The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 132

8-i THE TAMPA TRIBUNE fjrQ1 Sunday, May 7, 1989 Wadswor th's retirement end of an era Philip I Music Notes Music Preview I M-jhJt Xt; 4 vl; 4 I 1 1 A I By KURT LOFT Tribune Music Critic TAMPA An era ends today when Charles Wadsworth and his Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center part after a 20-year love affair. Artistic director Wadsworth and his group are synonymous with light-hearted music making, and more than anyone else, they defined the casual classical concert They also brought the chamber repertoire that seemingly stuffy stuff to millions through tours and televised concerts since 1969. Sadly, all that ends today beginning at 5 p.m., when pianist Wadsworth and his friends say farewell at Lincoln Center in New York City. The program will be simulcast live over WEDU Channel 3 and WUSF (FM 90), so crank up the stereo and relax. Over the years, the society added a great deal to the appreciation of chamber music, dedicating Itself to "a comprehensive survey" of the literature and all combinations of instruments, played by leading virtuosi.

Young listeners Aside from its usual sold-out subscription series in New York, the group gained popularity among young listeners by offering a regular series of concerts at moderate prices and consequently became a big hit with the New York public school system. Soon people came Just to see Wadsworth, who with his unmanageable hair and boyish charm would entertain audiences through his delightful rambling alone. Wadsworth has a knack for making people listen, and even laugh. He can finish an austere piece by Schoenberg or some other big cheese, then crack a joke to ease people Into the next work. Some readers may remember the society's visit two years ago during the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's International Spring Series at the Tampa Theatre.

Wadsworth and company played 19 works over five masterful evenings, bringing down the house each time. Between the first two movements of Dvorak's trio one night an assertive LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER What The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's 20th Anniversary Concert Who: Charles Wadsworth, artistic director When: Today at 5 p.m. Where: Simulcast over WEDU Channel 3 and WUSF (FM 90) musician yelled down from the balcony to say the piano was reflecting to loudly. Wadsworth got up and partially closed the lid. Then he sat back down, looked up at the audience, and said, "Would anyone like It backup?" Classic Wadsworth.

Greater communication In an interview at the time, Wadsworth said the enjoyment of chamber music is In no way related to the sophistication of the listener. He also said the Intensity of communication can be greater in chamber music than in other forms, simply because of its conversational quality. Regardless of his easy approach, few can accuse him of not taking good music seriously. In its more than 1,000 concerts, the society has performed at least 800 works by 200 composers, including 50 world premieres. Today's program reflects the society's love of tonal colors, harmonic brilliance and emotional contrasts.

It includes Ravel's Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Winds and Strings, Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds, and Schubert's String Quintet In Major, the famed Cello Quintet Wadsworth calls the Schubert one of the single greatest pieces of chamber music ever written. Coincldentally, the Major Quintet was on the society's first concert 20 years ago. Joining the group for this farewell event will be violinist Pinchas Zukerman, composer Gian-Carlo Menotti and the Night flutist Paula Robison, cellist Carter Brey, harpist Osian Ellis and hornist Robert Routch. Photograph provided by PBS The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center features the artists, left to right, director Charles Wadsworth, seated; cellist Carter Brey; violinist Ani Kavafian and flutist Paula Robison. Theaters risk becoming 'endangered species From Page l-I Subscriptions Average costs and numbers of 1988-'89 professional theater subscriptions sold in the Tampa Bay area 1.

American Stage 1,400 subscriptions sold at an average $71.50 each 2. Playmakers at the Ritz 1,000 subscriptions sold at an aver-, age $45 each 3. Tampa Players 781 sub- scriptions sold at an average $46 each 4. Broadway touring-theater se-i ries (PACE Theatrical Group) at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center 7,916 subscriptions sold at an average $157.36 each 5. Broadway touring-theater se-: ries (PACE Theatrical Group) at the Bayfront Center 4,605 subscrlp-', tions sold at an average each.

Source: Companies listed Rock bands don't jdie, they wait for reunion deals Old rock 'n' roll bands, the kind filled with forty-something members, never seem '40 die these days. They just wait around long enough for the right reunion deal. Take The Who, for example. The band's summer tour with a backup cast of thousands well, OK, Just new drummer Simon Phillips, a second guitar-; 1st, a keyboardist, horn players, three back-1 -up singers, a percussionist and Meher Baba knows who else will play Tampa Stadi- "um this summer, seven years after the group's "farewell" trek touched down in 'Orlando. Peter Townshend, the group's guitarist '-'and musical visionary, long ago swore off the idea of a Who revival.

As late as January, during the Rock and Hall of Fame ceremonies, he took a swat at The Rolling Stones for their planned 50-date tour, a Journey that report- edly will guarantee $65 million for Mick Jagger and company (the Stones may play Tampa Stadium in late fall). "It won't be easy for the Stones the next time around, and if it wasn't for the vast -sums of money they can make, they might not bother at all," Townshend said then. At least, Mick probably wouldn't. It's lucky for us fans that he has such expensive "tastes." r' A scant three months later, Townshend along with singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle showed up on television's "Good Morning America" to increase the hype output on their own llth-hour tour. "Pete changed his mind, and it's our 25th anniversary, basically," Daltrey of- fered, rather unconvincingly.

"We're gonna celebrate the fact that we're here. made 25 years of good music." L.A. benefit The group, scheduled to take its Los Angeles benefit performance of "Tommy" following a show at New York's Radio City Music Hall before the cameras, recently recorded one track, "Dig," for Townshend's soon-to-be-released solo album, "The Iron Man." Who true believers, wanting one last chance to hear their favorites may, Indeed, find all of this good cause to rejoice. But what kind of Who will we find? Townshend, citing his extensive hearing damage, promises to play "very, very, very quietly" and will mostly stick to acoustic guitar and piano. J.

Worse still, he's assigning electric duties Ho a second guitarist; Joe Walsh is one candidate whose name has been bandied about -Uately. ll No more windmill-bowling ball power "chord strikes from punk's noble godfather? And, in true Broadway-show fashion, "the group plans to employ the above men-X tioned helping hands. Whose Who is this? Said Townshend, on "Good Morning "We don't really knoW what it's gonna' sound like yet. We know that we don't really want, I don't want to do what we did before." Entwistle: "There's a lot that we have to play. We're gonna trace our roots and do some stuff that we used to play and stuff that influenced us in the past" Daltrey: "We're not doing an album.

We're taking it a day at a time. We're Just doing the tour. We're just going to do some good shows, and have some fun with it" I Other tours In other news of old rockers beefing up their retirement accounts are expected -tours from all sorts of bands with roots in She 70s and '60s. On the way around the United States over the next nine months or so are: C' The Dooble Brothers, the pre-Mi-' Kchael McDonald incarnation with Tom Patrick Simmons and other origl-i nal members. The group's tour will follow i'the May 17 release of "Cycles," which by the sound of the first single promises to reprise the sound of such hits as "China Grove" and "Listen to the Music." i The Allman Brothers, with Gregg All-i man, Dickey Betts and other original All- mans players.

Two count 'em groups of play- ers who have done duty with art-rockers Yes. The still-trying-hard Beach Boys, on a double bill with Chicago, a band that seems to have lived long past its expected and warranted demise. The Jefferson Airplane, in a lineup that may or may not include all of the group's most important early days mem-', bers. A Ringo Starr-led outfit called The Generations, reportedly with Peter Framp- ton, Joe Walsh, Clarence Clemons, Jack Bruce and Billy Preston, according to Poll-' star magazine. 1 A "California Dreamin' Tour, with The Mamas and The Papas, Canned Heat, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Maria Muldaur, also according to Pollstar.

2 Who will stop this retro-music madness Including the dangerous proliferation of stifling "Classic Rock" radio format? And how soon? Theater expenses Leading not-for-profit theaters and their 1986-87 expenses in the country's 13 largest television markets 1. New York Circle in the Square, $4.5 million 2. Los Angeles Mark Taper Forum, $8 million 3. Chicago Goodman Theatre, $4.5 million 4. Philadelphia Walnut Street Theatre, $4 million 5.

San Francisco American Conservatory Theatre, $6.5 million 6. Boston Huntington Theatre Company, $2.2 million 7. Detroit Attic Theatre, $800,000 8. Washington, D.C. Arena Stage, $7 million 9.

DallasFort Worth Dallas Theater Center, $3.5 million 10. Cleveland Cleveland Playhouse, $3.7 million 11. Houston Alley Theatre, $5.1 million 12. Atlanta Alliance Theatre Company, $4.8 million 13. TampaSt.

Petersburg American Stage, Playmak-ers reported $400,000 in 1986-'87, the same figure reported for the current year; the Tampa Players were not affiliated with Theatre Communications Group at the time of this survey. The nearby Asolo State Theater in Sarasota reported $2.3 million expenses in 1986-'87; Sarasota's Florida Studio Theatre reported $605,000 expenses in 1986-'87. Source: Theatre Profiles 8, Theatre Communications Group, New York City and Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. "People think they're theaters." Stages of confusion "Florida has been on a performing-arts-building binge," since the early 1980s, writes E.G. Schreiber in International Arts Manager magazine.

"The facilities built or renovated within the past decade and those now well under way have impressive aggregate statistics: a cost of approximately $300 million, 24 performance spaces and approximately 23,000 seats," Schreiber writes. Rarely, as it turns out are these centers built to house a community's own professional arts groups. That Is true of Tampa's Performing Arts Center and the St. Petersburg's Bayfront Indeed, after Albuquerque's civic leaders toured Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall, Tampa's Performing Arts Center and the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville in January, a proposal was made in Albuquerque to cut back Its three-theater plan to a two-theater design. The money saved would be used to renovate performance spaces for indigenous theater and dance companies.

In the Bay area, subscription sales for PACE Theatricals' Broadway Series of commercial touring shows at the Bayfront Center and Performing Arts Center vastly have outstripped comparable sales at the three indigenous theaters. The Tampa Players are an example. The company must rent the space in which they perform at the Performing Arts Center because the center wasn't built as a home to such an indigenous ensemble. The Players this year sold 781 subscriptions, a cheering increase of about 30 percent over the previous year. But the Broadway Series sold 7,916 subscriptions to roadshows staged in another theater of the same performing-arts center.

The average cost of a five-show Broadway Series subscription was $157.36. For a few dollars more, patrons could buy three subscriptions and see 15 or more shows at the Playmakers, Players and American Stage. Unlike the Tampa Bay area's non-profit indigenous professional theaters, PACE is a Houston-based commercial, for-profit producer and promoter of roadshows. Berglund says that PACE'S newly forming Florida Theatrical Association described by PACE as "a new community organization" further may confuse residents who think PACE'S tours are somehow related to the Bay area community. PACE representative Karen Vock says, "I can't imagine it confusing the public.

It's designed to better serve our subscribers." Colder cash Berglund stresses that contributors as well as theatergoers are confused by performing arts centers. Hunter, as well as Tampa Players representatives, has commented In the past about how "I gave to the Performing Arts Center" was for a time a frequent response to requests for donations in Tampa. Gifts to the center do not benefit the indigenous theater companies. And although it's "too early to say" what the coming year's operating deficit may be, according to Bayfront Center Foundation director Blng McCrae, his company has mounted an aggressive campaign "It's an older population." There's statistical evidence to suggest that the Bay area population, old and young, however, simply may have less interest in performing arts activities than do many other Americans. When Dr.

Loyd S. Pettegrew, director of the University of South Florida's Center for-Organizational Communication, was asked by the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center staff to survey a sample including residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties last year, Pettegrew's survey summarized, "While only 32 percent of the respondents indicated that they very often or occasionally attend other performing-arts functions (other than at the Performing Arts Center) an ongoing national study conducted by Louis Harris Associates presents evidence that close to 50 percent of the national population attend at least some performing-arts functions during a year. "We estimate that at least 20 percent of the Tampa Bay market remains untapped Hunter cites a "competition for people's leisure time, everything from lighted tennis courts at night to videocassette rentals. And this is not a community which has a habit of ongoing arts attendance." Harris' "Americans and the Arts indicates that all arts attendance nationally has dropped 12 percent since 1984. Theatergoing is off 25 percent Bill Lelbach, Tampa Players artistic and managing director, echoes the Harris study's disclosure that Americans' leisure time has shrunk since 1973 from 26.2 hours per week to 16.6 hours per week.

"You begin to wonder," Lelbach says, "about the viability of the Florida market in relation to its other attractions. "People go home and do something while it's daylight they go out to the beach, and they do one thing a day or a couple of things a week" Florida's sun-and-fun become the leisure-time activity, he theorizes. Hunter says the Tribune's theater criticism hurts theatergoing. Lelbach suggests that such criticism might be the cause of the "missing 20 percent" of performing artsgoers that Pettegrew says the Harris survey suggests would turn up in other parts of the country. Pettegrew's Harris figure, however, refers to all performing arts, including dance and music, unaffected by theater criticism.

A snail that jumps Berglund at St Petersburg's American Stage says criticism is not the problem. He also counters Hunter's assertion that the problem is not too many theaters: "Yes, there are too many theaters." Berglund's company Is by far the most successful of the three. Lelbach calls it the one most likely to "break out of the pack." Victoria Holloway, American Stage's artistic director, has referred to her slowly growing ensemble as "a snail that Jumps." While the Tampa Players and Playmak-ers' audiences hover at around 50 percent capacity, American Stage's attendance this season has "jumped" to almost 100 percent of the seats available. Added performances of successful runs have made up for significantly smaller audiences at "Miss Edwina," a show Berglund calls "our one dog this year." Next season, Berglund and Holloway for corporate contributions. "That means we're competing with national acts," Berglund scys.

McCrae's program offers sponsorship' packages to businesses a package costs $500, $1,000, $25,000 or $50,000 for incoming roadshows such as the Flying Kara-mazov Brothers, the Roger Williams Christmas Show and Mel Torme. Speaking from experience in how it works at Barnett Bank, McCrae says a corporate marketing director can use such' a sponsorship to "reach top individuals coming to see, say, Pavarottl" with the sponsoring company's message. "They're well-heeled; they're affluent. It's like PBS: You've got a better viewer." He adds that In order to enhance their value to corporations, companies such as American Stage should focus on what market group they draw. "If I were going after the yuppie market," he says, "I'd put my money in American Stage.

I think they have a terrific following" In that market category. Meanwhile, however, McCrae and Bay-front may affect not only corporate contributions to theater but also city support A request from the Bayfront to St Pe- tersburg for city money like the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's $500,000 request to the city of Tampa this year is money no longer, if ever, available to. American Stage and other resident professional arts companies. No one talks about closing up shop, in the debate about the "over-theater-ing" -of the Tampa Bay area. Lives and dreams are Invested in these companies by directors who at times have gone without staffs, facilities and even salaries to keep their troupes alive.

Lelbach, for instance, says he may lay himself off in June, to save money against the deficit for the current fiscal year. "If Miami Is the capital of the Caribbean," Berglund says, "then midwest Florida Is exactly that Midwestern" in Its comparatively slow uptake on the arts. "There's a legitimate concern," Berglund says, "that Indigenous arts companies will become an endangered species," will expand the monthlong run of each show to five weeks, to meet the demand for tickets to their 110-seat house. In addition to the main-stage season and the annual American Stage in the Park project, the company fields a popular professional children's theater tour. Tampa's Playmakers and Players are competition to each other, Berglund says, but not to him except for state money.

Eight years ago, when the Players and Playmakers applied for state money, "my state funding was split three ways," he says. "We went from $24,000 to $8,000." His state money since then has been restored to Its original level. With Sarasota's Asolo State Theater and Florida Studio Theatre, American Stage and the Tampa houses represent a full third of the member theaters of the Florida Professional Theatres Association. "It's highly competitive because we're all in the same region," Berglund says. "On a state funding level, I'd say that theater is tapped out," he says.

"No longer can any one of us (theater companies) look to the state of Florida to bail us out" But if the Playmakers and Players aren't competition to his operation, to what companies does Bergland refer when he says there are "too many "It's the PACs," he says, performing arts centers, namely the Bayfront Center. I.