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Entertainment 60 Fort Lauderdale News, Wednesday, June 2, 1982 Spoleto lends charm to the music series 'Beach Girls' mindlessly dull despite pretense of hedonism Movie review By Tim Smith Music Writer CHARLESTON, S.C. One of the best things about the Spoleto Festival continues to be the chamber music series at the Dock Street Theatre. There may be days when the music receives less than dazzling interpretations, but there is always a strong dose of charm coming from both the stage and the historic building itself. Responsible for much of the former is Charles Wadsworth, founder of the series and of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. There are no printed programs available at the concerts, so Wadsworth comes out before each selection and offers something of an introduction.

Like an absent-minded professor, Wadsworth fumbles with papers in his hand trying to locate information about the compositions or the players, all the while feeling free to O0i a lailcrh anv urav ho on Thnnnh THE BEACH GIRLS Comedy, set at a Malibu beach house, about a nonstop party thrown by vacationing college girls. With Adam Roarke, Debra Blee, Val Kline. Written by Patrick Duncan. Directed by Pat Townsend. Rated (nudity).

By Bill Kelley Entertainment Writer Say this for The Beach Girls: It delivers the goods. But to whom are the goods being delivered? The Beach Girls is the latest offering from Crown International Pictures, an independent movie company whose main output, from its founding in the early '60s until a few years ago, has been low-budget exploitation mostly variations on the violent product made slightly better by Roger Corman, Crown International's chief competitor for the drive-in trade. But about five years ago, Crown International struck gold with The Pom Pom Girls and, in short order, Malibu Beach, The Van and other entries in what the motion picture trade publications like to call the "sand and surf" genre. These are nothing more than updated versions of the old Beach Party movies that starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The principal difference is that the new movies feature an abundance of nudity, beer drinking and marijuana smoking.

Despite these R-rated additions, a mindless innocence pervades the films. In The Beach Girls particularly, none of the principals is interested in anything more harmful than sequestering as many teen-agers as possible in a vacant Malibu beach house for a mild orgy. (In these films, an orgy means no frontal, below- A 7" Ia it I A .4 1:. the-belt nudity, and everyone wakes up more or less clothed the next morning.) The problem with The Beach Girls is that the film is so undemanding that it is also, finally, quite boring. It mostly concerns a shy co-ed, Sarah (Debra Blee), and the shambles her two visiting friends (Val Kline, Jeana Tomasina) make of her absent uncle's oceanfront home.

But the filmmakers have had to introduce so many subplots to pad the movie to feature length (an offshore dope-smuggling ring, the activities of some nosy neighbors) that it all quickly collapses in confusion. For all the nudity, prancing bodies, and overtures to hedonism, there is surprisingly little outright sex in the film. The Beach Girls seems to be targeted, perhaps naively, at an audience that simply wants to stare at moving pin-ups. That's an anachronism, but judging from the box office receipts of Crown International's previous forays into the field, it's a profitable one. The film has few technical virtues beyond some slick photography.

It does, however, sport two surprises: an acceptable performance from Debra Blee, and a prominent cameo by Adam Roarke (as the girls' Uncle Carl), the only member of the late-'60s American International Pictures stock company (Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, etc.) who never cracked the big time. Roarke hasn't forgotten how to act, and is consequently wasted in something like this. there are invariably a few com-ft plaints each year i 1 i mmnniA, Adam Rourke has a cameo in The Beach Girls. a sc. HENRV'S CHINA H0USE: FOR GOOD CHINESE FOOD IT'S GOT TO BE HENRY'S Newly remodeled for your comfort You Need The News To Know Fort Lauderdale News SZECHEUN MANDARIN CANTONESE Hours: M-F 11 a.m.-2 a.m., 5 p.m.-2 a.m.

2600 FEDERAL HWY. FOBI LAUDERDALE 763-3333 ALL MAJOfl CREDIT CARDS ACCEFTEO For home delivery, call 761-4610 NO MSG USED IN COOKING Wadsworth informality, it seems awfully stuffy to begrudge the ingratiating atmosphere he helps generate. Audiences are made to feel more welcome in this theater than just about anywhere, and that has to be worth something. As usual, a very gifted group of musicians was brought together for the festival by the husband and wife team of violist Scott Nickrenz and flutist Paula Robison, who direct and program the series. Last Saturday, Robison and harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper gave Bach's minor Flute Sonata a carefully wrought performance, though the flutist's tone has been known to have a clearer quality.

During the same concert, Nickrenz and violist Lawrence Dut-ton (of the Emerson String Quartet) led a sparkling account of Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No. 6 with an impressive ensemble that included cellist Nathanial Rosen, gold medal winner at the Tchaikovsky Competition, and his wife, Jennifer Langham, who also happens to be a very competent cellist. In the outer movements, phrases flowed with the sort of electric spontaneity that is so often missing in performances of Bach, but the lyrical middle movement lacked the ultimate in warmth and even coordination at times. In between the works of the Baroque master, the Emerson Quartet offered some Stravinsky, in honor of the composer's upcoming centenary. The Three Pieces, brief, almost skeletal creations, were given a tense reading, full of nuance and delicately produced tone colors.

The final notes for viola, which seem to beckon the listener into a nether realm, were ideally realized by Dutton. The Concertina emerged with similar potency, the quartet providing a model of communicative phrasing. Sunday's concert featured works by Faure, whose chamber music output is not explored with nearly the regularity it deserves. The poe-ty and rather dignified passion that distinguishes the Piano Quartet, Op. 45, emerged beautifully in the performance by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Koichiro Harada, violist Nickrenz and cellist Lawrence Lesser.

The piano, four-hands Dolly Suite is a delectable piece, but Thibaudet and Seymour Lipkin were not temperamentally well-matched, which made for a competent, rather than endearing account of the score. Chicken Ribs You've Never Had If So Good For So Little. L7 HAIL KIDKBKI 0 PDKIKIIia for HQ Out S-T Dining Room Includes choice of baked pQtato or fries, sauce, cole slaw and roll. NO COUPON NECESSARY Valid thru 61382 Includes choice of baked potato or fries, sauce, cole slaw and roll NO COUPON NECESSARY Valid thru 61362 a ca a a C3 ca ca ca ssa ca a a i 9 MINUT 1 UUKIGIH The Emerson Quartet separated the two Faure works with Bartok's pungent String Quartet No. 3.

The players have long had a special flair for this composer (their New York performances of all six Bartok quartets in a single sitting is perhaps their most celebrated accomplishment) and that affinity came through brilliantly on this occasion. The major theatrical event of the Spoleto Festival is William Gibson's new play, Monday After the Miracle, a sequel to his first treatment of the Helen Keller story, The Miracle Worker. Arthur Penn, who 14 CHICKEN DINNER We pledge to serve our lunch specials within 9 MINUTES after the waitress takes your order or the chicken or burger is on us. OR 1A LB. SIRLOIN BURGER NO COUPON NECESSARY Both lunches include potato cole slaw, roll sauce Mill A Mn Ct 44 A A anu I M.M.

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1 (For the Ladies) FRI. SAT. wL Lnoice of Bacon, Sausage or Ham, Home Fries or Grits, Toast or Biscuit wjelly, and Cof- uipn FREE K9 O'BeerWhile it lasts and directed both the stage and film versions of the latter, is directing Monday as well, and his deft touch has resulted in a more compelling evening of theater than the play might be expected to create, Though Gibson's script is a bit too contrived at times and contains dialogue far too contemporary in tone for the early 20th century period of the action, he has managed to outline Keller's later years and, more crucially to the plot, the unfortunate marriage of ber teacher, Anne Sullivan, with clarity and a minimum of sentimentality. A strong cast, headed by Jane Alexander, as Sullivan, and Karen Allen as Helen (her ability to capture the special world of the blind and mute is remarkable), and a very handsome set by John Lee Beatty, give the production considerable distinction. Monday After the Miracle may not hold up as well as its predecessor, but it is likely to make its mark on upcoming theater seasons.

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