CHICAGO

by Joe Parisi

Worst things first. The '50s are alive (if that's the word) and unwell at the. Inner Circle. In its latest reincarnation, cabaret-style, the IC has decor a half-cut above the ordinary. That is, high-quality plastic, singularly appropriate for its clientele of BPs (Boring People). The usual blaring sound, slide show (home-variety) and glitter do not relieve the ennui.

Larry Paulette, late of Let My People Come, arrived recently in sequined athletic jersey to show off his bare midriff and lack of talent. With a "style" as phony as his jewelry, he brayed several derivative songs, mostly '50s bubble gum and show tunes. In between he lisped tired gags and in-jokes. This mouse may roar, but he's in no position to be catty. In contrast, the ubiquitous Sam Hill Trio provided excellent accompani-

ment.

Impressionist Daphne Davis

because I'm doing Judy, Liza and Marilyn. I haven't done Marilyn for awhile."

Although he is ecstatic for the most part about the publicity he has received and its impact on his career, Stonn is occasionally hurt and distressed by what he considers rude or foolish questions.

"Sometimes a reporter will ask me, 'Are you gay?'

"I say, 'You're not interviewing my bed.'

"That's an insult to my work, not because I'm gay or not gay, but because I'm there to perform. It takes a lot of hard work and

Daphne

has also appeared at the IC and at Man's Country. Bette, Annette, Carmen, Tallulah, Joan, Esther, Mae, Marlene, Marilyn, et al, make "guest appearances" in a remarkable and rapid series of transformations. Davis brightens her brilliant verisimilitudes with

they're asking me, 'Are you gay?' which has nothing to do with my performance.

"If being gay was the question, then I wouldn't be judged by my performance, but by how many people I can screw."

Caleb's publicity has attracted new business for the revue at The Classic Cat. He is especially pleased that young people are coming in to see Garland.

"What I want people to see is Judy. I want them to come and see Liza. I try as hard as I can to do that. You have to love these people. You have to dedicate your whole life to them. I have to walk around the street without eyebrows, and that's embarrassing to me because I'm a boy and I feel very much like a boy.

"But the payoff comes when I go on stage.

"I don't ever in my life want to become a star. That is not my in-

Caleb & 'Judy'

Huck

sparkling, sometimes risque and often devastatingly cutting jokes about her famous subjects. Her recreations of Judy and Liza are startlingly close to the originals.

We've come to expect great things of Stuart Gordon and his Organic Theatre, and their cur-

terest. If I wanted to become a star, I wouldn't be doing Judy Garland or I wouldn't be doing Marilyn. I'd be doing Caleb."

The performances of stars Michael York and Glynis Johns in Ring Round The Moon at the Ahmanson are less than exciting.

Still, Joseph Hardy has staged an intermittently fun-filled romp through Christopher Fry's wordy adaptation of Jean Anouilh's farce. Though the Moon stars don't shine, there are glowing performances by an exceptional supporting cast that includes Kitty Winn, Rosemary Murphy, Kurt Kasznar, Keene Curtis, Penny Fuller, Paul Shenar, Anne Seymour, William Schallert and Joan. van Ark.

Anouilh's comedy about the early 20th century French elite is based on multiple plot, spectacle and an assortment of characters ranging from real to incredulous.

As identical twins Hugo and Frederic, York is minus the dynamism and excitement that marks the actor's screen efforts. He seems diluted, and the result is a most lackluster portrayal. Perhaps the most noteworthy contribution

theatre-in-the-semi-circle at the Leo Lerner on Beacon.

Brian Hickey as Huck plays the extremely demanding dual role of narrator and chief protagonist in this skillful translation of Twain's novel. Handsome and filled with boyish charm and awkwardness, Hickey captures and keeps attention from the moment he hesitantly walks on stage. The spittingimage of Twain's conception of Huck as the "natural man," Hickey's strenuous and carefully delineated modes of action and emotion are a marvel to behold. In neat counterpoint, Keith Szarabajka plays the novel-infected, citified Tom Sawyer and the

&'Ui' crude, raucuous Buck. As Huck's

rent production of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Parts I and II, does not disappoint. The Organic Theatre has had quite a career, and Huck is their supreme achievement. After some hard times and housing problems, it's great to see them in a handsome.

by the athletic star is the way he handles the quick exits and entrances of the two brothers.

Johns never really gets into character as Madame Desmermortes, Anouilh's aged, bored social matriarch who spews witticism from a wheelchair. Instead she relies completely on her own charms (which are considerable) to get her through the evening.

Winn, however, is perfection as Isabelle, a goose who knows she will never be a peacock-a modest, honest young woman. Hers is the only non-cartoon role in the show, yet her performance is more animated than the others.

Ring Round The Moon will be with us until May 10.

SELECTED SHORTS: Twotime oscar winner Glenda Jackson will star as Hedda Gabler in a new big screen version. Glenda on stage as Hedda just closed a sellout engagement here at the Huntington Hartford.

And it looks like SRO time again at the Hartford for Jim Dale's Scapino, Apr. 27 thru June

1.

It's going to be a treat to see Rudy Vallee and Robert Morse recreating their original Broadway roles in How To Succeed In Busi-

ness Without Really Trying. beginning May 13 at the Music Center Pavilion.

Gentlemen prefer Carol Channing, so she will be touring the Guber and Gross Music Fair theaters in Lorelei all summer. Next fall, charming Channing crosses the channel for an engagement at London's Drury Lane Theatre.

An extensive Hollywood trade paper campaign by Fay Spain for an Emmy nomination centered around her performance in the controversial "Flowers of Evil" episode of Police Woman, in which she played a stereotypical lesbian.

Paula Kelly and Danny Kaye have been signed for the upcoming Mia Farrow TVersion of Peter Pan with music by Anthony Newley and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.

Gladys Knight and The Pips, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Three Dog Night have been added to the summer lineup at the Universal Amphitheatre.

May 7, 1975

violent, drunken Pap, Jack Wallace turns in a virtuoso performance of rage, delirium tremens and sly cruelty. Even though he is a bit too young and slight for the part, Bruce Taylor's Jim works. well, particularly in the exuberant and deeply emotional scenes on the island and on the raft.

Weaker are the women's parts, the Widow Douglas/Rachel of Roberta Custer, and Carolyn Gordon's Miss Watson/Sophia, where excellent makeup is not enough. But this is a mere quibble, when you consider their capacity to differentiate several characters and provoke laughter.

Using a minimum of props and a maximum of expert mime, superlative lighting and moodevoking, understated music, the production dramatizes an amazing amount of Twain's epic. The most memorable incidents in the book come alive in this adaptation, and the action really moves.

Sad to say, the Goodman's current production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui doesn't make it. Not for want of trying. As usual, the production values rank high-a multi-purpose turntable and backdrop, several slide projections, fine costuming, lighting and music. The 26member cast struggles mightily but unequally with Brecht's long script of mishmash Shakespearean verse and theatrical thieves' argot. And that's the problemthe script. Written in 1941 as a parable of the nefarious rise of Hitler, it rambles on with increasingly tedious parallels between Hitler's gangsters and Chicago's racketeers or what Brecht supposed they were from watching movies like Little Caesar.

Allegory any allegory-soon palls. Here Brecht's basic seriousness and wrong-headed didacticism get in the way of his more humorous methods and finally sabotage the play's dramatic sense. Lest a point be missed, each episode comes with a slide or two or three to explain the historical references.

Opening night, several of the actors seemed just passable, although Kenneth Welsh as the comic-pathetic, slapstick-parodic Arturo makes the most of the material. At the final "curtain," Welsh removes his moustache and delivers Brecht's last heavy-handed message to beware that fascism. is still on the rise. For some reason, the audience loved this and the many facile allusions to local geography, the Merchandise Mart, Soleier Field and Bughouse Square.

THE ADVOCATE

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