•?:
—
— m. a**-— _
Mark Baldridge
Fall shows
predictable,
unoriginal
Well the new fall programs, touted
for months in advance, are just begin
ning to trickle in.
The Fox network beat the “big
three” to the punch Monday night ‘
with a flurry of back-to-back half
hours.
“Partners,” at 8, delivers a glanc
ing blow with a high-profile Jon Cryer
as Bob — half of a San Francisco
architectural “partner”-ship with Owen
(Tate Donovan).
Everyone who has seen the ads
knows the premise.
Bob and Owen are best friends.
Then Owen gets engaged to Alicia
(Maria Pitillo, “Natural Bom Kill
ers”), putting a strain on everyone.
Think of it as a Platonic love triangle
and you’ve got the idea.
Bob and Owen have known each
other forever—and the humor of the
show relies heavily on their cute “in
jokes” — which will have to be re
invented every week unless the writ
ers hit on something so miraculously
catchy it actually catches on in the
viewership at large.
Two zany best friends and the cute
blonde — sound familiar?
Except that it isn’t.
The Fox bigwigs thought, nodoubt,
that having one of the best friends
sleep with the cute blonde would make
a difference.
And maybe it does. But not, I think,
in the way they had hoped.
One problem is that the only TV
people that consistently “get some”
are the pretty ones. This is a hard and
fast rule of TV marketing wisdom and
not to be questioned.
So one of the zany friends (Owen)
has to be pretty. And being pretty
means nothing if you’re not cool.
So Owen was made cool. And they
got a pretty cool guy to play him, too.
Problem is, he’s just not zany any
' more.
This leaves the frenetic Bob to carry
the show — and it’s obvious he’s
doing the work of two here. The writ
ers love him. They just don’t know
what to do with either the phlegmatic
Owen or the spunky Alicia. Not yet,
anyway. '
Prediction: Partnership dissolves. .
“Ned and Stacy” at 8:30 revolves
around a far more traditional premise
— how many TV shows feature Pla
tonic boy/girl roomies? Must number
in the hundreds. *
For some reason it occurred to the
producers to put them in a marriage of
convenience this time around, and that,
coupled with the generally poor writ
ing, will probably doom the show.
Too bad, too. Thomas Hayden
Church (“Wings”) is really excellent
as Ned — a kind of Alex Keaton all
grownup.
His timing and delivery are origi
nal and engaging.
And.Diana Abandando almost
overcomes her appallingly shallow
dialogue.
Prediction: Will not outlast “Part
ners.” Pity.
The Glassy Eye is a weekly column
deconstructing television for entertain
ment purposes. Send ideas or sugges
tiojns to Mark Baldridge, do the Daily
Nebraskan.
Courtesy of the Lied Center
STOMP cast members, clockwise from left, Luke Cresswell, Carl
Smith, Fiona Wilkes and Theseus Gerard.
' ^ - \UtJ la -n..,I'/ti "HS
Percussion troupe sweeps into Lied
By Paula Lavigne__
Senior Reporter
With their brooms, buckets and bandages, the
STOMP cast may look like a Lied Center janito
rial staff gone wild when they perform in Lincoln
Thursday and Friday nights.
The traveling troupe of 11 performers uses
dustbins, wood crates, plastic bags, boots, hub
caps—basically everything, including, at times,
the kitchen sink.
Their musical instruments don’t come from
velvet-lined cases. They come front cluttered
garages, basements and tool sheds.
The bottom line—they make music.
But it’s not traditional music. STOMP has an
experimental sound all its own.
And it s a sound that turned a 19-year-old
student actor at New York University into a
Broadway “STOMPer.”
Ameenah Kaplan, now 21, was a member of
STOMP’s first American cast. The original cast
and creators are from London.
Kaplan, who was studying experimental the
ater, saw a flier asking for “drummers who liked
to jump around and dancers who liked to beat on
things.”
'Hie concept fit with her experimental mind
set, she said, because STOMP affects people on
a different level than traditional theater.
“It strips away a lot of things that are put on
“You can pick up the bucket
and play it in your hand, or
you can play it like a Congo. ”
AMEENAH KAPLAN
Member of original American STOMP cast
••
traditional theater now,” she said. “It breaks it
down intorudimentary orprimary elements, which
appeal to people who were used to a theater
where things were soelaborate and ‘showcasey. ’”
When STOMP landed on Broadway, she said,
it ushered in a refreshing change to the competing
“Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.” *
“In STOMP you’ve got eight people walking
onto the stage with no makeup, dirty as all, and
j ust with a broom,’’.she said. “That really taps into
a basic sense in people.”
When the performers first take the stage, it
may seem like everything is spontaneous and
unplanned, she said, but hours of planned re
hearsal will show through.
In some cases, though, performers are free to
' respond to the rhythm however they wish, she
said, and the rhythm makers are free to throw a
curve ball or two at the dancers.
The performers can respond with ease, she
said, because they’re chosen for their multiple
talents. Dancers are expected to be drummers,
and drummers are expected to be dancers.
As a drummer, Kaplan said, she has her favor
ite instruments, including a pail with rivets on the
side that sounds like a snare drum.
“You can pick up the bucket and play it in your
hand, or you can play it like a congo,” she said.
The performers also have “skirts” made out of
- bottomless big tubs strapped around the waist,
she said, which make “beautiful bass sounds.”
Although the performers have a myriad of
objects, not just anything is thrown into the pot.
Instruments are tested on a trial-and-error basis,
Kaplan said, and some of them fail.
sometimes we get a sign tnat sounded just
great when we first hit it,” she said, “but after the
first show it’s dented so much it makes just a dull
sound.”
The Lincoln show will be Kaplan’s first time
on tour. She was with the New York cast since
1994.
Along with its Broadway run, STOMP has
been seen on the “Late Show with David
Lettermart,” “Good Morning America,” “Date
line NBC,” “Live! With Regis and Kathy Lee,”
and in Coca-Cola commercials.
STOMP runs Thursday and Friday at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts. Show time both
nights is 8, and tickets are $26, $22 and $18 and
half-price for students.