{ title: 'The villager. (New York [N.Y.]) 1933-current, May 09, 1985, Page 14, Image 14', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83030608/1985-05-09/ed-1/seq-14/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83030608/1985-05-09/ed-1/seq-14.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83030608/1985-05-09/ed-1/seq-14/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83030608/1985-05-09/ed-1/seq-14/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Jefferson Market Library
VBLLAGER DOWNTOWN 'Out of Gas' Peaks Early, Continues With Tedious Scenery BY LEORA MANISCHEWITZ “Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap/’ a new play by Mark St. Germain, accelerates quickly,, peaks within the first twenty minutes of the ride and reduces the trip to somewhat tedious scenery. St. Germain displays seeds of strong talent for creating complex and interesting characters but has yet to discover an original or fully engaging road for them to follow. Now at WPA theatre, the play is a 90 minute excursion into the high school graduation night of Myst and Grouper, young lovers whose tale evokes shades of “Romeo and Juliet’’ (albeit Romeo and Juliet gone delinquent) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’’ (as Mar tha and George might have appeared 20 years earlier j Myst (short tor Mystery) is the il legitimate daughter of an internationally famous rock singer, her father unknown, her mother’s image haunting her with memories of flaunted sexuality and emo tional abandonment. Grouper comes from an equally prominent family, his father is a Senator who is remote and critical, em pathy within the family only surfacing in relation to Grouper’s younger retarded brother whom he idolizes. Both Myst and Grouper got into trouble at an early age, were shuffled off to an exclusive school or as they derisively term it “a zoo for rich preppies” and somehow found each other along the way. Their dance of courtship takes place'in and around Grouper’s red convertible, parked at lovers leap and the scene for total abandonment: beer, marijuana and sex meet the primal bodily needs and are but backdrops for the primitive emotions which escalate as last inhibitions melt away. The couple devour each other, hungrily reaching for the love they never received at home, but harsh parental images interfere every step of the way as they sabotage each ex Mellssa Leo and Fisher Stevens In \Out of Gas on Lovers Leap.\ (Howard Photo) perience of burgeoning trust. Myst and Grouper have their lives ahead of them but nowhere to go, their pain and mistrust of each other but a microcosm of their terror to trust anything in the world—they are flower children without any more flowers, and even their fantasies, he of settling down amidst the common folk of Bruce Springs teen’s central New Jersey, she of becoming a rock star, are flimsy and ultimately only tear them apart. St. Germain draws the characters power fully, the two young lovers touchingly displaying childlike excitement, passionate sexual awakening and almost primitive need for each other. Their individual selfishness and mutual mistrust is also sharply defined, compromise and resolution never a possibility for these two explosive volcanoes. Yet the message is made clear, and the battle lines drawn very early on—the play opens in fourth gear and has little room for much shifting thereafter. There is little catharsis, rather a stalemated battle of wiUs between fragile survivors who may cling to each other desperately but offer no hope of escape or feace. The play becomes tedious and repetitive eventually relying on stock con fessionals and ending with a melodramatic flourish. The actors work beautifully off each other, Fisher Stevens consistently fine as the volatile young Grouper who would ut terly possess his woman, Melissa Leo somewhat more erratic, her Myst at times too frenetic and superficially drawn, but on the whole capturing the essence of a frightened butterfly terrified of being tied down. They are ably assisted by Don Newcomb’s dazzling costumes and the well grounded direction of Elinor Renfield. At one point. Grouper lashes out to Myst, ‘T‘m not the one throwing tantrums”— “Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap” unfortunately succumbs to tantrum behavior; Myst and Grouper evoke empathy, even anxiety as they embody the pain of lost souls but St. Germain might have produced a far more powerful piece had he set more limits upon their repetitious outbursts. He might thus not only have succeeded where their parents had failed but have created a more finely structured Vehicle for his two richly drawn young misfits. OUT OF GAS ON LOVER’S LEAP: by Mark St. Germain, WPA Theatre, 138 5th Ave., thru May 19, Tues. & Sat at 8; Sun. 3 & 7:30. For reservations call 206-0523. Music: New Orleans Bands Play Two Downtown Clubs BY MARTIN JOHNSON One of the more intriguing armageddon scenarios I’ve heard involves one super power infiltrating the other with cultural workers, whether ballet companies or break- dancers, armed with the apparati necessary for nuclear explosives. Once in the country and sufficiently dispersed throughout the nation, the dancers assemble and begin detonating the warheads. The host country is left defenseless and can only counterat tack with the remnants of their offensive capabilities. The kamikaze dancer scenario seems especially appropriate when considering the weekend of music from two great New Orleans bands. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will lay siege to Sweet Basil’s May 14-19 while the Neville Brothers will occupy Irving Plaza May 17-10.'Ordinarily ap pearances by two high caliber ensembles from the same city would prove novel, but this season has witnessed a plethora of great music from the bayou. Virtually every major venue has hosted some variety of N’awlins—drawl New Orleans—music. Nevermind the counter-offensive, let’s boogie! Cometist Olu Dara, a native of Natchez, Mississippi, related a classic story about the treat New Orleans musical heritage. “In high school I was in the band, and we prac ticed all month for a battle of the bands held every year on the bayou. We worked all month and got real excited about the competition, but when we got off the bus we saw one of the hometown bands practicin'. We were amazed. They did things in prac- ^ tice we couldn't even conceive of doing«,Our bandleader told us ’putcher instruments away! we’re here to listen.’ Couldn’t nobody disagree!” The New Orleans marching band tradi tion which enjoyed some nationwide expo sure through one of the early “Coke is it” commercials featuring the Grumbling State College marching unit, is a major influence on The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The band is actually an octet of three drummers The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will play Sweet Basil's May 14-19. (ever see a mobile drum kit?), two snares and a bass drum; two trumpeters, two sax ophonists, and a tubaist. The group was founded in the mid-seventies as a kazoo band however their enormous popularity led them to assume their present format. NO COMPROMISE On their record, “ My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” (Concord Jazz ^ ) , they adapt their Sousa-like instrumentation to modem jazz sounds without compromising either. Their clever .arrangements allow bebop classics such as “Bongo Beep” and “Blue Monk” to flourish in this environment. The band is most enjoyable, however, doing classics such as “ L’il Liza Jane,” “St. James Infir mary,” or “ I Ate up the Apple Tree.” The dozen’s booking at Sweet Basil, by far the city’s most innovative jazz club, poses one problem; they are not necessarily a jazz band. The tradition of black brass bands predates jazz by almost a half- century. Another problematic aspect of the label is the new tradition of the New Orleans jazzman as advocated by present and past members of Art Blakey and Jazz Messengers. In contrast to the loose “good time\ feel of the dozens Wynton and Bran ford Marsalis, and their successors in the Blakey band, Terrence Blanchard and Donald Harrison, bring a cool sophistication to their music. Their style is best ar ticulated by their expensive suits, clean-cut appearance and studious professionalism. At first these seemed to be simply trade marks of Wynton Marsalis, but since his brother, Harrison and Blanchard, all Cres cent City natives, have followed him down (up?) this route. Though their style has bothered some critics, their music bears the N’awlins stamp of excellence. Wynton’s latest is called “HotHouse Flowers\ and Branford’s debut album “Scenes in the City\ (both on Columbia Records), have received enormous praise. Equally ex cellent has been Harrison and Blanchard's collaboration, “New York Second Line\ anil Blakey’s “New York Scene\ (both records on Concord Jazz). While Marsalis, et al., arc establishing a new style of New Orleans jazzmen Edward “Kidd\ Jordan has been establishing a new N’awlins music. His electric band provided one of the highlights of the Kitchen’s spring music series. Jordan, a veteran New Orleans performer helped organize the World Saxophone Quartet which will no doubt, touch on the N’awlins tradition though none of the four members has direct roots on the bayou during their engagement at Sweet Basil (it ends May 12). Jordan’s electric band employs a sextet of players, two drummers, two bassists, and two elec tric guitarists, who trade call and response riffs under Jordan’s saxophone. Success has eluded the Neville Brothers, Continuvdon Panv 12 May 0,1086, THE VILLAGER, Pane 11
