suc- "sexy, Asian schoolgirl outfit"
cessful video game designers, in order to land a deal with Chi-
Seth Green ("Austin Powers") nese investors. Even before the
and Giovanni Ribisi ("Ted"), show's premiere, there were
whose lives are turned upside- groups insisting FOX re-shoot
down when their dads, played the pilot in order to remove
by Peter Riegert ("The Mask") this from the episode. However,
and Martin Mull ("Arrested removing one racist plot point
Development") move in with among a sea of racism wouldn't
them. The cast is rounded out have done any good. In just 22
by Brenda Song ("The Social minutes, "Dads" could poten-
Network"), who is an employee tially offend every race and
at the video game company, and ethnicity there is. This is the
Vanessa Lachey ("Wipeout"), kind of show in which charac-
the wife to Ribisi's Warner. ters hold grudges over "Indi-
an food burps," create video
games called, "Kill Hitler" (in
W hen will Seth which you can stab Hitler with
a menorah) and exploit the only
M acFarlane gay character like he's an ani-
mal in a zoo.
just stop? "Where's your gay guy? Show
me your gay guy!" Crawford
says. After one of the employ-
ees in the background raises
Despite what seems like a his hand, he quickly shouts
solid team, both behind and back at him, "You go, girl!"
in front of the camera, almost It's a shame that this was the
nothing about this comedy show chosen to launch FOX's
works. At every turn, "Dads" revamped Tuesday comedy
is racist, homophobic, sexist, block. It's even more of a shame
anti-Semitic ... the list goes on that "Dads" serves as the lead-
and on. While offensive com- in to "Brooklyn Nine-Nine,"
edy might be endearing when which is undoubtedly one of

By LENA FINKEL
Daily Arts Writer
Oh my goodness, hold the
phone! Zac Efron went to rehab
for - what'sthatnow? - cocaine!
How could you do this to me,
Troy Bolton?
OK, maybe I'm being overly
dramatic. And honestly, I proba-
blyshouldn't be allthatsurprised.
He is a former Disney Channel
star after all. I guess we should
add him to the list of Disney kids
gone wrong, along with Miley,
Demi (though she has appeared
to have fully recovered), Lindsay
and countless others.
The Disney kids seem to be the
first to go sour and it has become
such a common phenomenon
that barely anyone questions it
anymore. Buzzfeed even came up
with a list of 16 Disney Channel
child stars who have been arrest-
ed - and I canonlyimaginethere
are more out there.
Even when they're not pic-
tured next to a big bong or going
to rehab, they still seem to go
out of their way to destroy their
innocent reputations. Selena
Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens
may have been able to keep their
cools, but that didn't stop them
from taking on risque characters
in "Spring Breakers." They're like
children who grew up with ultra-
strict parents only to go absolute-
ly crazy when they get to college.
I'm talking full-on MIPs, tats, the

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ine yards. TV characters whose biggest
vho can blame them? Not fault is being too adorable. The
is Disney created these rest of television has adapted to
que characters for them include flawed characters - Ted
on TV (I mean, what Mosby from "How I Met Your
e biggest problem that Mother," Gregory House from
McGuire ever had? Try- "House, M.D.," Alicia Florrick
get up the nerve to talk from "The Good Wife" (is she
n Craft?), but they also just the coldest main character
d them to act that way in or what?) - but younger charac-
I can only imagine how ters always seem to fit the same
hows Miley Cyrus had to mold. And weirdly enough, we
where she was forced seem to like it that way. I have
r cutesie outfits and act friends in college who are still
bly. What was the first watching "Wizards of Waverly
he said after she shaved Place."
d? Oh yeah, she tweeted, It doesn't have to be this
felt more me in my whole way though. We can have well-
ow. How depressing was behaved child stars - good
he had to wait 19 years to role models - without putting
t way? them through the cookie cut-
ter. We can let them grow up to
be quirky or weird or sweet or
if hjow however they want to be with-
troling w out forcingthem i to box. Take
ars act has Dylan and Cole Sprouse ("Sweet
Life of Zack & Cody"), for exam-
Tiously been ple. Though Disney stars for five
years, they avoided the "triple
oing well. threat" train (no music album
for them, thank goodness!)
and now attend New York Uni-
versity. They've miraculously
-il as Disney comes off in emerged unscathed and could
ry, I have to admit that even go on to lead normal lives.
completely its fault. It With more child actors com-
be the one firing up the ing through the machine every
ly line, but we're the minute (I believe Bella Thorne
vouring every bite. As an and Zendaya are next on the
:e, we've come to expect list), we can only hope that Dis-
nensional young adult ney will rethink its recipe.

DON'T MISS ONE OF
TH E YEARS BEST FILMS*
"Atlantic - OicagSmU4 es . - tibRK..- E
Lm AnoolDile "i.+N". i i . . ftIV M " .- -

FoX

the best comedy pilots in years.
Whereas "Dads" buys into
every stereotype in the book,
Andy Samberg's new comedy
actively works to subvert them.
"Nine-Nine" is set in a world
where there are just as many
female detectives as there are
male, where minorities aren't a
minority in the workplace and
where police captains can be of
any sexual orientation.
In the following hour, "New
Girl" continues to be one of
the funniest and sweetest
comedies on television, while
Mindy Kaling is one of the few
Indian-American women to
ever have a starring role in a
network series. Kaling not only
stars in "The Mindy Project"...
she runs the whole damn thing.
But infuriatingly, 90 minutes
earlier, we're still supposed to
be laughing when Crawford
confuses his son's Spanish wife
for the maid.
Perhaps even more offen-
sive than the blatant offensive-
ness is the laziness with which
"Dads" seems to have been
made. From the sets, to the
pacing, to the unbearable laugh
track, this series marks a new
low for broadcast sitcoms. FOX
has been so creatively success-
ful in the comedy department
recently that the existence of
this series is all the more puz-
zling. Let's just chalk this one
up to the law of averages and
try and pretend it never hap-
pened.

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