Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 15

GIVE US A BREAK Talking refrigerators, see-through ovens who needs them? One more scientific breakthrough and Erma Bombeck's going to have a scientific breakdown. Column on 3C. FRIDAY SECTION 0 i i 11 u-j JANUARY 20, 1984 2C TELEVISION ROCHESTER 3C COLUMNISTS YORK 4C MOVIES 6C CLASSIFIEDS 11C COMICS 2 (Democrat anb (fljronkk iri if I It un -NEW lwwiiiiiiiliiihlnJ IwwwMi-iiira-iiwi A moire peroral The Day Meir No gore, no special effects Testament' just a low-key movie about the devastating effects of doomsday on the human spirit Calendar to be printed for black history month On Jan. 30 the Democrat and Chronicle People section will publish a calendar of events being held in connection with Black History Month. The calendar will include such activities as lectures, workshops, entertainment and exhibits.

The only requirement for inclusion in the calendar is that the event be open to the public. We need your help to compile the calendar. If your club, organization or institution is planning such an event, please send us a notice with the following information: name of the event, brief description, place, date and time, admission or ticket price and sponsoring organization. Also, include the daytime telephone number of a person whom we can call for more information if needed. Mail your notice to: Black History Month Democrat and Chronicle People Section 55 Exchange St.

Rochester, N.Y. 14614 The notice must reach us by 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26. Marsalis won't show after all Trumpet player Wynton Marsalis will not be coming to Rochester after all Originally scheduled to play with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble Feb.

28, the concert was then rescheduled for Feb. 27 to avoid a conflict with the Grammy Awards. Robert Kraus, director of public relations for the Eastman School of Music, said the Feb. 27 performance had to be canceled as well because Marsalis is needed for Grammy rehearsals. Marsalis has good reason for not wanting to miss the Grammys he is the first person in history to be nominated for Best Performance in both the jazz and the classical categories.

Marsalis, 22, pulled off i musical double play this year by releasing both classical and jazz recordings. Kraus said the Eastman School still hopes to bring Marsalis to Rochester sometime this year. Sing-along with Dirty Harry Clint Eastwood is hoping to make a sudden impact with a quickie song, Make My Day. Eastwood and country singer T.G. Sheppard rush-recorded the tune in Los Angeles in mid-January and it was rush-released by Sheppard's label.

The title is the catch phrase from Eastwood's latest Dirty Harry movie, Sudden Impact. LBJ's Luci getting married Luci Johnson, younger daughter of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson, will wed Grand Cayman banker Ian Turpin March 3 at the LBJ Ranch in central Texas. The ranch is the home of former first lady Lady Bird Johnson. It will be the second marriage for Luci, 35, who divorced Patrick Nugent in 1979 after 13 years of marriage and four children.

Ah, aren't Pauley's twins cute Jane Pauley, the proud mother of twins, returned to NBC's Today show in New York City yesterday to show baby pictures and announce she will return as the program's co-host on Feb. 27. Pauley, the wife of Donnesbury cartoonist Garry Tru-deau, has been on maternity leave since late November. ii'it iCr i'n- -f William Devane stars with Roxana Zal and Ross Harris in Right: Jane Alexander, as the mother, comforts her younger son, Lukas Haas. Tim By Jack Garner REVIEW tering is the scene in which the mother must sew a shroud for one of her children.

ALEXANDER IS GIVEN excellent support from a young cast of children, particularly Ross Harris. He plays her middle child, Brad, who grows to sudden maturity under the strained circumstances. A few moments in Testament are not effective, especially those involving an ill-defined young priest, badly played by Philip Anglim. Anglim's obviously at a loss trying to figure the nature and strengths of his nebulous character, and it shows. Testament is not an easy film to watch.

Despite its flaws, Testament achieves a commendable goal: It makes you confront nuclear war in a very personal way. Testament, a drama about a suburban California family trying to cope in the aftermath of nuclear war, opens today at Loews Towne. Directed by Lynne Littman, it stars Jane Alexander, William Devane, Roxana Zal, Ross Harris, Leon Ames and Philip Anglim. Running time: One hour, 30 minutes. Rating: PG, with mild language.

Like The Day After, however, Testament could be frightening or depressing for impressionable children. Excellent Gixxl Average Fair Poor Democrat and Chronicle film critic Bt's impossible to write about Testament without writing about The Day After. They're different approaches to the same, grim story. The Day After was ABC's ratings blockbuster that projected the horror of nuclear holocaust and showed much of the destruction that probably would result Testament, which was co-produced by Public Television's American Playhouse and opens at Loews Towne today, takes a low-key, low-budget approach. It shows none of the physical destruction or gore.

Testament deals exclusively with the devastating effects of doomsday on the human spirit Testament stars Jane Alexander as the mother of three in a suburb of San Francisco. She awakens to Jane Fonda's exercise tape, tries to get her kids to eat a good breakfast and helps put on a school production of The Pied Piper of Hamlin. ONE DAY with only a few moments' warning a blinding flash of light is seen. All electrical power is gone, and it soon becomes obvious that all major cities have been leveled by nuclear warfare. Alexander's husband, played by William Devane, was at work in San Francisco, where he apparently died in the attack.

The mother must carry on alone, trying to keep her family going. She and her neighbors meet at the local church and try to maintain basic community services and map out plans. It soon becomes clear that that future will be extremely limited. TESTAMENT IS AN EXTREMELY emotional film -its emotions, in fact, sometimes are played too strongly for the film's own good. The script is by John Sacret Young, who adapted Carol Amen's short story, The Last Testament.

Young and director Lynne Littman occasionally layer in emotional elements that are far too obvious. Two examples: The local Japanese-American gas station owner has a son named Hiroshi who suffers from birth defects, and the school production of Pied Piper of Hamlin is stocked with rather blatant references to the villagers' losing their children because they didn't deserve them. The wrenching sequences work best when they feature Jane Alexander. She's such a good actress, you feel great and honest empathy for what she's undergoing. It's hard not to be moved when she answers her young daughter's questions about what it is like to make love.

The daughter knows she'll never get to experience it herself. Equally shat If only the set designer had starred in 'Cyrano' It not his looks that kill this A romance it the dour actinq Priscilla Barnes Joyce DeWitt By Sarah Miles Watts When Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac first appeared on the Paris stage in 1897, it took the world by storm. The current production at Syracuse Stage won't capture much more than the city's most ordinary theatergoer. In the original, the sympathy of the audience members was held throughout while they were taught Rostand's lessons of the soul. In this production, there is little emotional appeal, little arousal of the feelings.

The result is a mild admiration of this bold theatrical attempt, but not much that's soul stirring. The Syracuse attempt is bold because it stars two-time Tony Award-winner John Cullum, who recently appeared as the farmer in the ABC-TV film The Day After. It also employs a new adaptation of Cyrano by Emily Frankel, a choreographer, dancer, director, writer and wife of Cullum. And this Cyrano is set on a fanning flight of stairs, a sort of breathtaking bleachers, brilliantly designed by Victor A. Becker.

Syracuse Stage's producing director, Arthur Storch, directed. If the imagination expressed in the set design had been evident throughout, this rendition of Cyrano might merit the national attention Syracuse Stage seeks. A Hungarian feast of Bartok's quartets Eastman students to play all 6 of composer's folk-laced songs By Robert V. Palmer Democrat and Chronicle Sunday isn't officially Hungarian Day at the Eastman School of Music, but it might as well be. All six count 'em, six of Bela Bartok's string quartets will be performed in a daylong, gala marathon beginning at 5:15 p.m.

in Kilboum Hall. And if the musical menu isn't enough to tempt your taste buds, don't despair. There'll be a buffet supper of various Hungarian delights at 7 served by who else? the Budapest Restaurant. Eastman's Abram Loft, professor of chamber music and chairman of the string department at the school, is coordinator of the project The performers are six quartets of Eastman students. "It was a collaborative idea," he said in recently.

"Many Eastman forces have participated in the coaching." The groups are coached in rotation by Paul Katz and Atar Arad of the Cleveland Quartet, and Loft himself. is the first of two such efforts," he said of the Sunday concert. "In mid-April the same groups will perform the Haydn Quartets of Mozart." The Bartok quartets will not be performed in order. "We've arranged them for suitable contrast of temper and length," Loft said. Nos.

1, 3 and 5 will preceed dinner, and Nos. 2, 6 and 4 will follow. The quartets, composed over a period of three decades, provide a sort of musical voyage through the career of the composer. "THE SIXTH IS A SORT of musical editorial," Loft said, "it was the last thing he composed before leaving Europe in 1939. Overall it is marked mesto, which means 'sad' or I think it was a comment on what was going on around him." At the other extreme, the Fourth is bursting with energy.

And the First, written in 1908, bears reminisences of Brahms, Liszt, Strauss and Debussy. It contains the flavors of the late 19th century, "but already bears the results of Bartok's folk-music study." Bartok wasn't just casually Hungarian. He was a very nationalistic composer, like Janacek and Kodaly, who had a passion for the folk music of his country and sought it in an active, scientific way. He published nearly 2,000 Hungarian and Rumanian folk tunes and ingeniously incorporated some of those tunes into most of his music. Bartok was one of the giants of the early 20th century, one of the four or five composers most notably Stravinsky and Schoenberg whose music has proved unquestionably to be durable.

Tickets for the dinner are $5, and will go on sale at 5 p.m. just before the concert. Any remaining meals will be sold at the 7 p.m. break. Beware: Loft says that there are only about 150 dinners being prepared, "and a couple of dozen are reserved for the players they're going to need it." SOME 20 STAGE WIDE stairs sweep down from stage right to the apron.

Through the use of a hydraulic system, the stairs tilt upward at the edges during the battle scene, kl 1 'Three's Company' loses stars Three's Company won't be much of a crowd next season, with the announcement that co-stars Joyce DeWitt, Priscilla Barnes, Don Knotts and Richard Kline are leaving the ABC-TV series. John Rit-ter will be the only member of the cast to stay with the show when it returns next fall. The changes were announced Wednesday, and new cast members will be announced later. When the show resumes, Ritter's character will fall in love and move out of the apartment he has shared for eight seasons with two beautiful young women. Executive producer Michael Ross said DeWitt's comedic talents would be "sorely missed," but said he hoped she and the others would agree to guest appearances.

Compiled from reports by United Press International and Associated Press A Roomful of Blues Com mne rock, blues, swing 7JT and a little of the old boogie-r woogie into one danceable package, and you've got the Rhode Island-based band Roomful of Blues, which will be at the Red Creek Inn, 300 Jefferson Road, tonight and tomorrow night In addition to several recordings on its own, Roomful has cut -albums with blues legends Eddie "Clean-head" Vinson and more recently with Big Joe Turner. The band plays everything from '60s soul to big-band jazz, all with considerable power and verve. Founded in 1968 by Al Copley and Duke Robillard (who since has left to form his own band), Roomful rearranged itself into its current nine-man format in 1979. Currently the band consists of a five-man horn section, guitar, piano, bass and drums and if they can't lure you onto the dance floor, it's time to have your feet checked. The show starts at 10 p.m.; tickets are $5.

Today's What's Doing events calendar appears on page 4C. muve uui iui luc ucucuny affile tuiu uijeu up lu icvcdl 1 ,.1 T-'U- 1 William Warfield Hear the news? Baritone up for Grammy hadn't Now, the bad news: So are Fonda, Asimov By Robert V. Palmer Democrat and Chronicle The Grammy nominations are still news to some people baritone William Warfield, for instance, who found out last night that he'd been nominated in the category of Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording. "I've just discovered it myself!" was Warfield's response in a telephone conversation last night. "About two hours ago the girl in California called to tell me the dates." WARFIELD WAS NOMINATED for his narration of Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait, recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra of the Eastman School of Music, conducted by David Effron, last May in the Eastman Theater.

A 1942 graduate of the Eastman School, where he studied with Arthur Kraft, Warfield, 64, was born in Arkansas but moved to Rochester at the age of 5. "I was just a little kid when my parents moved," he said, "so I remember almost nothing of Arkansas I was raised in Rochester." Warfield's three brothers still live in Rochester. His youngest brother, Thaddeus, is minister of music at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, where his father, Robert G. War-field, was pastor until his death in the '60s.

IN THE GRAMMY competition, Warfield will be up against: Jayne Meadows and Steve Allen for Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Computers Jane Fonda for Jane Fonda's Workout Record Sir John Gielgud and Irene Worth for Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats Issac Asimov for The Robots of Dawn Warfield lives in Champaign-Urbana, III, where he is professor of music and chairman of the department of voice at the University of Illinois. pujjja ui imfu iwi Luc jann 'oihij auciic. i lie wui uiliri stri ucviLtrs ale a uiciin m.iiui ai uie iccii auu luie ut'eura- tive pieces that descend to signify the setting such as a natitrv mrniirnnin (If anvnno rpmpmhpri; Plunrio Rrncr. don's scenery for the 1923 production with Walter Hamp-: den, it might be challenged in excellence.) Thp marvplnns rrumH liirhfinrr Uv MirHnpI Npwtnn- Brown bathes this set in romantic tones, frequently focus- ii ig wii nit, ji iii.icus. vuoLUJiica ill tan, uui iv uuica vjy Jennifer Von Mayrhauser add to the mood, as does Mi- chael Jay music.

Whv flra wp avoiding mpntinnmp' thp nrinrmnls? Re- il mi 1 cause rnpv arp msannntmimr np rnararrpr ni i is nnvsicai luninpss and mora hpautv. I prtam he is manv an ai'iors ureum roie. famous aciors gave meir inier- thn ti.t I i I nil I L- rii i i inrouii ruupn nKiiarusoii, dose rerrer, nino eri, ueau i i fiL: i tii tt-i I. i icn auu in iniuuuti i uiiiiuici. i icuin uaiuuiii uiu a mpmnrnh mip at Shaw epaenn TURN TO PAGE 2C.