KEEPING UP/Arts and Entertainment

Top of the Month



NorthPark mall is the closest thing North Dallas has to a Main Street. Actually, it’s even closer to the market square of a medieval town, the nucleus of an entire culture: a place where merchants, artists and craftsmen display their wares; where people come to sit and chat and watch the fountain; where the young perform some of their courting rituals; and where public festivals are held. The current public festival is of course the Thanksgiving-Christmas one, this year given a patriotic bias by the observance of the Bicentennial.

Decorating the mall for Christmas has become an increasingly elaborate process. Jerry Childs, whose advertising design firm now creates the extravaganzas in pecans, candy and marshmallows that line the mall from Lord and Taylor to Neiman’s to Titche’s, remembers the first years of decorating NorthPark, when he and his wife assembled the displays in their garage. Childs’ creations have long since outgrown the garage. This year for the Lord and Taylor wing his designers have created a Paul Revere/Santa Claus of candy, drawn by reindeer made of pecans and almonds, ascending into a marshmallow cloud. The Neiman’s corner will feature a display made of “natural” materials, such as trees crafted from East Texas pine cones. The fountain at Titche’s will repeat last year’s sparkling silver star display. And soft-sculpture Christmas trees will line the way toward Penney’s. Great quilted banners will be floating all along the mall.

The designers at Bill Reed Decoration created the pots-and-pans Santa Claus that used to spin and spray in the Neiman’s fountain. This year, that Santa has gone to Tyler, Texas. But Reed’s artists have come up with a fantasia on Bicentennial themes for the Penney’s fountain, a water-propelled tableau involving Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, an Indian, Paul Revere, and the Spirit of ’76 trio. The sculpture is made of – among other things – 8,000 feet of copper tubing, 35 tin cups, 12 muffin pans, eight potato chip cans, seven paint cans, six sugar scoops, five pitchers, four sprinklers, three tin fish, two motorcycle exhaust pipes, one hubcap, one washboard, one bathroom float, and one radiator. And a partridge in a pear tree.

Reed’s display will be set up on November 24. The assembling of the complicated display, an engineering creation somewhere between Rube Goldberg and Leonardo Da Vinci in imaginative intricacy, takes place during business hours at NorthPark, so there is usually a delighted crowd to cheer the artists on. There is, according to one of Reed’s designers, no way to test the display out before it’s set up, and since there’s an awful lot of water spilling and squirting and spraying around, everyone will get wet. But if it works, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, it should work enchantingly.

Art



A New Gallery, an Old Gallery, a New/Old Show



Stephen Lorber, at Delahunty, through December 7.

Lorber, a 32 year old New Mexico artist trained in New York, paints large still lifes of flat walls with various objects – Indian baskets, pieces of wood, reeds, wood poly-hedra and pieces of paper – leaning against them. His paintings, watercolors and aquatints are rendered in a super-realistic style in generally muted colors. The visual strength of the work derives from the way the objects inhabit the illusionistic space in the paintings. Their positioning creates some intentional inconsistencies, as in “Still Life with Grey Paper (1974),” in which a wooden polyhedron appears much flatter than a sheet of paper placed next to it. Lorber also relies on other visual tricks, such as having the left and right sides of a table project toward the viewer at different angles (“The Drawing Table (1974)”), or placing two baskets side-by-side, one completely flat, the other with an illusion of depth.

The exhibition might be subtitled “Cezanne Meets the Photo-Realists,” for Lorber’s visual gimmickry is nothing new. When Cezanne, without gimmickry, dealt with similar themes, he made us realize that we do not always “see” objects the way they exist physically. Rather, they take their visual form from their relationship to objects around them. Lorber’s paintings repeat this message with contemporary symbols. Whether he intends it or not, his work is an hommage to Cezanne.

Robert Hoffman



Allen Street Photography Gallery, 2817 Allen St., 745-1196. Hours: Weekdays 12-2, 7-9; Saturdays 10-6.



If the packed-in crowd of 300 people at the opening of the Allen Street Photography Gallery – in the old Delahunty Gallery building – on October 19 was any indication, there are a lot of people in Dallas interested in photography. What is it about photography that evokes such a response? Maybe it is the accessibility of the subject matter of photography as opposed to the indecipherability of much modern art. Possibly it is the fact that almost everyone knows how to use a camera. But this very accessibility has for a long time kept photography from being accepted as an art form.

The Allen Street Photography Gallery is a non-profit cooperative gallery which will show the work of anyone who wants to exhibit. The first show included work by about 20 photographers. Some, such as Robert Shaw, Moses Olmos, Michael Kos-tiuk and Chris Regas, are well-known locally; others have never exhibited before. The gallery was started by five commercial photographers, Gary Bishop, Carol Neiman, Jack Caspary, John Mahoney and George Goodenow, to provide a space to show work which represented something different from that they produce every day to make a living.

There will be a new show opening at the gallery on the third Sunday of every month. Selection will essentially be on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no attempt to produce a “good” show. Instead the viewer sees a great deal of work juxtaposed with no comment whatsoever as to quality. The photographs force the viewer to see pictures from perspectives which challenge his notion of what is “acceptable” and what is not.

R.H.



Valley House, 6616 Spring Valley Road.

A lot of art dealers believe in the “soap flake” theory of art – they sell whatever they can promote at the time and then move on to something new when people grow tired of it. For the past twenty-five years, Don Vogel at Valley House has been fighting the “soap flake” art scene. He was the first dealer in the Southwest to show 20th Century art, and he is still exhibiting many of the artists he has been handling since he opened – John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Maurice Prendergast, Georges Rouault and Joan Miro.

Today Vogel tries to spend as much time painting as he can spare, and his son Kevin has assumed an active role in running the gallery. Unlike most galleries, there are almost no shows planned in advance at Valley House – shows just happen. Right now they are about to put together an exhibition of important prints and drawings by 20th Century French and American artists. Vogel feels that it will be the best show of its type ever seen in this part of the country.

Like any art pioneer, Vogel has spent a lot of his time educating his clients to appreciate the works he handles. At one time or another, a number of major works have passed through his hands, including a Monet “Waterlilies,” now in the Cleveland Art Museum, and the fifty-four paintings which comprise Rouault’s “Passion.” Vogel says, however, that even today he sells more art outside of Dallas than he does here. He represents several important estates (Hugh Breckenridge, Morgan Russell and Tom Benrimo) in addition to Claire MacDonald Williamson (Aunt Clara) who will be 100 this month and is possibly the Texas artist best known internationally. Lest you think Vogel handles only fuddy-duddy art, you should also know that he is busy promoting a young Dallas artist named Valton Tyler who works in a surrealistic vein. Vogel has always looked at art from a painter’s perspective, spurning trends and scenes. For the last twenty-five years he has shown work that he feels is professionally produced with a strong sense of enduring artistic values.

R.H.



Showing Up/Exhibitions



Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. A recently-discovered portfolio of Piranesi prints and drawings will be on display from December 3. The museum’s Christmas show, opening December 7, will feature its collection of Santos, carved wooden religious figures from New Mexico. The American Heritage in Art, American paintings from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will be featured through November 30. Tues-Sat, 10-5, Sunday 1-5. Fair Park/421-4187.

Owen Arts Center, SMU. Works on paper by Dan Rizzie, a qualifying exhibition for the MFA degree, will be on display Nov 30-Dec 14. The Dog Show – works in all media using the dog as a central image – opens December 19, in the University Gallery. Weekdays 10-5, Sunday 1-5. 692-2516.

University of Dallas. Photography by Carlotta M. Corpron, professor at Texas Woman’s University, will be on display in the University Gallery, December 1-7. Daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. University Drive, Irving.

Mountain View College. A student art exhibition will be on display in the east ramps, foyer, north bridge, and the art department, December 1-12. 4849 W Illinois/746-4100.

Richland College. An exhibition and sale of student work will be featured Dec 1-12 in the Performance Hall. 12800 Abrams.

Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth. The Image of America in Caricature and Cartoon will be on display through December 14. The Face of Freedom opens Dec 23. Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5:30. 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd/(817) 738-1933.

Fort Worth Art Museum. Dan Flavin: Installation in Electric Light opens Nov 23. America’s Pop Collector, a film about the 1973 auction of Robert Scull’s collection of pop art, will be shown in the Scott Theater, Dec 17 and 18, at 8 p.m. Admission $2, $1.50 for Museum members. Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. 1309 Montgom-ery/(817) 738-9215.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. David A. Brown, curator of Italian Renaissance painting at the National Gallery in Washington, will lecture on the paintings of Leonardo and Michelangelo, December 4. Call the Museum for exact times. Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5. 1101 Will Rogers Rd/(817) 332-8451.

GALLERIES

Afterimage. Work by Lilian DeCock will be displayed through Nov 29. Mon-Sat 10-5:30, Thurs till 8:30. Quadrangle/748-2521.

Albrecht Studio. Sculpture with a purpose – jewelry, candelabra, and other functional pieces – by Mary Albrecht, Edith Baker, Ruth Lit-win, Neal Schneiderman and other artists will be featured in December. Mon-Sat 10-5 and by appointment. 249 Arapaho Central Park, Richardson/690-1435.

Art Collection Gallery. Prints by Karl Hoefle, who did the covers for the Dallas Yellow Pages, will be on display through the end of November. Tues-Sat 10-5. In the Craft Compound/6617 Snider Plaza/369-7442.

Atelier Chapman Kelley. Sculpture by John Cunningham – carved acrylic, bronze, and fiberglass – will be on display in December. Mon-Sat 10:30-5, Sun 1-5, 2526 Fair-mount/747-9971.

Contemporary Gallery. Sculpture made from found objects, by Al Kidwell, will be on display through December. Mon-Sat 10:30-5, Thurs till 8:30. 2425 Cedar Springs/747-0141.

Cushing Gallery. Rosie Clark, Atlanta artist, will be featured in a show opening Nov 22. Mon-Sat 10:30-4:30. 2723 Fairmount/747-0497.

The Cutshall Collection. Works by Gregory Palmer and Egyptian and South American tapestries will be shown in December. Mon-Sat 10-5. 3530 Cedar Springs/526-3390.

Delahunty Gallery. Recent works by Stephen Lorber will be featured in November. Recent prints by Bruce Lowney and sculpture by Raf-faele Martini will be on display from December 7. Tues-Sat 10-6 and by appointment. 2611 Cedar Springs/744-1346.

Dupree Gallery. A three-person show with work by Mary Morez, Jim Parker, and Joe Jaqua on Indian motifs opens December 8. Mon-Sat 10-5:30, 420 Northgate Plaza Village, Irving/252-8481.

D.W. Co-op. A new gallery featuring eight Dallas women artists working in a variety of media. Tues-Sat 11-6 3305 McKinney #7.

Fairmount Gallery. Oils by Renée Theobald will be on display from December 6. Tues-Sat 11-5. 6040 Sherry Une/369-5636.

The Front Room. “Special Gifts for Special People,” a showing of glass, stoneware and jewelry for Christmas giving, goes on display December 1. Mon-Sat 10-5. In the Craft Compound /6617 Snider Plaza/369-8338.

Gallery Marcus. Paintings by Hugo David Pohl, James Gilbreath, and Judy and Warren 0sburn will be featured through December 31. Tues-Sat 9-7, Wed till 9. 1313 Avenue K, Plano/424-1487.

Olla Pod Gallery. Ceramics by Bruce Mayo will be on display in December. 10-5:30 Mon-Sat, Thure till 9. Olla Podrida/ 12215 Coit Rd/239-0551.

The Painted Plum. A new gallery located in the basement of KCHU radio station. Through December, works by Janie Rainwater and Jeff Leeah will be on display. Tues-Sun 12-6. 2516 Maple/747-4511.

Stewart Gallery. Work by Robert Nidy – tempera on metallic surfaces – will be featured from December 4. Tues-Sun 12-7, and by appointment, 12610 Coit/661-0213.

Texas Center for Photographic Studies. The new gallery/school devoted entirely to photography will be holding an exhibition of the work of Arnold Newman through November 30. A group exhibition will open December 5 and run through the end of the month. For information on classes at the center, telephone the gallery. Mon-Fri 11-4, and by appointment. 12700 Park Central Place, Suite 105/387-1900.

2719 Gallery. Paintings by Don Nix, watercolors by Liu-Sang Wong, and serigraphs by Micaela Myers will be shown from December 7. Tues-Sat 11-5, Sun 2-5. 2719 Routh/748-2094.

D RECOMMENDS SMU may be barking up the wrong tree, but at least they’re not playing a cat-and-mouse game by unleashing over 50 Texas artists to put on the dog. The concept was sired by some waggish artists who then held the directors of the University Gallery in the Owen Arts Center at bay until they were given space for the show starting December 19. The Dog Show features works in a variety of media, all of them embodying the virtues of man’s best friend. Arf.

Dance



The Panovs: Points on Style



Galina and Valery Panov, with the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet.

Galina Ragozina and Valery Panov are in the front rank of international ballet superstars. It’s pleasant to find out that this reputation is based on the quality of their dancing, and not just on the formidable hardships they have endured to be able to dance at all. He is the maturer dancer, with a highly personalized style which at times seems more expanded mime than pure dance. He leaps with the highest, his technique is superb, but his broad style of acting makes him less satisfactory as the danseur noble of Giselle than as Harlequin.

Style is an even more important word in discussing his wife’s dancing. The training is evident in the oak-tree strength of the supporting leg, the perfect control of the extension, but many of us find the style somewhat overdeveloped. The influence of Ulanova is apparent, but for this very young dancer the manner of carrying the upper torso and the strictly traditional gestures do not make quite so much sense. She might mature into a greater dancer if she is given the opportunity to work with one of the great companies in the West.

The Dallas Metropolitan Ballet is a good group of advanced ballet students. They need polish, they will need to develop considerably more – here’s that inevitable word again – style, and will have to find stronger principal dancers before they’ll really be ready to carry an evening alone. They gave us a good time, and the pleasure of “discovering” a really promising young dancer, Christy Dunham. And they, and the Panovs, deserve to be decorated for bravery in coping with McFarlin Auditorium, whose stage floor is better suited for ice-skating than dancing.

Constance Lowe



What’s Afoot

Dallas Civic Ballet. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker will be performed by the company on December 23, 26, 27, and 28, at the Music Hall in Fair Park. Tickets available from the Civic Ballet ticket office, 3601 Rawlins, Dallas 75219/526-1370.

SMU Dance Division. Excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker will be performed December 3, 5, and 7, in the Bob Hope Theater. “Christmas in Song and Dance” will be presented December 4 and 6, in the Bob Hope. All performances at 8:15 p.m. Tickets $1. Owen Arts Center/692-3146.

Fort Worth Ballet Association presents Fernando Bujones of the American Ballet Theater and Yoko Morishita of the Tokyo Ballet in performances of Les Sylphides, Ondine, and Trilogy with the Fort Worth Ballet on December 17 at 8:15 p.m. in the Tarrant County Convention Center Theatre. Tickets available from the association’s ticket office, (817) 731-0879.

Fort Worth Art Museum. Deborah Jowett, dance critic for the Village Voice, lectures on contemporary dance December 10, at 8 p.m. in the Museum Solarium. 1309 Montgom-ery/(817) 738-9215.

TCU Division of Ballet and Modern Dance, Fort Worth. Day for Dancing, a Christmas dance drama written by Lloyd Pfautsch and choreographed by Jerry Bywaters Cochran, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in the University Christian Church on the TCU campus, Nov 30, Dec 1 and 2.

Music and Dance in Jeffersonian Times, a program by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, will be presented Nov 25 and 26 at McFarlin Auditorium. Authentic musical instruments from the Smithsonian collection will be featured. Dancers will be directed by Shirley Wynne of the University of California, Santa Cruz.



Movies



Diana Ross: A Jewel Among the Junk

Let’s Do It Again and Mahogany.



There are good junk movies and bad junk movies. Let’s Do It Again – a bad junk movie – is an altogether worthless little farce with Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier and Jimmy Walker, about middle-class blacks in Atlanta who pull a “sting” and rip-off lots of money for their lodge. For all practical purposes, Jimmy Walker plays Jerry Lewis; Cosby and Poitier are straight out of Amos and Andy, or The Life of Riley, or I Married Joan. The movie’s really a 30-minute situation comedy stretched out to unbearable length. Nothing happens – Cosby is cute, Poitier is catastrophic as a comic and and not even Mavis Staple’s earthy rendition of the title tune can save the day.

Mahogany, another slight tale of the aspirations of the ghetto, is a good junk movie. That may be because I have a weakness for Diana Ross. A purist when it comes to Billie Holiday, I nonetheless treasured Ross’ portrayal of Billie in Lady Sings the Blues and found her singing fine and mellow. Now, in this silly film about the flight of an ambitious dress designer from the mean streets of Chicago to the Via Veneto, Berry Gordy – her producer and godfather from Motown – treats her like a Barbie Doll, dressing her up in every conceivable outfit – ludicrous, chic, bizarre, stunning. And if Diana is Barbie, Billy Dee Williams is Ken, appearing in at least a dozen different turtlenecks.

Sure, the plot’s dumb. Sure, the goody-goody ending isn’t exactly a liberated woman’s dream come true. Sure, it’s all gloss and glitter. But I find Diana such a remarkable presence on the screen, such a natural actress, such a breathtakingly beautiful woman, that even the lousy script can’t hold her down. She’s a black Rhoda Morgenstern – lots of vitality, good taste and charm, a woman with whom one could fall in love. (Tony Perkins, by the way, is perfect in the part he always plays best – a lunatic.)

David Ritz



Coming Attractions



Bonnie and Clyde (USA 1967). Arthur Fenn’s film with Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, and Michael J. Pollard. Nov 28, 7 & 9 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Citizen Kane (USA 1941). Orson Welles’ first and greatest film, starring Welles and Joseph Cotten. (With Hitchcock’s Notorious.) Nov 23 & 24, 3 & 7 p.m. TUB Snack Bar/NTSU, Den-ton.

College (USA 1927). Buster Keaton’a silent comedy spoof of football heroism. (With Harry Langdon’s Soldier Man.) Dec 17, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia 1968). A ribald satire directed by Milos Forman. Nov 26, 7:30 & 9:30. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Henry V (Great Britain 1945). One of the few successful translations of Shakespeare to the screen, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Dec 10, 7:30 & 9:30. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

The Informer (USA 1935). John Ford’s classic about the Irish Revolution, with Victor McLa-glen. Dec 7 & 8, 3 & 7 p.m. TUB Snack Bar/ NTSU, Denton.

A Man for All Seasons (USA 1966). Paul Sco-field as Thomas More, with Wendy Hiller, Susannah York, Robert Shaw and Orson Welles, directed by Fred Zinnemann. Dec 5 & 7, call for times. Lynch Hall, U of Dallas/438-1123, x323.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (Great Britain 1935). Alfred Hitchcock’s first version, with Peter Lorre, of a film he later remade with Doris Day and James Stewart. Dec 19, 7 & 9 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Notorious (USA 1946). A delectable Ingrid Bergman, menaced by a dastardly Claude Rains, and rescued by a dashing Cary Grant in one of Hitchcock’s most stylish films. (With Citizen Kane.) Nov 23 & 24, 3 & 7 p.m. TUB Snack Bar/NTSU, Denton.

On the Waterfront (USA 1954). Vintage Marlon Brando, with Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint, and Karl Maiden, directed by Elia Kazan. Dec 5, 7 & 9 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud /Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Pretty Poison (USA 1968). A famous “sleeper,” a film that had no first-run commercial success, but developed an underground reputation; with Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Dec 12, 7 & 9 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/ Campbell Rd, Richardson.

The Producers (USA 1968). Mel Brooks madness, with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. (With What’s up Tiger Lily?) Nov 28 & 30, call for times. Lynch Hall, U of Dallas/438-1123 x323.

Rider on the Rain (France 1970). Charles Bron-son in one of the films that made him the biggest star in France; directed by René Clement. Dec 3, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

Soldier Man (USA 1926). Perpetual naif Harry Langdon in a silent comedy directed by Frank Capra. (With Keaton’s College.) Dec 17, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. UTD Founders North Aud/Campbell Rd, Richardson.

What’s up Tiger Lily? (USA 1966). Woody Allen’s hilarious dubbing of a Japanese film that was originally played straight. (With The Producers.) Nov 28 & 30, call for times. Lynch Hall, U of Dallas/438-1123 x323.

D RECOMMENDS

Alfred Hitchcock is in his fifth decade as a film-maker. As we await his new movie, The Family Plot, which has been scheduled for an Easter release, two of our university film series give us a chance to look back on some of the master’s earlier work. NTSU, up in Denton, is screening Notorious, the 1946 thriller involving spies and Nazis and lots of nefarious goings-on, on November 23 and 24. The University of Texas at Dallas has an even earlier film, the 1935 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much-a film most people know in the version in which Doris Day sings “Que Sera, Sera.” The UTD film is being shown December 19.

Music

Coping with David Allan Coe

David Allan Coe hit me like a ton of bricks.

First, he’s strong, full of pain and self-pity, the accumulation of two decades in prison, filling his head with music and C&W and black poetry. He beats the guitar until it makes sense, until it responds to his peculiar and raw sense of reality.

When Coe got out, his music exploded. Nashville bought him as a songwriter and then had to buy him as a singer. He had mastered the masters – all the Hanks and Johnny Cash. He had mastered the moderns – Merle and Waylon and Willie. He absorbed the lessons of the blacks – B.B. and Bobby Blue and Muddy and John Lee. There was nothing left to do except raise himself to the level of those he had been listening to behind steel.

If you had been in the studio audience at the KERA-TV broadcast, you would have seen it: that ferociously competitive streak which cuts through him like a knife; that longing look of fear and determination in his eyes; his name plastered across him – in silver glitter in over-sized letters, on his costume, on his belt, on his guitar strap – granting him the identity denied him in jail. And all this overcompensation, spilling out, a brutal and completely devastating performance which left me drained and even a little afraid.

The controversy about his language seemed silly and missed the point. He said bad words on the air, but they came – and no one pointed this out in the press – in the context of a chilling and poignant story about how David brought his dying and senile grandfather his picture in the New York Times. “I’m a star, Grandpa,” he shouts, hungering for approval and love, only to hear his grandfather scold him for having gotten into the news because of wrong-doing. “You don’t understand, Grandpa,” – and neither did the press.

Coe is forever carving his identity out of his songs, proving to himself and to the world that he exists. “They can’t stop me,” he wails, “I’m too good. I’m too slick.” He’s thrilled with the knowledge that the barmaid in the last town he played knew the words to all his tunes. He pinches himself, confirming his presence. To country dj’s, he’s too hippie; to hippie dj’s, he’s too country. He’s mad at everyone and overjoyed at being accepted. His songs can be like brawls. In his earlier record, Once Upon a Rhyme, he played it too safe, with echoes of Marty Robbins and even Glen Campbell. But The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy is grittier stuff, more introspective, more confessional, less guarded musically. “The 33rd of August” will live, I believe, as a classic: a prisoner sings the blues.

Coe’s voice is so strong, his technique on guitar so accomplished, that he can afford to be arrogant. Better than Dylan, better than Kris, better than the new boys like Eddie Rabbitt, Coe could make a difference in country music. Success is dangerous; it can drive us all mad, but maybe David Allan Coe knows enough to stay close to his music and keep it straight. “I’ll hang around as long as you let me,” he explains, and I hope that, in spite of the temptations of country gold, he can stay close to the spirit in the dark.

David Ritz



Vladimir Viardo at McFarlin Auditorium. Alicia de Larrocha and the Fort Worth Symphony, Ed Landreth Auditorium.



Piano aficionados recently had a chance to hear, on the one hand, a pianist whose playing is almost casually definitive, and on the other, a comer who ought to achieve that status in no time at all.

The comer, Viardo, the young Russian who won the Cliburn Competition in 1973, gave a precis of piano literature that ranged from Late Classical (Schubert) to Modern (Debussy and Prokofieff), by way of the Romantic, thanks to a pre-performance substitution of Liszt for Haydn. He has an across-the-board sympathy for Schubert, playing him for the melodic surface, which is as it should be. He has just the right handle on Schubert’s graceful, inventive, occasionally haunting Landler (Opus 171). He dances on the keyboard, obviously delighting in their pianistic mobility, and fortunately strikes a middle road between sentimentality and astringency. The A Major Sonata (Opus 120) he played with similar authority and sensitivity.

For the first half of Viardo’s unscheduled swerve to Liszt’s “Funerailles” I thought he hadn’t changed gears after Schubert. It was too mild, and Liszt even at his most lyrical is revolutionary; when there’s a calm it’s inevitably between storms. Viardo saved the performance with a big, rock solid chord sequence at the end. Then he disarm-ingly played to the audience with Debussy’s whimsical but devilishly hard “Children’s Corner,” a set of miniatures he followed with Prokovieff’s colossal Seventh Sonata. This bear of a work, fittingly called “The Stalingrad,” has rhythms that mimic artillery and melodies that bewail the endless crisis of siege and battle. The dangerously fast tempo he chose in the Allegretto cost him too many notes, but he had come a long way from Schubert’s Viennese suburbs and the trip was rewarding despite the bumps.

I came to the recital fresh from Fort Worth, where Alicia de Larrocha had played Ravel’s G Major and Left Hand Concertos. On stage she looks like a classy, a very classy Mama Cuellar, and it was obvious from the first ten bars that she meant business. She showed the orchestra a thing or two about tempo when, under John Giordano’s direction, they dragged the G Major. Ed Landreth Auditorium has the acoustical presence of a bomb shelter, but her melody line soared over the orchestra’s bandshell triple fortes, without sacrificing clarity or precision.

What energy she has! People in the hall absolutely rocked in their seats during the Concerto for the Left Hand. She rolled over strict martial tempos and sudden, immense crescendos, right hand folded in her lap (not clutching the piano for balance as mortal pianists would need to). Even the orchestra caught the intensity and anger of this musical Guernica; the work seemed more suited to them, and the hall, than the ethereal, jazzy G Major. Alicia de Larrocha makes three U.S. tours a year, and next time I would drive even further to hear her. It was an unforgettable experience.

Willem Brans

Maynard Ferguson at Mountain View.

When Maynard Ferguson’s big band played to two full houses at Mountain View College recently, it was a curious musical evening. The college kids responded to Maynard as though he might have been a rock hero, and his music had the crowds in a frenzy – screaming and leaping to their feet.

In 1975, can big band jazz be this popular among university audiences? Is it possible? Apparently so. The phenomenon is here to stay for at least a while. Press reports indicate that the orchestras of Maynard – and Kenton and Woody Herman as well – have been booked solid for several years, playing an endless string of one-nighters on campuses throughout the country.

To understand this freakish turn of events, think back to the late Fifties and Denton, Texas. There, with the emergence of North Texas’ first great lab band, it became apparent to men like Kenton that college kids could play for real and had the technical ability to dance their way through demanding arrangements. Now jump ahead a decade. These aging uncles of jazz – Woody, Stan, Maynard – see that the teenage market is unavailable to them and that the adult market (other than those relatively few fans interested in nostalgia) is also passing them by. What remains? College kids who like music and like it loud. Then why not hire a bunch of 20-year olds who can play and with whom the students in the audience can identify? Get rid of the older sidemen and position yourself as the Pied Piper. Design your charts along obvious lines. Play lots of current tunes and maybe, just maybe, it’ll work.

Well, it has. That’s what the Mountain View concert was all about. The average age of Maynard’s sidemen had to be 22 or 23. The band was the loudest I’ve ever heard. No attempt was made at variation, or shading, or subtlety. The music from Tommy, “Hey Jude,” “MacArthur Park” – Maynard pulled out all stops and showed not even a hint of respect for that delicate instrument known as the jazz orchestra. As a marketing man, Maynard is to be congratulated. As a musician – playing as loud and as high as he possibly can, pushing his band to the absolute outside limits – he has lost whatever taste he might once have possessed.

David Ritz



Waxing Critical/Recordings



Clearly Love, Olivia Newton-John (MCA) No Way to Treat a Lady, Helen Reddy (Capitol)



John Denver, that pernicious influence on American music, has something to do with these women. They seem all puff and powder, pure cosmetics. Something is appealing about both Olivia and Helen. Somewhat restrained, tastefully attired, they manage to convey a quiet sense of femininity which, unfortunately, is hollow. Olivia wants to be a hip Tammy Wynette; Helen aspires to be a modern-day Dinah Shore. Both remind me of Karen Carpenter, another singer who has been laid waste by the superficiality and light-headedness of her material. It is as though they are attempting to perpetuate the notion of innocence and finally can offer us nothing of any musical value.

David Ritz

The Original Soundtrack, 10cc (Mercury)

Much ado about nothing. Sound engineers, rock arrangers, esoteric critics have all raved about 10cc. I don’t hear it. Their hit tune, “I’m Not in Love,” is all right, but the rest of the material is ponderous, pretentious and long-winded, an elaborate and abortive effort to recreate the magic of the Beatles during their Revolver/Sgt. Pepper period.

D.R.

Nighthawks at the Diner, Tom Waits (Asylum)



A strange, attractive and very literate talk record. Waits comes out of the hip-jive-talk-with-jazz tradition of Lord Buckley, Al Jazzbo Collins and Ken Nordine, with traces of Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.

A two-record set comprised exclusively of tall tales told to a background of cool jazz, Waits’ language is something to hear – metaphorically extravagant, wildly self-indulgent and very funny.

D.R.

What a Difference a Day Makes, Esther

Phillips w/Beck (KUDU)



The title song is wonderful and has always seemed to me a loving tribute to Dinah Washington who, like Sam Cooke, grows in prestige and influence with each passing musical season. “What a Difference” is a disco single, which can often present problems, but somehow escapes the traps of the genre and emerges from its go-go surroundings as a sustaining, driving force. I wish they had concentrated on the rest of the album, though – it’s nearly impossible to get through.

D.R.



Larger than Life, Freddie King (RSO)



Suddenly Freddie is back with a good record. His success led to a string of predictably competent albums which ultimately blended one into the other. But on two cuts – “Meet Me in the Morning” and “The Things I Used to Do” – this is a special effort. On those two tunes, he’s accompanied by fellow Dallasite Fathead Newman who stirs up a sweet blues stew. Freddie’s committed as a singer here and achieves a growling, strained, convincing style as a shouter – the best he’s been since his fine Getting Ready album made with Leon Russell.

D.R.



Prisoner in Disguise, Linda Ronstadt (Asylum)

Between the Lines, Janis Ian (Columbia)



Ronstadt’s record disappointed me. Only the two soul songs – “Heat Wave” and “Tracks of My Tears” – fulfilled the promise of her last album. She’s in better voice these days, sounds strong and self-confident, but that’s not enough. Her attempt to criss-cross material and hop-scotch between musical worlds (from Smokey Robinson to Dolly Parton to James Taylor to Neil Young) may be a bit too ambitious. Often she gets caught in between and falls into empty spaces.

In some ways Janis Ian is the same sort of vocalist. Both owe an enormous debt to Carole King and both share the problem of not knowing where to go next. Ian’s record is better than Linda’s, mainly for that remarkable song “Seventeen” which sounds like Nora Ephron put to music. As a whole, though, “Behind the Lines” is inconsistent and Janis’ folk-tinged Carly Simonesque sensibility isn’t exactly a brave new world.

D.R.

Hustle to Survive, Les McCann (Atlantic)



The funky down-home million-selling soul style of Les and Ramsey Lewis and even Roberta Flack is as bad as ever. Les is singing more, but lacks distinction and emotional credibility as a vocalist. The instrumental stuff, in spite of the presence of Herbie Hancock, is enough to put you to sleep, even if you aren’t tired.

D.R.

Dreaming My Dreams, Waylon Jennings (RCA)

Waylon leaves you alone on this one and prefers to remove himself from any urgent musical or emotional concerns. Consequently, Dreaming My Dreams is his least ambitious and maybe most enjoyable record. Jennings doesn’t have a great voice, but rather a dramatic persona, and that’s what emerges here. So he is soft-spoken and low-key and quietly but passionately convinces you of his position. Only on “Bob Wills Is Still the King” – which is better than anything Wills put out – does Waylon raise the roof an inch or two off the ol’ opry house.

D.R.

Changes One, Charles Mingus (Atlantic) Changes Two, Charles Mingus (Atlantic) In Concert in Japan, The New York Jazz Quartet (Salvation)



When Mingus played at McFarlin last year it seemed like only two dozen people attended. Charlie was in a lousy mood and the concert was a bust. Now that same group – George Adams, Jack Walrath, Don Pullen, Dannie Richmond – has cut two exquisite albums which testify to the leader’s extraordinary taste and sense of radical tradition. The sound is mellow, reminiscent of Clifford Brown/Max Roach days; the melodies are captivating; the small group feel is maintained, yet everyone stretches out – especially Pullen on piano – and has opportunities to wander. The cohesion is evident from start to finish and, in a touching way, both records are tributes to Ellington whom Mingus understands and loves so deeply. “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” – with Jackie Paris’ strange vocal – and “For Harry Carney” remind me of Mingus’ “Open Letter to Duke” from the famous Ah Um record.

It’s tempting to say that the New York Jazz Quartet (with Ron Carter, Ben Riley, Roland Hanna and Frank Wess) fills the void left by the Modern Jazz Quartet. There are similarities. One hears the same refinement, impeccable taste and straight-ahead gutsy feel for the blues. Smack in the center of the mainstream, NYJQ confirms the fact that the classical modern school has not closed down. Wess’ sound on flute is beautifully full and robust, and Roland Hanna, really the record’s star, dances and sparkles all about and is especially enchanting on “Introspection.”

D.R.

Kansas City Nights, Buck Clayton and Buddy Tate, 2 LP’s (Prestige)



Part of the best reissue program going, this offering should make lovers of the KC-Basie-sidemen school very, very happy.

No one plays trumpet with more discretion and warmth than Clayton and Tate, of course, is cuddly as a teddy bear on ballads, mean as grizzly on up-tempo tunes. Together they are marvelous. Music like this knows no time, sounding as good today as when it was recorded in 1960 or first being played in 1930.

D.R.



Renata Scotto, arias by Puccini, Mascag-ni, Cilea, and Catalani (Columbia).



Some sopranos seem to think that operatic acting consists of emitting a couple of unmusical shrieks when things get exciting, or taking a pratfall so you can sing Vissi d’arte in an artfully-arranged heap on the floor. Renata Scotto, however, knows that the most effective operatic acting consists of singing the music as well as possible, which is precisely what she does on this wonderful recital album.

A verismo program like this one is an awful temptation to vulgar excess. There’s no Great Music on the record – in fact, some of it verges on Kitsch. But to hear Scotto go from the self-pitying Manon’s “Sola, perdu-ta, abbandonata” to the self-delighting Musette’s waltz aria, and from the pathetic Suor Angelica’s “Senza mamma” to the petulant Lauretta’s “O mio babbino caro,” is to learn a great deal about the characters and about how their music should be sung.

Scotto’s voice and style are not for all tastes: the top can be wiry and the interpretations are subtle, demanding for full appreciation a knowledge of the text she is singing. But if there’s a soprano currently singing with surer control of color, shading, and dynamics, who can spin out finer filo di voce, and who has a lovelier legato I haven’t heard her.

Charles Matthews

Christa Ludwig, Schubert Lieder, with Ir-win Gage, piano (Deutsche Grammophon).



When are we going to hear Christa Ludwig in Dallas? Few singers since Lotte Leh-mann have had such a stunning gift for interpreting Schubert’s songs – or any of the Lieder repertoire for that matter. As long as her tours keep passing us by, we have to content ourselves with her wonderful recordings.

This is a selection of relatively unfamiliar material, and hence a nice complement to her earlier Schubert recital (Angel 36462), a collection of standards. Ludwig has matured demonstrably as a Lieder ginger since the earlier one was made – about eight years ago. Characterizations in songs that have more than one voice tend to be more subtly delineated – compare the Erlkonig on the Angel record with the macabre Der Zwerg on the new one.

Dramatically and stylistically impeccable, Ludwig remains opulent in voice, with just a wee bit too much vibrato and not quite enough weight in the lower reaches of the voice. Her accompanist, Irwin Gage, is extraordinarily expressive – one of the best I’ve heard since Gerald Moore. In fact, the only thing wrong with this record is the women’s chorus – which sounds like a high school girls’ glee club – that backs up Ludwig on Standchen.

CM.

Nightmusic/Clubs



Le Sexy, at the Century Room.

A few months ago we expressed some skepticism about the Century Room’s revival. Allow us, if you will, to change our mind. The current show (through December) is Le Sexy, and it’s a thoroughly entertaining, somewhat risque, evening’s entertainment which is well worth a special trip downtown. The Adolphus Hotel deserves a pat on the back not only for taking the financial risk of restoring its famous nightclub, but also for responding so quickly in providing a show which fits the room’s character so well. Special mentions go to Joey Skilburn for his adept female impersonation and to Leigh Cassidy and Michael Fullington for a wonderfully sensual dance routine.



Arthur’s. Mon-Sat, Barbara & John Kaufman and Joe Lively. Sundays, Abby Hamilton and The Sundowners. (1000 Campbell Centre/361-8833/Seven days a week till 2 a.m.)

Bagatelle. Tue-Sat, Paul Guererro Group with Jeannie Maxwell. Entertainment begins at 8:30 p.m. (One Energy Square, Greenville Ave at Uniuersity/692-8224/Bar till 1:30 a.m. nightly)

Bellmaster. Mon-Sat, Patty Sterling-Whitey Thomas Trio. Entertainment begins at 7:15 p.m. (Carillon Plaza, 13601 Preston Rd/66l-9353/Bar till midnight, till 2 a.m. Fri & Sat)

Century Room. Le Sexy, a cabaret revue produced by Breck Wall, runs through December. Two shows nightly, Tues-Sat: Dinner show, 9 p.m., $12; late show, 11 p.m., $6 (9:30 and 11:30 weekends). Reservations. (Adolphus Hotel, 1321 Commerce/747-6411)

Downstairs at the Registry. Through Nov 29, Katherine Chase. Dec 1-20, Jesse Lopez. Dec 29-Jan 17, Floyd Dakil. Two shows each night at 9 & 11, Mon-Sat. Cover charge varies. Bar by membership. (Registry Hotel, Mockingbird at Stemmons /630-7000)

Electric Ballroom. Nov 29, 10 cc. Dec 6, Argent. Dec 27, Freddie King’s First Annual Christmas Party. Other bookings not set at press time; call for updated information. Cover charge varies. (1011 S. Industrial at Cadiz/7477877)

Enclave. Through Nov 29, Mark Franklin. Dec 1-21, Wayne Mitchum. Mon-Sat; entertainment begins 8:30 weekdays, 9 p.m. weekends. (8325 Walnut Hill/363-7487/Bar till midnight nightly)

The Great Indoors. The Jerry Hitt Trio performs. Second Sunday of every month is a concert style presentation – shows at 8, 10 and 12. (5728 E. Lovers Ln./6920557/MonSat 7 p.m.-2 a.m.)

Harper’s Corner. Through December, Chris and Pam. Mon-Sat, entertainment begins at 8:30 p.m. (Hilton Inn, 5600 N Cen Expwy at Mockingbird Ln/827-8460/Bar till 2 a.m. nightly)

Longhorn Ballroom. Nov 28, Hank Thompson. Dec 20, Micky Gilley. Cover varies. (216 Corinth at Industrial/428-3128/Tue-Thur 8:30-12, Fri & Sat, 9-2)

Mother Blues. Nov 24-26, Michael Jeffries. Nov 27-29, Bees Knees. Nov 30-Dec 1, Uncle Rainbow. Dec 2-3, Hoyt Axton. Dec 4-7, Michael Rabon. Dec 8-10, Steve Fromholtz. Dec 11-14, The Bugs Henderson Group. Dec 15-17, Billy Swan. Dec 18-21, Jay Wise. Dec 26-28, Space Opera. Cover varies, $2-$4. No cover week-nights with local bands. (4015 Lemmon/528-3842/till 2 a.m. seven days a week)

Sneaky Pete’s. Nov 24-Dec 7, Lightning. Dec 8-13, Lynx. Dec 15-20, King Zamp. Dec 22-27, Texas Rose. Cover: $1 weekdays, $2 weekends, unescorted ladies always free. (714 Medallion Ctr/368-9I07/Mon-Sat 7 p.m.-2 a.m.)

Venetian Room. Nov 24-29, Cab Calloway. Dec 1-13, Frankie Avalon. Two shows nightly: weekdays 8:30 and 11, weekends 9 and 11:30. Cover varies, $8-$15. Reservations. (Fairmont Hotel, Ross and Akard/748-5454)

Wintergarden Ballroom. Alternating ten-piece house bands: Gary Lee Band and Sandy Sandi-fer Band. Dec 26, Jack Melick. Admission $4. BYOB. (1616 John West Rd/327-6265/8 p.m.-1 a.m., Wed, Fri & Sat)



Duly Noted/Concerts



Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The season resumes with performances of Handel’s Messiah, 8:15 p.m., on December 19 and 20. Soloists include soprano Susan Davenny Wyner and bass Thomas Paul, with the Dallas Civic Chorus and the East Texas State University Chorus. Music Hall, Fair Park/826-7000.

Dallas Civic Opera. The 1975 season ends with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, featuring tenor Jon Vickers and soprano Roberta Knie, on December 6, 9, and 13. Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, with soprano Marina Krilovici and tenor Jack Trussel will be presented November 23, 25, and 28. Tickets available from the DCO box office, 368-1461, and Titche’s, 748-9841. Music Hall, Fair Park.

SMU Division of Music. Christmas in Song and Dance will be presented by the SMU music and dance divisions December 4 and 6 at 8:15 p.m. in the Bob Hope Theater, $1. The SMU Choir and Women’s Chorus, conducted by Lloyd Pfautsch, present a concert in Caruth Auditorium, 4 p.m., December 7, free. The Dallas Civic Symphony, conducted by Lee Schaenen, performs at 8:15 p.m., December 8, in Caruth Auditorium, $3/$1 SMU community. The SMU Symphonic Band, conducted by William Lively, presents a concert December 9 at 8:15 p.m. in Caruth Auditorium, free. For ticket information call 692-2573.

Mountain View College. A Christmas Happening will be presented by the Mountain View College Choir and Lab Band in the Main Lounge, at 12:15 p.m. on December 9. 4849 W Illinois/746-4100.

Community Course. DeMaio and Silver, duo-pianists, appear December 2 at 8:15 p.m. in Mc-Farlin Auditorium. Admission by season ticket only. Call 692-2261 or 692-2262 for information.

Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. The Chancel Choir will perform Randall Thompson’s The Nativity According to St. Luke, December 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Asbury Hall. NW Hwy at Inwood/691-4721.

St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. The Kyrie and Gloria from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor will be performed by the Oratorio Choir, soloists, and members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m., December 21. It will be followed by a candlelight procession and Christmas carols sung by the church’s combined choirs. 8011 Douglas.

Fine Arts Concerts at the University of Texas Health Science Center include performances by Norma Davidson, violinist, on November 24 at 12 noon in Gooch Auditorium, and Jerry Hunt, composer and performer of electronic music, December 17, time and place to be announced. 5323 Harry Hines/688-3111.

North Texas State University, Denton. Concerts to be presented on the campus include: Lab Band Fall Concert, Main Auditorium, 8 p.m. November 25. NTSU Symphony Orchestra, Music Recital Hall, 8:15 p.m., December 3.

Fort Worth Opera Association. La Boheme, by Puccini, opens the 1975-76 season with performances November 21 and 23 in the Tarrant County Convention Center. Tickets available from the Fort Worth Opera Association/3505 W Lancaster/Fort Worth 76107/(817) 738-6291.

D RECOMMENDS

It’s hard to believe that, up to this season, the Dallas Civic Opera has done only one German opera, Fidelio, in its dis-tinguished history. Its first venture into the Wagnerian repertoire, however, is an ambitious one, a production of Tristan and Isolde, featuring the fore-most Tristan of our era, Jon Vickers. It’s characteristic of the Civic Opera that it should be taking chances on a relatively unknown singer, Roberta Knie, who will be performing Isolde. * And as always, secondary casting has , been attended to with care, particu-larly the hiring of the distinguished ! English mezzo-soprano, Josephine Veasey, to handle the role of Brangane. , Performances are December 6, 9 and 13.

Sports



Grandstanding



Basketball/SMU Mustangs. Moody Coliseum, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $3.

Dec 2 vs. University of Kansas

Dec 6 vs. East Texas State

Dec 16 vs. New Mexico State



Football/Dallas Cowboys. Texas Stadium. Tickets: reserved $10, general admission $6. 369-3211.

Nov 23 vs. Philadelphia Eagles, 1 p.m.

Nov 30 vs. New York Giants, 1 p.m.

Dec 13 vs. Washington Redskins, 2:30 p.m.



Hockey/Dallas Black Hawks. State Fair Coliseum. All games at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $2.S0-$5.50. 823-6362.

Nov 28 vs. Tulsa

Dec 6 vs. Fort Worth

Dec 10 vs. Tucson

Dec 12 vs. Oklahoma City

Dec 17 vs. Tulsa

Dec 20 vs. Fort Worth

Dec 27 vs. Fort Worth



Quarter Horse Racing/Ross Downs. Hwy 121, 4 miles southwest of Grapevine, 481-1071. From 9-19 races every Sunday, year ’round, beginning at 1 p.m. Adults $2 children $1.



Rugby/The Texas Rugby Union now has five Dallas area teams: Dallas Harlequins, Our Gang, Dallas Rugby Club, SMU Rugby Club, and Wildebeeste. Matches are played every Saturday and occasional Sundays at Glencoe Park (Martel Ave at North Central Expwy) and Merriman Park (6800 Skillman at Merri-man Lane). Spectators invited, free. For information and exact schedule of matches, call Randy Langston at 350-9045.



Thoroughbred Horse Racing/Louisiana Downs. Every Thursday through Monday until Dec 21. (The second segment of the season will run from Jan 2 to Feb 1.) Located in Bossier City, Louisiana on IH 20 (about three hours drive from Dallas). Nine or ten races daily except Tue and Wed; post time 12:35. Grandstand $1, Clubhouse $2.50, plus $1 entrance fee. For information, call (318) 742-5555.



Theater



The Dallas Theater Season: Some False Starts



Our Town, at the Dallas Repertory Theatre.

Six Characters in Search of an Author, at Theatre SMU.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, at the Dallas Theater Center.

When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? at Theatre Three.



The play is still the thing. Banal as that sounds, some of our leading theater groups, to judge by their season openers, don’t seem to know it.

Take, for example, our most famous and respected company, the Dallas Theater Center. Its play, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, was an interminable, boring “Italian comedy” – one of the inevitable spinoffs from the Neiman’s Fortnight – with about as much appeal as week-old fettucini. Eduardo de Filippo’s play may have had some vitality on its home stage in Italy, and Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright and Frank Finlay may have been able to animate it in London, but the Italian middle-class style and idiom were beyond the reach of the Dallas company. We’ve seen all this mama-in-the-kitchen, papa-thinks-he’s-a-cuckold, grandpa-is-a-lovable-dod-derer twice too often.

The Dallas Repertory Theatre wheeled out a Bicentennial spinoff, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which should be sent back to the high schools. It’s hard to believe anyone ever believed this smug and saccharine play was a faithful picture of small-town life. That our leading community theater should waste its time on this three-act Norman Rockwell illustration is sad indeed.

The DRT gave Wilder’s play a better production than it deserves. I particularly liked Miles Mutchler and Joan Foy – two of Dallas’ best character actors – as the Gibbses, investing their treacly, Father-Knows-Best roles with dignity and humor.

SMU at least chose a fine play, Pirandello’s cerebral yet passionate Six Characters. But director Louis Criss was unable to get his student actors loose and un-self-conscious enough – especially the ones called on to play themselves, a harder job for an actor than you might imagine – to establish the realistic framework that this exploration of the aesthetic problem of illusion and reality needs. As so often happens when part of a play is improvised, there was too much uneasy dove-tailing with portions of the original script. We can believe, for example, that an SMU student, witnessing an unexpected moment of tormented passion, would cry out “Hey, what is this – All My Children?” but not that he would say, at another moment, “That is preposterous.”

Still, this muddled, unfocused production had its moments. Stuart Culpepper was a suave and convincing Father, whose key speeches about the nature of artistic truth seemed like a dry-as-dust lecture on aesthetics only because the production failed to establish an emotional context for them. I also liked David Lancaster’s icy Son.

But the real excitement in town was to be found – as it so often is – at Theatre Three. Mark Medoff has a sure sense of theatrical rhythms and conventions. His play, When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? is derivative, from Inge’s Bus Stop and Sherwood’s Petrified Forest and other melodramas about ill-assorted people thrown together in out-of-the-way places and menaced by psychotic loners. And it suffers from the compulsion to Tell It Like It Is About America that is already making some plays and movies of the Sixties and early Seventies look as dated as the agitprop drama of the Thirties. Still, it is provocative and entertaining – a rare enough conjunction.

A large measure of the success of Theatre Three’s production must be due to Norma Young’s direction, keeping her actors restrained and suitably bemused by their predicament – it is an easy play to overplay. Dick Hooser’s Teddy was a phenomenal performance – one of the most exciting I have seen on a Dallas stage. A less skillful actor would have kept Teddy in constant eruption. Hooser knows that you have to coil in order to strike, and his outbursts of manic energy came like lightning. It’s almost unfair to single out another performer from such a fine company, but Cecilia Flores’ uptight, terrified, fascinated and resourceful character was particularly well-drawn.

Charles Matthews



In the Wings/piays

Dallas Theater Center. Manny, a musical version of Everyman, runs through Dec 27. Tues-Fri 8 p.m., Sat 8:30 p.m. Tickets $4.25-$5.50/students $3. 3636 Turtle Creek/526-8857.

Theatre Three. When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? will play through November 23. The Member of the Wedding opens December 3 and runs through January 11. (No performances during Christmas week.) Wed-Sat 8:30, Sun 7 p.m. and 2:30 matinee on alternate Sundays. Tickets $3-$5.50 with student and group discounts. Quadrangle/748-5191.

Mountain View College. Jesus Christ, Superstar, will be performed December 4-7 at 8:15 p.m. in the Performance Hall. Admission $1. 4849 W Illinois/ 746-4100.



DINNER THEATERS



Country Dinner Playhouse. Bob Crane opens in Beginner’s Luck on Nov 25; the play runs through December 21. Tues-Sun dinner 6:45, show 8 p.m. Tickets $6.95-$9.75; group rates for 24 or more. 11829 Abrams at LBJ/231-9457.

Gran’ Crystal Palace. A cabaret-style musical revue is performed every evening, dinner 8 p.m., show 10 p.m., $12.50. 2416 Swiss/824-1263.

Granny’s Dinner Playhouse. The Rusty Warren Show will be presented through Nov 30. The New Kingston Trio will perform Dec 2-11, with an added late show every night including Monday. The New Christy Minstrels perform Dec 12-21, every night, with a late show. Here Today, starring Nanette Fabray, opens Dec 23. Tues-Sat dinner 7, show 8:15 p.m. Tickets $6.85-$10.75. 12205 Coit Rd/239-0153.

The Great American Melodrama Theatre. Dracula closes November 23. Next show title unavailable at press time. Thurs 7:30; Fri & Sat 7:30 & 11; Sun 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. $2.50 admission. Hamburgers, etc., $1.80. 316 Hillside Village/821-3540.

Windmill Dinner Theater. Nice Faces of 1943 runs through November 30. Tues-Sun, dinner 6:30, show 8:30; Sunday matinee, lunch 12:30, show 2 p.m. $6.60-$9.75, matinee $5.50 for under 21. 4811 Keller Springs Rd/239-9104.



CHILDREN’S THEATER



Junior Players’ Guild. The Junior Players’ Guild Bicentennial celebration, America in Song and Verse, will be trouping DISD schools in December. For further information, call Jane Hook, 363-4278 or 351-4962.

Kathy Burks Marionettes. The Christmas Fantasy opens December 3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs begins December 26. Wed, Thurs and Sat at 11:30 a.m., 1, 3, and 4 p.m. and Thurs at 7:30 p.m. Tickets 75 cents. 011a Podri-da/12215 Coit Rd/387-0807.

Looking-Glass Playhouse. A musical version of The Little Match Girl runs through December 28. Performances are Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets $1.75. 11171 Harry Hines, Suite 120/247-7748.

Magic Turtle Series. Lady Liberty runs every Saturday through Dec 6, at 10:30 a.m. Poc-ahontas will be performed from December 13. Season tickets, for four shows, are $5.25. Dallas Theater Center/3536 Turtle Creek/526-8920.

Theatre SMU. Klownz will be performed in the Margo Jones Theater December 3-7. Admission $1. Call for times. Owen Arts Center/692-2573.

Casa Manana. Babes in Toyland will be performed December 6, 13, and 20, at 2 p.m. Call for ticket information. 3101 West Lancaster, Fort Worth/(817) 332-6221.



Etc.



Enlightenment



Candlelight Tours of Old City Park, sponsored by the Dallas County Heritage Society, will be held December 12, 13, and 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Among the events and activities will be a dramatization of the lighting of the city’s first Christmas tree, which supposedly took place in the home of German immigrants Mr. and Mrs. R.S. Eisenlohr in the 1870’s. The re-enactment will take place each evening at 6 and 7 p.m. in Millermore. Other activities include taffy pulls for children, sale of home-cooked items, and music performed by the Highland Park Presbyterian Church Recorders, the Renacimento Singers, the White High School Folk Singers, and other groups. Admission is $1 for adults and 50￠ for children. The park is located at the corner of R.L. Thornton and St. Paul. For information on activities call 421-1545 or 421-7800.

Temple Shalom Scholars Forum presents Dr. Jacob Neusner, Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University, on December 18 at 8 p.m. in the Temple Sanctuary, Hillcrest at Alpha Rd/661-1810.

Master Classes by Operatic Artists. Tenor Jon Vickers speaks on “The Artist’s Credo” at noon, December 10, in a series of classes sponsored by the Dallas Civic Opera and the SMU Opera Theatre. Choral Hall, Room H-100, of the Owen Arts Center at SMU. Single tickets are $10. Call 692-2839 or 692-2643 for information.

Management Classics Lecture Series at the University of Dallas, sponsored by the Graduate School of Management, presents Charles Ferguson, management consultant at Lifson, Wilson, Ferguson, and Winick, Inc., December 2. On December 10, Calvin O. Walters, Jr., Chairman of the Board of San Martin Winery will speak, and on December 15, Robert G. Lynch, Dean of the Graduate School of Management, will speak. All lectures at 5:30 p.m. in Lynch Hall. Admission free. University Drive, Irving.

YWCA branches sponsor a variety of activities for children. The Garland and Irving YWCAs will hold “Santa’s Workshops” at which children can make and wrap Christmas presents while their parents shop. (Irving, 623 E Second, Dec 6, 13, and 20 9:30 a.m.-12 noon for children 6-12. Garland, 135 E Walnut, Dec 6 and 13 for children 6-9, Dec 9 and 10 for pre-schoolers, 10-11:30 a.m.) The Central YWCA, 4621 Ross, and the Oak Cliff branch, 1811 S Hampton, will conduct a holiday fun club for elementary school children, Dec 22-Jan 2, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Children will participate in arts and crafts, sports, field trips and other activities. Fees are $20 for one child, $15 for each additional child. The Richland Park YWCA in Richardson sponsors a Christmas shop for children at the West Shore Methodist Church. Children under 12 may buy presents for $1 and under – adults not allowed in the shop. The gifts include items donated by local merchants, and handmade items made by senior citizens groups. Open Mon-Sat, Dec 14-25, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

A pinata party at the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library, December 6 at 2:30 p.m. (ages 7-11) and December 9 at 3:30 p.m. (ages 4-6), is one of many events for kids being held at library branches in December. Dance recitals, puppet shows, films, story hours, and Christmas parties are held at all branches. Check with your local branch for further information.



Good Deeds



International Food and Fashion Fare at the Central YWCA, 4621 Ross Ave, December 12, at 6:30 p.m. will feature a buffet dinner of international dishes and a fashion show with men’s and women’s styles from around the world. Proceeds will go to the YWCA World Mutual Service Fund. For further information call 827-5600.

Christmas Potpourri Sale at the Park North YWCA, 4434 W NW Hwy,Dec 5 and 6, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., will feature handcrafted items and clothing. Proceeds from sales go to the YWCA.



Kidstuff



Rugrat Special on KERA FM 90, features stories and music for children, Sundays, 7-10 a.m. November 30: Fables and Fairy Tales by Leo Tolstoy, and The Book of Dragons, read by Judith Anderson. December 7: Ian Fleming’s Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, read by Hermione Gingold. December 14: The Railway Children, read by Lionel Jeffries. December 21: The Night Before Christmas, read by Carol Chan-ning, followed by Christmas carols and a dramatization of Where Have All the Chimneys Gone?, a story about Santa’s problems in the age of central heat. December 25: Carol Chan-ning reads The Year Without Santa Claus and other Christmas stories.