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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1993)
, Daily Nebraskan Thursday* •mptambt t, 1 Aets®En TAINMENT f Little Red’ writer aims for winning season NU football play kicks off at Joyo By Paula Lavigne Staff Reporter__ Not all football plays happen on the field. In “Little Red” the action takes place on stage. “Little Red” is an original musical comedy written and composed by UNL graduate Jim Fields. Bridget Wiley directed and choreo graphed the play, which is Fields’ first full length musical production. The play chronicles the early days of Ne braska football, mixing fact and fiction, Fields said. The play examines the season of 1912, as the Comhuskers, under Coach “Jumbo” Stiehm, devise a strategy for their first game against Oklahoma. Fred Evans, a red-haired and short “clover kicker” dubbed “Little Red,” desperately wants to impress his girlfriend and decides to try out for the team. He ends up an eager benchwarmer. When Oklahoma discovers the advantages of cheating things get pretty interesting. Fields said. The Oklahoma team drugs Nebraska’s star quarterback with Peyote-laced candy, steals the Huskers’ game plans and sabotages the locker rooms. “Little Red” is the Husker’s only hope. Coach Steihm tells him he must “go out there a benchwarmer and come back an All American Quarterback.” While the storyline for “Little Red" was Fields’ fictional creation, the play does have soflW'hwfs in reality, ho said. Most of the football statistics and players are real, but everything else came from his imagi nation. “There’s no proof that Oklahoma drugged the quarterback, stole the game plans or sabo taged «ie locker rooms,” Fields said with a laugh. • . _ However, “Little Red” did originate from historical facts, Fields said. He was looking through a book of Nebraska Julia Mikotajcik /DN Mika Tourek, canter, plays Nebraska Football coach “Jumbo” Steihm In the play “Little Red.” The play, which chronicles the early days of Husker football, opens at 7:30 tonight at the the Joyo. history when the idea first struck him. He said he was able to locate several early issues of the Daily Nebraskan to assist him in nis research of the era. ‘Then, my imagination just ran away with me," he said. .. Fields described the play as ‘‘kind of like those old college musicals. It's silent movies meet vaudeville meets melodrama meets musi cal. It’s a meeting of a marching band and Gilbert and Sullivan.” The debut of‘%ittle Red” at Omaha’s Circle Theater in February went incredibly well,Fields said. He said be hopes “l,ittic Red1* wttt Tare even better in Lincoln. The Circle Theater, which is a converted diner, didn’t have much room for the produc tion, he said. In Lincoln the play will be performed at the Joyo Theater, 6102 Havelock. Fields said the larger space would allow for better sets, includ ing a painted football field, and room to enact actual football plays. Slides of actual game photographs will be projected on the theater’s SO foot screen, he nor ^ “Little Red” also will feature a larger cast for its Lincoln productions. “We’re hoping it will be bigger, more elab orate,” Fields said. “Little Red” debuts at the Joyo tonight at 7:30 p.m. The show continues through Oct. 3, with performances on Thursdays, Fridays and Satuidays. Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m., except Sept. 12, which has a 7:30 p.m. perfor mance only. Gyrus rides wave of triumph into Lincoln for Saturday show By Jill O’Brien Senor Report* Billy Ray Cyrus has come a long way since being an embarrassed boy ridiculed by class mates for his big eyes and ears that stuck out. Now he’s one of country’s hottest superstars. His de but album broke country sales records with more than 9 million copies sold in 12 months. Touring in support of his second album, “It Won’t Be the Last,” Cyrus >s scheduled to play the Nebraska S tate Fair at the Blob Devaney Sports Center Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Being on the road is nothing new for the singer. Cyrus has traveled many paths since his quiet childhood in Flatwoods, Ky. His dream as a child was to be a baseball star like Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench. At age 20, he said, his dreams changed. He heard an “inner voice” during a Neil Diamond concert. The voice instructed him to give up base ball ^and buy a guitar. Cyrus, raised (m religion and blue grass, said he never doubted tire voice or the vision. The day after the revelation, he formed his band, Sly Dog, and was soon playing nightclubs in Ohio, Ken tucky and West Virginia. In search of a record deal, he moved to Los Angeles, where he picked up a bit of studio experience and played with a group called The Breeze. Eventually he left L.A., bound for Nashville. Mercury Records decided to gam ble on Cyrus and his charismatic per sonality, his hunky charm and his oversized biceps. Mercury launched Cyrus’ career with “Achy Breaky Heart” and a num ber of dance contests. Women ^^5oRouSyKrc!I^eS!5s Billy Ray Cyrus screamed hysterically when the ponytailed Cyrus walked onstage m his form-fitting Levis and tank tops. His dance maneuvers even con vinced tabloid reporters that he once was a Chippendale — a rumor he vehemently denies. He doesn’t, however, deny he has a wild streak in him. “I gufcss I’ve always had two very different personalities,” Cyrus said. “When I’m doing my thing and I get my show going and become one with the crowd, that’s the one spot where I’m really happy.” He may be happy about ms suc cess, but some of his country-western peers claim his fast fame came from looks ami not talent. Singer Travis Tritt called him a “butt-wiggling flash in the pan ... a one-album wonder.” But Cyrus, who has won the admi ration of Johnny Cash and Dolly Par ton, remains undaunted. He said he challenged critics to stick around and listen to his newest release, then see if they still thought he was a “one-al bum wonder.” The album, like his last record, draws much inspiration from his di vorce. He said he called home and found his voice had been erased from the answering machine. The realization prompted him to write the lyrics for the chorus on the title track of “It Won’t Be the Last.” “(Now) it’s the first time that 1 call our home/To find out it’s not mine/ It’s the first time I reach out for you/ But you* re not there to find.../It’s the first time that you broke my heart/it won’t be the last.” Another Cyrus song, “Ain’t Your Dog No More,” written by Don Von Tress, reflects the spirit and humor of the hit single “Achy Breaky Heart.” This new track incorporates a healthy dose of hard rockin’ blues — an ex ample of the music that prompts crit ics to accuse Cyrus of breaking coun try traditions. But Cyrus, who keeps singing, sell ing records and touring non-stop, has begun to create traditions of his own. ?The music is Billy Ray Cyrus,” he said. Novel traces annoying lush through pointless, boring misadventures Jeff Putnam “Bottoms Up" Baskerville Jeff Putnam’s new novel “Bot toms Up” is the plotless tale of a drunken womanizer named Gor don Bancroft who wanders through life as a part-time worker and full time alcoholic. Bancroft survives by mooching off friends and the myriad of wom en he has relationships with. Not unintelligent, but always drunk and unsanitary, he somehow manages to keep at least seven women in love with him during all points in the novel. He feels no guilt about these relationships or about living off of others. His self-centered personal ity gets very tiring as the book drags on. “Before she could imagine her self with someone else I’d have to die or leave the country. “It was sad,” says Bancroft. Yes, it was. Occasionally hu morous, Bancroft is more often annoying and repulsive. He begs, borrows and steals money from his friends to feed his drinking habits. He can't get past one episode in his life without tip ping Sack a bottle or throwing up from too much drink. “I bragged that I was drinking • next to nothing, but the truth was 1 had stashes all over the chateau (so that I wouldn’t have to carry it with me) and I was always half in the bag." He finally manages to dry him self out at the end of the book and holds on to a job for longer than a week, but he still doesn't manage to make much progress—and nei ther does the novel. Bancroft cannot handle sobriety for too long. Feeling himself be coming a part of society and actu ally taking care of himself, instead of leeching off of others, he gets scared and retreats back to alcohol. Putnam may be trying to show the evils of alcohol ana where a lifelong devotion to it can lead. Or he might be attempting to describe the hopeless view that many people in our society have. Either way, his writing style and story line bottoms out w7‘Bottoms Up. —Joel Strauch