Arts & Entertainment
ByUtoffMcMurtry *. •
f" *0 the worsts 4 stag*, the \
men and women merely players * \
—-William Shakespeare, IQ$$*
Uketf ■ • Y
Award-winning playwright :
Michael Frayn’s demanding farce*
wiihin-a-farce, “Noises Off’ is
both a comedy of theatrical errors,
and a character study on social
role-playing, letting the audience
in on the various inside jokes
shared by the practitioners of live
theater along the way.
The Nebraska Repertory
Theatre’s current production of
“Noises Off,” under the direction
of Robert Hall, is an imaginatively
winning affair, combining crack
ling gentle sarcasm with exacting
mis-timing and slapstick physical
comedy to create a tarce-within-a*
farce that prods the audience into
wondering just what is going on,
even as they’re laughing about it
“Noises Off” is about a small
time production company some
where in England trying to stage an
empty little sex farce appropri
iny titkd^Notlung On* At! of
“Noitettg On*is$etTnthe 3*ent*a '
comity home* and^Noises Oif* k 1
ttt 4mids$?$fothing On.”
II • Ihe play begins with the flral '?.
rehearsal* where an exasperated
director ifein Paul Hofeditz) Is
i desperately trying to iron out the 4
flow’s many last minute prob-1
lems. The maid, Mrs. Ciackett,
played by “Dotty Otley,” (played
by Nicola Sbeara) has problems
keeping props straight, whether
they’re sardines or a telephone
The plots thicken when executive
Roger Tramplemain, played by
“Garry Lejcune” (Eric Kramer),
brings his secretary, Vicki, a.k.a.
“Brooke Ashton,” (Julia Glander)
to what he thought was his boss’
vacant summer home. Instead, he
encounters Mrs. Ciackett (whom
Garry keeps referring to as Mrs.
Hackett, one of her previous
roles),
Moments later, Philip and
Flavia Brent, also “Frederick Fel
lowes” and “Belinda Blair,”
(David Landis and Susan
Oltmanns) come home to hide out
from the IRS, who’sonto their tax
scheme.
: None'of tHe characters warns 1
anyone to know they axe there, so is
'eventually the confused maid i
:::fgiveaiatmd,de$piiesixehai*^ ^
4 wandering through the rooms to T
4 the contrary, as far a$ she’s con- ff
earned, no one is there, -
4 By the time die second and f
third acts unleash themselves, we |
learn there is more character Jug
gling, sexual and otherwise, going
on offstage than on. Act Two is a
comic tour-de-force that barely
allows for breathing between
laughs.
Filling out the excellent cast is
William Rhea Morgan as the un
dependable souse “Selsdon Mow
bray,” as the Burglar, Cynthia
Totten as stage manager Poppy
Norton-Taylor and Steve Lewis as
all-around stage hand and under
study Tim Allgood.
“Noises Off” is written as a
very British production and while
the accents occasionally fadcabit,
and some of the terminology may
escape a viewer or two (though 1
think most of us rubes know what
a Water Closet is) the overall
quality level is impressive and it
See’NOISES OFF onn
i—l-l—mmmmmmmmmuL—jmumhhi
John Bruca/Oally Nobraakan
‘Bull Durham,’ ‘Roaer Rabbit’ top 6-month movie
Analysis by Geoff McMurtry
Senior Editor
To go along with last week’s best
album s of the first hal f ofl 988 list, the
Daily Nebraskan now turns its atten
tion to movies. As with that list, this
service isprovidedsomewhatforyou,
the reader, but even more so for those
films that would have been undeserv
edly forgotten by December, and the
critics that would have felt guilty and
ignorant about forgetting them.
Movies on the list must have been
released nationally from the begin
ning of January to the end of June, or
have reached Lincoln for the first time
during that era. This actually allows
enough leeway on either side to
choose from a half-year lasting about
eight months, but bickering over such
petty details never solved anything.
“Bull Durham” practically did
the impossible: it revived the sports
movie from Big Game clichedom.
This film took sports out of their tired
genre and proved it was possible to
make an imaginative and intelligent
movie with a little sports in it. Also, as
if there were any doubt before, Kevin
Costner is now a major star.
Like he did with tne first “Beverly
Hills Cop,” Martin Brest took the
“Midnight Run” standard action/
cop movie formula and pumped it so
full of action, plot twists, suspense
and humor that you forget it isn’t
some bold new revolution in cinema.
Every word Dennis Farina utters in
this film is startlingly funny, often just
for the sheer evil of it. After seeing it,
1 wanted to move to Las Vegas and
become a bail bondsman.
Robert Redford’s “Milagro
Beanfield War” turned a small ob
scurc land acquisition into an epic
battle of Good vs. Evil, Innocence vs.
Greed and the Lone Individual
against the Corrupt Corporate Sys
tem. Rich in endearing characters and
bathed in warmth, Redford got per
formances bordering on lovable from
everyone in the ensemble cast. Salsa
singer Ruben Blades still managed to
stand out.
With names like Steven Spielberg
and Disney Studios on the same mar
quee, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”
seemed like a can’t miss proposition,
and for the most part, it didn’t. De
spite a central character that was often
so insufferably cute as to annoy Susie
Smurf, the spectacle and splendor and
Bob Hoskins, were just too much to
turn down. Also, unforgettable was
Kathleen Turner’s uncredited vocal
performance as the animated tempt
ress. Hopefully, however, the success
of “Roger Rabbit’’ doesn’t inspire a
truckload of amateurishly slapped
together computer animated/live ac
tion cartoon shows and cereal com
mercials, but that’s probably wishful
thinking.
The remake of “D.O.A.” was an
intriguing suspense thriller, despite
the viewer knowing from the begin
ning that the hero is going to be part of
the past in two days. More than that,
however, it combined a rush of ’80s
technical gloss with a beautifully
photographed film noir atmosphere,
taken from the time period of the best
Hollywood B-movies, when the
original first appeared.
Director Steven Frears and writer
Hanif Kureishi’s second collabora
tion, “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid,”
is a hip, funny, flashy, frantically
paced explosion of ’80s postpunk
celluloid angst. In this film, London
really is burning, and while it is,
Sammy and Rosie, and nearly every
one else in the cast, are living up to the
title. Very politically pointed and
very technically shiny.
Bringing surrealism to America’s
movie screens was Tim Burton’s
“Beetlejuice.” With it’s bizarre situ
ations, wild sketches and sardonic
look at the afterlife, “Beetlejuice”
was about as strange as it can get
without lapsing into incoherence.
Penny Marshall’s “Big” was a
complete surprise. Treading peril
ously close to one of the tiredest, most
overused quagmires of cliches in
movies, “Big” showed itself to be a
sensitive, funny, imaginative and
m
thought-provoking movie, making
one wonder all over again why
“Freaky Friday,” “Like Father, Like
Son,” “Vice Versa,” ad nauseum
were ever made.
Dennis Hopper’s long awaited and
highly controversial “Colors” was a
painful disappointment, albeit an
engrossing one. Haskell Wexler’s
atmospheric cinematography, Hop
per’s intense direction and a strong
performance from Robert Duvall
overcome a reactionary, gratuitous
and basically empty script. An excit
ing, riveting film, but it pales in
comparison to an average episode of
“Hill Street Blues.”
Over the last couple of years,
Hollywood churned out an endless
stream of Vietnam memorabilia,
from gung-ho to goth-ridden, but
“Good Morning Vietnam” man
aged to separate itself from the pack.
The main difference here is that the
story was about the ordinary lives of
uprooted people who had to live there,
and not about the extraordinary lives
of men under a hail of bullets. Also,
“Good Morning Vietnam” had Robin
Williams. Sure, war sucks, but that
doesn’t mean it can’t be funny.
Honorable mention goes to “The
Unbearable Lightness of Being,”
“Frantic,” and “Hairspray.” Worst
movie of the year, so far, is “Casual
Sex,” a combination “CHiPs/Love
Boat”episode without motorcycles or
Charo.
‘Evita’ at the Orpheum this weekend
By William Rudolph
Staff Reporter
Thirty-six years after she died,
Evita Peron is coming to Omaha — in
spirit, at least — as Andrew Lloyd
Webber and Tim Rice’s popular rock
opera plays the Orpheum Theatre this
Friday and Saturday.
“Evita” chronicles the life of Eva
Peron, Argentina’s flamboyant first
lady of the early 1950s. The former
Eva Maria Duarte rose from poverty
and the scandal of illegitimacy in the
Pampas to scheme and charm her way
into the heart of her country as wife of
dictator Juan Peron. The young Eva
sexually blackmailed her way into the
entertainment world of 1930’s Bue
nos Aires, “the Paris of Latin Amer
ica,” to become a popular radio per
sonality and sometime film star
through one liason after another.
Eventually Eva met the up-and
coming presidential hopeful General
Juan Peron, who ushered in a Fascist
regime of descamisados, or “shirtless
ones” with “Evita,” or Little Eva, at
his side.
As the years passed, Evita knew
almost mass worship and idol-like
status as Santa Evita, savior of the
poor and the terror of the rich aristoc
racy who had originally scorned her.
Meanwhile, President Peron un
leashed a totalitarian regime upon
Argentina while embezzling thou
sands of pesetas from the treasury. At
the height of her popularity, Evita
suddenly succumbed to an early death
from cancer at age 33 that spawned a
legend embellished by the mysterious
disappearance of her elaborately pre
served corpse.
The musical enjoyed tremendous
popularity both in London’s West
End, where it recently closed after a
run since the late ’70s, and on Broad
way, where it helped launch the ca
reers of actors Patti LuPone and
Mandy Patinkin. Besides gamering
seven Tony awards, “Evita” pro
duced such worldwide hits as the song
“Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” and
other favorites, including “Another
Suitcase in Another Hall" and “I'd Be
Surprisingly Good for You.” “Evita”
can be considered a forerunner of
other Webber/Rice hit collaborations
such as “Cats” and the current smash
“The Phantom of the Opera.”
“Evita” opens at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5,
and continues at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Aug.
6 at the Orpheum Theatre in Omaha.
Tickets are available at $22,5>18 and
$15by calling TIX at(402)342-7107.