4
Friday, September 26, 1975
University Dally Kansan
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Woody Allen's 'Feathers' flying high
By WARD HARKAVY Contribution Writer
WITHOUT FEATHERS. By Woody Allen, New York: Random House, 1975.
"Hope is the thing with feathers. . . ." —Emily Dickinson.
If hope is the thing with feathers, it naturally follows that Woody Allen will entitle his second book "Without Feathers." No other comic is so insecure and despairing.
May a plague strike those who overanalyze and dissect, and often destroy, humor. Woody O'Reilly are not meant to be subjected to a rigorous examination of technique and philosophy.
OF COURSE, THATN'T means that Allen doesn't touch on people's foibles and follies; most great humorists do just that. The neuroses of a scrawny, homely, upright New Yorker, like Woody Allen perfectly) are the foundations of his humor.
He pokes fun at intellectuals, without himself being anti-intellectual. he parodies intellectuals by thinking without being pretentious at all.
Simply put, what he does best is to be funny. His humor is definitely oral: "Without Feathers" is a collection of one-liners in story form, just as his movies are.
THE FUNNIEST PIECE in
"Without Feathers" is the short story "The Whore of Mensa," which is about a prostitution ring that offers intellectual, mental training. In It, Allen unmercifully fails away at intellectual pomposity.
"Shall we begin?" I said, motioning her to the couch.
The protagonist, private eye Kaiser Lupowitz, agrees to expose these intellectual callers and up an appointment for himself.
"... I let her go on. She was barely 19 years old, but already she had developed the hardened facility of the pseudo-intellectual. She rattled off her ideas glibly, but it was all mechanical. Whenever I offered an insight, she faked a son to give me a baby, that's deep. A platoic comprehension of Christianity—why didn't I see it before?"
" 'INTERSTINGLY, HOWEVER, not in a Millionian sense,' I was blushing. I wanted to see if she'd go for it.
After Lupowitz exposed the ring, he commiserated with the fallen woman:
"It all poured out—the whole story, Central Park West upbringing, Socialist summer camps, Brandels. She was every dame you saw waiting in the Eiffel Tower or penilicious the words. Very true" into the margin of some book on Kant . . .
Pretentious folly is one of Allen's themes and another is despair—about everything. An example:
"TODAY I SAW A red- and yellow sunset and thought, How insignificant I am! Of course, I thought that yesterday, too, and I missed the sunshine of self-loathing and contemplated suicide again—this time by
inhaling next to an insurance salesman."
His philosophical insights run like this:
"Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food; frequently there must be a beverage."
Most of "Without Feathers" comprises stories reprinted by the magazine long known for its brilliant contributors. Woody Allen is another of those contributors; he is a comic genius.
Summary Comments
MANDRILL-By Richard Gardner. Pocket: $1.95. A science fiction job that offers a challenge to the theory of evolution, as 21st century students being studied by a giant mankind of a thing that holds the secret of man's beginnings. Wow.
THE SILVER BEARS—By Paul E.尔德, Focket. $1.95. A book about making a huge impact on people in California to Italy to Iran. A group of American Mafiofo buys a Swiss bank and set out on a wild caper, which—of course, he will be a movie one of these days.
THE END OF THE AFFAIR
AND ORIENT EXPRESS—By
Graham Greene. Pocket: $1.95
each. The two sides of Graham
Greene are demonstrated in
these. The first is his painful
story of adultery, sin, hate and religion; the second one is of his early-ayed entertainments, a man who became the famous European trainer.
DANCE BACK THE BUFFALO- By Milton Lott. Pocket: $1.75. A fine historical novel about the Sioux, the Ghost Dance and the eventual knee. Critics called the book aboobing, compassionate, colorful and authentic.
JUDY GARLAND—By Anne Edwards. Pocket: $1.95. The inside story of one of the most important business history. From the days when Judy was Louis Mayer's pet at MGM through the breakdown, suicide attempts and marriage, the story is told.
Lyric's polish dissolves opera snobbery
Bibliophile
By JAMES SEAVER
Professor of History
Last Saturday, Sept. 20, the Kansas City Lyric Theater, now in its 18th season of operation, staged its first world premiere of an opera.-Jack Beeson's Jinks of the Horse Marines."
The prima dona of the premiere was Carol Wilcox, the beautiful and talented University of Kansas graduate who has sung at the world-famous concert roles and with opera companies in Washington, D.C., Houston, Portland, and Pittsburgh.
She's one of a number of young singers who have played in opera at the U.S.'s School of Fine Arts have gone on to fame and fortune in the operatic world. Others in a very incomplete book by David Holloway, Cynthia Brown Munzer and Patricia Wise.
THE LYRIC THEATER is only one of a number of local opera theaters which have sprung up recently all over the United States as America becomes more and more opera conscious. The era of the ex-works of the Metropolitan Opera is definitely over. With its combination of music, drama, and spectacle, opera is really mass entertainment, and exposure of new millions of people to opera via TV, radio broadcasts, and the LP phonograph record is increasing the number of opera theaters in the Kansas State very rapidly, especially in the past two decades—the decades of the Kansas City Lyric Theater.
THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera performances started in 1925, and there are an impressive number of opera devotees, and the TV appearances of Beverly Sills, a very warm and appealing person as well as a performer. These two have helped to popularize and demystify opera.
The leads in the operas should be taken by members of the resident company, not by imported "stars." Thus the company had been working over years, manufactured its own "stars" from artists who have built their repertoire by performing in the Lyric
The Kansas City Lyric Opera was founded by a group of music lovers in Kansas City in the first production of Verdí's "Oelló" on the tiny stage of the Rockhill Theater. Although the staging was rudimentary then, the musical direction of Russell Snyder was more dramatic some of the singing was extraordinary. Mr. Patterson is still today, as he was then, general manager of the company director. He is recognized nationally as a leader in the field of opera and represents Kansas City on various national committees and advisory bodies well within national Endowment for the Arts.
FROM THE BEGINNING,
the Lyric Theater has operated
on the basis of some fundamental assumptions which
are based on three headings: first, opera
should be fun and the words and
plot of the play with music
should be understandable;
second, to achieve that goal, all
operas should be performed in
Lyric Theatre; third, the Lyric
Theater should be a resident,
Kansas City, company.
Theater—and one of these stars is KU's own Carol Wilcox, who has appeared with the comedy group *Kevin Lewis*'s press, for a number of years.
IN 1973 THE LYric budget was more than a quarter of a million dollars. One-third of this is taken in at the box office. The other half is tax-deductible contributions from individuals and business firms, and the final three comes from foundation and government grants, such as from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri State Council and the Ford Foundation.
At present the Lyric has more than 1,200 season ticket holders.
evening meetings, one on each of the Lyric productions.
MR. PATTERSON has been most complimentary of the work he did for the city and its contribution, and we have heard that the Lawrence guild, at least in 1974, was if not forgotten by the older Kansas City Guild.
It's a great opportunity for those in Lawrence who are infected by the almost incurable virus of opera to get together socially, listen to operatic music, and discuss some of the challenges facing who Has the best high C? Did Lauril-Vulpi really sing like an animal? Don't you think Tony Randall was idiotic for saying
The Lyric Opera's guiding principles are that opera should be fun,the words and plot of the play with music should be performed in English and members of its own company should perform the leading roles.
and that group, which is very important for the financial stability of the organization, is growing each year. We in Lawrence are now making a substantial contribution to the foundation for last year some of us formed a Lyric Theater Guild.
At first we wondered if we could get 15 or 20 members, but the idea of a Lawrence Guild would be much more challenging. December of last year we had more than 40 in our group. Activities of the guild have included a runup meeting with Russel Wheeler us about plans for the upcoming season and an informal discussion by composer Jack Tennant "Captain Junks of the Horse Marines." We will have other
that Mozart is the most overrated of all operatic composers?
from the beginning the Lyric Theater, under Russell Patterson's leadership, has shown great interest in the advancement of American music. In recent years, at least one opera each season has been by an American composer, and the Lyrical Theater has received national publicity by the release of its recordings of Vittorio Giannini's "The Taming of the Shrew" and Jack Beeson's "The Sweet Bye and Bye."
It has also staged several of the Menoti operas very successfully, including "The Medium" and the very best production of "The Saint of Bleeker Street" I've ever seen.
Other contemporary American operas staged at the Lyric include Samuel Barber's "Vanessa," Carlie Floyd's "The Devil and Douglas Moore's "The Devil and Daniel Webster."
Usually the Lyric performs four productions each season, with all the operas given each week. The leading singers in one production used to sing minor roles in the other operas during the early years of the 1970s and 1980s, the Lyric gotten away from this custom in more recent years. The 1975 season features five operas, all sung in English, of course. They are:
I PERSONALLY HOPE that sometime soon they will produce Douglas Moore's most popular opera, "The Ballad of Baby Doe," perhaps the most powerful and moving of all her works, and also George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess."
"CAPTAIN JINKS OF THE HORSE MARINES" —A seriomic, 1670s encounter between a New York playboy and a boy in the Army, who turns out to be a clever, enquiring girl from Trenton, N.J.
"THE FLYING DUTCHMAN'"—Wagner's stark romantic tragedy.
"THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO"—Mozart's perfect blend of 18th century satire, social criticism, drama and wonderful music, considered by the be greatest comic opera.
"LA BOHEME"-Love and death in the Latin Quarter, featuring some of Puccini's most beautiful melodies.
'LA PERICHOLE'- Offenbach's farcical and ever-delightful tale of Peru under the Spanish viceroy.
Opera lovers know that the lyric stage can be enjoyed for many reasons and on many occasions. Opera shows have drama and listen only to the
Or one may go just to hear the singers, to compare their high or low tones, their vocal agility, their artistry, their favorite roles. Sometimes this obsession with technique becomes so excessive that opera buffs wait far just one minute for a whole operatic performance.
Still others experience some of the most memorable and overwhelming experiences in their lives by totally immersing themselves in the intense mood music of such operas as Dagner's music drama, Danvers's melange, Mellemande's, Strauss's "Elektra," or Berg's "Wozzek."
music, as some do in performances of symphonic operas such as Wagner's "Tristan," indeed as I used to do when I heard performances by Melchior and Flagstad. Or one can go for the spectacle, as we did in Rome this past summer, at Caracala, where the spectacle of Verdi's "Aida" came through, but not much of the music.
Opera, or drama with music,
has been a part of the artistic
expression of most of the
world's high cultures such as
those of ancient Greece, India,
China and modern Western
Europe. Now performances of
opera seem to be reaching all
cultures through the modern
media, and new opera
organizations are springing up
each year in increasing numbers.
So, with the excellent Lyric Theater so close to Lawrence, make a visit to the Lyric, 11th and Central, sometime when the season is on from Sep. 20 to Oct. 31. You can see one of our famous TV advertisements—"Try it—you'll like it."
"Born to Run," the title track and single, is a long but absolutely killer song. Its use of glockenspiel, bristling dynamics, from a stolen rain from "Telstar," helps engulf the listener in Springsteen's sprechstemm about the
A wicked guitar break adds the third layer of music, which showcases saxophonist Clarence Clemon's masterful tenor solo. Clemons, former member of the Cleveland band Flames, lowers the dynamics, builds and lowers them again. Springstein then delivers the album's most painful, personal
"Jungland" is the biggest production number on the album. In the prelude, Bittan's song "The Fire" through strings until wanton fury explodes, building Springstein's vocal intensity about "the hungry and the fierce" facing off in the streets.
In the middle of this dual storm stands the slight Springsteen, looking like a punk Bobby Darin belin ing out "Mack in nasty tones, a smile on his face and a dillo in his pocket.
"Meeting Across the River" is a beautiful track. Session man Randy Breyer's extended version of "Bait It," Brittah's Debsy-like chordings and Springsteen's whispered and threatening vocals pigeonhole narrate the consequences a deal scheduled to come down.
"Born to Run" is an album where every syllable has meaning and every moment seems magical. Springsteen, rock's new golden boy, is the compilation of 20 years of rock roots. It comes from roots. This is the year's best album because the man stands alone in his street-wise concepts and unique sound.
moments with simply the original piano theme.
Magical moments fill Springsteen album
Slowly the tensions pick up,
draining the listener as "the street's walk" in fire in a real death waltz! while the poets watch wordlessly. The finale blends everything with Springsteen meaning, fading and running back to the jungle.
Harry gives 'em hell Film about Truman presents stories of politics, memories
Playwrite Sam Gallu has succeeded in bringing history to life by blending hundreds of Truman's personal opinions with natural, well-defined situations. Truman's reputation for speaking his mind isn't damaged by Gallu's style, which the writer himself refers to as "political cabaret." He is a character accented with bots, such as Truman's theme that conceals is 'God's gift to little men.'
That line is included in the filmed version of the stage play, "Give Em Hell, Harry," but this time the listeners are more likely to be approvingly spellbound to squirm uncomfortable.
Critics of Springteen complain of his throach, sometimes ugly vocal quality and the inability to pick out certain words in his localist's plan, however, was to create a monaeval effect, where words and music become one. In that light, he has succeeded.
During that time, Truman is shown sitting in the Oval Room of the White House and standing casually in the front yard of his home in Independence. He meets with the famed "Kitchen Wife," Rosalind Carter, former host from Sam Bayburn, former Speaker of the House dictates letters and even holds a press conference.
Springsteen's poetry, at once concise and hazy, draws the reader into a world of subtle mises between music and lyric. The sound drifts in and out, sometimes nasty and other times clear and precise.
ultimate machine. The single, raw and spindy, has provided the national air exposure he needed to reach mass acceptance.
By CHUCK SACK
Softened by time and by James Whitmore's sympathetic portrayal, the cantankerous 32rd President of the United States struts and frets a glorious 104 minutes on the stage.
"I don't give them hell." Harry Truman once told the truth and then they think they're in hell.
Some of the best moments come when Truman gives his private accounts of his public struggles. He agonizes over his problems with General Douglas MacArthur, weighing all the factors before making the decision to relieve MacArthur of his command.
Lyrically, Springsteen speaks of the mavericks in the streets, who escape to fantasyland from the windows of the slums. Musically, the sound slides so high and hits so mean.
In between, he takes time to reminisce about his wartime experience in France, his days in the Senate and the Whistlestick Campaign of 1948. His words are plain, his language easy and his stories, which are spiced with such names as Tom Penny or Harper Hobert and Richard Nixon, are delightful.
nearly so pleasurable without James Whitmore's recreation of Harry Truman. Whitmore's rapid delivery gives the writing authority, and his wisdom is the perfect approach to the role.
But Gahlu keeps the tone every bit as frank in the President's public moments. Harry tells a cadre of railroad union officials: "The Good Lord may be here all day, days, days, that surely was before labor unions."
"Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen's third album, is a collection of concepts, ideas and experiences of the celestial街.
"Give 'Em Hell, Harry" does have its shortcomings. Thetheatrion, the process in which it was filmed, consists of nine video cameras that recorded a single performance. What results is a fictional documentary, a hybrid that is both a film and a video. You watch it, then read either. Long shots that include members of the audience in the picture tend to be obstructive, and don't adequately show the whole stage.
Whitmore doesn't resemble the former president in real life, but his uncanny ability to mimic gestures of face and body, coupled with the familiar wire-rimmed glasses and short-cropped silvery hair creates the impression that he is a dead ringer for Truman.
Beyond this superficial resemblance, though, Whitmore gives an incredible performance. His success at communicating conflicting emotions, as in Truman's confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan, is less difficult. He determined not to be buffaloed. Whitmore's Truman works himself into an indignant frenzy.
Reviewer
The audience is asked to accept stage conventions, such as onstage scene changes, the single actor and conversations with imaginary characters. To further engage in interaction with the performer that a live production gives. This affects one like a TV show that has canned laughter on the soundtrack. Fortunately, these problems, and the intrusions caused by movements and super-imposed images, are rare.
Most of the time Whitmore is seen in close-up, giving a terrific look at a public figure who became more popular after he completed public service. It was his own strong-sided insuperable irony that Truman's descriptions of Joe McCarthy—"Mack the Knife," "the worst political gangster this country ever produced" and "a denizen of the political underworld"—survive here to delight a then-unborn generation, while at the same time he becomes one of more popular than Truman. Truman spoke the truth, and for McCarthy, it must now be hell.
Even with the wealth of material Galla provides, though, "Give 'Em Hair Harry" wouldn't be
By ROBERT A. GAVIN
Bruce Springsteen will appear at 8 p.m. Sunday, September 28, at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan.
THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS
Films
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA — A very long and highly acclaimed movie, starring O'Toole *O*, Lawrence, a British officer involved in 1919. The rest of the cast is also distinguished, including Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn and Alec Guinness. The pretentious David Lean *Lean* was born with the *World* with camels.
(At 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
1984–Edmund O'Brien is the doomed Winston Smith in a fairly good adaptation of a movie by the antitheist society, Former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell is uncredited as Big Brother. The cast of this 1956 British film also includes Jan Sterling, Mervyn John, Michael Redgrave and Kate Winslet. We were only years away.
Double-billed with a 1906 short, POSSIBILITIES OF WAR IN AIR, by Charles Urban.
(At 7:30 p.m. Monday In Woodford Auditorium.)
THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN—Josef Vorn Stenberg directed this 1935 Marlene Dietrich film, which is set in Spain. Vorn Stenberg is also responsible for the stunning cinematography, which makes the whole experience worthwhile for the viewer.
(Af 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR—A complex 1959 film
about two lovers, played by Emanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada, in post-war Hiroshima. Alain Resnalis, who directed Last Year at Manlionbd,"plays tricks with time in this one.
JAWs—Unchanged by fifteen weeks of evolution, the character movie-goers at Hillcrest 2. Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfus, Shaw and Roy Schneider.
(At 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Woodruff Auditorium.)
THE SOUND OF MUSIC—
Sugar-coated nostalgia. Julie Andrews and company make a farewell appearance on the silver screen before they defect to TV. Directed by Robert Wise,
Theater
WINTERHAWK — Michael Dante plays the title role in this predictable western about a noble savage.
GIVE 'E HELL, HARRY-
A. A filmed stage performance
with Whitmore as Whitore
Truman. Check advertisements for theaters and
EMMANUELLE — The X-rated "art film" that has revived this dubious genre. Amazing, but sensual is its ability, but it is explicit. Cultural porno for the intelligence. Direct by Just Jaekein, starring Alain Cuny, Sykla Kristal and Marika
TELEMACHUS CLAY Hollywood and its fringe culture
(8 p.m. nightly, Inge Memorial Theatre, Oct. 2-11)
Concerts
of 15 years ago, examined by
perilimental production takes a
novel vocal approach and its 16
cast members portrait 90
BILLY SPEARS BAND--
First in a series of benefit programs, he program development: Lawrence's own bluegrass fiddler and his national tour for this good time.
HARVEY HINSAW-A specialist in the work of Charles Ives, pianist his Wish will play his only two sonatas.
(8 p.m. Saturday in the Union Ballroom.)
(8 p.m. Sunday in Swarthout Recital Hall.)
WILLIAM OSBORNE—"Five New England Gentlemen," the American 19th century composer played by Organist obsolete.
Exhibits
(8 p.m. Monday in Swarthout Hall.)
MIKE OTT AND JOE CLOWER-Vibrant and unusual works in a variety of media by two young Midwestern artists and professors. Through Sunday in Union Gallery.
(Through Oct. 5 in Museum of Art.)
THE ART OF THE INDIAN BASKET—Native American crafts raised to art.
SCULPTURE BY DAVE whether this is mostly junk or largely art. Co-sponsored by the Kansas Grassroots Art institution.
(Through Oct. 5 in Weaver Sculpture Court.)
HISTORICAL QUILTS-
Dunks, still an interesting,
distinctive exhibition of hand-
working by Douglas County
residents.
(Through Oct. 2 in Lawrence Arts Center and Watkins Community Museum.)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Editor
Jennis Ellsworth
Business Manager Cindy Long