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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1991)
Arts & Entertainment Nylons doo-wop way into Lincoln’s hearts By Steve Pearson Staff Reporter The Nylons brought their fast paced, high-energy show to an enthu siastic audience of 1,540 people at Pershing Municipal Auditorium Sat urday night. An a cappella vocal quartet from Toronto, Canada, the Nylons are a group in transition. Within the last two years, the group lost two of its original members. The specializers in ’50s and ’60s style doo-wop and original a cappella tunes with a more contemporary sound opened the show with three cuts — “Good Old A Cappella,” “Dream” and “Wildfire” — off their newly released live album “4 on the Floor.” The album was recorded before the recent death of founding member Marc Connors, making Saturday night the first chance most Nylons’ fans had to evaluate new member Billy Newton-Davis. That chance came early when Newton-Davis stepped to the micro phone to sing the lead on “Wildfire.” To the shock of those familiar with the song, he took the lead line an octave down. However, he displayed a rich, well-trained voice and proved that he has dance talent as well. Newton-Davis’ voice is so distinc tive that, at times throughout the evening, it did not seem to fit in the silky smooth fabric of The Nylons’ sound. Fans will hope that will im prove with time. The group performed a song writ ten by Newton-Davis, “Forever My Girl,” slated for release on their next album. With this composition, New ton-Davis ever so gently led the Ny lons into unexplored territory — the world of rhythm and blues. With a history as a R & B solo artist and a Broadway musical per former, Newton-Davis can contrib ute to the group as a composer and dancer, as well as holding up his part of the quartet. Arnold Robinson wowed the audi ence with his nearly four-octave range during an obligatory performance of “Chain Gang” and later during a Nylons’ original “I Count My Bless ings.” Other highlights included “Happy Together,” “When You Call My Name,” featuring Micah Barnes on lead, and Connors’ composition for environmental awareness, “Amazon.” Late in the evening, Claude Morri son acknowledged the death of found ing member Marc Connors. “He was the heart and soul of our group and our standard-bearer,” Morrison said. “We feel he’s here with us, except when he’s up there teaching the angels to sing a cap pella.” The Nylons sang “Grown Man Cry” —. ... . Robin Trimarchi/DN The Nylons sing for 1,540 people Saturday night at the Pershing Municipal Auditorium. The a cappella group is in transition after losing two of its original members. in tribute to Connors. “Eli’s Coming,” a song with obvi ous gospel influences, was the group’s closer, which was complete with dramatic lighting and smoke machine effects. The crowd was not ready for the show to end and a rowdy standing ovation brought the group back on stage for “Drift Away.” A large por tion of the crowd remained standing and danced throughout the encore. The Nylons left the stage again, and again the crowd demanded more, not about to let the Nylons leave without performing their Billboard Magazine Top 10 hit, “Kiss Him Goodbye.” The Nylons came back out played the familiar concert game of having the audience echo the performers. Actually, Micah Barnes pulled off this role with exceptional flair, and it was not as boorish as at most con certs. They then gave the audience what it wanted, a wide open, no holds barred rendition of “Kiss Him Goo dbye.” The Nylons’ performance was the first of the 1991-92 Lincoln Commu nity Concerts Association season. The four concert series continues Nov. 26 with the Eastern European music and dance of the Tamburilzans. Good directing, acting offset play’s poor script By Carter Van Pelt Staff Reporter__ Picture a future without dancing, singing or books. Imagine a world where the ozone layer is all but gone, rain is constant and history is forgotten. Picture a world where men and women don’t conceive their own children, and the black race is converted to drug-induced slavery. This is the future in Y. York’s “Rain, Some Fish, No Elephants” — UNL’s The atre & Dance’s first 1991 production. The play focuses on the family of a rebellious genetical engineer, Gene (Eric Thompson), as they defy the rules of their perfectly ordered society, a society in which people are genetically engineered to be perfect specimens. They live “perfect” lives until women reach the age of 50 and men reach the age of 60, when they self-destruct. Gene, a critical link in the government’s genetics program, has become fed up with what he has done and refuses to cooperate. Most disobedience is dealt with by “elimi nation,” but Gene is too important to the authorities to be disposed of. The critical difference between Gene’s family and others is that he and his wife Esther (Jaquie White) conceived their own children instead of allowing a genetically engineered zygote to be implanted in Es ther a result their vouncer daughter. Lisa Pythk/DN Emily (Daena Schweiger), has a defective foot that she must conceal to avoid “elimi nation.” The conflict in the story arises when Emily’s diabolical schoolmate, Julia (Jen nifer Voorhees), gives her servant, Blackie (Kevin Witcher), to Emily as a birthday present. Her actual intention is for Blackie to catch the family committing “elimina table” acts. Gene, however, replaces Blackie’s drugs with placebos, and Blackie abandons his mission as he begins to think for himself. Witcher turns in an excellent performance showing Blackie’s process of self-discov ery. The relationship between Blackie, Gene and Esther’s older daughter, June (Heather L. Flock), creates an interesting subplot. Yost’s vision of the future is disturbing and attention-getting, but obscure references to futuristic terms and ideas at times makes the play hard to follow. “Rain” also suffers from alack of linearity in plot development. It gets off to a slow start and ends too suddenly. Director Paul Sieger does good work despite the somewhat average script he has to work with. He makes excellent use of the set despite its seeming limitations (the whole play takes place in the same room of Gene’s house). Steger keeps the characters in mo tion and creates an interesting visual experi ence. The only major fault in this production is in the writing of the play itself. The acting is acceptable on the whole, with the perform ances of Witcher and Voorhees making for an enjoyable experience. “Rain, Some Fish, No Elephants” is showing at the Studio Theatre in the Temple Building at 12th and R streets. Perform ances are set for Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m._ Time-journey film mixes drama, humor “Late For Dinner” By Robert Richardson Senior Reporter Director W. D. Richter takes love, a much written about emotion, and stretches it above and beyond expectations by uniting the year 1962 with 1991 in “Late for Dinner.” In the film, love is coupled with surprise and understanding and motivates Willy Husband (Brian Wimmer) and Frank Lovegren (Peter Berg) after they the wake up from a 29-year medical experiment. In 1991, they both long for the love they felt back in 1962. During the first part of the movie, which occurs in the ’60s, unfortunate circumstances force Willy and Frank to leave their home and family in New Mexico. Willy’s troubles begin with the foreclosure on his house by Bob Freeman (Peter Gal " See DINNER on 10 I Science fiction, horror, fantasy blend in Twilight Zone By Michael Stock Senior Reporter WGN makes stepping into the twilight zone easy. The Chicago net work, channel 2 in Lincoln, airs an original “Twilight Zone” episode daily at 10 p.m. The program first reached televi sion audiences Oct. 2, 1959. “Twi light Zone” offered America an en tirely new system of thought that had lever been touched upon in tclevi iion and rarely covered in film. Dur ng its five-year run, the series would eaturc nearly every big name in film, ncluding auspicious actors, directors ind writers. Ultimately, though, the mastermind of the series was the man who created it: Rod Serling. The simple mention of Serling’s name immediately conjures images of time travel, enigmatic characters and other planets. All of these ideas were staples to the ingenious crea tions of Serling. Serling was no newcomer to tele vision when the “Twilight Zone” was first given life. Even Serling’s earlier television scripts were highly imagi native and entirely different from the typical television offering. He ap proached television as he would a dramatic art form. Serling was responsible for the creation of television scripts as early as 1951. His scripts were featured in such shows as “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” “Lux Video Theater," “Kraft Television Theater,” “Suspense," "Studio One" and “Playhouse 90.” Scripts for Serling’s programs provided a fresh change from the adolescent fare of “Superman,” “Captain Video” and “Colonel Flack.” His programs were successful both critically and commercially, giving him a sterling reputation for his crea tions. But Serling was not satisfied. Much of his creativity was^s tided by the commercial concerns of the programs’ administrators and spon sors. For one “Playhouse 90” epi sode, the Chrysler Building had to be painted out of New York skyline as seen through an office window be cause the Ford Motor Company spon sored the program. Likewise, in 1956, for one episode of “Studio One," which dealt with the U.S. Senate, producers would not let any of the senators discuss current issues. ‘To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to suggest control by the Demo crats,” Serling stated in an interview in the book “The Twilight Zone Companion” by Marc Scott Zicree. The program resulted in a portrayal of senators babbling about entirely unbelievable subjects. In 1957, Serling pulled a script from his files written shortly after he graduated from college. “The Time Element,” a fantastic tale of time travel, was quite different from any of his other scripts. Serling sent it to See FACES on 11
