4 V
Songwriter Hall
an artist's artist
Sometimes a person is just so good at what he does that
everybody can agree on that fact. Songwriters often go
publicly unrecognized because many other artists score with
their compositions, but they themselves don't ever quite hit it
as performers. So the best recognition a songwriter can get is
from his peers; the people who really know what he's working
against.
Last year Tom T. Hall was voted the Songwriter of the Year
by the Nashville Songwriters Association. If his new album
The Rhymer and other Five and Dimers (Mercury SRM 1-668)
is any indication, he's still rising. His performance is near the
top of the pole.
Side One opens with "Ravishing Ruby," a truck stop child
who, predictably, has poured a lot of hot coffee in her day.
Mariachi horns spice it up. "Don't Forget the Coffee, Billy
Joe" is about going to town in a snowstorm.
"Spokane Motel Blues" laments being in a motel when "I
should be someplace elselike in Atlanta drinking wine, wine
wine. ..like in Kentuckydrinking shine, shine, shine."
"Looking Forward to Seeing You Again," "I Flew Over Our
House Last Night" and "Another Town," although they
certainly are well-done songs, aren't especially outstanding.
Side Two opens with one of the album's better songs, 'Too
Many Do-Goods." In it, Tom T. complains that "we got too
bort becker
many do-goodsAnd not enough hard working menTood
many hands outAnd not enough lending a hand."
The side's fourth song is "Candy In the Window" and the
steel guitar just jerks those sobs right out of you. "You're
candy in the windowAnd I'm that ragged childWho came to
town to stare intoThat window for awhile."
The album ends up with "Old Five and Dimers Like Me."
Tom T. explains that an old five and dimer "is all I intended to
be" because "Good luck and fast bucksare too few and too
...far. betweenThere's Cadillac buyersand old five and d;mers
like me."
The best people in any endeavor should be admired simply
for being the best. Tom T. Hall is certainly one of the elite of
country music. A$ the last strains of the last song are fading
off the records he sums up the essence of county in a spoken
voice:
"You know, country people don't shine their boots very
often. ..And they don't shine other folks' boots either. Thank
you."
(blurbs
Chicano Awareness Days
will be held in the Nebraska
Union Thursday through
Sunday. Featured
entertainment will be Mariachis
at 5 p.m. Saturday and at 4
p.m. Sunday. Also the Fiesta
Cultura Mexicans will begin at
7 p.m. Saturday and at
p.m. Sunday.
1:30
Howell Theatre's final
production of the school year,
The Memorandum, will be
presented Tuesday through
Saturday.
-urn Mm-, .
MOD i
1((3(2 (LdlXPOK)
Ail records musi be returned
by Wednesday, r1ay 9 or
UnkersHf registration
nil! be cancelled.
Room 237, Nebraska Union,
1:30-4:00
File away The Memorandum
Review by Jim Gray
There are some plays that, no matter how
hard people try, are just bad. Even excellent
direction; beautiful functional sets; and
deliberate, insightful acting can't help some
plays.
Take, for instance, The Memorandum.
Howell TheatreVlast production this year
wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for a totally
inane, sloppy and trying script.
The production's acting is unusually
good. Steve Sheetz and Cindy Wallis give
delicate performances as the wormish
director and computer-brained deputy
director of a corporate subdivision beset
with progress pains.
Sheetz shows an interesting variety of
moods, all within a well-defined,
solidly-framed character. He is hindered in
his portrayal by the script's shallowness, but
does the most he can-an admirable struggle.
Likewise, Wallis shows amazing depth and
comprehension in a labyrinth character
obscured by plot. Her switches in character
are all well-marked and as motivated as
could be expected.
The minor characters, all blessed with
boring, trivial lines, somehow all manage to
come off with some expertise. Wes Divin,
Roger Johnson, William Mrkvicka and D.
Chetley Kincaid provide excellent
stereotyped background as technicians for
the immovable organization-all absurd, yet
hauntingly, fetchingly understandable.
Judy Zimmerman is astoundingly good as
the only semi-believable character in the
bunch. As the secretary who, moved by
emotion, bucks the system and finally
escapes the organization she manages to
.xlimb atop the pile of muck. Minor
characters Pat Bossard, Marcus Armstrong
and Rita Mines also manage some clever bits.
There are no major problems with the
technical part of the show. Nancy Myers'
brilliant set is, for the most part, well-lighted
and properly used. Costumes, sound and
coordination are adequate, if not sterling.
But all this excellence is for naught.
Vaclav Havel's script centers around a plan
to introduce an artificial scientific language,
Ptedepe, into business memorandums. In an
all-too-obvious attempt to be "relevant" and
make a "statement about society" it totally
ignores characters, plot, dialogue, action and
nearly every other dramatic necessity.
There are no truly interesting individual
scenes. The play begins, continues and ends
without a noticeable change-no climaxes,
no pacing. ..nothing. It drones on and on for
what seems to be centuries.
The play seems so unbearably long at
intermission that the audience is not sure
whether or not the play is already finished.
And it's a difficult haul to force oneself back
into a seat to sit through the second half of
the play.
At times, the play tried to be clever.
Instead, it comes up with every hackneyed,
trite comic device ever foisted upon a
vaudeville audience. And dramatic attempts
are even worse-most resembling the
out-takes of a bad soap opera.
With a script this bad, the performance
seems a total waste. After two hours and 15
minutes of this garbage, one seriously
wonders why he didn't stay home and write
that term paper. Entertainment it's not.
Somehow, it seems it might be better to
do an excellent play moderately well than a
terrible play extremely well. At least your
time wouldn't be wasted.
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X
page 6
daily nebraskan
monday, npril 30, 1973
