ENTERTAINMENT

NEAK

by E. Donnell Stoneman

The number of the faithful who are following Jessye Norman's concert career is noticeably increasing. At her recent annual New York recital, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall was practically filled, a surprising fact when you consider the infrequency of the soprano's appearances, the virtually non-existent promotion of her concerts and what appears to be her determined specialization, in this country at least, in Lieder.

Being black, she is invariably cast as Aida in most European opera managers' minds, but an occasional appearance in Wagnerian roles has proven her emotional and vocal suitability for the deeper, darker German sound.

I first heard Norman on a memorable July evening two summers ago at Caramoor. Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder" and two of Mahler's "Ruckert Songs" highlighted a ravishing program that remains fixed in my memory.

A year later, guest artist with the Los Angeles Symphony in Carnegie Hall, more Mahler, and still later at Lincoln Center there was the exquisite "Liederkreis" of Schumann, which unquestionably confirmed her preeminence in the field of German Lieder.

The Georgia-born, amply proportioned soprano makes her home in Germany, where she is a member of the Berlin Opera Company. Under exclusive contract with Phillips, she has recorded two Mozart operas and an album of Schubert and Mahler songs which reproduces to an amazing degree the special brand of magic she creates onstage.

With its founder, namesake and

creative force gone, the youthful Jose Limon Dance Company continues to offer an invaluable service to its younger audiences, and to the dance world at large, by presenting regular revivals of the late choreographer's earlier works. An example is The Traitor, premiered in 1954 and last given by the Limon troupe six years ago. The two male leads, though they are referred to simply as The Leader and The Traitor, are unmistakably Jesus and Judas. Set to Gunther Schuller's Symphony for Brass the Percussion, with the dancers costumed in stage versions of modern dress four decades past, and seen against an abstractly Italianate setting, the dance conveys a strong dramatic impact. As the Christ figure, Ryland Jordan projects an imposing dignity, and Clay Taliaferro is a properly passionate, eventually remorseful Judas.

In the revival of Anna Sokolow's tribute to Garcia Lorca (and also, incidentally, to the Mexican-born Limon), Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca, Taliaferro is electric in the middle solo. While on overhead spot illuminates the matador's fighting cape lying crumpled symbolically on the floor, another follows the dancer through the various feints and flourishes that make up the ritual of the corrida.

There are a dozen sections to Limon's setting of the lines from Chapter Three of the Book of Ecclesiastes, beginning with the words, "For everything there is a season..." and it presents the entire company at its exuberant best, both individually and collectively. They display a youthful vigor and a graceful charm which will go a long way in most eyes and minds. toward compensating for the absence of the magnetic force that was Limon.

The Manhattan Theatre Club on E. 73rd St. makes a point at certain intervals to revive worthwhile scripts. Their current choice is Charles Dyer's two-character, two-act play, Staircase, which had a run on Broadway seven or eight years ago with Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea as two middle-aged homosexuals who share a grubby

'Waterlilies'

London flat and, reluctantly, each other's lives.

In the MTC production, Michael Allinson, who took over for Rex Harrison in the original company of My Fair Lady and played it for several seasons, is Charlie. And John Clarkson, back from a recent tour of My Fat Friend, plays the turbaned Harry.

Some will complain, no doubt, that Staircase, with its sevenor eight-year-old, out-of-date attitude toward the pitiful plight of homosexuals, should be promptly and permanently relegated to the drama history shelf. But such a dismissal would be patently unfair, particularly to the Messrs. Allinson, Clarkson and their young director, Tom Bullard, who together have created a delightfully amusing, at times touching, situation wherein two frail examples of everyday society learn the painful lesson of interdependence.

Julie Bovasso's formidable talents of acting, directing and playwriting are well known to everyone. Her latest foray was excitingly evident when the Circle Repertory Company presented a brilliant production of her script, Down by the River Where Waterlilies are Disfigured Every Day.

John Lee Beatty's set, marvelously bizarre with dungeon-like walls studded with rows of raised human faces, was a perfect framework for director Marshall Oglesby's approach to this baroque fairy tale. And the even dozen of actors, a few of whom convincingly switched to a second role in alternate scenes, portrayed a melange of characters that defies any feckless attempt at homogenization. In addition to a delightfully Puckish dwarf, there were two daffy cleanup maids in pickaninny pigtails, a bumbling newspaper reporter, a parachutist who made a shattering entrance through the ceiling, a top-hatted, pot-bellied ballet dancer and his aging crinolined lovermother-rival.

The task of outlining the various plot mutations is as challenging as the chore of describing the various character mutants. Nevertheless, I'll try. The palace is un-

der seige by an army of children led by Pango, whose giant statue rises through two levels of Count Joseph's study. In the absence of the King and Queen, the Count is head of state assisted by his grinning sardonic aide and his dolllike dwarf.

In another part of the castle, the King and Queen, arguing incessantly over his diet of blackbird pies, prepare for flight. High in one corner of the set, watching the action through binoculars, Phoebe and Clement carry on over a 20year-old triangular love affair. The other man is either her former husband or present son. Or is he Clement's lover? Or his rival? Sexual identities switch as often as the lights fade with the final tableau a stunning reversal as Clement dons Phoebe's petticoats and she masquerades in his frock coat and

cane.

With Bovasso it is obviously meaningless to ask at the end of the evening what it all means. Her heavily brocaded fabric of fantasy covers a distorted dramaturgical skeleton. Scraps of fairy tales, Errol Flynn movies and soap operas are sifted through various levels of dehydrated Genet and Ionesco. The result is a theatre experience rich in reverberations that echo and re-echo through the mind days after the lights have come up on dull reality.

Julie Wilson's way with a Sondheim song or lyric is so fresh, so dynamic, that it provokes an instant, up-to-the-minute re-evaluation of the composer's unique talent. For her stint at Brothers & Sisters, she pulled out all the stops for a gutsy rendition of "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch" and "I'm Still Here." With the addition of a couple of sets of special lyrics to "That Old Black Magic" and "My Way, she kept the room

spinning.

York

twice

in

•

HOLY

by Christopher Stone

While others are making money from books about Judy Garland and pills-and booze-and her other assorted and seemingly endless personal traumas, Caleb Stonn, a 21-year-old Puerto Rican,. is recreating for audiences the magic that won THE STAR legions of adoring fans and made her a legend in her own time.

Stonn's impersonation of Garland in his pantomime act is uncanny, primarily because he bears an incredible physical resemblance to the star, even before makeup is applied. The gestures, movements, even the breathing pattern, are pure Garland.

Since the performer arrived in Hollywood last fall he has been transforming himself into Judy nightly; first in French Dressing. and now in a re-dressed version dubbed French '75.

The enormous amount of favorable publicity garnered by Caleb during these past months has made him an international celebrity.

"I never thought I would come to Hollywood and get this kind of publicity."

His media exposure has included newspapers, radio, television, fan magazines, wire service photos, you-name-it.

"It's become an international thing, and I'm quite surprised. I didn't think people cared that much about the act. I've put seven years into it, and I've always worked as hard as you see me work on the stage here. I'm always trying to find new things, new movements.

"Finally, when I got to L.A.. it really happened. There are new opportunities now."

Those opportunities include a local television series consisting of Judy's movies hosted by Caleb/ Garland. His costumes will be exact replicas of those worn by Judy in her films.

"L.A.'s the most wonderful place to try out anything. If the series is a success here, it will go national."

The first show will be aired in early June on Channel 13.

Also coming up is a CBS-TV special to be produced by John. Marshall.

"It's going to be a big challenge

Limon Dance

Page 26

THE ADVOCATE

May 7, 1975

'Moon'