The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 68

SUNDAY. MAY 31. 1987 THE HOME NEWS GS Original play delves into Civil War issues sr tn Kit vt m' at if 3 'v! If i i than theater. Mooney for many years played Paul Martin on the daytime soap "All My Children" and was twice nominated for an Emmy in the role. Holt, in addition to frequent appearances on "Nashville Now" and "Hee Haw" is the host of the Nashville Network series "Fire On The Mountain." Both, however, have performed in one-man shows throughout this country and Europe.

The show is set up well to tour. There is a single set, a busted up old shed, and it can be pulled down and put up in about 90 minutes. With simple mood lighting and just the two characters, the entire production can move quickly and economically, an important ingredient in today's theatre scene. But Mooney hopes that the show will be more than a mere financial success. "There are two visible scars across America," he says, "the Depression and the Civil War." He suggests that perhaps he and Holt can bring some insight into that lingering scar.

While each of the stories and songs of the show are true to the period, there is one bit of artistic license. The spy, Hensen and the banjo-strumming minstrel, Sweeney, never actually met In fact, Mooney explains "Sweeney died about a year before the play begins." Audiences should be happy to accept this conceit The play opens plays Thursday-Saturday evenings at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m. through June 14th. For information or reservations you may call (201) 5484670.

By STUART DUNCAN Home News arts correspondent The American Civil War has long been fertile territory for novelists and film makers, but surpisingly litttle theater work has resulted from the four-year conflict between the states. Veteran East Brunswick actor William Mooney and Texas-born musician David Holt have stepped into that void with their new play "Banjo Reb and the Blue Ghost" which premiered Friday night at the Forum Theatre in Metuchea The work already has caused great excitement in theatre circles; after its three-week run here, the play is scheduled to move to Oshkosh, Wise, Minneapolis, Asheville, No. Carolina and Tulsa, Okla. As conceived, the play is simple in outline. It takes place on Feb.

7th, 1865, two months before the end of the war. A Confederate minstrel showman, Sam Sweeney, stops to rest in an old shed in Virginia, 25 miles east of Appomattox and there finds Philip Hensen, a southerner from Clark, Miss, who has become a spy for the North, principally because he hates the concept of secession. As the two exchange stories, songs and experiences, the discord between them is evident and it mirrors the greater conflicts of the war itself. Both Mooney and Holt are well known for their work in areas other i V--' n- fi iriti -on-irmi imiiwir WILLIAM MOONEY Nomination surprises Jane Connell, who'd like to go home with 'Tony3 P. ::4 pyv.

I kii JtX A I i -'4- vV Actress Geraldine Fitzgerald will be at George Street Playhouse June 7. Fitzgerald leads roast of departing Eric Krebs ERNEST ALBRECHT j' intermission xj is Onion), she replaced Charlotte Rae (another member of the character lady's club) as the raucous Mrs. Peachum in the acclaimed revival of 'The Three Penny Opera" at Theater De Lys. This production is often credited with promoting the movement that then became known as off-Broadway. She stayed with the show, on and off, for seven years.

Gooch provided another source of steady employment a few years later, and this summer "Me and My Girl" will celebrate its first year on Broadway. The years of playing comedy in the revue format has also stood her in good sted here. "Me and My Girl" is essentially Robert Lindsay's show. There are times when he goes off on long comic tangents, leaving the other characters to fend for themselves. "I understand that he is free to change things here and there, to keep his performance fresh.

He needs to be loose, and we must resect his need to be loose and we must not compete with him." In order to keep from going blank or flat and falling out of character she relies, she says, on the training she received in those early revues. As to the matter of being a character actress, Miss Connell says it doesn't bother her that she will never be a leading lady. "Character people know from the third grade that they will never be anything but character actors," she explains comfortably. "Stardom isn't something I can indentify with," she confesses. "Actually there is a safety in the Jane Connell, left, and George S.

lack of stardom. You don't have to deal with so many distractions to your work which is what I most enjoy. I'm happy to have stayed employed in a business which by its very nature is insecure." And although she enjoys "the timacy with the audience" she and the rest of the cast will be glad when all the hoopla and its attendant tensions connected with the Tonys is over. Originally from California Miss Connell and her husband Gordon (she has taken his name in mar Jane Connell has been steadily playing dowagers and eccentrics for over 30 years, and this season she has been rewarded by winning a Tony nomination as best supporting actress in a musical for her performance as The Duchess of Dene in the smash hit musical "Me and My Girl." "Actually I was rather surprised by it," she confesses, "because the role doesn't really show me off all that well." Her charming performance is rather more sedate than her most famous success: Anges Gooch in the musical "Mame," which she played not only on Broadway with Angela Lansbury, but in the film with Lucille Ball. She didn't win a nomination that year.

Instead, another member of that cast won the award for best supporting actress. That was Bea Arthur whose portrayal of the boozey actress Vera Charles cata-pluted her into television fame with Maud and now "The Golden Girls." Miss Arthur is, by the way, one of a small group of character actresses with whom Jane Connell has often been associated going back to the happy days of the mid 50s when topical musical reviews like Ben Bagley's "Shoestring Review" and Julius Monk's work at the Upstairs at the Downstairs were the talk of the town. Miss Connell credits that training with much of her success at staying employed for most of the thirty years she has been in the business. Not only did it teach her about characterization and comic timing, it has provided her with a way of keeping her work fresh even during very long runs, of which she has been lucky enough to have several. Shortly after coming to New York to appear in Leonard Sill-man's "New Faces of 1956" (He found her appearing in a revue with her husband Gordon at San Francisco's once famous Purple VS0 You your dog.

The landlord says it has to call classified. 246-3000 DAVID HOLT Irving in "Me and My Girl." riage and professionally) have been living on Manhattan's upper West End Avenue since the 60s. He is a composer, musician and actor (currently playing Mark Twain in "Big and together they have achieved a number of unusual accomplishments. They have stayed employed and married and raised two girls who are now rock musicians appearing with a group called Push-Push) and they have remained solvent Now wouldn't it be nice to win a Tony Award? COME SEE. SELU BUY 'j 4 ralndate June 20th DISPLAY YOUR WORKS AT TRIANGLES ALL MEDIA WELCOME 609-883-3600 Mon-Fri 9-9, Sat 10-5 By PETER PARISI Home News arts writer NEW BRUNSWICK Noted actress Geraldine Fitzgerald will host a benefit dinner, variety show and "roast" June 7, honoring Eric Krebs, producing director of George Street Playhouse.

Krebs will step down from that position oh June 30. The benefit at the Hyatt Regency here is likely to include ribbing of the wild ties around Krebs' neck and the phone that is generally at his ear. Speakers are expected to Wonder whether he is "brilliant" or "shrewd," "outspoken" or "brash." Those, said Margaret Sherrer, the playhouse's director of communications, are all adjectives that have been applied to him since he helped found the professional theater 13 years ago. Fitzgerald, who debuted on Broadway as an original member of the Orson Welles-John Houseman Mercury Theater and won an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Isabella with Laurence Olivier in "Wuthering Heights," is also a George Street veteran. She starred in a one-woman musical review in March 1976, called "Songs of the Streets." The variety show will include 1 ii'Sai-y BEVERLY HILLS UUK II DOLBY aitHtu I ERNEST GOES TO CAMP SNOW FENCE ART CRAFT SHOW at I more than a dozen other performers who have appeared in various George Street productions, singing songs to piano accompaniment Among the speakers who will "roast" Krebs are: Jane Burgio, secretary of state of New Jersey; Geoffrey Cohen, George Street Playhouse general manager; Donald B.

Edwards, Rutgers University vice-president for public affairs and development; Maureen Hef-fernan, George Street Playhouse acting artistic director; John Hel-drich, corporate vice-president of administration at Johnson Johnson; Jeffrey A Kesper, executive director of the New Jersey state Council on the Arts; Rick Khan, producer and executive director at Crossroads Theatre Company; Kenneth Richardson, producer and artistic director at Crossroads Theater Company; and Judd Wol-din, composer of "Little Ham" and "Raisin." The evening begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. For more information, call the playhouse at (201) 846-2895. COSTERS GALLERY 233 RARITAN AVE. HIGHLAND PARK 247-2345 Custom Framing Paintings by DOROTHY YUNG Watercokxs and OHs.

ii i imi II Ktwt KO CFNTUHt RW ROUTE 4 TENPLEX PA RAMUS 47 7909 GCNf RAL CtNCM RUIGfRS PLAAfi FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP SHARON CINEMA FORT Lit 2240202 OfNFRAl C1KFM SHREWSBURT PLAiA 3 SHRfWSBUHT 442 5 Si 5 NATHAN SPARTA TWIN SPARTA 729 S7IO KXOCfNTIjWr RKO UNION TWIN UNION 646 4373 HHOCfNTURT RHO WARNER QUAD RiDGtWOOO 444 UJ4 WATNE WATNC 694 411ft tWO ff NTU RHO WAYNE TWIN WAVNf 785 05S CHECK IHEATKI OECTOkiEb. OB All FORSHOWltMES $22.00 BONUS INCLUDING $17.00 CASH $5.00 DEFERRED VOUCHER $22.00 Bonus on arrivals before 4:00 PM Sunday thru Friday. Saturday arrivals receive $12.50 Cash and a $5.00 Deferred voucher. Oder available to persons 21 years of age I older Bonus subiect to change at option of the Sands management Deterred Vouchers valid tor a return bus tnp at a later dale. Iff lUCiliU SATURDAY UNE 13th.

1987 YOU ARE INVITED TO OF ART CRAFTS OUTDOOR ART SHOW I'm i i in i $23.00 BONUS E2 Including: $18.00 Cash and a $5.00 Deferred Voucher on arrivals Sunday thru Thursday after 4:00 PM. Friday evening arrivals will receive $15.00 cash and a $5.00 defer red voucher. "BEATTYAND HOFFMAN ARE ENCHANTING." -David Ansen, NEWSWEEK DVSTIM HOFFMAN WARREN BEATTY SPACE AVAILABLE FOR OVER 100 EXHIBITORS SNOW FENCE ART SHOW OPEN TO PG-13 CAMPTOWN. ONLY J16.00 PER PERSON. FOR INFORMATION OR RESERVATIONS CALL (201) I24-55B4.

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