Photo courtesy Betty Lee Hunt Assoc. Richard Kelton and Coleen Dewhurst as Nick and Martha in the new production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

ENTERTAINMENT FEEDBACK by David Nardozzi

Atlantic Records has finally distributed Abba LP, entitled Abba ... included are U.S. hits "SOS" and current "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" plus the next U.S. release "Mama Mia" (just off the number one spot in Europe)... also European hits "Bang a Boomerang," "Rock Me," and "Intermezzo Number One" judging by the group's track record here (three consecutive top 10 releases), Greatest Hits LP should soon follow...

Bette Midler just did Caesar's Palace in Vegas April 15-28, completing her national tour... her first TV special from this tour will air in the fall (probably on ABC, where Barry Manilow will have his first one-hour special also this fall)....

Wings in midst of U.S. tour... cities covered include New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Detroit, Boston, Cleveland, Vancouver, Toronto, Atlanta, San Diego, and Washington...

Lee Oskar (harmonica player from War) out with debut LP of same name... Leonard Bernstein back on vinyl with Broadway musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. .. LP marks Capitol Records' first soundtrack LP since Follies in 1971. .. and Bernstein's first album since Mass... Neil Sedaka's "Love In the Shadows" cut from just released Steppin' Out LP... Vicki Sue Robinson's new LP is Never Gonna Let You Go . . . new LP from Canada's Rush is Rush 2112....

"Once A Fool" single from Kiki Dee may be an LP release... ZIV International, Inc. to do Abbott and Costello LP taken from old soundtracks of television programs

"Black Sun" is from Space 1999 LP on RCA Records... also released by RCA The Memphis Horns' Hang On Music album. . . September's release "Caution" catching fast. . . may warrant the female group's first LP...

Genesis touring U.S. with Bill Bruford (former Yes drummer).... Three Degrees will do another concert at London Pavillion where their live LP was recorded last year... Reported that Helen Reddy donated part of her Washington concert fees to pro-Equal Rights Amendment forces....

Van McCoy's "Night Walk" single is preview of forthcoming LP, as is Supremes" "Let Your Heart Do The Walking"... The Trammps LP is out... included is 7:50 version of "That's Where The Happy People Go"... new LP's by Kokomo and Millie Jackson also out...

Tom Jones starts this tenth year in show business with his first European tour in five years... The Tubes may title their forthcoming LP Stevie Stardust & The Kittens from Mars... Flora Purim made two-week promotional tour for her new LP on Milestone Records .. Diana Ross and Earth, Wind & Fire have both been offered $1 million up front for an American tour... Minnie Riperton & Richard Pryor guest on Flip Wilson's TV special...

Aretha Franklin & Curtis Mayfield will do Warner Brothers' soundtrack of film Sparkle... Rod McKuen to score EMI film Love Emily... Bobby Vinton sings title. song for 20th Cenutry Fox film, Dutchess & The Dirtwater Fox...

Oscar Awards spurted sales on (Continued on Page B14)

REVIEW

here's

Entertainment!

Albee's own Virginia Woolfrevenge for Nichols movie?

by Michael Mascioli

Upon its premiere in 1962, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was called one of the most startlingly brilliant pieces of contemporary American drama. In its current Broadway revival, directed by the author and starring Colleen Dewhurst and Ben Gazzara, the shock value is gone but the brilliance remains untarnished.

The monumental drama REVIEW

examines the parasitic, love/hate relationship between George, a college professor, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the University's president. In the early morning hours they find themselves entertaining Nick, a newcomer to the biology department, and Honey, his "mousey" wife. Liquor flows freely as they grope their way to daybreak, four souls venting their ambivalent feelings toward each

Super new Guys and Dolls

by John Parker

Damon Runyon is "alive and well," as are Abe Burrows and Billy Wilson, the production supervisor and director/choreographer of the effervescent, exhuberant, scintillating (I could go on ad infinitum) revival of Guys and Dolls that played the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia through May 2. The production was originally scheduled to close April 18, but was held over "by popular demand."

One of the best musicals to I come out of the 50s, Guys and Dolls tells the story of one Nathan Detroit, who loves Adelaide and has been engaged to her for 14 years, somehow always evading the next step (marriage). His preoccupation has been with operating a floating crap game. Coupled with Nathan's and Adelaide's romance is that of

Adelaide also eventually "tie the knot", creating an all-round happy ending.

Whether delivering lines of dialogue or tuneful, catchy lyrics, the cast is in resplendent voice, especially Ernestine Jackson (Sister Sarah Brown) as she sings. "I'll Know." She displays a welltrained voice bordering on the operatic. Others well cast in principal roles are Norma Donaldson (Adelaide), Robert Guillaume (Nathan), and James Randolph (Sky). The last named's delivery of "I've Never Been in Love Before" is revealing as well as soothingly romantic, and his "reading" of "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" lets loose a rich powerhouse of vocal gusto.

The choreography is up-tempo and performed with endless energy. The entire cast is black and its members can take their places with pride

Norma Donaldson and Robert Guillaume are the comic leads in Moe Steptee's all-black, Broadway-bound production of the classic musical, Guys and Dolls.

Sky Masterson and Sister Sarah Brown. Sky is a big time gambler, who comes to New York City looking for "action" and there meets Sister Sarah, who is a "Mission Doll" member of the local branch of the Salvation Army. Their attraction to each other is endangered at the outset by the incompatible nature of their lifestyles, but love wins out and they get married, with Sky becoming a member of the Salvation Army Band. Nathan and

alongside both the original cast and other all-black casts in plays such as "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope," "The Me Nobody Knows," "The Wiz," "Bubbling Brown Sugar," etc.

This Moe Septee production is scheduled to move on from Philadelphia to Washington and Detroit (in that order), opening on Broadway in September of this year. I expect it to have a long run on Broadway and to be heard from at Tony Awards time.

other, making games of humiliation ("We'll play a round of Get the Guests.") and grappling with the aimlessness of their lives.

Albee (who certainly should know how Virginia Woolf should be played) has directed in a manner that seems a reaction to or, better yet, revenge for Mike Nichols' grotesque 1966 film of the play, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Albee keeps an eye on the ridiculous underside of these four lives, and the play emerges as a veritable tragicomedy with more bellylaughs than one could imagine possible (though we are never allowed to lose sight of their desperation). Only the stilted lines. at the end (George: "It will be better." Martha: "I don't...know." "It will be... maybe." "I'm... not.... sure." "No." "Just... us?" and so on), dramatically weak to begin with, are played with selfconscious attempted profundity out of keeping with all that precedes them.

The performances he elicits are the jewels in Albee's crown, so to speak. Colleen Dewhurst is perhaps miscast, for the strength, intelligence, and stability she brings to every role she essays make Martha's delusions of motherhood function only on a symbolic, not a naturalistic, level. Yet her perfect timing, line reading, and emotions (not to mention her lusty laugh, so right for Martha, the selfproclaimed Earth Mother) make one wonder whether it is Dewhurst or Albee's melodramatic plot device that is out of place. She, at any rate, does make Martha a threedimensional character, the exact antithesis to Liz Taylor's hollow performance, the sole note of which was vengeful maliciousness.

Ben Gazzara has never been one of my favorite actors, (probably because I never had the chance to see him sink his teeth into a decent role). Thus, his portrayal of the embittered George was all the more devastating. His stinging words are brightly delivered, polished apples into which razorblades have been pressed.

Maureen Anderman is admirable as Honey. Her various reactions to the turmoil around her help flesh out the most sketchily-drawn character of the four. Only Richard Kelton's Nick unsatisfying. His is icy performance lacking humanity, for which his hard good. looks are far from sufficient compensation.

William Ritman's tidy living room setting fails to reflect the seedier aspects of the lives which have gathered there, struggling for air.

Virginia Woolf has gained notoriety in some cricles for presumably being about a gay relationship, an impression. strengthened by phrases such as (Continued on Page B16)

GAY NEWS May 1976 Page B11