The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 2000 Page: 15 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER
10, 2000
15
legend of Bagger Vance' not up to par
VANCE, from Page 13
and offers his caddy services for
the fee of $5 and a pair of shoes.
This, of course, is none other
than Bagger Vance (Will Smith),
the one person who can help lo-
cate Junuh's lost swing.
The remainder of the movie
focuses on the four rounds of the
golf tournament, and on the four
particular relationships Junuh at-
tempts to establish or restore —
with his caddy, the child, Adele
and, of course, himself.
Unfortunately, since the only
aspect of the movie given any
significant attention is the tourna-
ment itself, there is no way to
remotely care for any single char-
acter, and it never once appears
that any form of storytelling is
actually taking place.
In order to compensate for the
lack of a script, Redford embel-
lishes and leaves his stamp at
every given opportunity through the
use of a poorly chosen musical
score, dreary Depression imagery,
repeated and ubiquitous dialogue,
and Me extremely annoying treat-
ment of the local inhabitants with
their News/es-like responses to ev-
erything golf-related.
Sentimental movies that work
— like The Shawshank Redemp-
tion, Field of Dreams and One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest — play
extremely well with audiences be-
cause the story earns the senti-
mental conclusion. Otherwise, the
audience feels cheated, because
the filmmaker decides to take the
easy way out by tacking on an
ending that doesn't fit with the
rest of the picture.
In essence, this is the problem
with Bagger Vance. There is no
story to begin with, so the entire
movie feels like one protracted
scheming closing sequence where
1
M Jptl
DAVIO JAMES/DREAMWORKS
Bagger Vance (Will Smith) helps Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) find his
swing from days gone by in The Legend of Bagger Vance.
'Yankees' covers most bases
every action and plot twist is
telegraphed and nothing feels
genuine or heartfelt.
The only redeeming quality of
this movie is the fact that 20th
Century Fox finally chose a film
with an appropriate enough movie
title and "plot" to make it impos-
sible for Will Smith to create some
new hip-hop dance spectacle. Be
appreciative of small things, but
also stay away from this movie.
YANKEES, from Page 12
Joe is very sweet, especially in the
songs "A Man Doesn't Know" and
"Near to You," although both were
marred by microphone problems.
Weyand has a beautiful but soft voice,
and her microphone only worked
some of the time at the opening per-
formance, so she was occasionally
hard to hear. Gunter has a beautiful
voice and brought the needed poi-
gnancy to the songs.
One of the problems with the
show is that it really needs two more
male actors. Director Chip Aucoin
appears as a member of the chorus
so that the team looks convincingly
large. Also, Haussmann has to pinch
hit (if you will) as a Senator. This
confused me, considering that in the
first scene he was playing 50-year-
old Joe Boyd.
This brings up another problem.
Boyd is supposed to be transformed
into a young man, only in the first
and last scenes, Haussmann looks
just asyoungas Gunter. Noattempt
was made to age any of the charac-
ters. I know that age makeup is
hard to do well and often looks
corny, but 1 think they could have at
least tried.
Still, the performances on the
whole are solid.
Graf is a fine Applegate. He looks
like he's having a wickedly good
time, and his are often the most
delightful one-liners.
Aronson as Lois Lane-esque
Gloria is appropriately energetic and
amusing and has a loud, clear voice.
Messick, whose I>ola is perpetu-
ally dressed in fishnets, has the fin-
est legs I've ever seen on a Rice
stage. Her performance is solid, al-
though she is more spunky than
sultry, and she rushes a little bit
through the scenes where she is
supposed to seduce Joe.
The technical aspects of the show
are unusually good, with the excep-
tion of the microphones, which
caused some substantial problems.
Lovett is the only college that uses
body mikes, and I've never thought
it was necessary in a space as small
as the Ix>vett Commons.
However, in this particular show,
the microphones were miserable.
At the opening performance, they
crackled distractingly. They some-
times were on when they were sup-
posed to be off (most amusingly
during blackouts when the audi-
ence could hear snippets of back-
stage conversation), and sometimes
were off when the singers clearly
thought they were supposed to be
on (judging from their alarmed ex-
pressions).
I realize that college theater is
not professional theater and that the
tech isn't always perfect. However,
most unforgivably, the microphones
were inelegantly scotch-taped to the
actors' faces.
The makeup is fine (other than a
little too much eyeliner on some of
the men) and thecostumes are good.
I'm impressed that they actually
came up with baseball uniforms that
all looked the same.
The set is quite ingenious — a
baseball diamond built into an all-
purpose stage.
The singing, particularly in cho-
ral numbers, is strong and intelli-
gible and is well suited to the danc-
ing.
Will Rice sophomore Jessi
Harper's dances are appropriately
endearing — sharp when they
should be (as in the first number
"Six Months Out of Every Year")
and goofy when necessary (as in the
all-male numbers "Heart" and "The
Game").
The orchestra is large and quite
good, and there are some wonderful
sound effects — most notably the
sound of the ball hitting the bat and
flying out of the park.
On the whole, Damn Yankees isn't
perfect, but it was a damn good time.
Hanging out in 'subUrbia'
SUBURBS, from Page 12
play. Wiess sophomore Teresa
Kubos seems utterly real as Sooze's
best friend Bee Bee, a depressed
recovering alcoholic whose troubles
are all but ignored in the other char-
acters' ferment of angst and self-
centeredness.
Two outside forces threaten these
five characters' insular world. First,
racial conflict with the two Pakistani
proprietors (Sid Richardson College
senior Sunidh Jani and Wiess fresh-
man Amada Armenia) of the 7-
Eleven runs throughout the play as
Tim and, to some degree, Buff re-
peatedly challenge their authority
and rights. Jani and Armenta power-
fully convey the justifiable rage that
has become part of the daily life of
immigrants in jobs that entail such
visibility and vulnerability.
All of the kids who hang out at
the 7-Kleven are white, and even
Sooze, who so passionately opposes
racism, knows only one black per-
son. The only person who has really
had a chance to break out into a less
parochial, less homogenous environ-
ment is Tim, whose world travels as
kitchen help in the Air Force have
unfortunately served only to con-
vince him that the Third World is
populated exclusively by "dog-eat-
ing monkey-faced greaseballs."
The brief visit of successful folk-
rock musician Pony (Wiess senior
Chris Zalesky) and his rich-girl pub-
licist (Wiess freshman Jill Brown-
ing) brings out the characters' nar-
rowness and immobility. Pony went
to high school with the other charac-
ters but escaped by virtue of his art.
His creativity, success and relative
sophistication trigger hostility and
insecurity in Jeff, who is already
struggling to understand and deal
with Sooze's desire to leave for New
York. It's hard to tell just how bad
Pony's music is supposed to be, but
Zalesky manages a straight face
throughout his laughably unbear-
able ballad on suburban life. Brown-
ing captures the stert atypical rich-
girl persona seemingly with ease.
The actors work well with the
single set, and the simultaneous
presence of actors behind the glass
inside the store, on the sidewalk and
on the roof make the convenience
store hangout seem quite alive rather
than contrived and theatrical. While \
some characters speak, others sim-
ply drink, sleep or keep to them- ■
selves, reinforcing a sense of a hap- ■
hazard and ultimately unsuccessful,
if long-established, social network.
The music and costume choices
succeed in making the play (first
published in 1994) feel fresh and
contemporary. Between scenes, the
audience is treated to music by Mr.
T Experience, LeTigre, At the Drive-
in, the Groceries, Sonic Youth,
Radiohead and others.
Sooze defines her
views in such
seething works as
'Burger manifesto
Part 1: Dialectical
Exposition on
testosterone.'
The play certainly deals with
themes that are both controversial
and close to home for many Rice
students. Though sympathetic and
non-didactic, Bogosian's subUrbia
contains biting social critique. Wiess
junior Elisa Silva, who co-directed
the play with Wiess sophomore Tim
I x)tt and co-produced it with Wiess
junior Josh Hale, said she chose this
play because it is a "wake-up call"
with "many lessons to be learned."
Bravo for Wiess for choosing
such a current, relevant and pro
vocative production and for carry-
ing it off with such expert insight
and style.
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 2000, newspaper, November 10, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth442991/m1/15/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.