The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 244

ENTERTAINMENTTHE ARTSTV LISTINGS CALENDAR FRIDAY ORANGE COUNTY Hoe Angeles Slimes I MAY 24, 1991 HIGHLIGHTS Producer Gives Back O.C. MUSIC REVIEW Fiery Finale for Pacific Symphony LACY ATKINS Los Angeles Times Soloist Miriam Fried works alongside conductor Carl St. Clair in the season finale. absence of suavity, the paucity of subtle nuance, the stress on dramatic grandeur at the expense of lyrical grace. Tchaikovsky's indulgent emotions, projected once-over-heavily, teetered on the brink of Matters improved after Intermission when St.

Clair and the orchestra turned to Prokofiev's massive Fifth Symphony. This was a bold, well-timed turn. In all the frosted fuss over the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, many institutions have Ignored another significant milestone: the 100th anniversary of Prokofiev's birth. St. Clair and the Pacific Symphony provided a persuasive counter-argument.

They splashed Prokofiev's brash primary colors with heroic passion. They obviously savored the crashing drama and dynamic violence that make this epic instantly compelling. St. Clair didn't waste much energy over macabre melodic accents and jaunty rhythmic quirks. On this occasion, he didn't search for much expressive subtlety.

In flashy context, it mattered little. The conductor flexed his muscles and Prokofiev's too with disarming conviction. Her Emmy Television: Barbara Valentine returns award after Finding that air date of program, broadcast on KDOC, made it ineligible for 1990 honors. By LAUREN UPTON TIMES STAFF WRITER BURBANK A TV producer who won a Los Angeles area Emmy award last weekend notified the Academy; of Television Arts Sciences Thursday that she is returning it because she discovered that the winning program hadn't aired during the eligibility period. Barbara Valentine had received the Em-' my as executive producer of the best information segment for a story in "A New, Beginning," a series produced by Burbank-based Santa Fe Communications and for-1 merly broadcast on KDOC Channel 56 in; Anaheim.

She told the TV academy In a' letter that while the segment had mistakenly been entered In the 1990 competition because It originally had been scheduled to Please see EMMY, F27 HOWARD ROSENBERG Forecast: A Trivializing of America Television: Henry Kissinger's stint as a CBS weather forecaster is just the latest outrage as a tabloid mentality sweeps across the airwaves during the May ratings sweeps. Orange County ORCHESTRAL FINALE: Carl St. Clair closed the Pacific Symphony season at the center with a rougn, ripsnorting, generally imposing Russian program. Reviewed by Martin Bernheimer. Fl EMMY RETURNED: A TV producer who won an Emmy returned the award after discovering that the winning program, which aired on KDOC, wasn't shown during the eligibility period.

Fl TIMELESS KOTTKE: Leo Kottke demonstrates a gift for gab as well as 'guitar playingat his Coach House show. His timeless, endearing style would have made him a hit even 100 years Reviewed by Mike Boehm. F25 HOLIDAY BEAT: Reggae and blues will have two Los Angeles showcases over the Memorial Day weekend. And the Reggae Sun-splash tour will come to Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa on June2.F20 TONED DOWN: Drastically simplified since its unveiing last fall, the Metropolitan Opera's "Ballo in Maschera" sounds fine on "Great Performances" on PBS. Reviewed by Daniel Cariaga.

F25 BLUES SALUTE: Willie Dixon, B.B. King and Etta James are just a few of the greats who plan to perform in a concert June 8 at the Pacific Amphitheatre as part of Benson Hedges Blues '91, a weeklong salute to the blues that begins next Friday. F25 LAST CHANCE "Earth People: A Teetering Relationship," an exhibition of interactive installations by Jerry Burch-field, Sheila Pinkel and Beverly Naidus, closes today at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 3621 W. 'MacArthur Santa Ana. Hours: .11 a.m.

to 4 p.m. Admission: free. Information: (714) 549-4989. I More Orange County Calendar coverage, F25-F28. Elsewhere IMAGES OF OUTCASTS: In a gallery exhibition, Andres Serrano offers heroic views of the homeless in six-foot photographs.

Reviewed by Cathy Curtis. F16 FAMILY FUNCTIONS: Something about the physically ailing family in "Could I This Dance?" at L.A.'s Studio Theatre Playhouse, is startling; It could be the exuberant sanity with which they cope. Reviewed by Sylvie Drake. F23 STAGE BEAT: A vein of darkness running through "Absurd Person Singular" gives a rock bottom to By MARTIN BERNHEIMER TIMES MUSIC CRITIC COSTA MESA Carl St. Clair, the young firebrand engaged to revitalize the Pacific Symphony, closed the local-orchestra season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with a sure-fire Russian program on Wednesday.

It may not have been an especially good night for finesse or introspection. It was, however, a very good night for ripsnorting bravado. The festivities 'began with a rough and emphatically ready race through Glinka's "Russian and Ludmilla" overture. This act of affectionate aggression led, quite naturally, to an extrovert dash over the romantic hurdles of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Under St, Clair's fervent urging, the orchestra made a mighty, dense, sometimes undifferentiated noise.

Miriam Fried, the soloist, mustered complementary strength and authority. One had to admire the uniform sweep and breadth of the collaboration. One also had to regret the general MOVIE REVIEWS Smooth Ride for 'Thelma Louise' By KENNETH TURAN TIMES FILM CRITIC 'lick -and Jim, meet Thelma Louise. Ever sincecanny Mark Twain sent Mr. Finn arid his older, shrewder companion adrift on that raft going down the Mississippi, letting go, and heading out to those wide open spaces has been the classic American way of finding out you were and what you were about.

If you had a problem, you got yourself some transportation and you went. Anywhere. Though potentially as the gang in "Easy Rider" discovered, this cultural rite could be undertaken at any age and from any station in life. But it has also in movie terms, pretty much an exclusively masculine preserve. "Thelma Louise" has changed all that.

Forever. Provocative, poignant and heartbreakingly funny, this neo-feminist road movie is as pointed a look at what is timidly called the war between the sexes as we have had in quite Please see 'THELMA F12 WAIT, THERE'S MORE "DROP DEAD Phoebe Catcs encounters the "imaginary friend" of her childhood in an erratic film. F4 "ONLY THE An inspired notion John Candy as a bachelor cop, Maureen O'Hara his domineering ma. Ffl "HUDSON Bruce Willis plays the world's greatest cat burglar in a not-so-great caper comedy. F8 LES BLANK FILMS: "Garlic, Blues, Gap-Toothed Women" from the premier documcntarlan of U.S.

folkways. F8 "WILD Gabrielle Anwar stars in a Depression Disney tale. F8 "CHOPPER The Cycle Sluts come to Zomblctown's aid. F10 "TATIE Tsilla. Chelton plays the nastiest old lady ever.

F10 JOHN FUND "The Skin of Our Teeth" will be staged Ron Howard's "Backdraft" Is a 'throwback 'to; big-cast epics. As if bolted to the floor, he stood like an inert stump before a video projection of a map of the United States. His carriage was typically stiff, his face a frozen mask of dourness, his baritone voice a droning, somber monotone. It was was. Henry Kissinger.

Doing the weather forecast. Reporting temperatures for such familiar spots as Egypt and Palestine. That's Palestine, Ala.i "I'm sorry to see volatile conditions still occurring." Yes, he i did say that. Henry Kissinger, adviser to Presidents, 3 guru of international affairs, joining televi- sion in trivializing America. As the story goes, it was Paua Zahn, jj co-anchor of "CBS This Mor'nlngijfewho: i learned of Kissinger's "secret be a weathercaster, leading to his appearance on Tuesday's program as mi.

awkward; 5 fumbling, flubbing substitute for.regular weathercaster Mark 'who coached his stolid protege! from off Presumably, if Kissinger has any other "secret desires," you'll' hear aboq'fift them from "Hard Copy" or "A Current Affair." And see him act them out on "Sally'! Little Heat like the! monster in "Alien." Not for nothing dp firefighters here talk to fire, calling it names like "the animal" and "the beast," treating It like a personal enemy. For these fires are fascinating, capricious creatures who can always be counted on to do the unexpected. Which more than can be said for their much more stplid and predictable flesh-and-blood counterparts. What director Ron Howard and screenwriter Gregory Widen, himself a former firefighter, have come up with Is throwback to those big-screen, big-cast epics of the past, the kind with ads that read, "They Laugh! They Love! They Fight Fires!" Stars pop up everywhere isn't that Donald Sutherland as a fey but putting them to good use is something else again. "Backdraft" (rated for language) tells the tale of the battling McCaffreys, Please see F4 Lots of Fire but By KENNETH TURAN TIMES FILM CRITIC If fires had agents, not to mention publicists, the seven spectacular blazes (or is it eight with all that smoke; it's easy to lose track) that energize "Backdraft" would have their names up in lights and the film's nominal stars would, end up in small print.

Because nothing' anyone human does in this rather conventional smoke opera can hold a candle to conflagrations so eye-popping they make "The Towering Inferno" look like leftovers from "The Little Match Girl." Possibly the first film to have a "Pyrotechnics Created by" credit, "Backdraft" (countywide) truly shows us fire the way we've never seen it before. For these are blazes with minds of their own, swirling rivers and brooding storms of flame and smoke capable of terrlfyingly exploding onto the scene is a Jesse Raphael" or "Geraldo." It's that kind of media world. The strategy of "CBS This Morning" was surely to use its weathercasting Dr; Henry as an audience draw during the May ratings sweeps. Just as surely as the personality he projected can best be described as that of Please see FORECAST, F34 OJ the humor, and Ron Sossi's direc tion at the Odyssey doesn pull any of Alan Ayckbourn's punches. Re-Viewed by T.H.

McCulldh. F24 GENIUS AT WORK: Guitarist Stanley Jordan puts on a stunning display of virtuosity in his first televised concert, tonight on the Bravo cable channel. Reviewed by Leonard Feather. J34 INDEX Written by Fullerton playwright Richard Hellesen, it will be presented at 8:30 p.m. tonight, at 3 and 8:30 p.m.

Saturday and at 3 and 8 p.m. Sunday at the South Coast Repertory Second Stage in Costa Mesa. (714 957-4033. Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, heads' a terrific cast In "American Splendor," a knockout comedy exploring the world of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar. The play's long run at Theatre Thcater'lh Hollywood has been extended again, through June 15.

(213) 466-1767. Jazz Saxophonist Bill Perkins, whose credits Include with Art Pepper, Marty Paich, Stan Kenton and the Tonight Show Band, plays the Sunday brunch at Gustafj-Anders Restaurant in the South Coast Plaza Village if Santa Ana. Perkins will be backed by keyboardist Leal; Czimber, bassist Bruce Lett arid drummer Nick Martinis. Please lee WEEKEND, F12 A selective guide to what's happening in stage, jazz, pop, music, Film, dance, art, family entertainment. STAGE Thornton Wilder's farcical "The Skin of Our Teeth" about the decidedly unique Antrobus family (husband and wife are each 20,000 years old and they've had the same maid for 5,000 years) will be presented at 8 p.m.

tonight and Saturday, and at 7 Sunday, at the Repertory Theatre in Santa-Ana. (714) 836-7929. "Brighton Beach Memoirs," Nell Simon's autobiographical comlng-of-age comedy, will be performed at 8 p.m. today at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday and at 5 p.m.

Sunday at Cal State Fullerton's Recital Hall. (714) 773-3371. On the eve of shipping out, a young draftee faces a crisis involving duty and family love In "Moonshadow." The Best of the Weekend Fl Hot Stuff F26 MovigGulde F26 Morning Report F2 Restaurants F21 Radio: AMFM Highlights I -F32 Tonight on TV and cable1 F32 7T i LosAnsdtsTUnts in Santa Ana..