South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 39

Sun-Sentinel, Monday, December 21, 1992 3D ARTSENTERTAINMENT TOM JICHA TV Radio Writer Royal Palm reaches back for 'Song of Norway' I I THEATER REVIEW Song of Norway 1944 operetta based on the music and life story of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Dinner 6 p.m., curtain 8 p.m. Tues-, days through Saturdays; dinner 4 p.m., curtain 6 p.m. Sundays; lunch noon, curtain 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays through March 28 at Royal Palm Dinner Theatre, Royal Palm Plaza, 315 SE Mizner Boca Raton.

Tickets are $33 and $39. Call 832-0262 Palm Beach, 392-3755 Boca Raton, 426-2211 Broward. 1 The man behind the 'Chhaawwklitt' I 1 1 t's almost Pavlovian, which, if you think about, is kind of appropriate. Ease up to anyone at least thirtysomething and chant, "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle's makes the very best By JACK ZINK Theater Writer Song of Norway has been called "the last of the old-fashioned costume operettas" and, by the looks of the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre revival, rightly so. The Royal Palm brings back this 1944 confection with all the color and gusto that only its producer-star Jan McArt can bring to operetta these days.

This is the best kind of I-Me-My show-making, and valid: McArt is a former opera and operetta diva of some repute and conducts her love of the form with the zeal of a crusader. Her production, directed by Bob Bogdanoff, is classic in its structure. It reinforces the musical's strengths, in the score based on Edvard Grieg's compositions and the voices used to showcase it, and reaffirms its weaknesses in virtually everything else. That is to say, it's an operetta. Song of Norway has no more sins than most and it did revive the form fully 15 years after it had been killed off by Messrs.

Hammerstein, Kern, Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers, Arlen, Berlin et. al. I respect them all, but feel there's no inconsistency to gloat over the lush excess by Song of Norway musical adaptors Robert Wright and George Forrest. I do, however, wince over Milton Lazarus' libretto. Still, it's not really difficult to buy into Lazarus' pulp fiction built around Grieg's life.

It is what you'd expect these days from Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael or Geraldo Rivera, who give us operetta without the music every day. Song of Norway has the timeless plus of adaptations of Grieg's lovely music set to romantic poetry by Wright and Forrest. It was their first big Broadway hit, after which Kismet, The Great Waltz and many others, most recently Grand Hotel, followed. As the story opens, it is about 1860 and Grieg is a lighthearted young man who plays piano and writes lovely songs about his native Norway. He is lured away from his homeland by a chance to go big time as the keyboar- You'll almost certainly elicit a long, drawn-out, "Chhaawwklitt!" And a big smile.

Bonus round: What was the name of the snap-jawed, dog-shaped doll who delivered the punchline? Farfel, of course. That simple commercial campaign, which is almost 40 years old, is rarely ranked with the best or brightest of its kind. But it has turned out to be one of the most memorable. Jimmy Nelson, the ventriloquist who gave life and voice to Farfel, thinks he knows why. "If you grew up in the '50s and '60s and 12 Elaborate costumes set the tone for the 1944 operetta, which revels in both musical and visual excess.

Now, McArt is canny in the use of that voice to characterize the melody. McArt also glories in her turns as the flamboyant prima donna, which she does splendidly in the emotive sense. But she would do well to learn her lines as well as her lyrics and treat that dialogue more sanguinely; she drifts off the mark repeatedly and causes some funny, as it turns out drop kicks among the whole ensemble. Elias Eliadis, as the diva's equally- roving husband, is a full-bodied comic stereotype with extra flair in the asides. Also likable are Jack Gordon as the composer's rustic father and Dee Etta Rowe as the mother, especially when she takes the lyrical spotlight for Hymn of Betrothal.

The signature love song Strange Music (adapted from Grieg's Nocturne and Wedding in Troldhaugen) is welcomed often through Broderick and Wood. Toni Stamos' taped orchestrations are more than pleasant, particularly in that they act as dedicated servants to the vocal lines. Song of Norway also was, and is, a big dance show. But it was not George Balanchine's best work and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo couldn't disguise that in 1944. Neither does the tepid reconstruction by Robert Craig Dawson and the tentative dancers he has to work with.

watched Saturday morning TV, we were hard to miss. We were on all the cartoon shows as well as programs like Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger and Sky King." At the dawn of TV, he also was on the first don't-miss-it prime-time show, Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater. (Commercials, like the shows, were live then.) dist for an egotistical opera singer (and accomplished hussy) on her late-career concert tours. Success blooms and blossoms for the young man, but the death of his former best friend makes Grieg realize he's forsaken his artistic roots. The composer returns to Norway from the Italian Riviera with his homesick wife and writes his famed A-minor concerto, the thematic subject of the musical's two opening songs and of its final ballet scene.

Costumes and voices are what make the show work around that scenario. With McArt as the centerpiece, this Song of Norway is a clothier's bonanza. But dramatic voices are what make it work in the long run, and are traditionally the key elements of a Royal Palm operetta experience. Song of Norway's trump card is David Thomas Hampson as the sickly poet, who not only brings a rich tone and depth of phrasing to his songs in the central supporting character role, but also adds background color to the work of the romantic leads. William Broderick is dramatically abrupt and occasionally erratic of pitch, but he brings an attractive vocal quality to the leading role; it meshes nicely with Wendy Wood's charming singing as the patient wife.

You won't find many musicals anywhere with three strong principal singers like these. McArt, for her years, retains a vibrant quality to her singing. Though it is not as supple as needed for Three Loves, nor as fluffy as expected for Nelson Philharmonic, New World perform TV color palette lacking browns, yellows, reds MUSIC REVIEW Florida Philharmonic Handel's Messiah. 8 p.m. today at Gusman Center, Miami; Tuesday and Wednesday at Broward Center, Fort Lauderdale.

Call 1-800-226-1812. By LYNN ELBER The Associated Press Do not adjust your television set. This programming is in black and white. We're not talking about an exercise in TV nostalgia. It's the nearly complete lack of Hispanic, Asian and American Indian performers that has rendered the television landscape duotone.

Blacks wince at being played strictly for laughs, bitterly denouncing stereotyping and their segregation from many dramas. But other minorities don't even get the chance to be insulted. "It's very frustrating to be invisible in your-own country," said Esther Renteria, executive director of the National Hispanic Medial Coalition. Name the Hispanic actors with continuing net- -work series roles this season and you'll come up with only a handful, including A Martinez of L.A. It wasn't that Uncle Miltie was so terrific, although people from Maine to Mexico thought he was.

At that time, if you missed Uncle Miltie, you just about missed TV. There wasn't much else on. Nelson could be on the verge of ingraining himself and Farfel into a whole new generation. Thanks to the bottomless reservoir of affection for anything nostalgic, Nelson was invited to do a new round of Nestle's commercials with Farfel. They began running on Christmas specials about a week ago.

Initial response is further indication of the special place Nelson and Farfel have in the hearts of several generations. Since the spots hit, Nelson, who lives in Cape Coral, has been doing virtually nothing but responding to requests for interviews. Even Entertainment Tonight came calling. Plans for a second round of commercials, geared toward the Easter season, are in the works. "The people who are supposed to know such things tell me we're really on a roll," Nelson said.

It would make for a great story, maybe even a TV movie, if the resurgence in interest in Farfel rescued a lonely, grizzled hoofer from a reclusive life of brooding misery and cast him back into the spotlight. This just isn't the case with Nelson, who celebrated his 64th birthday last week. The years have been kind to him and he's doing quite nicely in the business world. A father of six and grandfather of four, he's a vice president of marketing and public relations for First Federal Bank of Fort Myers. "It's not like I've been sitting around waiting for vaudeville to come back," he said with a chuckle.

"I'm enjoying this temporary notoriety, but I'm not looking for a comeback. Show business has changed. I'm not about to hit the comedy club circuit. My material is a little dated, don't you think?" Farfel would have to develop a dirty mouth for the duo to make it in today's clubs, and the demise of TV variety shows has cooled the market for novelty acts. When was the last time you saw a juggler, magician or ventriloquist? Still, Nelson has been able to keep his hand in show business, but only as a hobby.

"I get invited to do a lot of conventions in Las Vegas and '50s-type things at Disney World. I also hit the condo circuit pretty regularly over in your area." In a lot of ways, he's like Billy Crystal's character in Mr. Saturday Night. Other than the fact that Nelson has a life, he said he "really related to that movie." Nelson also got his start on the Borscht Belt in the Catskills. In fact, Farfel got his name from a Jewish noodle soup.

"I saw it on a menu at one of the hotels and it just struck me as a cute name for a puppet." If he had known then what he does now, he might have looked further for the Yiddish word for "Chhaawwklitt!" Law and comedian Cheech Marin of Golden Palace. The rest of America's melting pot? A Chinese food delivery man did liven up a recent Seinfeld episode. On CBS' Northern Exposure, set in Alaska, American Indian cast regulars are called on for more than local color in such atypical roles as a would-be film auteur. noted Pittsburgh-based choral director Robert Page led the New World Symphony and guests in an abridged Messiah. Page conducted from memory, which would have been more impressive had he kept a tighter hold on things.

Surely a score would have helped him avoid so many coordination problems with mezzo Mimi Lerner. Such glitches did not keep Lerner and her colleagues soprano Pamela Hinchman, tenor Jon Garrison and distinguished British bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk from offering frequently exquisite embellishment. The Florida International University Master Chorale of Greater Miami, directed by John Au-genblick, was disciplined and well-balanced, and, expect for some high notes, sang firmly. The orchestra did not always sound sure of itself (or the conductor), but played expressively. The strings, by the way, used vibrato.

Page's tempos were erratic sometimes suitably bouncy, sometimes too fast (The people that walked in darkness nearly boogied in this version), sometimes too draggy, sometimes provocatively slow and emphatic. He enjoyed inserting ritards and dramatically holding onto a final chord. But these indulgences were easier to take than his choice of cuts. In addition to all the expected ones, he took the heart out of the oratorio's most poignant aria, He was despised, a decision that borders on desecration. Both the Philharmonic and New World performances benefitted from stylish continuo playing, but the New World's harpsichordist drowned out the violins' imitation of fluttering wings the soprano's recitatives in Part 1.

There was excellent trumpet playing at both concerts, too. If you're attending the final Philharmonic performances, note that there is no late seating and no break between Parts 2 and 3 of the oratorio. By TIM SMITH Music Writer There was a great performance of Handel's Messiah over the weekend, but, unfortunately, not all at one place, at one time. If various elements from presentations by the Florida Philharmonic and the New World Symphony could have been fused, the result might well have been extraordinary. Philharmonic music director James Judd decided to present the complete work, rather than the typical cut-and-paste job.

That decision cannot be praised enough. It would be hard to find a worthless note in the 150 or so minutes of Messiah. Parts 2 and 3 of this 1742 masterpiece, the parts that usually come in for the heaviest surgery, contain particularly rich arias and choruses, as well as the score's only true duet. It was stimulating to hear all of this music Friday evening, even in the accoustically detrimental Florida Atlantic University Auditorium. One reason folks in Handel's day didn't mind hearing such a long work was that tempos were decidedly brisk, dancelike.

The weightiness and gooey sentimentality that have afflicted Messiah performances for so long was a 19th century development. Except for much of Part 1, which could have used an even livelier pace, Judd kept things moving buoyantly. But he did not gloss over the most poetic and profound passages; these he shaped quite eloquently. The conductor took another invaluable step toward faithfulness to Handel by finding a Baroque-style organ as the main keyboard instrument and working with the strings on authentic Baroque technique. Getting modern string players to play without vibrato is about as easy as getting a right-handed person to become left-handed.

But the Philharmonic members made the adjustmant remarkably well, and the lean, clean, transparent Martinez sound was well worth the effort. The Philharmonic Chorus, prepared by Paul Eisenhart, numbered about 100, but avoided a heavy choral sound; lightness of attack was admirably maintained. The balance was not ideal, however; the tenors were few and feeble-toned. And some individual voices occasionally had trouble blending in Since by man came death. Another aspect of true Hande-lian style is ornamentation embellishing a melodic line, especially a recurring one, to add interest and emphasis.

No matter how much of the score gets performed, a Messiah without such embellishment is still not complete. Of the vocal soloists, only sweet-toned soprano Harolyn Blackwell ornamented her solos with any consistency or flair. She also made each word communicate; there was character and color in her every phrase. Mezzo Yvonne Howard, who made a luscious, if small, sound, and tenor Robert Tear, whose noble voice rang out firmly, failed to add anything of note to the printed score. In an otherwise 18th century-ish performance, these two fine British artists seemed rather Victorian.

Bass Thomas Paul was similarly straight-laced, and also hindered by a weak top register, but he had some spirited moments. The program book contained an insert with most of Messiah's text, which no doubt would have been of greater use to the audience had enough light been left on to read it. On Saturday evening at the Lincoln Theatre in Miami Beach, Ana tnrougn tne years, a few series with non-black minorities as the leads have popped up. ABC's A.K.A. Pablo, starring Paul Rodriguez as a young Hispanic comedian, ran for less than i two months.

Trial and Error, a CBS comedy about two buddies from the East L.A. came and went in 1988. Most successful was NBC's Chico and the Man, which ran four seasons in the 1970s. But in general, TV Hispanics are gang mem" bers, drug dealers, maids. Asians are, well, Chi- nese food delivery men.

"You're the shadow in the background serving coffee," laments actress Carmen Zapata. Her frustration drove her out of Hollywood and into founding a Los Angeles community theater. "The studios, networks, producers are 30, years behind the time. They're not really aware of where we are in the country," said Zapata. "We are an upwardly mobile community." It's not just minorities being cheated.

"The importance of having visibility is this: My children need the self-esteem of seeing; themselves on TV," said Renteria. "Your chil- dren need to see them to know how to interact with them, to know we're all different but we're all the same, to eliminate the fear of the unknown." Northern Exposure draws heavily on Ameri- can Indian mythology and perspective such as the sly Thanksgiving-themed episode that showed the fictional town of Cicely draped in holiday mourning. The ethnic emphasis "does make good drama, good stories," said Andrew Schneider, a produc- -er and writer for the series. But can it make money? Northern Exposure is a top-rated audience pleaser, but it features white actors in the leading roles. "How do they know it won't sell if they won't try it?" argues Renteria.

1 Day 19 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A CHRISTMAS STORY -wis rr-it's PeZfSCTf IT-ITS rCKrCCT' VOUK CAPE IS TlEP 1 THAT MAKES My GIFT If II belle anp her new fbienps exchange gifts- TODAY'S MAIN EVENTS Music SHERRI MELLOW TRIO is booked for the Concert Under the Stars series at 7:30 p.m. at Hollywood Beach Theater, Johnson Street and A1A. Call 1-305-921-3404. 4 i for you even mors 1 IN A WHECE IS YOUR CLASP WHAllS THE MATTER WTH WHATS THE MATTER WTH THE WAY I LOOK? mmm 4X 'J J-HE Variety RIVERWALK HANUKKAH FESTIVAL is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at Esplanade Park, adjacent to Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Fort Lauderdale.

Call 1-305-970-9551. 13TH ANNUAL SOUTH FLORIDA HASSIDIC HANUKKAH FESTIVAL is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. at Young Circle, U.S. 1 and Hollywood Boulevard, Hc'lywood. Call 1-305-458-1877.

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