Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 163

Aug. 10, 1986 Asbury Park Press nrnQnrcTn Ma 2 Movie Timetable 5 Music 13 This Week rf lkJ '1 mmmmmm Audiences yen for more during I9th season "to i capped. The collaboration also calls for the Isuzu name being featured in Garden State Arts Center programs and billboard advertising. "Everybody seems to be happy with the situation," said Ann P. McKee, the Arts Center's director of public relations.

Mrs. McKee cautions, however, it's premature to reach any conclusion about the continuation of Isuzu sponsorship and that post-season assessment by Isuzu and the commissioners will be required. As far as ticket sales go, Patricia M. Horan, the Arts Center's administrative manager, similarly cautions that the season's not over 'til it's over. "But all signs," said Ms.

Horan, "point to its being quite possibly our most successful year to date." For about the first half of the '86 season, according to Ms. Horan, the average performance attendance was our audiences can see he place looking its very best, especially with our renovated plaza and its sparkling new fountain centerpiece and our handsome new bronze gates at the entrance way," Mrs. Stanley said. In general, a mid-season survey of the Garden State Arts Center operation indicates all systems smooth. Attendance is high.

As of July 31, the unaudited figure for number of 1986 patrons was 177,146. Unfortunate incidents are low, according to David Ryan, who oversees Arts Center traffic and security. And Isuzu is right there in the wings or at least at the foot of the amphitheater's entrance stairs where two Isuzu vehicles are displayed for the season. Also on display is an Isuzu car that the company donated as a raffle fund-raiser for the Garden State Arts Center Foundation, which provides free programs for school children, the elderly and handi By MARGUERITE HENDERSON Press Staff Writer If you can impress Frank Sinatra, you must be doing something right. That's how George P.

"Zilocchi, executive director of the New Jersey Highway Authority, feels about backstage improvements introduced this year at the Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel Township, now in its I9th season. The Highway Authority operates 'the Garden State Parkway and the Garden State Arts Center, where updating was done both behind the scenes as well as in front of the stage. "All performers that have used the new dressing room facilities," said Zilocchi, "were very impressed. Shirley Bassey and Julio Iglesias and others were all very positive about it. But to have Sinatra, the 'chairman of the be ecstatic and delighted well, that's something." Zilocchi is also upbeat about the $240,000 corporate sponsorship negotiated this year between the Arts Center and American Isuzu.

"So far I feel it's going quite well; it has not posed any real serious problems," Zilocchi said, adding that he considers "no complaints" from Isuzu as indication the company may be interested in continuing the association during the next four years for a total of $1.2 million. "The whole intent (of the corporate sponsorship) is to maintain the image I think the Arts Center has as the showplace in the state of New Jersey and to offset escalating prices," Zilocchi said. Judith H. Stanley, chairman of the New Jersey Highway Authority, shares Zilocchi's enthusiasm about the season and physical improvements to the facility. "Of course we're delighted that do that in a stupid way." Mulliga i has a rubber face and an equally elastic personality, but doesn't like talking about himself as much as he likes talking about Edwards.

"Years ago in New York during a less than happy time for me, out of concern for my low spirits, I went to see a Pink Panther movie. It was the one where Peter Sellers pumped up his hunchback suit while he was on the telephone and floated out the window. I laughed so much it bailed me out of trouble. "If someone has given you a laugh and you've given him one, there's an agreement between you. Blake had his laughs with me in 'Little Big Man' and 'Soap." The men officially started their association in 1981 with "S.O.B." and continued with "The Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Micki and Maude." Now, Mulligan will do anything for Edwards, including falling down a hill in the south of France and twisting his shoulder.

He did that while playing Inspector Clouseau's 80-year-old father. In "A Fine Mess," he has to run up and down concrete stairs and jump over fences. He even got his hair permed for the part. "I always enjoy being taken over by a character," he says. "Sometimes it's difficult in the middle of the night to wake up with haunting thoughts.

That hasn't happened with Turnip in 'A Fine He lets me sleep like a vegetable." Manhattan Transfer vocal about its kind of music Richard Mulligan believes laughter best road to success BOB BIELKAtbury Park Prwtl Section A seating. "James Taylor has historically gone up and down in popularity," said Ms. Horan, "but he's always done well at our facility. "Of the performances that are left," said Ms. Horan, "many are sold out or lawn-only status." Sellouts, however, are not always equal.

"For rock shows we put more on the lawn," Ms. Horan said, for total seating capacity of 10.600 persons. "A sellout for Bill Cosby, for instance, would be about 9,600," Ms. Horan continued. Ms.

Horan also pointed out that when The Monkees' Aug. 2 evening performance sold out at 10,600, it was decided to schedule a 2:30 p.m. matinee, which attracted about 9,000 patrons. The Monkees' matinee was, ac- See SERIES, page G5 "It's very hard to find someone (when you're) in this business especially women," Paul says, theorizing that "men are intimidated by the strength that comes off the stage." "The strength" is the result of solid work. "We all study," Paul explains.

Their vocal coach since about 1980 has been Roland Wyatt See MANHATTAN, page Gil 1 i 6,200. The Arts Center scats 5,197 under the roof and as many as 3,500 on the lawn. This season features 58 performances (slightly more than last season) and there's the possibility of a couple of shows being added in September. Four performances are already complete sellouts, Ms. Horan said, and "quite a number were lawn-seats-only available." Season sellouts included The Moody Blues on July 14, the Aug.

2 evening performance by The Mon-kees, and Whitney Huston on Aug. 4. A future sellout is the Aug. 21 James Taylor performance. Bill Cosby's special gala performance on Aug.

15, which is a benefit for the Garden State Arts Center Foundation, is also a virtual sellout. "For all intents and purposes Cosby is sold-out," said Ms. Horan, adding "some benefit tickets are available for the dinner and excellent MANHATTAN TRANSFER will perform at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Garden State Arts Center, Holmdel Township. Remaining tickets are $20 for section on the side and $12.50 for lawn seats.

together," says Paul. Ms. Bentyne, on the other hand, he describes as "on the search." If pd it Press Staff Report partner is a term Alan Paul uses frequently. Not surprising when you consider that Paul is one-fourth of the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer. Paul is a native of Newark, and "my partner Tim Hauser," is from Ocean Township.

They both founded the group. At the start in 1972, the female members of the team were Janis Siegal and Laurel Masse. Ms. Masse later was replaced by Cheryl Bentyne. Paul refers to Ms.

Masse as "my ex-partner" as he explains why the group currently operates on a less trying schedule than the nine-month tour undertaken in 1978. Following that tour Ms. Masse was involved in a car accident that Paul attributes to "absolute exhaustion. "We're not crazy. When you're younger, touring is great," says Paul in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife, Angela, originally of Bradford, England, and their 17-month-old daughter, Arielle.

The couple met in Kyoto, Japan "a most romantic place to meet," says Paul when Manhattan Tranfer was touring Japan and Angela had a business in Tokyo. Hauser and his wife, Lorna, also live in Los Angeles. "She's been going with a man for 15 years, I can't imagine them not By NANCY MILLS Press Correspondent 11 hen he was a boy in the Bronx, Richard Mulligan belonged to a somewhat different kind of school yard gang. "To be in our gang, there was one qualification you had to be funny," he explains. "We got involved with two West Side Story-type gangs by mistake.

But the ice cream parlor gang it was ok to hang out with them." When Mulligan grew up, he was funny enough to get into the "Soap" gang on television. When that gang disbanded, he got to be a member of the Blake Edwards gang in the movies, and he still belongs. Maybe one day it will be ok for Mulligan to hang out with the Academy Award gang, but until then he says he is content to crack smiles and bust guts with Edwards' merry band. And so he has made his fourth Edwards comedy, "A Fine Mess," which is opening local-, ly on Friday. The movie is about gambling, a fixed horse race and lots of chases.

It includes a re-make of the 1932 Laurel and Hardy Oscar-winning short film "The Music Box," about the delivery of a piano. Mulligan plays a small-time crook called Turnip, who can't seem to do I anything right. "My attempts at bad aren't very good," he said. "I have to do mean things like shoot a gun, but I'm going to RICHARD MULLIGAN In "A Fine Mess" In Turnip's tacky blue plaid jacket, blue shirt and blondish-gray curly hair, it is hard to believe that the actor once aspired to being a policeman, just like his father. "If it hadn't been for my father saying three brief words to me, I might have been in a lot of trouble," he said.

"My father was a straight, honest, hard-working cop. When I told him, 'Dad, I'm going to go on the he looked at me sternly and said, 'No you're "My father said so little in his life, you didn't have to go into enormous discussions about it. Anyway, I had no convictions about being a cop. There See MULLIGAN, page G7 Manhattan Transfer, whose popularity is expanding, includes (from left) Cheryl Bentyne, Alan Paul, Tim Hauser and Janis Siegal..