ANCEBALL 9TH STREET _ At 5th St. & Red River Austin ~ Former Miss Gay Texas plus Male Dancers & More Special Guests Show starts promptly at 11 :30pm Happ, Hour Prices Till 1Opm 13th and Lavaca • (512) 474-6481 VOLUME 21, NUMBER 39 DECEMBER 1 • 7, 1995 14 THEATRE Stage Musical Farce Ruthless Hits San Antonio Reviewed by Bruce Williams 18 HIGHLIGHT Dallas' Turtle Creek Chorale AssistsHIV-Affected Through Its TCC AIDS Fund by Chris Gray 25 ON OUR COVER The AIDS Memorial Quilt Is Focus of World AIDS Day Observances ThisWeekend in Dallas by Chris Gray 31 FRESH BEATS Musical Ideas for Holiday Gift-Giving by Jimmy Smith 39 CURRENT EVENTS 45 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 51 BACKSTAGE Out and Outrageous Jason Stuart Plays Houston Dec. 11 and 12 57 STARSCOPE Planetary Pileup in Sagittarius/Capricorn May Help Big Wishes Come True 67 SPORTS Houston's Lambda Rollerskating Club Hosts Benefits ThisMonth 68 TEXAS NEWS "Day Without Art" Remembers Those Lost to HIV 73 TEXAS TEA Fall Festivities Across Texas 82 CLASSIFIEDS 91 OBITUARIES 93 GUIDE TWT (This Week In Texas) Is published by Texas Weekly Times Newspaper Co" at 3300 Reagan Street in Dallas. 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Austin - Robert Jackson (512) 832-1396 • Dallas / Fort Worth - Steve Miles (214) 521-0622 Houston / Galveston - Steve Nally (713) 527-9111 • San Antonio / Corpus Christi - Jeff Linthicum (210) 754-5837 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING • Dallas Chris Gray • Houston Brian Keever TWT © 1995 Texas Weekly Times Newspaper Company SHANE RUFF,PRESIDENT I CEO I DIRECTOR ROY KLAUS I CO-DIRECTOR Represented Nationally by RivendeU Marketing, Inc. $1.60 well, $1.26 longnex, $2 Skyy Seven days a week. ON TIME, ANY TIME, EVERY TIME. UB. BLAST" Every Night ~ Yes, EVERY NIGHT from 8pm until Closing $2.75 Buy-In and 25¢ Refills THE :: ART OF dj ILLUSION f!~is Wee~end eSFecial [Juest G}{ofi ~911CEdAR SpRiNGS, DALLAs, TEXAS (214) ~80,[email protected] REVIEWED BY BRUCE WILLIAMS Tom Preston [top], Anna Gangai [lower I] and Jennifer Marie Pompa are Sylvia Sf. Croix, Judy Denmark and Tina Denmark in the showbiz farce Ruthless, now being pre- r- sented by Actors' Theatre of San Antonio. R" :.··~U"..".:T""'~"'."H'L"..i. E,: .-.S' ..'"S7 •"...¥ . house, cooking and practicing her mantra, Spares No One in Giving "I'll get itl,' every time she hears a bell, Sylvia sets out to earn stardom for Tina - Alamo City Audiences braces, taps and all. The grand prize is the A Laugh-Filled Evening As coveted title role in Tina's school play, Pippi Longstocking in Tahiti; unfortunately, the "Stage Mother of All Musicals" lead goes to Tina's archrival, Louise Ler- man, while Tina has to settle for the part of uthless is aptly described as the Puddles, Pippi's dog. R "stage mother of all musicals," and this Unless, of course, something were to melodramatic comedy farce is pure joy happen to Louise, in which case under- from beginning to end as it sends up stage study Tina would become the star. But per- mothers and child prodigies and their clas- ish the thought, right? Right? sic anything-for-stardom attitudes. Written Well, the sad news comes over the radio in 1989 by Joel Paley, with music by Marvin shortly before Pippi is to open: Louise Laird, Ruthless receives its first non- (Ariel Miranda Rosen) has tragically hung Equity, nonprofessional presentation from herself with a jump-rope from the catwalk Actors' Theatre of San Antonio. They do at the theatre. Now Tina is the star and has this vastly underrated show proud with eight hours to master the role of Pippi. their enthusiasm and superb timing and Enter Lita Encore (Ayn Eisenstein Phil- reactions. lips), Tina's grandmother and the adoptive The all-female character lineup includes mother of Judy who's also a top theatre a number of roles that can be handled by critic. Lita rasps out the fun "I Hate Mu- actors of either gender, and Tom Preston sicals" ("If I want helicopters, I'll go to the roars head- (and hair- and claws-) first into airport! ... "), then trades cats' claws with the part of Sylvia St. Croix, a cross Sylvia as both try to help prepare Tina. between Mama Rose and Auntie Mame Only Judy doesn't fawn over the child who's an old star of the footlights and prodigy, admonishing her when she admits eager to guide ten-year-old Tina Denmark to having a hand in Louise's death ("You (Jennifer Marie Pompa) into stardom. didn't have to kill her; you could have hurt Tina's mother Judy (the sensational Anna her!") and punishinq her by sending her to Gangai), a June Lockhart clone if ever her room. It's shortly thereafter that Judy there was one, is less bitten by the acting learns the truth, that she's really Ginger, bug ... or so it initially seems; but Judy also Ruth Del Marco's daughter, and the revela- has a hidden past - it turns out her real tion leaves her with a nervous twitch ("I'm mother was the diva Ruth Del Marco, who talented! It's there in my blood! ... Oh God, I supposedly committed suicide over bad feel so dirty and cheap.") and the bug for opening-night reviews, leaving Judy, acting and the attendant attention. whose real name is Ginger Del Marco, to There's a two-year gap between the end be adopted and to let her stage talents and of Act I and the start of Act II, deftly han- aspirations lie dormant dled in the opening scene after intermis- While Judy is content as a ditzy Donna sion. Tina's done time in a reform school Reed ("I know! I'm a Libra!"), cleaning for the criminally talented, and Judy/Ginger PAGE 14 TWT DECEMBER 1 - DECEMBER 71995 has become a big star and now has her own personal assistant, Eve (Rita Spiegel). The stage is set for Tina's release and homecoming, more amazing revelations about people who aren't who or what they seem, and concluding showdowns with guns and bullets that leave dead bodies all over Ginger's living room. While Act II isn't quite as fun as the first (the loss of the ditzy Judy's innocence leaves the audience with no one to identify with or feel sorry for), it's still full of laughs, surprises and enjoyment. When the final shot had been fired and the final body had fallen, the applause was loud, long and well-deserved. Gangai is magnificent in her Jekyll-and- Hyde role transformations, while Preston makes a superb diva in to-die-for outfits and attitude. Pompa gives an excellent turn as a wanna-be child star, though she's not quite the same in natural enthusiasm for the second act. Rosen, Spiegel, Trish Hukill (as teacher Myrna Thorn, living through her students in Pippl) and Angela Hoeffler (as journalist Emily Block, trying to interview Judy/Ginger for Modern Thes- pian) all have standout moments and help to keep the entertaining action flowing. Directors Kevin Johnson and Lynn Zalc- berg and musical director Chris Tackett have done a great job in taking what could have been a complicated, confusing story and making it both easy and fun for the cast and the audience. Technically, the show runs smoothly and neatly, with any glitches being incorporated as if they were part of the production. The lighting by James Estes and the sound by Tackett are very good; the sets of Matt Wansler and Gordon Delgado, designed by Frank Thomas, are perfectly suitable, busy but not distracting from or impeding the constant action. The Main Avenue Studio, where this play is being presented, includes a large pillar supporting the ceil- ing that could block the view from some angles or interfere with some of the action, but the stage planners and directors get around it nicely in their blocking work. • Ah, show business. Ruthless it is, and always will be. Thank heavens! Ruthless runs through Dec. 31 at the Ac- tors'Theatre of San Antonio ~ Main Avenue Studio, 1608 N. Main St. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2:30 p.m.