Pig. 8 - The Dally Iowan - Iowa City. Iowa - Tuesday. June 8, 1982 Arts and entertainDlent Star of 'Dreamgirls' highlights 'Hanky Panky' a po'or vehicle otherwise boring Tony program for talents of Radner, Wilder By ROllnn. T, Muell.r reprise the song that made Mary Mar- women who have ties to a man glimpsed in the opening Acting Arts/ Entertal nment Editor tin a star - "My Heart Belongs 1.0 By ROllnne T. Muell.r Acting Arts/ Entertainment Edllor scenes who hangs himself. That the whole thing never Daddy," a number that incidentally really gels - for example, we never learn who the Can the Tony Awards be going the featured an unknown Gene Kelly as an Gene Wilder is one of the most naturally funny men thugs , led by Richard Widmark, are or why they want way of the Oscars? The Sunday night Eskimo in the background when It alive, yet the last great comedic role he had was in Mel the computer tape - wouldn't matter so much if direc- show was one of the dullest on record, bowed on Broadway many years ago. tor Sidney Poi tier kept his mind on the comedy. But thanks to borderline entertainment and Brooks' YOUDg Frankenstein. Since then , Wilder's Ann Miller, the woman whose hair maniacal comic persona has showed up in vehicles har- characters keep getting introduced and complications a dismaying lack of star power. Still, it keep piling up so that you 're forced to try to follow the did offer a surprising theme by ac- sports the plastic look but whose legs dly worth bothering with. His new movie, Hanky Panky, will go on forever , made like a living comes dangerously close to failing into that same hole. plot. tua lIy giving tribute, however baelman- The previews would have you believe Hanky Panky is ded, to theater critics. "follow the bouncing ball" when she tapped her way across the words to an unending series of outrageous situations and laughs, THAT SERVES to slow Wilder down and drive Rad- Tony Randall, dressed in jeans and a "Time to Start Livin' " from Pippin in given energy not only by Wilder but by fading ner into confu sion. Since her "Saturday Night Live" giant turtleneck, opened the show by a not-terribly-successful effort to get "America's Sweetheart" Gilda Radner . What you get days, Radner has failed to find a niche. Two Broadway impersonating one of the people most the theater audience singing along. instead is a complicated plot ahout a stolen computer plays have come and gone as well as two other movies. theater types either tolerate or out- And speaking of living corpses, it's just tape that contains plans for a top secret weapons That she seems even less sure of herself in Haaky and-out hate. Throughout the show , he plain painful to see Ginger Rogers system as well as a few dead bodies, innumerable Panky than she did in either Gilda Live! , the film ver· periodically read barbed comments hoist herself up in every awards show chase scenes and enough close-ups of Radner's big sian of her Broadway show, or First Family, is because from some of the more famous New that comes a long. brown eyes to last a lifetime. her character here lies halfway between romantic York critics about the various shows leading woman and "I Love Lucy." She seems losl that had been at New York's Imperial The out-and-out gaffes were more THE MOVIE IS best when Wilder is at full throttle - without a mannerism to exaggerate or a voice to Theater. By show's end, however, Ran- maddening than entertaining this year. his pale eyes darting, his blowaway kinky hair standing mimic. You keep waiting for her to screw up her faCi! dall got a little of his own back by call- James Earl Jones stumbled over on end and his body inertia at fever pitch. His reactions into that lopsided Emily Litella grin and say "Never ing his part of a drama critic "a words as difficult as "portrait," and are those of the little man gone haywire - the com- mind," but she can't and she doesn't. demeaning role." Television Hal Linden absolutely blew it when he moner gone berserk. Outwardly calm and eager to Poi tier does know how to film spectacular explosions announced winners of Tonys awarded please, Wilder's characters hold in them a raging bull, and narrow escapes, but seems to have let these action- I can testify to his meaning that. I before the telecast. Minneapolis's detonated when their middle class sensibilities are filled elements get in the way of the gold mine of com- reviewed Randall when he was touring usual producers, directors and com- Guthrie Theater, which won for best about to be invaded . edic talent at his fingertips. He did the same thing in with The Music Man and didn't exactly pany members to Jesus Christ and regional theater, should sue for In Hanky Panky , Wilder plays a Chicago architect Stir Crazy. But then that movie was one of the biggest pra ise his performance. When I later Euripedes. Charles Dickens' name defamation of character. visiting New York who becomes innocently involved moneymakers of 1980. There's more than hanky paoky had to contact him for some other cropped up a few times, too. with sadistic thugs , National Security agents and two going on here . slory - he refused to march in a The first sign of any performing life THE ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT parade that would have guns in it - he didn 't come until Michele Lee stepped made a statement that sounded faintly came with Jennifer Holliday blowing out in a hot, red flapper costume pay- everybody away with her song from familiar. It turned out he was quoting ing tribute to a musical hit of the past. back to me what I had said about him Dreamgirls. Incredible ! If she hadn't She actually seemed to be enjoying won the Tony for outstanding perfor- in my review. I didn't know whether to herself and was not overly conscious of Electronic music seminar set be angry or flattered he had read it. mance in a musical, God should have the fact she was playing 1.0 many let the theater collapse. One of the pioneers of electronic He began a series of experiments in remain's active composing electronic millions of people. Such was not the music, Vladimir Ussachevsky. is com- 1951 with electronic music , his main in- music . case with Robert Goulet in a Mountie The big controversy before the show ing to the UI for a special seminar at 3 terest being the manipulation of tape NONETHELESS, Randall wasn 't the Among his students are such noted I uniform lip-synching the words from was toning down the featured song p.m. Wednesday in Room 1020 of the recordings. He helped establish the only one to broach the subject of from the nominated Nine, the hit show electronic musicians as Charles critics. The winner of an acting award "Rose Marie." Why doesn 't someone Music Building. Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music tell him he's not so great looking based on Fellini's movie, 8~. It was to The Manchurian-born Ussachevsky Wuorinen, Jon Appleton and Pril for MASTER HAROLD .. ,and tbe Boys Center at Columbia, which has been ac- Smiley , all of whom have performedal anymore? have been a song called " A Call from came to the United States as a child tive since 1958. In addition to housing thanked the critics, "for without them, VI. the Vatican" sung by a scantily clad and attended the Eastman School of the best of the electronic composers , the you wouldn 't have heard about WHILE CHER went down for the fe male. Instead, they had a number MASTER HAROLD. " Music in Rochester, N.Y. He has been the center became the home of the first The seminar Wednesday, ",hieh is count in her Broadway flop of this sung by a hefty, but well-endowed a professor of music at Columbia Un- electronic synthesizer. free and open to the public, will feature Actually, one of the few pleasures of year, Come Back to the Five and woman telling little boys how to be iversity for more than 30 years and is In recent years, Ussachevsky has Ussachevsky lecturing on current the show was hearing just who the win- Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, she "Italian." And you know what that recognized as one of the early propo- been artist-in-residence at the Univer- developments in electronic music . He ners thanked. They ranged from the recovered enough Sunday night to means. nents of electronic music. sity of Utah in Salt Lake City and still will also play tape samples of his work.

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