Page 10-Tuesday, June 8, 1982-The Michigan Daily
'Nickleby,' 'Nine' win top Tonys

NEW YORK (AP)- Britain's picaresque The Life
and Times of Nicholas Nickleby was named best play
and Nine best musical in a glittering Tony awards
show Sunday night.
Including its best play award, Nickleby, based on,
the Charles Dickens' classic about a young lad in
London, won awards for direction, scenic design, and
best actor.
Nine, a musical fantasy based loosely on Federico
Fellini's 8%, won a total of five awards, including
best director, supporting actress, score, and costume
design.
Not to be outdone, Dreamgirls, a flashy musical
about the rise of a Supremes-like singing group, won
six awards: best actor and actress ina musical, sup-
porting actor, best book, choreography, and design.

Here is a complete list of the Tony winners:
Best Musical: Nine
Best Play: The Life and Adventures of Nicholas
Nickleby
Best Actor, Musical: Ben Harney, Dreamgirls
Best Actress, Musical: Jennifer Holliday,
Dreamgirls
Best Actor, Play: Roger Rees, Nicholas Nickleby
Best Actress, Play: Zoe Caldwell, Medea
Best Director, Musical: Tommy Tune, Nine
Best Director, Play: Trevor Nunn, John Caird,
Nicholas Nickleby
Best Supporting Acton, Musical: Cleavant
Derricks, Dreamgirls
Best Supporting Actress, Musical: Liliane Mon-
tevecchi, Nine

Best Supporting Actor, Play: Zakes Mokae, Master
Harold... andthe boys
Best Supporting Actress, Play: Amanda Plummer,
Agnes of God
Best Book, Musical: Tom Eyen, Dreamgirls
Best Score, Musical: Nine
Best Choreography, Musical: Michael Bennett,
Michael Peters, Dreamgirls
Best Scenic Design: John Napier, Dermot Hayes,
Nicholas Nickleby
Best Costume Design: William Ivey Long, Nine
Best Lighting Design: Tharon Musser, Dreamgirls
Best Revival: Othello
Special Tonys for achievement in theater: Radio
City Musical Hall; the Tyrone Guthrie Theater, Min-
neapolis, Minn., and Warner Communications, Inc.

4

Spielberg's poltergeists shake up a family

I

(Continued from Page 7)
lumpers here, and it's best to go into
this movie prepared to relinquish your-
self to good old suburban American
family values and love.
That family love has a supernatural
edge to it which adds to the sincere if
uncomplicated emotional power of this
film. In spite of the fact that Tobe Hop-
per, who made Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, is credited with directing
Poltergeist, the film has the un-
mistakeable aura of its producer and
writer, Spielberg; he should be given
credit for creating a highly unified
work in which the Freelings constitute.
considerably more than a mere prop by
which to tell a ghost story.
There are plenty of funny and char-
ming moments in Poltergeist. These
occur even in the midst of scenes of
SHORT OR LONG
Hairstyles for
Men and Women
DASCOLA STYLISTS
Liberty off State... ~..639329
East U. at South u. 02-354
Arborland.............971-9975
Maple Village ..........761.2733

devastating supernatural power,
proving Spielberg an expert of comic
relief as well as cinematic magic.
And that cine-magic is as alive and
impressive as ever. All of nature, from
trees to tornadoes, falls into the con-
trolling hands of Spielberg and his
technicians, who can do anything.
Nothing-is too big or far out for these
guys: implosions, ghosts, weather and
gravity are all created or defied with
graceful realism.
It should be noted that these special
effects are at the heart of the film, as
such effects have been with all of
Spielberg's blockbusters. While essen-
tial emotions other than fear figure into
Poltergeist more fully and successfully
than in Raiders or Jaws, the basis of
stimulation here is visual and aural, not
intellectual.
Frankly, I don't care much about
ghosts and I won't care about them un-
til I see one. I'm more interested in
people, And while I liked the people in
this film, I didn't learn much about
them or people in general, and neither
will you.
If you believe the climax of a film
should hinge on and unfold intricacies
of character and plot, if you long for the
occasional Englisfi class moment in

which a character's motivation sud-
denly emerges like a revolution and at
once teaches and thrills, then
Poltergeist may not be for you.
There are no real intricacies to the
characters in this film. And there are
few to the plot, although all the elemen-
ts from electronics to the supernatural
fit neatly and tightly together into a
used but valid statement about the con-
flict between the spiritual and the
material worlds.
Poltergeist claims to portray the
shattering of the complacency of a
"typical" family by things which very
few people accept or have had to con-
front. On one level it does this, but on
other levels it certainly does not: the
film is ultimately safe and quintessen-
tially bourgeois.
None of which changes the fact that
Poltergeist is pure, unprovocative en-
tertainment at its best. Spielberg's
work is as cinematically vital as ever,-
and all the magic and amusement are
in top form.
Add to these and Spielberg's standar-
ds of production and a level of
emotional involvement unprecedented
in his work, and you get his most com-

4

Spielberg
making millions scaring kids
plete and satisfying film to date. Plus
the now-customary perfect ending. In
spite of all the grudging criticism, I
have to admit that Poltergeist is an
awful lot of good, clean fun.

I

U

Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
presents
i l
th

'Mystery' isn't the
best of Simonds

(Continued from Page 7)
the most effective.
Todd's dilemma climaxed as he was
forced to choose between singing badly
and portraying the dead diva, or
READ
AND USE
DAILY
CLASS I F ED

revealing himself and betraying his
friends. After a particularly high-
schoolish scene where Todd visited
Nastasia's tombstone and she assumed
a ghostly form, he decided to confess
his deception to the audience after his
symmetrical, 1-gotta-be-me, "Mary,
Queen of Scots;" performance. The
crowd still loved him, and the "gams"
finale, poorly danced, but with the
proper spirit, ended the show.
For a musical with a drag queen, a
bit of the supernatural, some sup-
posedly heartrending soliliquies, grand
opera, and low comedy, it should have
been accompanied by a stronger
musical score and more dramatic
cohesion.
One might wonder if Todd's identity
crisis and subsequent resolution were a
metaphor for a homosexual emergence
from the proverbial closet, but the
message could not save the musical.
Flawed in conception and execution,
although apparently not without noble
beginnings, one can only say maybe
next time.

4

4

4