South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 62

Sun-Sentinel, Thursday, March 30, 1989 1 wjwwagy'ws WPEC gets signal to move into Broward mm fmmmmfim 1 Philharmonic has late-blooming night TOM JICHA Television Writer MUSIC REVIEW By TIM SMITH Music Writer As a rule, latecomers to concerts are to be reviled. But they might get the best deal at this week's Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida program, especially if they arrive very late. Tuesday's performance at War Memorial Auditorium was slow going until the last quarter, when resident conductor Alfred Savia fired up the ensemble in Ottorino Respighi's brilliant Feste ro-mane. If less played than the composer's other two celebrations of the Eternal City (Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma), this four-movement work from 1928 is no less inspired. Its evocation of ancient festivals is consistently entertaining, its rich application of orchestral color still can be downright startling.

Savia, who continues to demonstrate far more than just competence, dug into the score to find its warmth and character, and the orchestra went right along with him. It was a terrific performance, vital and spontaneous in feeling, sparkling in articulation. The strings poured out a steady, vibrant tone, the woodwinds blended cleanly, the brass attacked with what often seemed like glee. Andrew Lewinter's horn solos were beautifully shaped. As for the earlier part of the Christmas came twice this past winter for WPEC-Ch.

12. A week after the traditional observance, the Palm Beach County station received an unprecedented gift for a TV station, a huge audience in Broward County, neatly gift-wrapped by CBS. A key element of the two-market network shuffle on Jan. 1 was WPEC agreeing to surrender its ABC affiliation and align with CBS. Without Channel 12's capitulation, CBS network programming would have been unavailable to countless thousands of Broward County viewers because of the signal problems of CBS-owned WCIX-Ch.

6. This was an historic flip-flop in South Florida viewing customs. Traditionally Miami-Fort Lauderdale network affiliates encroached severely on the Palm Beach County audience. CBS not only guaranteed Palm Beach County sovereignity to WPEC, the network encouraged even assisted Channel 12 to help itself to the CBS audience in large chunks of Broward. It was such a stunning turnabout that it has taken WPEC a while to appreciate the magnitude of this gift.

The February rating book finally drove home the point. Among the statistics were some eye-openers. According to WPEC marketing director Don Colee, 24 percent of WPEC's total audience now comes from Broward; a year ago, it was 7 percent. During the two periods of the day when the CBS factor is strongest, the afternoon soap-opera block and prime time, the turnaround is more star- 5 MW tling. In prime-time, 29 percent of Channel 12's audience is in Broward County.

In the afternoon, 32 percent of WPEC's viewership comes from south of the Palm Beach County line. In 1988, the figures were 6 percent for both time blocks. WPEC has taken note and is moving to capitalize on the situation. Last week, it opened its first Broward County news bureau, in the Cypress Creek Financial Center. A full-time staff of five is assigned to cover only Broward news.

Not only is the new facility a news base, it also serves as the center for the WPEC sales and community-relations departments. At the same time, WPEC is enhancing its visibility in Broward, regularly dispatching station executives and on-air personalities to speak to civic and social groups. Broward is now considered part of WPEC's home market, news director Larry Hendrix says. "Our focus has expanded toward the south, especially into North Broward." Previously Broward was covered Conductor Alfred Savia: dug into the score tense expression and the illumination of minute details of phrasing. Although Savia's approach was admirably reflective, it lacked inner passion.

Again, the musicians were in smooth form, though, and there was some particularly pleasant contributions from the woodwinds. Both the Brahms and de Falla are likely to become more interesting in this week's repeat performances, but I'm not sure about Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. Russian-born soloist Mark Peskanov, who has several awards and major orchestral engagements to his credit, turned in a pallid, even studentlike account of the work. His tone lacked weight and sometimes firm pitch; his style was too cautious to capture the music's lyrical glow. Savia and the Philharmonic provided dutiful support.

out of a Boca Raton office, and a story had to be of unusual importance to avoid being relegated to the spot after the weather forecaster does his jokes. Broward news, particularly that which is generated from the central part of the county northward, is judged on an equal footing with Palm Beach County events. Hendrix cites the pieces his staff has done on highway congestion caused by construction on the Turnpike and Interstate 95. "Last year, the Broward road mess would have been mentioned in passing on our newscasts. This year, we did a four-part feature on it during the February sweeps." To keep the home folks' attention, Channel 12's reporters and anchors try as much as possible to establish a connection between what's happening in Broward and what it might mean to Palm Beach County.

"We try to put regional spins on stories," Hendrix says. "You can't be parochial anymore. The two counties are connected by 1-95 and the Turnpike and Tri-Rail. Something that happens in one county usually has some kind of impact on the other." The idea is to hold CBS viewers in Broward for Channel 12's newscasts, rather than have them flip the dial to a Miami-Fort Lauderdale station. "Our message to Broward is simple," Hendrix says.

"We're here. We're interested in your story. Take a look." Particularly the latter. An Offer Almost Too Good To Be True! I Hflno 1 Reynolds Jupiter Theatre to cancel 'Stage Stuck' nr jHH lavs' i mi wmm MINOLTA MAXXUM 30001 ATI N4004 TWIN ZOOM KIT ZOOM KIT tup if it rnup, 7 INCLUDES Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida Tuesday at War Memorial Auditorium, Fort Lauderdale. Also at 8:15 p.m.

on Friday at Florida Atlantic University Auditorium, Boca Raton and at 8: 15 p.m. on Saturday at Gus-man Cultural Center, Miami. Call 561-2997 (Broward), 659-0331 (Palm Beach) 392-5443 (Boca Raton) 945-5180 (Dade). evening Dullsville. Three dances from Manuel de Falla's Three-Cornered Hat passed by without making much of an impression.

The ensemble played the notes neatly and Savia certainly was attentive to melodic contours and dynamics, but the music didn't catch fire as it can. The finale of The Miller's Dance, for example, sounded oddly matter-of-fact, when it obviously calls for plenty of kick. And Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Haydn came dangerously close to plodding. As Zubin Mehta demonstrated so persuasively with the Israel Philhar-monnic in West Palm Beach last week, slow tempos can work quite well in this piece, but they have to be complemented by in- Lazaro Perez and Anastasia Barzee in Stage Stuck. citing the brief rehearsal period, and Kirkwood's inability to be in Jupiter during it, as contributing to Stage Stuck's problems.

Although some past Jupiter Theatre shows were also not successful and yet continued to run, Williams said, those productions were of familiar standards or recent hits. With Stage Stuck, "We can't say that this was very well-received Williams said. He added that the cancellation was not based on finances. "It's costing us far more money to close the show" than keep it open, Williams continued, noting that paying off the actors, scrapping the $30,000 set and replacing souvenir items marked Stage Stuck would prove expensive. Instead, he said, the theater is trying to show the community that its opinion and support count.

Letters are to be mailed to all subscribers, explaining the situation. "What we want to do is make sure we have the faith and trust of the audience for the future. If they're with us, they'll be with us," Williams said. Stage Stuck director Charles Nelson Reilly was philosophical about the cancellation. "I felt I did what I could, and the sad thing is, it's the same amount of work whether it's a hit or a flop," he said.

"That's part of what it is to be director." Carolyn Jack is a free-lance writer based in West Palm Beach. SAVE ODOOQ -n iviwiu a a a a a csqdp Minolta 35-70mm Autofocus QT Kf'S I Quantaray 35-70mm Macro Zoom afl 1 fl Zoom I Ouantaray 70-2 10mm Macro Zoom ai BJIHJIHn 1 Maxxum D-3Hi Flash p8? -te '33 1 $95 lSfejr i w35-70mm AF Zoom PURCHASE! li Jji )03 Lens and D-314i Flash 0W 41M FUJI commct camera' By CAROLYN JACK Special to the Sun-Sentinel The curtain is coming down on Stage Stuck. The new comedy by the author of A Chorus Line, which premiered last week to bad notices and audience dissatisfaction at the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre, will close on Sunday in the first-ever cancellation of a running Jupiter Theatre production. "It's a very painful decision for us," said Ken Williams, the theater's producer. "But the bottom line is, the goodwill of the community is important to us." In place of the play, comedian Rip Taylor and cabaret singer Kaye Stevens will perform their respective acts in An Evening with Rip Taylor and Kaye Stevens, through April 22.

Taylor has been starring in Stage Stuck. The canceled comedy, co-written by Chorus Line author James Kirk-wood and Jim Piazza, is about a company of actors trying to adapt a French play to the American stage in the face of a bad transla-. tion, pretentious direction and the acute anxiety of producers who want to add obscene language, violence, a disease-of-the-week and whatever else they can think of to make the piece commercially viable. The production received generally poor notices from the press and from numbers of audience members who walked out during performances. "With this show, we've found we fcave problems that can't be solved without going back into rehearsal and doing extensive rewrites," Wil-: liams explained.

"What I feel and I Burt Reynolds feels is that we have not had enough time to develop this piece and admit that and let it go. Unlike the musical Dangerous Music and other new plays the Jupiter Theatre has premiered, Stage Stuck was not presented as a work-in-progress, nor given extra rehearsal time, said Williams. He said the theater would continue to produce occasional premieres, we may slow down a bit I'm not planning on one for next season." 1 He praised the cast and Piazza for their hard work on the show, CUP AND onir i ANYWHERE 'WmmxAm. Canon Built-in retractable automatic flash Autofocus Auto-exposure Auto film handling Includes Canon USA one-year limited warranty EOS 750 s39995 VUflBiisis gum ZOMllfB MINOLTA FREEDOM 200 KIT AUTOFOCUS! MOTORIZED SONY F-30 VIDEO 8 HANDYCAM Featuring 330 Line CCD Imaging! Low light sensitivity (9 lux) 6-1 power zoom lens with macro focusing TCL Autofocus, Linear Auto White Built-in Flash Easy Drop In Film Loading Attractive Red Color is -y (Fuji Rebate) s388tH (After Rebate) 0 1IVI FRIENDLY $4188 1 i IV- SERVICE VMiT sm jf Booklet Balance, Auto Iris (Or $55 per monthl with approved Ritz Charge Card Finance charge of 16 APR. On display at (elect DL-7 FOR DETAILS.

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