Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York · Page 31

Say grace with amazing grace By KATHY LINDSLEY STf F WR1TFR The family is gathered 'round, the turkey is on the table. Then comes that awkward moment: Who's going to say grace? A new book has arrived just in time to save the day. Bless This Food: Amazing Graces in Thanks for Food by Adrian Butash (Dela- corte Press, $14.95) includes contemporary and ancient prayers from many traditions, including Christian, Jewish, American Indian, Hindu, Islamic, Shinto and Confucian. The words "bless this food are translated into 19 languages. Two graces are illustrated in American Sign Language. There are more I ; ftootf , j Fir DORIAN BUTA Jl 1 ' 1 than 150 blessings in all, categorized as prayers to God in heaven or prayers for the bounty on Earth. Author Butash calls it a "spiritually nourishing basket of poetic fruit sacred prayers from all times, for all people." Some are quite long, but here's a grace of the Bodhisattva Bud dhists that can be offered before the food gets cold: This food comes from the Earth and the Sky, It is the gift of the entire universe and the fruit of much hard work; I vow to live a life which is worthy to receive it. This prayer is attributed to the Rev. John Giuliani- Bless our hearts to hear in the breaking of bread the song of the universe. Bolton's back Singer Michael Bolton will bring his painfully soulful style to the War Memorial 3C O SECTION ROCHESTER, B mm Democrat an5 (fljronidc THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1993 , .. Comics Movies The dating game 5C 8E Overstressed parents need to spend time Columns Out 13 About with each other every week. 4C 18E 3C Inside stays in Television 3C 2C Arc " if a iSVW - I JOE IULA Staff artist r n ?i ay mustache, some of the voice and lots of the money; but Wayne Newton has lived to see Vegas come back into vogue By JEFF SPEVAK STAFF MUSIC CRITIC Mayne Newton breeds Arabian horses. Whoa, let's start this over. Arabian horses are raised. What Newton breeds is Vegas-style lounge music. He is one of the few entertainers left who can sing MacArthur Park as though he means it. The breeding ground for the sound and style that Newton has come to represent is no longer restricted to Vegas, Atlantic City, your local Ramada Inn lounge or Rochester's Auditorium Center, where Newton performs tonight. Newton has joined a growing number of entertainers settling like silt in the southwest corner of Missouri. The city of Branson, which aspires to rival Las Vegas as a Mecca of entertainment pilgrimages, is sarcastically referred to by critics as the "Redneck Riviera." But there are now 32 celebrity theaters in Branson, shrines ranging in musical taste from B.B. King to the Gatlin Brothers, offering something for everyone. And in some cases, offering something for nobody: John Davidson has a theater as well. Newton's new Branson theater cost $14 million and seats 3,000. Riding such high-stakes trails does Wayne Newton What: An Evening With Wayne Newton When: 8 tonight Where: Auditorium Center, 875 E. Main St. Tickets: $27.50, $23.50 and $18.50, available at Ticket Express, 100 East Ave. (716) 222-5000 and TicketMaster (716) 232-1900 or TDD (800) 943-4327. Starting at 10 a.m. today, senior citizens can buy tickets at half-price at Ticket Express. not always come without trouble: Although he has no financial interest in the Branson theater, Newton filed for a $20 million bankruptcy protection this year. Bankruptcy protection is what people who owe a lot of people a lot of money call "financial reorganization." In Newton's case, it keeps his creditors at arm's length until his accountants fig ure out where all his money is. He has pared down some of the comforts and necessities that come with being a star. At the moment, Newton has neither a manager nor a personal agent, the people who tend to details such as arranging interviews. So our requests for an interview went unanswered. But regardless of his new connections in Missouri, Newton is a creature of the Las Vegas desert. The connotations of that image are not always positive for entertainers Vegas is where Elvis Presley and Billie Holiday came to die. And like a hundred Morey Amsterdams before him, Newton seemed destined to wither in the heat and blow away. It nearly happened that way. NEWTON'S VOICE has changed noticeably over the years. That is not a promising note for a singer. Gone is the sweet tone of his younger years, the voice of uncertain gender that first came to national prominence in the early '60s on the Jackie Gleason Show, developed singing at church functions from the age of 6 in his native Virginia. But that loss is compensated, he claims, by the ability to hit a wider range of notes. This does not necessarily mean the 51-year-old Newton hits a wider range of material. His audience is not looking for a challenge; it's NEWTON on page 6C Newton seems a little more hip these days . . . He is a pop-culture curio, on the same shelf with the Rat Pack of Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. s gold medallions. 'Addcans Family' sequel adds a hairy heir and an air of creepy romance By JACK GARNER STAFF FILM CRITIC Romance is the theme in Ad-dams Family Values, the sequel to the hit Addams Family film of 1991. But since these affairs of the heart involve the Addamses, you can expect love to take on a particularly demented air. And you can expect to laugh, most of the time. Nearly all the first film's regulars have returned, from director Barry Sonnenfeld to stars Raul Julia as Gomez, Anjelica Huston as Morticia and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester. The script is by playwright Paul Rudnick, whose Jeffrey is currently an off-Broadway hit; Rudnick reportedly contributed much uncredited rewriting to the first film. FAMILY VALUES picks up the thread from the original, which concluded with Morticia announcing her pregnancy. Here she's rushed to the hospital, REVIEW where she relishes the juicy pain of childbirth. Is it a boy or a girl? "It's an Addams!" says proud Gomez. The name? "Pubert." But Morticia wants to be a '90s mom. She wants to have it all husband, children, nefarious hauntings. The obvious solution is a nanny. After all, somebody has to protect Pubert from its siblings Wednesday and Pugsley. All the older children want to do is use Pubert for drops from great heights and for experiments with their toy guillotine. THUS ARRIVES the film's first new character, a sly sex bomb of a nanny named Debbie Jelinsky, played with great gusto by a proudly buxom Joan Cusack. But Debbie isn't what she seems. Why else would she express deep passion for that lascivious bald-headed lump, Uncle Fester? Could she be an infamous killer with a reputation for marrying and killing off rich men? Does Lurch like to play the organ? Debbie even schemes to rid the household of Fester's two greatest allies, Wednesday and Pugsley. The two are sent off to a goody-two-shoes summer camp a horrifying prospect for children named Addams. Thus, Camp Chippewa becomes the locale for the film's chief sub-plot, as the two youngsters shock their preppy co-campers by taking the Indians' side in a pageant about Thanksgiving, and by refusing to participate in swimming classes or archery. Wednesday also discovers puppy love, falling for one of the few campers who joins her in rebelling. BUT AS IN the first film, the plot is merely an excuse to parade a variety of macabre eccentricities across the screen, mostly inspired by the famous Charles Addams cartoons that were a New Yorker magazine staple for several decades. The 1960s TV show is also a key influence. YouH again encounter "Thing," 'ADDAMS' on page 6C Addams Family Values Starring: Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld Opens tomorrow at: East-view, Stoneridge, Webster, Loews Pittsford, West Wayne, Show-place and Movietime Rated: PG-13, with macabre humor, comic electrocution and other violence, and sexual double entendres Jack's rating: With 10 mm as a must-see, this film M rates i :.Jt. u -if iw i mm' " yiXfy i1 ''WtflIW'j!fc1 PARAMOUNT PICTURES Baby Pubert has papa Gomez's moustache in the creepy but funny Addams Family Values, a sequel opening tomorrow.