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- CRITICS' VOICES, Page 3
-
-
- MOVIES
-
- THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS. Milo is a barnyard kitten
- and Otis his dogged friend in this live-action children's film
- narrated by Dudley Moore. If cute were still a word of approval,
- Masanori Hata's charming parable would earn it.
-
- WIRED. The saddest thing about John Belushi's death might
- be this requiem -- the movie Hollywood tried to stop. Next time,
- guys, try harder.
-
- COOKIE. English teenager Emily Lloyd brings an acute ear
- and a fetching presence to her role as a Brooklyn punkster in
- this comedy about a Mafia don (Peter Falk) with a score to
- settle and a wayward daughter to raise.
-
- THEATER
-
- THE COCKTAIL HOUR. Nancy Marchand's sozzled, sardonic
- portrayal of a grande dame enriches A.R. Gurney's Wasp family
- tale at Washington's Kennedy Center.
-
- THE LADY IN QUESTION. What is the alleged pleasure of a
- drag show? If the leading "lady" is unconvincing, it's gross.
- If he's too convincing, there's no coy guessing game. And if
- he's just campy enough, the joke is over in five minutes. Alas,
- this off-Broadway farce lasts two hours.
-
- SWEENEY TODD. Stephen Sondheim's unlikeliest musical, a
- sympathetic look at a murderous barber and at the woman who
- recycles his victims as meat pies, returns to Broadway in a
- shrewdly staged and highly tuneful chamber version.
-
- THE GEOGRAPHY OF LUCK. The drifters, gamblers and hustlers
- in Marlane Meyer's desert panorama mingle the doomed banality
- of Sam Shepard characters with the quixotic blessings of William
- Saroyan's The Time of Your Life. At the Los Angeles Theater
- Center.
-
- ART
-
- CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS: CULTURES OF SIBERIA AND ALASKA,
- Seattle Center Pavilion. Art and artifacts by native peoples on
- both sides of the Bering Strait, assembled in the first such
- joint effort by the U.S. and Soviet Union. Through Oct. 15.
-
- MUSIC
-
- ROLLING STONES: THE LONDON YEARS (Abkco). An avalanche of
- gems: 58 of the greatest rock-'n'-roll singles of all time,
- culled from the Stones' hitmaking heyday, 1963 to 1971,
- including some rare B-side cuts.
-
- BRANFORD MARSALIS: TRIO JEEPY (Columbia). Some nice moments
- (The Nearness of You, Gutbucket Steepy), but let's face it:
- slick imitations of Bird, Coltrane and Ben Webster do not a jazz
- genius make. Forget the liner-note hype, Jeepy, and come back
- when you've paid some dues.
-
- FAIRPORT CONVENTION: RED & GOLD (Rough Trade). When this
- British group started up in the late '60s, their music was
- called "folk rock." Two decades on, the phrase is shopworn, but
- the band's music -- graced by some ghosts of ancient traditional
- melody -- is as splendid and mysterious as ever.
-
- TELEVISION
-
- 48 HOURS: RETURN TO CRACK STREET (CBS, Sept. 14, 8 p.m.
- EDT). CBS's often absorbing, occasionally overheated series of
- slice-of-life snapshots launches its new season by revisiting
- the drug scene it first surveyed three years ago.
-
- MISS AMERICA PAGEANT (NBC, Sept. 16, 10 p.m. EDT). Gary
- Collins and Phyllis George gush over the annual parade of
- swimsuits and baton solos.
-
- EMMY AWARDS (Fox, Sept. 17, 8 p.m. EDT). The mini-series
- Lonesome Dove is the odds-on favorite for top honors; Roseanne
- Barr, notably left out of the acting nominations, has already
- received the biggest snub.
-
- THE NIGHTMARE YEARS (TNT, Sept. 17-20, 8 p.m. EDT). William
- Shirer's memoir of Hitler's Germany in the 1930s is re-created
- in an eight-hour mini-series.
-
- BOOKS
-
- LORD BYRON'S DOCTOR by Paul West (Doubleday; $19.95). A
- brilliant tour de force about the cruelty of genius, starring
- Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary (author of
- Frankenstein) and the narrator, an indiscreet physician.
-
- A NATURAL CURIOSITY by Margaret Drabble (Viking; $19.95).
- In a sequel to The Radiant Way (1987), the author offers a
- Victorian-style novel about some decidedly contemporary English
- women and men.
-
- ETC
-
- LE CIRQUE DU SOLEIL. A few tattered folk wander into the
- big top and presto! turn into the world's most beguiling circus
- performers. This luminous spectacle, which sets up its tent
- next week in Santa Monica, Calif., and can be seen on HBO
- throughout this month, packs more magic than Merlin's wand. The
- Montreal-based Cirque may have lost a spangle or two since its
- first U.S. tour, but it remains, whatever Ringling may say, the
- greatest show on earth.
-
- THE ARTS AND RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION. Detente comes to Dixie
- as Soviet ballet, drama, music, film and art share the stage at
- the Classics in Context Festival in Louisville. Featured
- performers include pianist Vladimir Feltsman and the Moscow Art
- Theater. Through Nov. 4.
-
-