monday, december 10, 1979
daily nebraskan
CMcsugo' sings' some songs about tine 20s
By Betsie Ammons
A brittle view of the decadent 1920s, complete with
loose morals, show girls and bootleg booze, was given in
Chicago, staged this weekend at Omaha's Orpheum
Theater. "
The production, presented by a traveling company
containing many of the original Broadway show's players,
was basically flawless but a bit hard-edged for this review
er's taste. . -
Vritten by Bob Fosse, with music by John Kander and
lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago is a series of vignettes telling
the stories of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, two showgirls
accused of murdering their men.
The show's resemblance to Cabaret is striking, but not
surprising, as Fosse is responsible for both plays.
But Chicago is lacking in the warmth and humanity in
Caberet. It is, instead, a hard-hitting, flashy picture of just
t how rotten life was in Chicago during that decade. Both
Roxie and Velma feel no remorse for the murders and
both are looking out for the same thing-themselves.
Despite the play's jaded view of life, the performers
were excellent. Kirsten Childs was a standout as Velma.
Childs was understudy for the original Velma, Chita
Rivera, on Broadway. Her energetic dancing and fine sing
ing added to the play's appeal.
Character players also were important in Chicago Jane
Judge as the jail matron and Donald L. Norris as Roxie 's
simple-minded husband Amos were especially good.
Norris did, a funny bit called "Mister Cellophane",
executing a soft-shoe in oversized clown footwear.
M. O'Haughey as Mary Sunshine gave the play an
element of mystery. Sporting a five-octave singing range,
no one guesses until the end that the "M", stands for
Michael. While his acting was fine and singing phenomon
al, it was disappointing not to be able to understand a
word he said.
The set, while simple in appearance, was complex be .
cause of its different lighting techniques. It was interesting
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to see the wiring of neon-like signs, such as one would see
on a television variety show, on an Omaha stage.
The costumes can best be described as bizarre. They
were not realistic but rather designed to give the viewer
the illusion of reality . Two toned leotards , body stockings
and flimsy robes were designed as tuxedos, and outfits for
the courtroom scenes and the dancers.
A talented chorus and dancers added to the overall
quality of the production. They kept the play's energy
level high at all times.
The play was presented by Dick Walter Attractions, an
Omaha-based booking agency responsible for bringing
high-quality entertainment both to the Orpheum Theater
and the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
Gill novel, 'Kiki,' reads like
television
movie
By Scott Kleager
At the end of John Gill's new novel, Kiki, is a short
piece about the author's life. Part of it reads: "Besides
novels he has written plays for American and French tele
vision." For good reason this bit of information is kept
from the reader until the end, following the last short
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chapter. Most readers will begin reading it as some sort of
of epilogue to the story and in bewilderment realize that
it's only about the author. But the attempts to hide it
only serve to further the fact that the novel reads like a
television movie.
The shocking, horror-like personality of the main
charater, Sarge; the mysterious ingredients of photo
graphic hide-and-seek style that keeps the reader (viewer?)
from the entire plot until well into the story; and the
intuitive feeling one gets when reading that somehow the
bad guy will get caught; all make this novel nearly second
rate. .
The author also gives so little view of the surroundings,
presumably because he writes through the eyes of a main
character who is familiar with the area, that not until near
the end of the book does one find out all this is happen
ing in Paris. One knows it's in France quite early but never
is Gill specific enough with his narration to allow the read
er to know that it's Paris he's talking about. So not only
are the specifics of the plot kept from the reader, but the
stylistic details of tone also are mostly hidden.
One reason why the plot is so sketchy may be that
(here's little plot to the novel. Basically this is it: Sarge,
the main character, loses his only daughter to an abortion
performed by someone who doesn't know what he's
doing. Sarge reads her diary and discovers it was one of his
friends, that made her pregnant, so he plans revenge. He
builds a prison in his basement, lures his friend, Peter, to
his house, drugs him and from then on keeps him in the
.soundproof basement jail for revenge. A policeman begins
snooping around his house. Sarge gets nervous, makes a'
couple of big mistakes and is caught.
The author has what one may consider to be a weak
metaphorical sense. This may be because on television
metaphors are conveyed by the camera. For instance, at
the start of the novel Saree looks up and to the west and
hears, . . the first thunderclap of the approaching
storm." It wouldn't be so bad had he said ."an approach
ing" instead of "the approaching". The story is full of
images that allude to problems that lie ahead for the main
character, images that are simply too obvious.
The only thing that (almost) saves the novel is the
twisted ending, although it seems too dramatic to be
enjoyable. In a way it ends as though the author wrote the
ending first and everything else leading up to if after that.
Nonetheless, the finish is shocking and the book is short;
So if you don't have a television but you vish you did,
read Kiki by John Gill. But try not to change the channel
before it's over.
'Sally ' rediscovers early roots of rock 'n ' roll
By Michael West
Perhaps the most fun thing about early rock n roll
'music was its accessibility to both the listener and the
musician. Without a lot of equipment or even a lot of
talent you could put a band together and actually. play it.
Recently, many musicians have been reaching back to
this older sound, not out of nostalgia, but in order to re
discover the musical roots of rock and the simple
pleasures of performing it. This, according to band mem
ien, is what the local group Sally is about.
"Popular rock has been pasteurized and homogenized,
said lead guitarist Vel Garnett, "We're trying to tap the
primal roots of rock prior to 1 968."
"Most of us (in the band) don't have any great
ambitions of going anywhere in music," he said.'We're
just having a good time and doing what we like."
Along with Garnett on lead guitar, Sally features Terry
Wood on drums, Mike Johnson on bass, Deb Stephens on
vocals, Donna Arnold on percussion, and Bob Davis on
rhythm guitar. The band, with its present personnel, has
been together about three weeks.
In its performance last weekend at the Mountains
(formerly Elsie's Tap), Sally displayed a high level of
showmanship and a tightness of style that promises to get
"better with age. The material was varied, spanning a
decade or two, ranging from "Jail House Rock" to Take
Me to the River." It was apparent that the band was pick
ing what was playable and what they wanted to play, re
gardless of popular trends. The product was danceable and
a refreshing change of pace.
Though the band itself is new to the music scene, most
of its members aren't. Bob Davis, for instance, was a
guitarist for Buddy Miles when Miles was still in Omaha.
Garnett, Johnson and Wood all have several years of
performing experience and it shows. The instrumental
sound of the band at this point speaks of four individual
talents waiting to merge .
fM !! als weie 6C!od b.ut not the band's stron8t
feature. This may have been because of acoustics and mix
ing. Nevertheless, the band shows good potential in this
area. Mike Johnson and Deb Stephens sang particularly
well on some numbers. F '
na Ti"6?8 Sidj!ight h meanin8 of the band's
fo nf h.rdin,8 tCJ,GarI' had i "rind the verb
xi&ta'"11 to move forth frm 3
