Arts & Entertainment
Williams’ lasting ‘Menagerie’ at Kimball
By Scott Harrah
Senior Editor
When the late playwright Tennes
see Wil 1 jams’ “The Glass Menagerie’1
debuted on Broadway in the mid
1940s, it altered the course of theater
with its thematic realism, said an
Emmy award-winning director who
was a friend of the author.
George Kcathlcy, director of The
Missouri Repertory Theatre’s produc
tion of “Menagerie,” said in a phone
interview that the play is undeniably
Williams’ finest effort. His produc
tion will be performed tonight on the
Kimball Hall stage at 8 p.m.
Set in a tenement section of St.
Louis just before World War II, the;
semi-autobiographical story centers;
on the Wingfield family. Amanda, tho
overbearing mother, incessantly nags;
her two grown children, Tom and1
Laura, about doing something mean
ingful with their lives. The characters
all retreat into worlds of illusion to1
escape their bleak realities. Amanda
constantly reminisces about her days
as a grand Southern belle; Tom delves
into a world of poetry and movies as he
reviles his factory job; and Laura, who
is crippled, listens to records and col
lects glass animals.
Williams based the character of
Laura on his sister Rose, who was
mentally unstable and had a lobot
omy, Kcathley said.
Unlike Williams’ other plays,
Kcathley said, “Menagerie” wasn’t
predicated on melodrama. The play is
natural and the emotion never seems
strained, he said.
Kcathlcy said that because Wil
liams was a romantic writer, his plays
have the misfortune of seeming too
maudlin. The time element has some
thing to do with this, he explained.
“Romantic writing eventually be
comes melodramatic as it ages,” he
said.
He said the difference with “Me
nagerie” is the characters’ tragic
circumstances, which are timeless
and still have much meaning today.
“One of the strongest tests of bril
liance of the play (“Menagerie”) is it
works as good today as it did then (in
l
L . “--- ■ ^ - - uourleay ol Kimball Hall
Mark and Elizabeth Robbins in “The Glass Menagerie.
the ’40s),” he said.
He said that although critics lauded
“Menagerie,” Williamscrediled Lau
retlc Taylor’s portrayal of Amanda
with the play’s initial success.
But Williams’ imagery was the
true key to the play’s brilliance, he
said.
Poised on the balance of two ideals
— one romantically genteel, the other
mechanically stringent — the Wing
fields find it difficult to live in the real
world. Amanda tries desperately to
get Tom ahead by giving him business
advice, but he realizes he’s not cut out
for this society. When Laura fails at
business college, Amanda arranges
for a “gentleman caller’’ to visit her
daughter in hopes of marrying her off
to someone successful. But Laura is
too caught up in her fantasy world of
glass animals and is loo emotionally
precarious to deal with marriage.
As the characters realize that their
futures arc uncertain, they are unable
to face their lives with fortitude.
Kcathlcy said his production cap
tures the characters’ psyches and
Williams’ message, but it’s difficult
to do so consistently.
“It (‘Menagerie’) has to be differ
ent every time,” he said. “You have to
do it as if it’s never been done before.”
Keathley said he has worked on 10
different productions of “Menagerie,”
including the recent Broadway re
vival.
Although he has been involved
with the play so many times, he said he
never gets tired of it.
“ ‘The Glass Menagerie’ is one ol
the most beautiful plays of the 20th
century, regardless of the produc
tion,” he said.
-1
Dead by satellite and Guthrie to play FarmAid
By Mary Nell Westbrook
Staff Reporter
Arlo Guthrie has been signed at
the last minute to perform at Far*
mAid III, and The Grateful Dead
will perform at the concert via sat*
cl 1 lie. Bruce Hornsby and the
Range have canceled their per
formance in Saturday's benefit
concert.
No reason was given for the
Hornsby cancellation. Sometime
during the last hour of the show The
Grateful Dead will be broadcast
live from Madison Square Garden
in New York City. Two large TV
screens will be mounted on either
side of the $35,(XX) stage, which is
now completed, said Tim
O’Connor, executive director of
FarmAid.
“The Grateful Dead have been
in on FarmAid from the begin
ning,” he said. “This is their way of
trying to contribute.”
The Nebraska football team
squeezed onto the field with con
struction workers for practice
Wednesday because the practice
field was tex) wet from Tuesday
night’s rain, O’Connor said.
More last-minute cancellations
and additions are possible, offi
cials said.
Rumored appearances overshadow committed acts
By Charles Lleurance
Senior Editor
Last month rumors that U2 or
Bob Dylan might suddenly an
nounce their appearance at Far
m Aid III obscured the smaller acts
that joined up daily.
Lesser-knowns like the Ban
daloo Doctors and Lyle Lovett
sneaked in between Lou Reed and
John Mellcncamp, forcing local
newspaper people to dish through
press releases in consternation
trying to get a line on these myste
rious new names.
Culled from information
source . as varied as metropolitan
newspapers and library books, here
is a brief rundown of the more
obscure acts and their achieve
ments to date.
The Bandaloo Doctors featur
ing Bonnie Bramlelt:
Bonnie Bramlelt was one-half
of the late I960s-carly 1970s blues
funk duct Delaney and Bonnie,
who worked with such blues-rock
luminaries as Eric Clapton, J.J.
Calc, Leon Russell and Dave
Mason. I>hc and her husband, De
laney Bramlcll, loured with Blind
Faith and the Plastic Ono Band.
Bramlcll also worked, in
blackface and a wig, as one of Ike
Turner’s Ikettes during the late
60s.
Although Bramleu fell out of
the list of musical household
names during the ’70s, she made
headlines for a scuffle she and
Stephen Stills had in a Columbus,
Ohio, hotel bar with Elvis Cos
tel lo. Costello cal led Ray Charles a
“blind, ignorant nigger’’and Bram
lcll knocked him cold.
The new band, the Bandaloo
Doctors, promises to be a raw
edged bar-band blues/soul outfit.
The Cruzados:
The Cruzados arc basically a
reformed version of the East Los
Angeles punk/new wave band The
Plug/., who scored a series of local
underground hits during the L.A.
punk explosion of 1980-82. The
band had a strong Hispanic flavor
in their music that set them apart
from other skinheaded, nihilist
bands of that volatile scene like
Black Flag, Germs and the Circle
Jerks.
After playing around the L.A.
area for years, the Plugz finally
made it into national cull status by
appearing on the soundtrack of
Alex Cox’s independent film clas
sic “Repo Man.” The Plugz per
form most of the incidental music
on the soundtrack and turn in a
breakneck Spanish version of
Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent
Man” (“Hombrc Secrcto”).
Soon after this soundtrack was
released, the Cruzados emerged
and recorded a gorgeous album of
guitar pop that put them on Rolling
Stone magazine’s list of new
young bands to watch in 1985 along
with 10,000 Maniacs and Austin’s
Zei' ist.
Cruzados’ newest LP,
“After Dark,” is Mcllcncamp-in
flucnccd rootsv rock, with a de
emphasis on the ethnic elements
that made the debut LP so unique.
Lyle Lovett:
Lovett has been called the Tom
Waits of the “New Country Music”
(a category populated by the likes
of Dwighi Yoakam, Steve Earle
and the Lonesome Pines) because
of his literate, cerebral lyrics and
his slightly off-center musical ar
rangements. Along with Yoakam,
Lovett is considered the boy most
likely to make country music so
phisticated.
Gary Morris:
Gary Morris is a popular coun
try singer who has had hits with
“Headed for a Heartache” and
“Don’t Look Back” on the country
charts.
Recently he landed a lead role in
the Broadway adaptation of Victor
Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables.”
That show has been a steady sellout
since it opened in March.
John Princ:
Although he is occasionally
inconsistent on vinyl and his songs
from the early 1970s seem dated
today by hippie platitudes like
“Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You
Into Heaven Anymore,” Princ is
one of the few singcr/songwriters
alive who actually deserved the
often disreputable title of "the new
Dylan.”
His career has often paralleled
that of Dylan, going through a
straight folk period, a rock V roll
period and a country period before
simply blending these elements in
his current sound.
Princ’s gravelly tunelcssness as
a vocalist has also been compared
to Dylan.
Princ’s best compositions are
story songs that show a range of
narrative voices unmatched in
American music. ‘‘Angel From
Montgomery” relates the talc of an
old woman lamenting her lost
youth and lost dreams as well as
any prose writer could. It’s easy to
forget in the course of the song that
Princ is a man in his mid-3()s. The
sonc eventually became a minor
hit for Bonnie Raill.
Princ’s ‘‘Muhlenberg County”
has been performed by both Johnny
Cash and Kris JCristoffcrson.
The Unforgiven:
This Jason and the Scorchers
influcnced band boasts a bevy of
guitar players and a dress code
straight from a Clint Eastwood
spaghetti western.