South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 37

Sun-Sentinel. Monday, February 15, 1993 3P ARTSENTERTAINMENT MUSIC REVIEW If Elvis were here, he'd love Ricky Backed by a six-piece band that included pedal steel guitar, fiddle and honky-tonk piano, Van Shelton performed nearly flawlessly for about 90 minutes. Though he eschewed the posturing that has made most pop-rock acts tiresome, his stage pres-. ence was electrifying. When he sang a countrified version of the '60s rock hit The Letter, the crowd surged toward.

Almost all of the people at the foot of the stage were women. The only disappointment was that Van Shelton neglected to sing his current hit, Wild Man. It may be part of his reported religious conversion he re- cently released a recording of gospel songs that he no longer performs tunes that don't fit his new outlook. Co-headliner Lorrie Morgan, who performed first, shared the unpretentious stage demeanor of Van Shelton. She moved adroitly from slow ballads to fast country rave-ups, supported by a six-piece band and one back-up singer.

Morgan's songs have performed so well on country radio in the last year or so that her set seemed be made up almost completely of hits. These includ-ed Fve Minutes, Watch Me, We Both Walk, and Something in Red. A highlight of Morgan's show came when she sang: her current hit. What Part of No, a feminist rebuff to a man trying to pick up a single woman in a bar. It's clever and sassy, with a tune that is irresistible.

Like so many women in contemporary country music, Morgan came across as strong, sophisticated and intelligent, yet country to the core. It's a pleasing combination. Both bands played with the superb musicianship that distinguishes country music in general. By CHAUNCEY MABE Entertainment Writer Rock 'n' roll is alive and well, at least in Nashville. None of the current crop of popular country singers is more squarely in the rock 'n' roll tradition than Ricky Van Shelton, as he proved with a satisfying set at the Sunrise Musical Theater Friday night.

Van Shelton had a hit last year with his cover of Elvis Presley's Wear My Ring from the sound track album for the movie Honeymoon in Vegas. No surprise, since the singer possesses a powerful Elvislike baritone that is nonetheless distinctive enough to make his renditions of Presley songs a matter of homage rather than imitation. Wear My Ring brought the crowd to its feet. Van Shelton followed by proving his mastery of the '50s sound with rousing takes on Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire and Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman. When he launched into his own up-tempo country songs, such as I Am A Simple Man, there was no loss of energy.

And on hard-country tunes I've Cried My Last Tear For You, From a Jack to a King Van Shelton showed his brilliance at the classic honky-tonk country-and-western sound of Buck Owens, Merle Haggard or Lloyd Price. Wisely, Van Shelton mixed the three kinds of songs, which lent vitality to the slow songs, and a genuine country flavor to the rock 'n' roll tunes. One thing all the songs had in common was that they made you want to dance. For newcomers to the resurgent country music, the seamless integration of rock songs and a rock 'n' roll approach to performing country songs may be amazing. But it shouldn't be.

Country-and-western has always been as closely linked to rock as the blues have. New World expands to Broward County By TIM SMITH Music Writer The New World Symphony will make its long-overdue Broward County debut Friday at the Coral Springs City Centre. That may not be the best possible acoustical (or visual) venue for such an occasion, but it's a start. Since its first season in 1988, when it made two appearances in Boca Raton, the remarkable orchestra has confined its South Florida activities to its home base in Dade County. The Coral Springs visit is part of the center's efforts to offer more classical music on its cultural series this season.

Not all of these efforts have paid off: a recital by pianist Christopher O'Riley Sunday has been canceled due to sluggish ticket sales. But the New World's performance should give the series a lift. American conductor Lawrence Foster, former music director of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic and currently music director of the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, will lead the ensemble. The all-orchestral program includes Beethoven's evergreen Fifth Symphony, along with Rossini's Semi-ramide Overture and an infrequently encountered work by Paul Hindemith, his 1946 Symphonia Serena. The concert is at 8 p.m.

Friday. The center is at 2855 Coral Springs Drive. Tickets are $21 to $25, $10 for children under 12. Call 1-305-344-5990, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

weekdays, or Ticketmaster, 966-3309 (Palm Beach), 523-3309 (Broward), 358-5885 (Dade). Foster also will be conducting this program at the New World Symphony's usual locations 8 p.m. Thursday at Miami's Gusman Center, 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lincoln Theatre in Miami Beach.

Call 1-305-673-3331 or Ticketmaster. Gold Coast Opera The Gold Coast Opera's second production of the season was a satisfying, often amusing and colorfully sung staging of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Friday evening's performance at Bailey Hall, Broward Community College, in Davie was another indication that, despite severely limited resources, the company has become increasingly capable of offering respectable community-level opera. Things got off to an engaging start, with Thomas Cavendish conducting a spirited account of the overture. Depsite the tiny pit space and the theater's dreadful acoustics, members of the Greater Palm Beach Sym Ricky Van Shelton performed rock roll, country and oldies at the Sunrise Musical Theatre Friday.

Hank Williams was one of the major influences on Chuck Berry, which country stars such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charley Rich, Conway Twitty and Carl Perkins started as rockabilly singers, while Elvis never lost touch with his country roots. DEJA VU AND ROMANCE TOO Reliving 'Groundhog Murray is funny, touching MOVIE REVIEW 12 Groundhog Day A romantic comedy about a TV weatherman who has only one day to live over and over again. Credits: With Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Brian Doyle-Murray. Directed by Harold Ramis. Written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis.

Running time: 103 minutes fp5l Mature themes. Mr Poor Fair Good Excellent By ROGER HURLBURT Entertainment Writer Writer-director-actor Harold Ra-mis and comedian Bill Murray have had a long and fruitful association. Together they have garnered laughs and reaped box office rewards with Meatballs, Stripes, the Ghost-busters films and, especially, the off-color favorite, Caddyshack. Now, with Groundhog Day, the Ra-mis-Murray connection spawns the best work to date. This sweetly surrealist comedy is, arguably, Murray's most irresistible effort.

Groundhog Day is a warm and rewarding story about reason, reckoning and romance. What begins as a mundane assignment (the fourth year in a row) to cover the Groundhog Day festival in Punjcsutaney, turns into a recurrent 24-hour dream from which TV weatherman Phil Connor (Bill Murray) cannot awake. Stuck in this personal time continuum, Phil endlessly repeats February 2. The same people cross his path; the same events happen ad nauseam. "Once I met a girl in the Virgin Islands," reminisces the jaded, beleaguered Phil.

"We ate lobster, drank pina coladas and made love at sunset. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day?" Instead, Phil keeps getting the cold shoulder from fledgling TV producer Rita, played winningly by Andie MacDowell. She and cameraman Larry, played by Chris Elliott, barely tolerate the obnoxious commentator. phony sounded quite firm and buoyant.

This effective curtain-raiser led quickly to respectable results onstage. The bargain-basement scenery, costumes and makeup nftay have been discouraging, and the male chorus was small of tone and awkward of movement. But the principals soon had the opera perking. As Almaviva, tenor Paul Austin Kelly used his small, not particularly distinctive voice with uncommon imagination and sensitivity. His application of rubato and ri-tards in Ecco ridente was especially eloquent.

He was a deft comic actor as well, getting good mileage out of his Act 2 disguise as the music teacher. Thomas Woodman bounded in as Figaro, delivering Largo al factotum in breezy, vibrant form. His warm, agile voice held up well throughout the evening; his characterization of the crafty barber was likewise fluent and consistent. Kathryn Gamberoni was a charming Ro-sina. Her light, clear soprano sailed easily through coloratura passages; her phrasing was artfully nuanced.

There was plenty of comic relief from John Davies as Dr. Bartolo and Irwin Densen as Don Basilio. Their vocalism was not always sturdy (Densen had particular trouble with rhythm), but their attention to words was astute and they both captured Rossini's musical humor. i Although Christian Smith's stage direction was shaky and stodgy in the first scene, things soon started to flow nicely. He was adept at timing some of the action to the score; one example was the sneezing of Bartolo's maid, Berta (portrayed by Debbi Basone), in the Act 1 finale.

Cavendish kept the score moving and, for the most, held it together neatly. Steven Crawford, the Greater Miami Opera's for But Phil is no dummy. Making the best of a truly absurd situation, he becomes as much the master as the victim of his zany predicament. Exploring and realizing one's own fantasies has rewards. Becoming an involuntary expert on all matters trivial indeed amazes everyone Phil's encounters.

With all his prophetic insight (nearly godlike predictions, he muses), Phil strikes out with the real love of his infinite existence. All he can do is stop playing by the life's rules and deal directly with this bizarrely repetitive world. Splendidly written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, Groundhog Day is a thoroughly entertaining sojourn into a comedy paradise, where schtick Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray relax in Groundhog Day. need not exist. outset Instead, Ramis plunges Murray MacDowell is fresh and delightful, head-long into a humorous morality while Elliott takes a necessarily play laden with marvelous insights, straight tack.

The result is a funny purposeful tomfoolery and several and often heartwarming story that moments of self-effacing revelation, makes the most of many fascinating And Murray is up to the task from the possibilities. Another dark, gloomy movie with Meredith Baxter ON TV Program: Darkness Before Dawn Stars: Meredith Baxter and Stephen Lang Airs: Tonight at 9 on WTVJ-Ch. 4 and WPTV-Ch. 5. mer resident conductor, was at a synthesized harpsichord, providing inventive accompaniment for the recitative.

As usual, amplification was used, but it seemed far more subdued and unobtrusive this time. I'm still convinced that the singers and the public could be weaned from it entirely. TODAY'S MAIN EVENTS (Vac The lame rationalization for her de-r pendency on pharmaceuticals is a mis-? erable childhood under an father. If a moratorium was declared on re viewing TV shows featuring characters who have been victims of childt, abuse, every critic in America would be out of work. The self destructiveness of Mary Ann and Guy is bad enough.

If they! want to kill themselves, do us all a) favor. What dissipates any inclination there might be to feel sympathy for! them is the ramifications of their be-, havior upon innocents. Pill-popping Mary Ann has a child when she meets Guy. Together, while each is strung out on heroin, they col- laborate on another, a son who is bonu with an addiction. It's both heart-; wrenching and infuriating to see an; hours-old child who won't take nourishment until he gets a fix.

Mary Ann and Guy are but not enough to change their They make periodic attempts to get; help and clean up their acts but the! slightest personal setback or disap-l pointment is sufficient excuse for; them to fall back on their old ways, Since TV demands it, there is a hope-! ful resolution before the final No, they don't overdose and kill themselves. I said tte ending was not happy. 1' By TOM JICHA TVRadio Writer The first thing Mary Ann Thompson learns about Guy Grand in Darkness Before Dawn is he is an out-of-control drug addict. She then discovers he is untrustworthy and a liar. Next, she finds out that he is hitting on her while living with another woman.

Before long, it becomes clear that he likes to play rough. Not surprisingly, he can't hold a job. What's a woman to do? What Mary Ann does is marry Guy. Then to demonstrate that she wants to share more than a bed with him, she enthusiastically embraces his favorite pastime, shooting up heroin. Tonight's NBC movie ought to be called TVie Days of Mainline and Roses.

Or, to put it in terms that will make it clear to anyone who watches TV, it's another one of those Meredith Baxter movies. The once perky comedic star has become the Betty Ford Center of actresses. When it comes to playing the role of the trod-upon victim, France could take lessons from Baxter. Her credit sheet should be headed Afflictions 'R' Me. It isn't clear what the 'ppeal of an hour and 59 minutes of Darkness Be- Music MICHAEL W.

SMITH and opening act DC Talk, contemporary Christian music stars, are booked at 7:30 p.m. at West Palm Beach Auditorium, 1610 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. Tickets are $18.50. Call 1-407-683-6012 or Ticketmaster, 966-3309 (Palm Beach), 523-3309 (Broward), 358-5885 (Dade). TASHI, chamber music ensemble, is booked with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman at 8:15 p.m.

at Gusman Hall, University of Miami, 1315 Miller Coral Gables. Call 1-305-372-2975. Theater EDITH STEIN, a play reading by Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches, is scheduled at 7 p.m. at Lois Pope Theatre, Plaza del Mar, 262 S. Ocean Manalapan.

Admission is $5, $3 students. Call your health? Nancy Reagan public service messages had more entertainment value. It's a film strictly for those who take perverse pleasure in witnessing the misery of others. It would have been cheaper and just as efficient to run back-to-back episodes of I Witness Video. This isn't to say Darkness Before Dawn is a big-ticket production.

To the contrary, it has a chintzy backlot look about it. There is little about the characters with which anyone would want to identify. It isn as if Mary Ann, a nurse, is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm before she is corrupted by Guy, played by Stephen Lang. Even before they meet, she's a closet junkie. Mary Ann's job gives her access to a hospital pill closet.

Anytime she can sneak away for a moment, she's popping uppers and downers. She's a sneaky junkie, too. Guy is upfront with her about bis habit, but she doesn't say a word to him about hers. Meredith Baxter fore one minute of Da wn is supposed to be. Hanging around with Dr.

Jack Ker-vorkian for a few hours would be more fun. Perhaps NBC sees the supposedly fact-based story as a cautionary tale, but does it really require two hours to make the point that injecting smack into your veins can be hazardous to Fairs fests ARTIGRAS "93 is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on NorthCorp Parkway at PGA Boulevard and Interstate 95, Palm Beach Gaens. Call 1-407-694-2300..