The Michigan Daily--Saturday, May 31, 1980-Page 9 t:. . . . . . . ..... . ...t.....T HEr:r...:.........:..:M.::..:::.::.:::::V:_.v.:::E::.:t.:y.;::: A....... ..........T :. .....: :. {:.... :v~y..~ivnh" :t{":' :}., :.::x.. . e r..{. . v.BR.1{}ARv}:}Wv:O OD. \, n. .. . v,.. ".... ...r~rr ..v .....:..... yy...:.r... :.. 3 . .. r.. n.. {:4v: v . .. T A TE. }.T......49 v.:.. By ANNE GADON Judging solely by numbers, Tom Simonds is the resident expert in the en- tertainment field on homosexuality. In the past three years he has written and directed four musicals dealing with the gay experience that have covered everything from orange juice to sex in monasteries. In his latest venture, Drag, with some help from Theatre Lamda, a gay theatre company, and the blessing of the university's human sexuality office, he speculates on the lives and loves of transvestite drag, particularly the show queens. Simonds makes a good case for drag shows as legitimate entertainment. Much of his success can be attributed to the talent of his leading "ladies", the pixiesh Beneatha Sheets and the cool, statuesque Velma, played by Stan Webb and Galen Davis respectively. Webb and Davis are frequently featured in drag shows at the Rubiyat, an Ann Arbor disco. Their proficiency at drag performance holds up the show. Most of the other chorus "women" mince about the stage in an imitation of feminity, but Webb and Davis revel in the liberation from their traditional sex roles. THE BULK of Drag is made up of musical numbers performed at Sam's Golden Rainbow, a drag showcase club. The songs are tied together by a series of predictable scenes in the budding relationship between Stanley or "Beneatha" and George, a student majoring in ancient Greek history. Most of Simonds' humor is ludicrous. Stanley and George meet at the zoo, while Stanley is feeding the elephants. When Stanley con'fesses that he is a drag queen George says, "It sure beats the shit out of the Peloponnesian Wars." As seems to be common with Simon- ds' productions, he flirts with a serious discussion of homosexual relationships, but at the crucial moments backs off in- to silliness or changes the subject. In Drag he raises the issue of what motivates men to become drag queens, but never deals with it directly. Simon- ds certainly has the ability and knowledge to write a serious play on the homosexual experience but he constan- tly shies away from it in favor of camp. Musically, however, Drag shines. Simonds is an exceedingly versatile songwriter and can write on almost any subject. The chorus number, "It's a Drag," which opens and closes the show, describes the hassles of a per- forming in a drag show ("The dress is too tight, the make-up's too dark . . ."). The song about clocks would be won- derful if the singer could only remem- ber the words, while Stan Webb's ren- dition of the vampy "When Beneatha Sheets Comes to Town" is near perfec- tion. "Come On Over My Place" is a great number but is marred by the un- warranted entrance of a giant banana. In "Mama, I'm a Queen," Simonds throws in a line of tapping chorus "girls" who keep the number from being a show stopper through their clumsy hoofing. Unfortunately this is a problem throughout most of the produc- tion. Among the mostly indistinguishable chorus members, watch out for the anonymous performer portraying the maid (a is Carol Burnett) who suddenly finds "herself" in the middle of a musical number. "She" throws down her mop and takes over the song, milking it for all it's worth. Although Drag has its ups and downs, the musical numbers alone make it worth seeing, as this "woman" obviously knows. And as Judy, Stanley's best friend, sings, "You've got to take the shit with the sugar." 12:45-3:30 12:30-2:45 5:15-7:30-10:00 (R) Daily Photo by DAVID HARRIS Loren Hecht, Kenyon Brown, and Mark Paron display the art of performing in 'Drag', a musical playing at the Mendelssohn Theater tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m. A2 A above average in answering census BY GEOFFREY OLANS In sharp contrast to neighboring Detroiters, Ann Arbor residents have been "excellent" about voluntarily an- swering the 1980 census, according to Mike Berla, district census office manager for Ann Arbor. While the Motor City has been beset with mail-back rates below 70 per'cent, the U.S. Census Bureau puts Ann Ar- bor's rate at 87.5 per cent, more than two percentage points higher than the national average. Even college students, who some census officials expected to act frivolously towards census questions, "have been in general quite respon- sible," Berla said. ONE PROBLEM Ann Arbor census takers have encountered is the result of a misunderstanding by college students of a rule governing where they should complete census forms. According to the law, full-time students are expected to fill out census forms in the area where they are enrolled in schoot,- not where their { . parents live. There are some students, however, who filled out their forms at home, Berla said. Because Ann Arbor census takers must track these students down and have them complete forms here, over- statement of regional census figures invariably results from double coun- ting, Berla continued. 12:15-2:30 5:00-7:15-9:45 (R) 12:15-2:30 5:00-7:15-9:30 (R) FRI. and SAT. 12:00 mid. (R) FRI. and SAT. 12:00 mid. R) Fri.- 3 THlE Sat. STOOGES 12:00 Mid FOLLIES HELD OVER RALPH FRI. BAKSHI SAT. WIZARDS 12:00 ANIMATED Mid CIN-EMA I I PRESENTS ,ox1 THE LAST WAVE (Peter Weir, 1978) Cinema II presents the ANN ARBORPREMIERE of THE LAST WAVE, a startling and remarkable film about magic; power and the supernatural. RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN stars as an Australian lawyer whose defense of five aborigines involves him in a series of bizarre and inexplicable experiences. This is a terrifying story of the confrontation between the primi- tive force of the aboriginal tribes and the civilized world which threatens them. (106 min) ML 4a-,7:30 & 9:30 $1.50 Thursdda:,YOJIMBO.