Wednesday, May 26, 1993 - The Michign Daiy Summer Week y-9
'Posse' rewrites the western
hometown.Theposseis, asrequiredin
ensemble cast films, a collection of
very different characters - Jessie's
chasing his own demons; Weezie
(Charles Lane) is the wimpy former
servant to the colonel; Obobo (Tiny
Lister, Jr.) is very innocent and built
like a wall; Father Time (Big Daddy
Kane) is the gambler; and Little J
(Steven Baldwin) is the white guy.
The filmshifts fromagang-on-the-
run story (common for westems) to a
small-town-against-the system tale
(alsocommon).Intheend, themovieis
full of shoot-outs, knife-play, knife
throwing and fist fights. Tables get
broken, banisters smashed and bottles
brokenonheads.Itis, forallintents and
purposes, astandard westem. And that
is not a bad thing.
In a case such as "Posse," where a
filmisseekingtosettherecordstraight,
there can be a tendency to overdo the
point. The fact that our heroes are
African American could have been
shoveddown the audience's throatuntil
they gagged, but that did not happen.
Thepointisclear,butnotoverbear-
ing. In fact, change two percent of the
dialoguemakeminorchangestoaplot
device and everyone could have been
white, which is how most westems
have portrayed the Old West.
This is Van Peebles' ("New Jack
City") second feature, and the weight
on his shoulders was probably great-
"Unforgiven"isfreshinpeople's minds
as the ultimate western. Also, his fa-
ther,Melvin,whowasalandmarkfilm-
maker in the'70s, wason the set work-
ing as an actor.
But Van Peebles handles these in-
fluences well. He is trying to make a
pointaboutthetruehistoryoftheWest.
And,allthingsconsidered,VanPeebles
does an excellent job. While much of
the plot is standard western fodder, he
creates an above-average western.
Some of his shots seem a little out of
place, but the film quickly moves past
those moments, making the tale clear
and easy to follow.
Overlookingthefactthatmostchar-
acters are too black and white (no pun
intended, I swear), which is so com-
mon in this genre that it is a forgivable
sin, "Posse" is a fine film. Any audi-
ence that likes westerns will love this
film. And it just might make them
rethink history according to Holly-
wood.
POSSE is playing at Showcase.
cueposseu s keis way to the
Mario Van Peebles struts his stuff in his revisionist western. American frontier, to Jessie Lee's
20m CENTURY
Continued from page 8
Lily Garland (Julia Broxholm), to sign
a contract with him to star in his new
play.
From here we learn that Oscar and
Lily once had a romantic relationship
that went sour and she left him to star
inmotionpictures.Therestof the show
focuses on the couple and the strange
inhabitants of the train.
The set is important to the show
because many of the comic scenes
center around the claustrophobic con-
finement one encounters while travel-
ing long distances on a train.
Christine Reising's art deco, geo-
metric set-design was rather interest-
ing. Two cramped train compartments
and a bar car were pushed up against
each other to emphasize the lack of
space on board the train.
During one flashback sequence,
the train split in half and moved aside
torevealhow Lily actually got her big
break from Oscar.
Thesong"Veronique"marksLily's
transformation from the young, naive
Mildred Platka to the sexy, sultry Lily
Garland. Broxholm made this trans-
formation wonderfully by simply us-
ing her voice. At first she spoke tim-
idly, then she burst out yelling how
sexy and talented she was.
Cy Coleman's bold and brassy
scorefor"On the20th Century"isvery
rhythmic. Every song starts out slow
and steadily speeds up, just like a train
as it departs a station.
In "Life is Like a Train" this is
very evident.Four tap dancing porters,
in tight unison, introduce the scene,
and by using their feet create sounds
similar to the ones a train makes.
The Civic Theatre took the largest
risk by giving the role of the religious
nut, Letitia Peabody Primrose, to Uni-
versity junior Kara Pawlowski.
Traditionally, this part is played by
an older woman, but in this production
Primrose,asplayed by Pawlowski, was
more like a young prude than a crotch-
ety old maid.This break from tradition
worked very favorably.
During "Repent" Pawlowski sang
of "dirty doings going on" while she
ran around the train, cackling like a
psychopathandslappingreligiousstick-
ers on people.
With its high comedy and musical
genius, "On the 20th Century" is fairly
difficult to improve upon. The Civic
Theatre took a few chances and made a
few changes that added new excite-
ment to the original musical.
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