Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 62

Tywpo 2 Section 5 Chicago Tribune. Thursday, February 19, 1998 Fill 'erup New York City's hardcore rockers Sweet Deisel bring their mix of the Stones, the Stooges and the Clash to the Fireside Bowl, where they will co-headline with Six Going on Seven Wednesday. 773-486-2700. Dee-lightful Dee Dee Bridgewater headlines the "Night of 100 Stars" benefit Saturday at the Wes-tin Hotel. 773-947-0600.

Online: Grammy chat Chat with Chicago Tribune writer Lou Car-lozo about the Grammy Awards on at 8 p.m. Monday in Digital City Chicago Chat on America Online (keyword: Chicago Chat). Arts watch 1 World appeal Luis Miguel covers all musical bases at Horizon Lies in 'Henry' i build up to troubling truth i By Lawrence Bommer Special to the Tribune enrik Ibsen praised what he called "life lies," those illusions without which existence is insupportable. "Here Lies Henry," a tour de force by Canadian performer Daniel Maclvor, takes that lefense into the dark side. Truthfully, Maclvor i mw i urn hmmimimwi MWMHEWpBjW fc introduces us to Henry Tom Gallery, a prince of prevarication.

Forget Jon Lovitz and Jim Carrey. This industrial-strength liar suspends disbelief fintil it morphs into the truth, Maclvor is artistic director of Toronto's da da kamera, an experimental troupe for whom the poundary between stage and seats is often blurred. Maclvor's intensely driven solo show presented lill '--txw Theater review "Here Lies Henry" When: Through Sunday Where: Performing Arts Chicago at Athenaeum tTheatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Phone: 773-722-5463 By Achy Obejas Tribune Staff Writer A singer with a remarkable baritone and a flair for drama, Luis Miguel may be known to American audiences mostly for his turn on Frank Sinatra's "Duets" album, but he's a star in the same stratosphere as Madonna and Eric Clapton in terms of worldwide sales.

According to Warner Bros. Records, he's the label's sixth best-selling artist. And why not? As he amply demonstrated at the Rosemont Horizon on Tuesday night, he's a citizen of the world, capable of mastering everything from serviceable pop to classic tangos to the enigmatic and emotive Latin bolero. In Rosemont, he even threw in a trio of merry mariachis, just in case Juan Gabriel or Alejandro Fernandez (the closest thing to competition) think they have anything on him. He also kicked, swung his hips, flirted just enough with the screaming girls in the audience and constantly posed in extreme theatrical fashion.

Several times, he appeared only in silhouette, underscoring the tuxedoed romantic image of recent years. If he seems studied, well, 28-year-old Miguel has been doing this since he was 11. The son of an Italian mother and Spanish singer Luisito Rey, he got his start working with tinged pop songs such as "Suave," still a concert fave. (Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Mexico, Miguel speaks a formal Mexican Spanish and considers himself Mexican.) But six years ago, desperate for a change, Miguel turned his velvet cords to boleros, romantic ballads highly charged with emotion and, oftentimes, longing. The switch from bubble gum to classics was supposed to signal that little Luis Tribune photo by John Bartley Singer Luis Miguel moves from pop to tango to boleros during his performance Tuesday evening at the Rosemont Horizon.

Latin pop review In some cases, Miguel's arrangements of the classics have been stellar, such as "Besame Mucho," with its new airy backup vocals and jangly guitars. But others are problematic. On "Nosotros," Miguel has added little happy bass lines. Tuesday night, he was grinning and jumping all over the stage, oblivious to the song's lyrics: a poignant farewell to a lover from a dying man. It raises questions, of course: To be the great interpreter of song that he so clearly aspires to be, it might be better if he repeated his flamboyant displays a little less frequently and felt the songs a little more deeply.

Miguel was all grown up. While sales have been affirming, critics have been mixed: Miguel, in spite of those magnificent pipes, has often been accused of better packaging than interpreting. Enlisting Armando Manzanero, the legendary Mexican composer, as his collaborator on what would turn out to be three CDs, Miguel produced his own versions of classics such as "Somos Novios," "El Reloj" and "Sabor a Mi," all of which he faithfully reproduced note for note, inflection for inflection, at the Horizon. by Performing Arts Chicago at the Athenaeum iTheatre the 35-year-old artist joins forces with director Daniel Brooks and sound composer Richard 'Feren. What results is a sardonic salute to the deceptions that fend off life's more terrible truths.

Lies, Maclvor implies, fill our void until death shows us just how much we lived a lie. Dressed in a dark suit buffeted by Feren's fero-cious sound design and all but imprisoned by Andrea Lundy's claustrophobic lighting, Maclvor's congenital fibber spits out short and tall tales. Awkwardly perjuring himself, he alternates absurd (flaims (his sister is his mother) with more plausible untruths (he torched his house). Henry, who lies to preserve his "optimism," details jarious types of anti-truths good-humored joshing, white lies, desperate excuses, pathological distortions, professional deception, survival stories (Henry ijs gay) and time itself, the "universal lie" that fools us all. 1 Amid frenetic gestures, self-contradictions and dance-like digressions, Henry clumsily critiques life.

In Beckett-bleak terms he sees himself circumscribed by habit. He ridicules religious falsehoods, terming the Garden of Eden the mother of all lies. Echoing the Greeks, he calls life a brief brightness hat dis-; turbs a constant darkness. Love is a scenario of treacherous bliss; the merest misunderstanding leaves Henry taking all the blame. Beauty and time ape tuneasy roommates, the former eroded by its jealous lover.

Friendships founder on inertia. Few tijufhs will set you free. Still, there's always TV. eic'" Daniel Maclvor singlehandedly and singlemindedly creates a repertoire of lies both white and black. Finally, Henry fantasizes his death: It's a slow reprise of the life just lost, performed before strangers who expect to be surprised and ending up at the very bed where he was conceived.

Henry's ultimate duplicity is to tell the truth, exposing the fears that shadow his make-believe. If his pathetic untruths covered up crimes he never committed, by the sheer process of elimination, what's left must be Henry. Maclvor's counterfeit Henry is a wry impostor, his quicksilver 'volatility masking his seat-of-the-pants exaggerations. A bizarre amalgam of existential despair and cocktail-party braggadocio, he is painfully, even embarrassingly, recognizable. Sure, all plays lie.

Quirky, uncompromising and ingeniously unsettling, "Here Lies Henry" just exposes the truth more than most. 'Barbara Walters' charming and funny By Chris Jones Special to the Tribune nee in a very long while, a rough-and-ready Chicago theater troupe with more imagination than money will put together mv ems Hfffliss While it's cold outside, work out inside on a Spirit Treadmill. When summer comes, just fold it and save it for a rainy day. 1 invested in their romantic fortunes (perhaps that's because most of us harbor a similar secret). She has also fashioned a whole galaxy of urban eccentrics that are all drawn with the same kind of loving but mercilessly satirical sensibility one can find in, say, the work of Armistead Maupin "Tales of the With the possible exception of Michael Meredith as the heroine's awkward nemesis, everyone is perfectly cast (Amy Seeley's bookstore owner is especially funny) and the whole affair ripples along beautifully.

The show is so funny although never brash or too far removed from reality that you spend almost its entire duration either smiling broadly or laughing out loud. So watch out for Kirkland a notable talent as a writer and performer. And for a delightful date show that will cost you less than a movie, the Factory delivers the goods. rr Theater review "The Barbara Walters Interviews" When: Through April 2 Where: The Factory Theatre, 1257 W. Loyola Ave.

Phone: 773-274-1345 bara Walters. Alone in her apartment, the woman plays tapes of Babwa-wawa questions and pretends they are addressed to her. Working as a clerk in the trendy new-age Sunny Peaks Bookstore, the heroine has the fortune of meeting an equally nerdy and repressed young fellow (delightfully played by Mike Beyer) one day on the job. John also has a secret fantasy life. He privately simulates Tom Jones performances, in which he throws women's underwear at himself.

Amazingly enough, Kirkland creates such sweet and believable characters from this maladjusted pair that one finds oneself deeply a show with so much charm and creativity that it not only reminds one of the great pleasures of writing about storefront theater in this city but it shines a light on the next generation of raw but formidable talent waiting to move on to bigger things. The latest such show is "The Barbara Walters Interviews" at the Factory Theatre. Only about 90 minutes long and a mere $7 a ticket, this whimsical original piece stars and was written by Jenny Kirkland (the youthful author of the well-received "My Period," also seen at the Factory). Simple in idea and execution, this lively comedy revolves around a very shy young woman named Karen (Kirkland) who harbors the dubious secret fantasy of being perpetually interviewed by Bar- it II Tight on space? Spirit Treadmills fold up easily for maximum space efficiency. Pmhxts are built for the gym, but priced for your home.

Barenboim too thorough in Civic lesson in the L' I JT AND NOW, FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF FEBRUARY, ALL SPIRIT TREADMILLS ARE MORE AFFORDABLE THAN EVER! THE FITNESS EXPERIENCE HAS OVER 20 TREADMILLS ON DISPLAY, STARTING UNDER $1,000 By John von Rhein Tribune Music Critic It wasn't, as Daniel Barenboim explained to the audience at Symphony Center, strictly a concert. Nor was it a rehearsal, lecture or discussion. "Hopefully," he added, "it will be a little of all these things." The crowd had hoped so too. Tuesday's Civic Orchestra of Chicago event represented a departure by Barenboim and the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony, one designed to show the audience how he and the young musicians go about preparing a musical score for performance. The educational value of such a format recommended it to Chicago public television station WYCC-Ch.

20, which videotaped the program for broadcast next fall. The basic idea behind the new format certainly has merit. But it needs to be refined if events of this type are to become annual events in the Civic season. away from it. To be sure, the conductor made an authoritative, indeed exhaustive, deconstructor of Wagner.

At the end of the 90 minutes, the audience and orchestra members knew all the themes, what they represented in the opera and how they came together in the glorious polyphonic climax. It was clear from the Civic's big-boned performance that the players had fully absorbed his ideas and directives. Finally, if nothing else, the event gave one a chance to scope out how Barenboim functions as a rehearsal technician with the parent orchestra. He encouraged the Civic players while offering constructive criticism, leavening his remarks with quiet humor. "One must get sonically seasick in those two bars," he said at one point.

Later, he cautioned the violins: "If you miss the high you must miss it with confidence. Don't do it half-heartedly." These open rehearsals need to heed the same advice. Classical review Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" Prelude and Liszt's symphonic poem "Les Preludes" were supposed to have been rehearsed, discussed and performed complete. As it turned out, Barenboim spent so much time taking apart the Wagner with the youth orchestra 90 minutes for a piece lasting no more than eight or nine minutesthat there was barely enough time to perform it, field a question from the floor and go on to the next piece. "Les Preludes" got the short end of the baton.

Putting Wagner and Liszt on the same program brought to mind fascinating questions the format did not, or could not, address. How, for example, did these two great musical revolutionaries of the 19th Century use thematic opposition, transformation and reconciliation? One is certain the orchestra players derived a great deal from the experience but less certain what the public was expected to take Treadmills Home Gyms Exercise Bikes Stair Machines Ellipticals Weight Benches More! FB7PJESS EIIPEHEPJCE Improving Quality Of Life Since 1986 8 VJOntlOUT WESTMONT 220 Ogof 630-969-1600 NAPERVILLE 1 550 Rt 59 630-369-8500 SCHAUMBURG 1 245 Goif 847-413-0202 CHICAGO 2112NC1YBOIJRN 773-472-5700 MORTON GR0V1 6949 Dempster 847-581-1100 2539 Waukegan 847-267-4100 I1' Tltl 4 'Financing available to qualified customers throvgh March Ut, 1998 See store jbr details Special offer not valid with any other di'ycount..