TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/093091/0930490.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.8 KB | 139 lines

                                                                                CRITICS' VOICES, Page 8


    MOVIES

    DEAD AGAIN. Kenneth Branagh, Shakespearean phenom of the
London stage, hatched an improbable hit from this no-star film
noir. Branagh has fun ransacking Hitchcock's skeleton closet,
and his wife Emma Thompson is ravishing as the doomed heroine,
but there's not much here to prop up a preposterous plot.

    SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL. Eric Bogosian is the Swinburne of
sleaze. The master monologuist finds fetid poetry in the butt
ends of urban American lives: street people, soul-dead tough
guys, ex-dopester rock stars. They crowd the stage in this
one-man show, a 1990 off-Broadway hit artfully filmed by
director John McNaughton.

    EATING. Since its release in May, Henry Jaglom's "serious
comedy about food" has earned a fervent cult audience. A melange
of masochists, we'd say, since the mostly young, blond and
svelte women in the cast mostly complain about how fat they are.
Of time-capsule value only, to remind future generations of
'90s America's obsession with appearance.

    BOOKS

    THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS by Richard Powers (Morrow; $25).
This complex novel demands a lot from readers, but its payoff
is immense: two love stories coiled intricately around a
thrilling intellectual quest to find nothing less than the
meaning of life.

    SAINT MAYBE by Anne Tyler (Knopf; $22). In her 12th novel,
Tyler turns her generous sympathies and formidable skills to an
investigation of the sources and aftereffects -- both comic and
profound -- of religious faith.

    MUSIC

    ROBBIE ROBERTSON: STORYVILLE (Geffen). "Catch a thrill,"
Robertson sings in Go Back to Your Woods, and there isn't a
bigger or better thrill to be heard anywhere right now than this
ravishing new collection of songs that capture the fragile magic
of American mythology and transform it into an eldritch
excursion through the collective rock unconscious. Whew! Oh,
mustn't forget: it really jumps too.

    WYNTON MARSALIS: SOUL GESTURES IN SOUTHERN BLUE
(Columbia). This three-CD series, recorded in 1987 and 1988, is
an ambitious exploration of the most basic jazz idiom: the
blues. The 18 sides mark Marsalis' transition from aggressive
post-'60s modernism to a more sensual, lyrical style that draws
on the work of past masters while forging a personal -- and
thoroughly contemporary -- sound.

    FREDDIE HUBBARD: BOLIVIA (Musicmasters). Hubbard seasons
his dazzling trumpet with some Latin American spice in one of
the most listenable jazz albums of the year.

    TELEVISION

    IRAN: DAYS OF CRISIS (TNT, Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 8 p.m. EDT).
The crisis before last -- or was it the one before that? An
earnest but uninspired docudrama about the events that led up
to and followed the Khomeini revolution and the taking of
American hostages.

    LBJ (PBS, Sept. 30, Oct. 1, 9 p.m. on most stations). Love
him or hate him, Lyndon Johnson continues to fascinate
biographers. This four-hour PBS documentary provides an
evenhanded, engrossing recap of his life, career and
contradictions.

    PLAYED IN THE USA (Learning Channel, debuting Oct. 6, 10
p.m. EDT). Martin Sheen is host for a 13-week series of
documentaries and short films, produced by Stevenson Palfi and
Blaine Dunlap, celebrating American music, from the making of
the cast album for Company to profiles of singer Eartha Kitt,
jazz/rock fiddler Papa John Creach and legendary bassist and
composer Charles Mingus.

    ART

    THE ART OF BABAR, National Academy of Design, New York
City. Nearly 150 drawings and watercolors from the adventures
of everybody's favorite elephant king by his personal
biographers, Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff, along with art
workshops for children, readings and a lecture. Through Nov. 3.

    BEFORE FREEDOM CAME: AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE IN THE
ANTEBELLUM SOUTH, 1790-1865, Museum of the Confederacy,
Richmond. More than 300 paintings, textiles and musical
instruments that explore the lives of slaves and free blacks
from the 18th century to the end of the Civil War. Through Dec.
13.

    ETCETERA

    CITIZEN KANE (T.H.E.). Fifty years after Charles Foster
Kane whispered "Rosebud" and died, Turner Home Entertainment is
offering a newly restored version of the Orson Welles classic
in four different commemorative gift packs, including a
half-hour documentary, the original trailer and even a script.

    THE CARNEGIE HALL MUSEUM. New York City's refurbished
musical mecca celebrates its centennial with a new permanent
exhibit of 200 items. Included are such memorabilia as
Toscanini's baton, Benny Goodman's clarinet and a 1964 debut
program autographed by the Beatles.

    FORBIDDEN BROADWAY

    Imagine a duet of dueling megastars: the chandelier from
Phantom of the Opera and the helicopter from Miss Saigon. Or a
dance number that redubs Tommy Tune's somber, doomy Grand Hotel
as Grim Hotel. Or a patter song to the tune of Brush Up Your
Shakespeare, in which I Hate Hamlet star Nicol Williamson
celebrates the joys of humbling his co-stars. This sort of humor
-- a cunning blend of insiderish wit and broad clowning -- has
made Forbidden Broadway an institution. Since 1982 it has played
off-Broadway, enjoying the goodwill and legal cooperation of the
very creators it spoofs, and has spawned a national tour and
satellite troupes from Los Angeles to London. In the new, eighth
edition, everyone shines. Susanne Blakeslee zings Julie Andrews'
singing on the Tony Awards in I Couldn't Hit That Note. Mary
Denise Bentley skewers Tyne Daly's performance as Mama Rose in
Gypsy. Herndon Lackey is a melodramatizing Topol in Fiddler on
the Roof, and Jeff Lyons is Jackie Mason -- but more so.


BY TIME'S REVIEWERS. Compiled by Andrea Sachs.