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Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, November 16, 1982
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Pat Benatar : Pipes, personality
By Pat Higgins
Yesterday the Royal Grove, today the world - that's
the Pat Benatar story. Just two years ago, on the brink of
worldwide fame and fortune, Benatar played the Grove.
Sunday night, she drew a crowd of more than 7,000 to
Lincoln's Pershing Auditorium. Actually, it's surprising
that she didn't fill the joint completely - must be the
economy.
She sure had a lot of hits, and she did them all in the
concert. Even someone who doesn't listen to the radio
Concert Review
much could recognize all these tunes. On the radio, she
stands out a bit from the competition, but in concert, her
stuff kind of plods along, yet is basically OK.
A silk cocoon the length of the stage, with lightning
bolts flashing through it, parted dramatically to reveal
Benatar and band. She wore black leather shorts, a
sweater and a leather jacket. The jacket was discarded fair
ly quickly, as she worked up a sweat running all over the
stage.
A real pro, Benatar worked the audience thoroughly.
Real polite, too, as she introduced about every song and
said what album it came from, as well as saying thanks all
the time. Politeness counts.
It was a well-groomed audience, too, plus lots of young
parents with their kids - a far cry from the Grove.
Benatar is a good singer, no doubt about that. She has
all kinds of range. She can belt it out or bring it down to a
whisper equally well. Her singing ability is what makes her
stand out from most FM rockers. She really has the pipes
and the personality, too, but her band was completely
faceless, although competent. Maybe they were holo
grams. Lots of synthesizer was used, which could show a
change of direction. Her husband, Neil Geraldo's guitar
style was derivative. There's nothing intrinstically wrong
with that, but it's better to steal from Chuck Berry than
from Robin Trower. Also, his guitar solos really put a
crimp in Benatar's dancing.
The mix of songs slightly favored ballads over mid
tempo rockers. The hits included everything that has
made Benatar a household name - everything from "Hit
Me With Your Best Shot" to "Fire and Ice" and "Fight
It Out." She opened with "Treat Me Right," which got
the crowd off immediately. Everybody seemed to know
all the words, even those off of her brand new record
"Get Nervous."
Using a shrewd marketing strategy, Benatar managed to
mention "Get Nervous" more than a few times. It sounds
like a Pat Benatar record should, no doubt. "We Live for
Love," with its Eurodisco Donna Summer danceability,
was the highlight of the night. "Fight It Out," about the
eighth hit single off the last record, brought a huge re
sponse - but then what didn't.
The final song of the night was "Hell is for Children," a
serious look at child abuse. Give Benatar extra credit for
having her heart in the right place. The song had an odd
response, as the whole crowd sang along. I didn't quite
understand.
Friday night, I ain't got nobody
It's Friday night. I can't believe it's Friday night
and here we sit, me and my TV. Where is everybody?
1 should have gotten home at 5. I've probably missed
a lot of phone calls. People calling to see what I'm
doing and what's going on. When you get home at
5:20 you miss all that.
Someone stole my cat. If she were here we could
rJl T. Marni Vos
do things, adjust her flea collar, lots of things, pet
her, stuff like that, you know?
Well, it's probably just as well. I need to do some
reading and writing and arithimctic. Well, at least the
reading and writing.
I could water my plants and watch the leaves un
curl. I could go and steal someone else's cat.
I could eat for a while. 1 could eat some chocolate
chips. I could dip them in peanut butter.
This could be a good opportunity to make a list
of the Christmas gifts I would buy if I had some
money. Maybe I should just start making some gifts.
Hot pads are always useful.
"Dallas" comes on at 9. J.R.'s and Bobby's true
colors are emerging as they fight for control of Ewing
Oil, and the family is having mixed emotions about
Miss Elite inviting a gentleman friend to dinner.
Maybe a move is what I need. If I see "E.T." again,
I will have spent an even $12, as opposed to an odd
$9. "Indecent Exposure" another another, but who
goes to movies like that? I don't mean go like that to
a movie. I mean, go to a movie like that, like "Indecent
Exposure." Who goes to those? That's what I mean.
Maybe I should start to unthaw the turkey.
If I had one of those home Atari TV game things,
I could do that fo a while.
Maybe my phone is out of order. I can make calls
out but no one can make calls in.
People who steal other people's animals are the
lowest. May Puff have a littler of eight.
A hot bath and a can of beer sound really good.
Of course, you run the risk of falling asleep and then
no more Friday nights. I can't imagine being found
dead in a bath tub, all naked and everything.
My laundry, now why didn't I think of that earlier.
I can go to Big Daddy's Laundromat, do my laundry
and still watch "Dallas."
Was that the phone? Must have been a car.
I could write lies in my diary.
Maybe I should call someone, just, just to sec how
they are, to see if they're home, to find out, if they're
not, where they are and why I wasn't invited.
"Hello, Nancy. Did you just call me? . . . Must have
been someone else. Well, so, what are you doing? . . .
Nothing? You shouldn't be home by yourself doing
nothing. You want to do something? You want to
come over here and eat? I got some turkey unthawing.
We could read my diary. Look for my cat. Want to
come over? I mean for Pete's sake, it's Friday night."
Couch potatoes share
a cold night, munchies
and TV philosophies
By Pat Higgins
"Well, Barney, it looks like a pleasant night to be a
couch potato. The wind chill is 20 below zero, but the
glow from the TV set should keep us warm. Give me a
look at the Focus. Get down, we've got 'Star Trek'
followed by 'The Magnificent Seven.' Let's have a cock
tail and play 'Name that "Star Trek." ' "
"Gee, Fred, I'm sorry I talked you into going to see
'It Came from Hollywood.' I really feel ripped off by
ifeB Review
it. But I figured it had to be good with Ackroyd, Gilda
and John Candy all in it."
Barney came rolling back from the fridge with a
pitcher of Old Style and Romilar, chuckling at his side
kick's gullibility.
"You're still such a sucker for those 'Saturday Night
Live' people. I don't even want to bring up those Chevy
Chase movies we went to see last year. The one with Benji
was real cute, and how about Gilda in the 'First Family'?
That was embarrassing to sit through."
Meanwhile, Dr. McCoy was going at it with Mr. Spock
about his funky physiology.
"Now this is good TV. A planet where the Roman
Empire never fell, that's almost up there with the time
they went to that Nazi planet and Kirk waled on 'em."
Barney and Fred toasted the glories of "Star Trek" and
all that it stood for.
"Back to those 'Saturday Night Live' alumni. Just what
is their problem? I bet it took them about 10 minutes
work to put 'It Came from Hollywood' together. You
gotta give 'em credit, because the idea sounds halfway
interesting string together clips from the worst sci-fi
and horror movies of the '50s and throw in some wiseacre
editorial comments."
"I hate to stun you there, Freddie boy, but just what
do you think that we're doing when we turn down the
sound and make up our own dialogue. That's about all
that they did in 'It Came from Hollywood.' You ought
to be able to expect a little more out of these people."
"I'm even starting to wonder about good old
'Saturday Night Live.' Was it really as good as we thought
it was or were we just that high? I mean I used to swear
by Ackroyd and Gilda and Candy. Now Johnny LaRue
on SCTV is up there in their league, too. Why do their
movies suck?"
"Because they went Hollywood. As hoary as that
easy for them now they don't have to try anymore. I'll
be content watching 'Saturday Night Live' reruns. But
after being burned by their movies so often, I refuse
to go to see them again. Well, except for Bill Murray -he's
still cool."
Due to their chronic unemployment, the cohorts
had hit the plasma center to get the precious bucks to
see the flick, so Barney was still steamed up about the
wasted money.
"You pay your three bucks and then what do you get?
Commercials for Stooges, and video games. Those video
games are really catching on they put Donkey Kong
in the back at church. It's a good place to kill time during
the sermon. But if I want to see commercials, I'll watch
Ted Turner. Steer clear from 'It Came from Hollywood.' "
It was time for "Kung Fu."
Star Ci
By C. Scott Thompson
There's a new attempt at a dinner
theater here in Lincoln. It's called the
Star City Dinner Theater. Tickets arc
tu Dinner Th
eater an expensive picnic
Theater
Review
$16 apiece, more than The Upstairs Din
ner Theater of The Firchousc in Omaha,
and in comparison, The Star City Dinner
Theater leaves a lot to be desired.
I'm not sure why the tickets arc so
expensive. I am sure that it's not because
of great food. Although catered by Alice's,
which normally has pretty good home
cooked fare, the dinner was less appealing
than airline food. The salad lacked color,
the rolls were decidedly stale and the
meat (your choice of turkey, barbecue
ribs or chicken) was cold by the time I
got to my table.
I'm also sure that the ticket price
isn't caused by the ambience. The dinner
theater is currently located in the Knights
of Columbus Hall at 60th and South
streets and has all the character of a bomb
shelter. The marginal efforts to spruce
up the place with plants and fakey trellises
were largely ineffectual. The plastic uten
sils and styrofoam plates motif was carried
through to the plastic tablecloths and
folding chairs, which were, incidentally,
extremely uncomfortable after four hours
of sitting.
That's the food and ambience, but
people go to dinner theaters to sec the
show more than anything else, right?
The show, "Finian's Rainbow," wasn't
much better. Although the company did
what they could to convert a meeting
lull into a theatric setting, it just didn't
work very well. First of all, actors and
actresses had to enter and exit through
doorways on cither side of the stage
apron. Lighting was basic at best and
varied little from the floodlight effect.
Costuming was especially bad. Although
a couple of characters had well-developed
costumes, most just had what looked
like street clothes. Also, it was impossible
to determine when, or where the action
of the play actually takes place. The pro
gram says it's Rainbow Valley, Missitucky,
which gives a vague notion of the South,
but the costuming looked like a mish
mash of Salvation Army specials, double
knit polyester and gunny sacks.
The company is not witliout talented
actors and actresses. Lois Naber, who
plays Finian'i daughter, is poised and lias
a nice voice, although the and Finian
continually slipped in and out of the
Irish brogue they were supposed to have.
William Stone III did a terrific job as
the town's villainous bureaucrat, and
Matt Egbert did a marvelous job as Or
the leprechaun.
But overall, the show just didn't hold
together very well and needed to be
edited (or a dinner-show format Part
of the problem was the script they those,
which was undeniably saccharine. There
were a couple good bits, but the whole
show resembled a mediocre high school
production.
The Star City Dinner Theater is ex
pensive for what you get. Ihe best part
was the prcshow number MLosjn End" bv
the very talented Jill Belie, who unforlu
nately was not In the main show Lincoln
could use a dinner theater, but Star City
has a long way to go. 3