University of South Carolina Libraries
-entertainment i 1 ,1 i 1 , 1 ' >' ?& i B$ MB B^Ji S; K^l ^ JV I \ _ J - -. L if * m:~m W .?* Thrill"o/\victory Students exult as they win at the "gambling" table during Viva Las Vegas in Russell House Rallrnnm WflHnnsHau Unmo?nmin? ? r. ..U.uuuuiiiuiy IIDDH I091IVIIIU9 continue today with the Outdoor Concert at 3 p.m. on Field A featuring the Outlaws and Fortnox. Ballet opens season From Staff Reports The Columbia City Ballet will Dresent a nrp-spasnn repertory program, "Murder at the Ballet," this weekend at Drayton Hall Theatre. Performance will be at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. The success of last season's repertory pre-season program encouraged the City Ballet to increase the size and scope of this year's repertory offering. Realizing that all the works selected from the company's extensive repertory for this show have a tragic ending, Ann Brodie, Artistic Director, decided upon the title "Murder at the Ballet.'' Tickets are on sale at the Columbia Music Festival office, 1132 Bull Street. Tickets are $6.25 for adults and $3.25 for students. For more information, call the CMFA, 771-6303. Stray Cats play the By Marc Fink Rockabilly may be almost 30 years old as 11 a popular music form, but the Stray Cats perform this hybrid of rock'n'roll and _____ wiuuiuy music wuii maximum rocK-auiiuy. "LITTLiIi. i "Built For Speed," the Stray Cats' first tough versioi American release, largely consists of tracks and "You I from the trio's 1981 British album, "Gonna Setzer's raz< Ball," and British singles. "Built for Speed" effective or establishes these New Yorkers as one of the mentioned sc foremost rockabilly bands on today's music "Built For scene. of which ? Although guitarist and vocalist Brian "Jeanie, Jea Setzer, bass fiddler and vocalist Lee Rocker tunes. "Dou and drummer Slim Jim Phantom were born rockabilly, years after the heyday of Carl Perkins, the Cochran's ' Johnny Burnette Rock'n'roll Trio, and rhythm. The Buddy Holly and The Crickets, they remain lyrics. true to the primitive, frenetic sound that The third makes rockabilly prime dance music. "Baby Blue numbers 01 Rocker, P THE BRITISH hits "Rock This Town" displaying in and "Runaway Boys," produced by Dave The title ci Edmunds, open side one and side two, the flimsiest respectively. Both were penned by the Stray Cats. WHILE "I "Rock This Town" is getting American good albur airplay, with Setzer's guitar figures problems th; recalling Bill Haley and the Comets ren- America, tn< dition of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," while Stray Cats. "Runaway Boys" rides on Rocker's slap- As the alb ping bass and features one of Setzer's most from varic versatile guitar performances on the album. producers, Other standout original cuts on "Built For present on "< Speed" include the Chuck Berry-inspired "Lonely S "Rev It Up & Go," about love of vintage next-to-last automobiles, "Stray Cat Strut," an anthem raving finale of macho bravado and sexual swagger from where it breE a feline Casanova, and "Rumble In Also, "Bu Brighton," concerning skinhead gangs minutes pla> looking for trouble in the English seaside three solid city with riffs from The Chantays' surf "Gonna Bal classic, "Pipeline." superior tc "Lonely Summer Nights," by Setzer, is Whiskey," f< the only ballad on the album, sounding like the British the heart and soul of the oldie "My Special "Crazy Mixi Angel." I'm not a fan of Frankie and An- rampage by nette-type ballads, but Setzer sings a lot these songs better than Robert Gordon and avoids Elvis this Stray Ca Presley parody. The saxophone solo adds '50s credibility. FOR A li Plav confronts t m By John Vaughan It's a good thing the audience is sitting down when it attends "The Birthday Party." It's a good thing because the current production at Longstreet Theatre does not unfold before the viewer's eyes ? it explodes into the viewer's senses, alternately drawing every audience member to the edge of a comfortable theater seat with curious humor, and slamming each viewer back into the chair with strange terror. The audience does "attend" this birthday party, as the r?..u: 1??1-J A? ' ** * * ? uiuiu-icvcieu poeiry 01 tiaroia jointer's script and the solid sophistication of the USC production combine to throw the audience into the action, forcing each viewer to confront the drama on a personal level. ON THE surface, "The Birthday Party" concerns six characters, focusing on Stanley, a down-and-out pianist existing in a dingy seaside boardinghouse. The boardinghouse is run by Meg, a dirty, seemingly crazy but motherly older woman, whose stifling affection toward Stanley, her only boarder for apparently quite some time, is almost incestous. Meg lives with her old husband Petey, a quiet, complacent and decent fellow who works as a deck chair hand and is usually out of the house. There is also Lulu, the buxom, vapid girl next door. r_t? ' uiiu uus removea ana secure environment come two sinister figures, who introduce themselves as Goldberg and McCann. Although the audience is never given much specific information as to any of the characters' backgrounds or motivations, it is obvious the two men have come to "get" Stanley. ALL OF what is seen in "The Birthday Party" occurs in about 24 hours. Meg, in another attempt to love Stanley, I decides to give him a present and declares the day his birthday. The slick Goldberg insists that a party be given that evening. The premise laid, the drama builds through a horrifying, almost surreal party where Stanley is brutally interrogated by the sinister duo and is finally broken in an awful game of blindman's bluff. "The Birthday Party" is surely one of the finest productions at USC in recent memory, with purposeful direction by Richard Jennings and exciting performances by the cast, all from the theater department's master of fine arts program. The show's effect is greatly enhanced hv Eric ShawQuinn's set, which effectively uses Longstreet's value as a theater-in-the-round, and Michael Reese's masterful lighting. -1-tiu ski is structured as a sort of four-sided diorama, allowing each person in the theater a view into the boardinghouse. The inside of the house is wonderfully detailed with properties, and one staircase is employed as the :ir rockabilly with ma V1ISS PRISSY," sounding like a MHBWBWMBBiBr 1 of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," s Don't Believe Me," featuring | >r-sharp slide guitar, are less WBiipWWB|:.: iginals than the previously >ngs, but have their merits. Speed" has three remakes, two "Double Talkin' Baby" and v' nie, Jeanie" ? are second-rate ble Talkin' Baby" is frantic lIlilllB while the latter sets Eddie -: 'C'mon Everybody" in rock ||8|ili ? tune has '50s song titles for |f|p 8 1 HUH remake, Johnny Burnette's f?lllp Eyes," is one of the strongest * > i "Built For Speed," with hantom and Setzer each > -iM dividual talent. I SKil it is the only song from 1982 and song on the LP. . \,<-Vf IBB iuilt For Speed" is generally a n, there are organization * at should be attributed to EMI e band's label, rather than the um is drawn from cuts culled HHH >us sessions and different Big it lacks the unity of sound | Sonna Ball." . ? , _ . _ ummer Nights" should be the Rocker, Brian Setzer and ?...A u ? YnrLorc lAjhn Knrl fn tmual in I ucttn UII aiuc iwu ut'iui e a lu ??"?" "? < rather than the second track, rockabilly is on an American r iks up the music's flow. ilt For Speed" is roughly 35 "Gonna Ball" and the British ring time, and there is room for For Speed" is worth obtaining tunes from "Gonna Ball": The Stray Cats have one 1," a straight rockabilly song rockabilly styles, with Setze > this title cut; "Wicked distorted by echo and i maturing Setzer's slide guitar on Rocker's acoustic bass, ar T D'c? 1 Ari/x nofr **? im f 1 *\ r\ HnitYirviinrf An o ?v iji o iuiiu uioii uiucuiai, auu U1 uiinuiiig uu a n ed-Up Kid," the most searing bass, snare and cymbals, the Stray Cats on record. All of Setzer is also a fine compos< should have been included on genre suffering from a sevei ts compilation. new ideas. Rockabilly has been populai stener who can't , get hold of 1 in Britain and Europe since tfc it several levels boardinghouse staircase, with any upstairs action played out < of the audience's sight. The lighting is not only noticeable, but important to the play's interpretation. A humid, stifling evening is suggested during the horrible interrogation by a warm, almost surreal orange glow. Ao Cfonln.. PK../.U 1 -i 110 oMjmtjf, v/iiuliv niicuci givc5 an diiccitu uui sirung performance, especially striking in the second act as Stanley is mentally tortured to the point of collapse. Hope Nunnery's portrayal of Meg is vibrant, laced with undertones of emotional or mental retardation. To Meg, affection is instinctive, and Nunnery accents a physicality and somewhat senile eroticism. MICHAEL DOWELL, Mert Hatfield and Fredrica Lawlor all turn in considered and individual performances as Petey, McCann and Lulu, and I would mention a respect for Dowell's devotion to detail ? he shaved the crown of his head to play the balding old man. The full terror of Pinter's wnrlr thnnoh ic Hriuon hnmo in M .. w* waavM^caj AW \*A ft T VII IftV/lliV itl an exceptional performance by Rich Berg as Goldberg. His silent entrance is riveting, and throughout the drama the actor's facial expression and stage presence are exciting to observe. These fine performances transmit the stage work on several levels, with the central question being who are Goldberg and McCann, and what do they want from Stanley? While the play works as a poetic allusion on all of these levels, the temptation to remove the uneasiness and terror one feels as completely surreal is a grave mistake.'4TheBirthday Party" touches themes of birth, death, human selfrespect and Oedipal yearnings, and all are consistent with another translation. THE ULTIMATE translation must be personal, though this reviewer might argue the interpretation of Goldberg and McCann as emotions, as well as physical beings. The sinister pair eventually take Stanley, in a catatonic (corpse-like?) state, away in a big black car, and the feeling that this car is his hearse is striking, since earlier Stanley scares Meg with a story of "a big black van with a wheelbarrow (coffin) in it." From what the men have taken Stanley is yet another question. The clutches of a woman he simultaneously feels guilt/hatred towaro (the Oedipus bit) and yet is overwhelmingly dependent on? A wasted life as a "wash-out" artist? The security of his child-like existence in Meg's boardinghouse? Disturbing implications will remain with the individual viewer. This reviewer would recommend "The Birthday Party" with a warning to audiences to be prepared to think. "The Birthday Party" will run through Sunday, with performances at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow and a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday. Tickets are $3.50 for the general public, $2.50 for USC faculty/staff, senior citizens and military personnel and $1.50 for students. For more information, call the box office at 777-2551. ximum rock-ability BlL I Hh 1 1 | 3l . - ~ ... _r gl ~ s> " ^ - Slim Jim Phantom are the Stray Cats, a trio of New England to establish their success. Now their rapid-fire elease. singles, "Built America any band playing rockabilly in the 'ttOs wnnlH tw rnncirloraH rntrAfrrnooi.m of the purist precisely why the Stray Cats had to move to r's vocals un- England to make the charts in 1981. reverberation, id Phantom's BUT THIS year The Blasters' debut made linimal kit of the top 50 albums, Barry Manilow did a remake of Shakin' Stevens' "Oh Julie" and sr in a musical the Stray Cats are finally making headway re shortage of in their native country. r as cult music That's why 1982 may well be The Year of le '50s, while in the Stray Cat.