Arts & Entertainment
Courtesy of Paramount Picture*
Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino star in “Frankie & Johnny,” a love story from
director Gary Marshall.
Kiley Timperley/DN
The Flying Karamazov Brothers juggled and joked to the delight of the crowd at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts on Saturday night.
Troupe invigorates Lied crowd
Karamazov Brothers juggle, joke
By Bryan Peterson
Senior Editor
What began as a much-too-serious
crowd at the Lied Center Friday night
could not long contain its mirth as the
Flying Karamazov Brothers presented
their “Theater of the Air/' a show
combining juggling, theater, music
and humor.
The two-hour performance never
slowed as members of the troupe
worked together and individually to
present a steady stream of entertain
ment.
Led by the outbursts of more chil
dren than the Lied Center has likely
ever seen, a house full of somber,
three-piece-suit types soon became a
roaring, raucous crowd.
Even as they juggled, the Flying
Karamazov Brothers demonstrated
skills in many areas, supplementing
juggling with song and dance and
more.
They juggled while leaning, while
jumping up and down, and while
keeping up a constant barrage of jokes
and puns, both planned and impro
vised (and both good and bad).
Improvisation was taken to its fullest
in a portion of the show known as
“The Gamble,” in which Ivan Kar
amazov is given three tries to juggle
any three objects brought by mem
bers of the audience, provided they
weigh between an ounce and 10 pounds
and are no bigger than a bread box.
If successful, Ivan would be greeted
with a standing ovation; if not, he
would receive a pic in t^p face.
And pie it was, as the objects chosen
for Ivan to juggle by the audience
included a weighted shoebox, a plas
tic mannequin head and a strip of
flypaper.
It was the flypaper that got him.
However, Ivan’s pied face was soon
saved as the troupe returned to us
routine and dazzled the audience by
juggling all manner of objects.
The Brothers even made music as
they juggled, wearing adhesive drum
pads which sent radio signals to an
amplifier through a computer.
This portion of the show, too, was
taken to an extreme, as the Brothers
performed Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy’1
and beat themselves over their heads
while wearing helmets with the elec
tronic drum pads.
Technology was left behind as one
troupe member explained the simi
larities between music and juggling,
and the importance of rhythm to both.
He then spoke of “The Gamble” as
an exercise in emptying the mind,
lied this into Zen philosophy and
performed a karate kata or form.
The kata chosen, Bassai Dai, is
one not easily learned and not gener
ally taught until after a couple years’
See FLYING on 10
Pfeiffer gives emotional performance
Film tracks pleasant romance
“Frankie & Johnny”
By Anne Steyer
Staff Reporter
Being alone is not the same thing as being
lonely, but in the Paramount release “Frankie
& Johnny,” (Cooper) the title characters are
both.
Director Garry Marshall (“Pretty Woman”)
brings to the screen an adaptation of Terrence
McNally’s award-winning play, “Frankie and
Johnny in the Clair de Lune.”
Michelle Pfeiffer (“The Fabulous Baker
Boys”) is Frankie, a waitress in a New York
City diner and A1 Pacino (“The Godfather”)
plays Johnny, a short-order cook at the same
cafe. They meet there and Johnny’s relentless
pursuit of Frankie begins.
The film concentrates on their courtship,
although it takes the entire first half of the
movie before Frankie agrees to go out with
Johnny. The pursuit is made more compelling
by Frankie’s refusals, which grab the audi
ence’s interest in her.
Marshall addresses this interest by allowing
the characters to unfold separately, each in
their own environments, as well as at The
Apollo Cafe. This allows the audience to con
nect with each character, before cheering for
them as a couple.
Frankie lives alone in an extremely small
studio apartment, where a fold-out ironing board
serves as the only counter space. Through her
window, Frankie can see the lives of the neigh
bors, and through her reactions, we learn more
of her.
Johnny’s personality is more directly re
vealed, through his interactions with other
characters — primarily women. He doesn’t
like being alone and thinks he has found a
kindred spirit in Frankie.
Their personalities clash and grow to com
plement each other. Johnny is overbearing and
aggressive, Frankie scared and withdrawn.
Pacino is great as usual but the picture
belongs to Pfeiffer. She gives her most emo
tionally charged performance to date. Tears
aren’t needed to express Frankie’s emptiness.
The loneliness and pain arc conveyed through
Pfeiffer’s eyes.
The supporting cast is very good, providing
much of the humor of the film. The story is
well-written and thedialogucsnappy. Marshall
handles his characters very well, as he has in
past films likc“Prctty Woman”and “Beaches.”
The only real flaw is the film’s length.
“Frankie & Johnny” drags in a few places and
its resolution, conversely, is abrupt. “Frankie
& Johnny” isn ’l gourmet fare, but it is never the
less a love story that hits the spot.
Courtesy of Manedi Anders Artists Management
From left, Luba Edlina, Yuri Turovsky and Rostislav
Dubinsky make up the Borodin Trio.
Bleak memories inspire
music of Russian trio
By Andrea Christensen
Staff Reporter__
After years of being able to
express theiropinions only through
their music, the members of the
Borodin Trio now have the oppor
tunity to express themselves through
their words.
Not to say they aren’t commu
nicating through music, loo. At the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery on
Saturday night, the trio highlighted
the language of music.
“Here people come to a concert
to enjoy music,” said Rostilav
Dubinsky, violinist for the trio. “In
the Soviet Union people come to
learn something, to get a message.
“Since no one could speak freely
with words, they used a more subtle
form of communication, the lan
guage of music. This created a
special relationship which is not
possible in a normal democratic
society.”
Dubinsky performs in the trio
with his wife, pianist Luba Edlina,
and cellist Yul i Turovsky. All three
arc Russian emigres.
Each artist in the Borodin en
semble has grim memories of life
in the Soviet Union. Dubinsky
recalled that in the years prior to
See TRIO on 10
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