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
