Des Moines Tribune from Des Moines, Iowa • 54

THE DATEBOOK Dm Mobiw Tribune Octihi ItHT NfllP ITCaaU's SStomwlMz TheaterDanceMusic By Carol Lawson Is there life after divorce? For the couple in "Special Occasions," Bernard Slade's new romantic comedy, the answer is an emphatic yes and with each other. "Special Occasions" will open Jan. 31 at the Music Box Theater. "Deathtrap," the Music Box's current tenant, plans to move to another theater. "Special Occasions" is a two-character play, and Morton Gottlieb, the producer, reports that he has just signed his starring couple Suzanne Pleshette and Richard Mulligan.

Neither has been seen on Broadway for a long time Pleshette, best known in recent years as Emily Hartley on television's "The Bob Newhart Show," is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse and appeared in several Broadway productions before leaving for Hollywood. Her stage credits include "Compulsion" and S.N. Behrman's "The Cold Wind and the she also replaced Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker." Mulligan last played on Broadway opposite Mario Thomas in Herb Gardner's comedy "Thieves" in 1975. He won an Emmy Award for his performance in the television series "Soap" and can be seen as the beleaguered Hollywood producer married to Julie Andrews in the film "S.O.B." "These are two people I've been trying to get back to Broadway for years," Gottlieb says. "I offered Suzanne 'Same Time, Next Year before I offered it to Ellen Burstyn, and also "Romantic but she couldn't work out her schedule with television.

I also talked to Richard about 'Same Time, Next Year. "Special Occasions," one of the few plays "opening on Broadway this season that didn't originate off-Broadway or in a regional theater, will go into rehearsal Nov. 30 with Gene Saks directing. It will try out in Chicago on Dec. 28.

Carol Woods, the big, buxom Bertha in the off-Broadway musical hit "One Mo' Time" at the Village Gate, got her basic training as an entertainer on Sundays, in church. She grew up unleashing her trumpet of a voice once a week as a gospel singer at the Friendly Church in Queens, where her grandfather was the minister. "There were no microphones, and you projected so people could hear you," says the 37-year-old performer, who plays the sassy leader of a struggling black vaudeville troupe in "One, Mo' Time." "You've got to be gutsy to sing gospel. It's a wonderful experience because it's so colorful and expressive. I went into acting only five years ago, but I've actually been acting for a long time through my singing." Woods started out in show business as a pop singer.

In the early 1970s she made recordings in Europe, where she also toured as the opening act for Glen Campbell and, patients, and they'd teach me Hava Nagila' and 'Eveimi Sholom I've always had two jobs. I'm a divorced mother and have to sustain myself and my two children." With "One Mo' Time," a second job is now out of the question. "I put everything into it, and by the end of the show, I'm dead," Woods says. Not that she is complaining. 'The show is great fun.

I'm having such a ball, it's a sin. Besides, this is what I've been working for to kill myself!" The Negro Ensemble which lays proud claim to being the country's oldest professional black theater troupe, turns 15 this year. The occasion will be marked with a season of new works by playwrights who have written award-winning plays for the company in the past The first production, opening Nov. 17 for four weeks, will be "A Soldier's Play" by Charles Fuller, who won an Obie award last season for "Zooman and the Sign." Other writers whose works are under consideration include Joseph Walker, Paul Carter Harrison and Ray Aranha. Douglas Turner Ward, the founder and guiding spirit, was musing recently on his troupe's longevity.

"We've survived because of our tenacity," he said. "A lot of people will say it's because of my tenacity. But our existence has always been precarious and still is." 111 New Yor Times Bernard Slade Gladys Knight and the Pips. She is also a licensed practical nurse, a profession that frequently came in handy, especially after she gave up on pop music. "I came home from England in 1972 and was so disillusioned with the record business that I didn't sing for two years," she says.

"I felt my management had ripped me off. I was once stuck in Spain for three days with $3 in my pocket. I was young and had no guidance. I learned the hard way. I've brainwashed my 18-year-old daughter to keep her head in her books." i Before she went into "One Mo' Time" last July, Woods appeared in productions at the Billie Holiday Theater in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

"One play I did was The Vampire and the and I was making 100 a week playing a West Indian nurse," she recalls. "When the play ended at 11:30 I took off that uniform and put on my real uniform and went to work at a nursing home. I'd sing to my By Robert Kolarik Barry's Lounge, 2107 McKintoy Av. Odm noon-2 a.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Svaday.

Phono 285-9577. I i 1 I --4 "a 1 1 "Everybody knows you're the dumbest on the i Cape!" $1 bottle of Lite, while I requested my usual Pabst Blue Ribbon. Sipping our lukewarm beers, we stood and watched the New York Yankees game on the bar's television. We soon grew bored, though, because the set's sound apparently was turned off. After we seated ourselves at a table and finished Bound 1, we waited several minutes for the waitress to appear.

When she finally arrived, my associate realized she was someone he had known 10 years ago. After exchanging pleasantries, be ordered a Margarita for himself and another PBR for me. "At least we ought to get faster service," he said confidently. But as the minutes ticked away, it became apparent that the friendship of a decade ago want going to speed the delivery of our order. This doesn't taste too bad," be commented after Round 2 finally drifted over to us.

"But the inside of the glass is shaped like a cone wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. You really don't get much for $1.75." After finishing our drinks, we were forced to wait some time before ordering again. When the waitress finally showed up, I requested another Pabst, while my friend asked for a $1.50 Salty Dog and another bottle of Lite. "She takes so long to get here that I figured I might as well get two drinks," he explained. Naturally, it was several minutes more before our drinks were served.

And when they were, my comrade was glad he had asked for the extra beer. "That 'Dog' has too much bite," he choked. "They went too heavy on the grapefruit juice. I'm not on a diet." With that we finished the beers and left As we returned to the liroo, I asked him what be thought of Barry's. "It wasn't very exciting, and the service was slow," he said.

"But the customers seemed, well, nice, and the bar itself was nice, so I guess you could say it was, uh, nice," Some of you undoubtedly think that writing for After Dark is easy. You figure that we correspondents just drop in some bar, have a few drinks and bat out a few paragraphs about our experiences. While you may be correct about the latter two points, you probably don't realise that each writer must be careful to select watering holes within his or her area of expertise. For example, Cornell "Funtirae" Fowler considers himself quite a ladies' man, so he takes great pains (and risks who knows what) to visit'the local pickup joints. meanwhile, am reputed to visit nothing but sleazy nightspots.

But that doesn't mean I don't occasionally stumble on a "nice" establishment even if it's by accident. Last Thursday night, as a friend and I tooled along in his white limousine looking for a place to have a drink, he suggested visiting Barry's Lounge on the corner of Fleur Drive and McKinley Avenue. "Ifs a south-side joint, so it's probahly sleazy," said my prejudiced friend, who spent his formative years on Des Moines' north side. But when we entered the establishment, I knew we weren't in any sleaze joint. The tavern is housed in an A-frame building of the design usually associated with Colorado ski resorts, and it features a bar with silver dollars imbedded in the top.

A game room offers an assortment of electronic video games and four red-felt-covered pool tables. Although the crowd was made up almost exclusively of males in their 20s (often the sign of a raucous establishment), the tavern was unusually quiet But according to a book of matches I took from atop the cigarette machine (which offered fags at an outrageous 90 cents a pack), Barry's prides itself on being "A Nice Place for Nice People." Making our way to the bar, my friend ordered a i i i i-.