The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 9

The Courier-Journal, Saturday morning, September 20, 1986 7 AQCEN THEATER REVIEW 'Rumpelstiltskin' MOVIE REVIEW 'Desert Bloom Vl decipher. A good thing, too, considering how quickly the action unfolds. "Rumpelstiltskin" is a participation play, meaning that viewers sit on the edge of the stage of the Kentucky Center for the Arts' Bomhard Theater. They are encouraged to "help out" the actors by shouting solutions to specific challenges in the story. It's a bit boisterous, but at yesterday's performance for schoolchildren, Stage One's cast was never visibly unnerved.

The actors also cope successfully with the physicallty of this production dwarfs tumbling in and out of windows, that sort of thing. Several performers double on musical instruments, tooting a bland score by Lisa Palas (who also wrote the simple lyrics). But the music is secondary. In the story's magical kingdom, baking macaroons and spinning gold are more important than singing. So we quickly meet the baker Cosmo (Rick Munger), assisted by his daughter.

Patience (Deborah Rhodes), who brags to the Queen (Breton Frazier) how Patience can spin straw into gold. Do that, says queenie, and Patience can marry Prince Percy (Thomas James O'Leary). Otherwise heads will be lopped off. In romps the dwarf Rumpelstiltskin (Geoffrey Hobin), and Patience reluctantly offers him her future first-born child In exchange for the dwarfs 24-karat touch. Hobin is exquisitely slimy, especially so when describing himself as "the meanest little creep in the woods," and clearly not wanting to be anything else.

Frazier, memorable two years ago as Miss Havisham in Stage One's production of "Great Expectations," is a fine acid-tongued monarch. Their colleagues make a sure ensemble, aided by Bonnie Akimoto as a non-speaking flutist and supernumerary. H. Charles Schmidt's lighting is an immeasurable asset. Public performances are today at the Louisville Zoo, at 1 and 3 p.m.; and tomorrow and Oct.

19, at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., and next Saturday, Oct 4, 1 1 and 18, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., all in the Bomhard. By ANDREW ADLER Staff Crmc Stage One: The Louisville Children's Theatre can never resist including moral Imperatives with its productions, and the success of those performances often depends on how skillfully the message is integrated into the medium. In "Rumpelstiltskin," a musical adaptation of the popular fairy tale that opens Stage One's 41st season, the process has been well-managed. Stage One Producing Director Moses Goldberg, who adapted and directed this hour-long presentation, immediately establishes his moral parameters: Parents Respect the minds and Independent spirit of your children.

Children Dont make promises you can't or wont want to keep. Aimed at children 4 to 8, the production touches the relevant points of the Grimm tale while inserting some innocuous modern touches. The language, the accenting of the words, is very much of our own time. So it should be for an audience of this age; there are no arcane phrases to if I- I AlftattaJk- By DAVID INMAN Stiff Wrttar Take the coming-of-age charm of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the unintentionally funny, naive attitude toward the atomic bomb in 1950s America and you've got "Desert Bloom." Like "Mockingbird," this movie is at its best when it sticks with the kids in this case, the maturing of Rose (Annabelle Gish), a sensitive 13-year-old who lives in 1951 Las Vegas, when above-ground atomic testing comes to her hometown and less successful when it tackles a Big Issue. In "Mockingbird," the B.I.

was racial prejudice. In "Bloom," it's Cold War hysteria and the problem of communication between parent and child. Specifically, the rocky relationship between Rose and her troubled stepfather, Jack (Jon Voight). Jack is a World War II vet who runs a Flying-A service station outside town and spends his nights drinking and listening to the world on a shortwave radio. He's bitter, stuck in the past (he served with Patton, clearly his life's high point) and subject to a nasty nightmare now and then.

Conflicts between the willful Rose and Jack are Inevitable, and Rose's mom, a ninny named Lily (JoBeth Williams), isn't much help. But one day, Rose's loving, free-spirited Aunt Starr (Ellen Barkin) arrives to wait out a divorce in Nevada. She provides a safe haven from Jack's erratic outbursts. Meanwhile, Rose's mom gets a job with the Atomic Energy Commission and is bursting with patriotic pride. Jack monitors the world on his radio and worries about the Communists taking over.

The town is thrilled to be chosen as the sight of an atomic bomb blast. "Miss A-bomb" beauty contests are held. Schoolkids are given dog tags for identification, just in case, and taught the correct way to hide under their desks so that they won't be vaporized. "Desert Bloom" is most effective when it looks wistfully at all that ignorant celebrating. MOVIE REVIEW 'Weekend Warriors' bomb JoBeth Williams as Lily Chismore comforts her daughter.

Rose, played by Annabeth Glsh. in "Desert Bloom." is given material that rings true. As the smooth, slightly amoral Aunt Starr, Barkin fares better she shows once again that she's one of the most skilled actress working in movies today. If "Desert Bloom" had avoided some of its melodramatics and stuck with a simple story about growing up, it would have been even better. But it's still a warm, interesting little look, once again, at the way we were one of our favorite subjects.

At Oxmoor Cinemas. Rated PG for a couple of emotionally violent fights. the congressman arranges for a full Inspection of the camp. If the men don't pass muster, they'll be shipped out to a base so remote no one knows where it is. So, being Hollywood types, the guardsmen decide to use some movie props and extras to stage a top-rate inspection, trusting that any inspectors in this movie will be too stupid to know the difference.

Taking a hint from the "Porky's" movies, they pull childish tricks on anyone who might disrupt their charade. They make one officer believe he's got African shrinking sickness, and they get their kill-joy sergeant into bed with a fat floozy for some incriminating photographs. Don't let the presence of veteran actors Lloyd Bridges and Vic Tay-back fool you. They are completely wasted, especially Bridges, who proved his comic abilities in the "Airplane!" movies. If you like extremely Juvenile humor and stupid jokes, with a few bare breasts thrown In, go see "Weekend Warriors." Otherwise, stay home and watch reruns of "Sgt Bilko." At Village 8, Dixie 4 and Jeff Plaza.

Rated Bare breasts and lots of obscenities. No real By HOWARD MILLER Staff Writer "Weekend Warriors" probably isn't the worst movie I've seen in my years of doing reviews, but it most certainly is the dumbest And I mean dumb, dumb, DUMB! This is a comedy devoid of laughs, bereft of wit and totally lacking in charm. The only semi-funny scene in this movie is based on flatulence, which should give you some idea of its level of creativity. The film takes place in August 1961 and concerns the antics of the While Jordan stays home to mend his broken head, Langella whisks the others off to an expensive San Francisco brothel where they reveal still more of their problems while the girls just reveal. Although some of the men are proud of their sexual competence, something is obviously lacking in both their sexual and non-sexual lives.

As Keitel and Scheider insist on a wedding ceremony for Keitel and one of the prostitutes, the scene again turns violent The film ends on a bland, seemingly positive note suggesting that several of the men have their lives In order and may do better. But the problem is that most of them have spent more time showboating than reveal MOVIE REVIEW 'The Men's Club' Hollywood chapter of the Air National Guard. A lot of Hollywood types have joined up to avoid the draft, and they view their once-a-month, two-day training exercises as an excuse to loaf, chase nurses and play pranks on the officers and geants. The only thing the "weekend warriors" are worried about is being called to active duty because of the Berlin Wall crisis. Then a prissy congressman visits the base and catches them in the middle of a puerile contest involving the release of intestinal gas.

Finding no humor in the situation. ing what's inside them. The film is voyeuristic, rather than meaningful. "The Men's Club" has some excellent moments, and the actors work hard. But the script is self-indulgent and given to fireworks, rather than humanizing the men or making you care for them.

At Showcase Cinemas. Rated Frequent nudity, sexual content, profanity, obscenities, violence. GBEAT UMKY MOVIES! SPACE CAMP SHORT CIRCUIT THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY About last Rob Lowe 7 15 Demi Moore 55 11:30 win man sovggK wo wnimj. j.jq rCDDW BUElLER'S PAYOFF E3 A ROOM I EARLY mined to prove he's better than the others. Frank Langella is an attorney whose genteel exterior hides a dark inside.

Craig Wasson is merely a passive type who would rather watch than take part Their first meeting takes place at the home of psychotherapist Richard Jordan, who may need more therapy than his patients. After many drinks, several confessions, mostly sexual, and a near-brawl, Jordan and his guests nearly wreck the house. The men, liberated from adult restraints, are having their own private riot when Jordan's wife, Stockard Channing, arrives, setting off the film's funniest scene. They turn into little boys who know they've wrecked momma's dining room. By DUDLEY SAUNDERS Stiff Critic "The Men's Club" is a disturbing, sometimes pretentious black comedy determined to send a message.

This scathing portrait of a group of seven upper-middle-class men is the kind of movie you'd expect from a woman who hates men, rather than one written and directed by men. Following a wild night on the town, the men come out looking self-obsessed, insecure, insincere and pretty bad. If this is the true state of upscale American men, it's time the women took charge. Just about every time you think you've found someone to identify with in "The Men's Club," he sudden BIRD $2.00 "ZZtTZ- TOM CRUISE Look who's snaaldng into town! saa IIJI gaaT i Mtwsm.imnv Newcomer Gish is effective as our" heroine radiant when she wins a school contest, heartbroken when Jack wrongly accuses her of playing with his cherished radio, endearingly gawky when she goes swimming for the first time with a "date." But there are problems too. As Jack, the sad-eyed Voight is either angry or withdrawn.

He seems more a simple catalyst than a real character. And Williams is given the thankless task of spouting cliches, which is presumably the script's way of showing us how 1950s-conventional she is. Neither performer, unfortunately. ly reveals not only feet of clay but head of mush. The men are brought together by ex-baseball star Roy Scheider so they can eat, drink and let down their hair about their lives.

Scheider, a ".320 lifetime hitter," is having trouble accepting retirement but no trouble finding groupies eager to bed a former superstar. His wife isn't a bit pleased. Jovial real-estate man Harvey Kei-tel brags about feeling nothing, but it is soon obvious that feeling nothing is like being dead. That may be why he decides to marry a hooker he meets later that night. Treat Williams is a young doctor who looks out for himself.

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