Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 35

Tie of Sullivan holds fond memories Page CIO Amusements Page C9 Friday, December 9, 1983 Section An-lin Ann rican Statesman 'Baskervilles' hounded by ponderous dialogue Streisand warms up in 'Yentl' Career crescendo Ice cream lured Louis Lane into music i m. their audience along the way. Streisand's Yentl is a perfectly believable character strong, smart, tender. Gone is any vestige of the hard, cool character that lurked so clearly below the surface of her Esther in "Star is Born." Yentl is adorable. As much as Streisand's character is warm and cuddly, Patinkin's is strong and brotherly.

The actor is among the most naturally gifted now on screen, and his presence brightens "Yentl" and complements Streisand's glow. Streisand also can lay claim from extracting the first really admirable performance from Amy Irving since "Carrie." Irving's tradition-bound Hadass has the right mixture of beauty, naivete and charm. I By PATRICK TAGGART American-Statesman Staff This is one that almost nobody thought would work. Even before it went into production and it was a long time in the making some industry observers had all but assigned Barbra Streisand's "Yentl" to the pile of ego-inflated casualties. How could this woman, said to be such a disturbingly powerful force behind the poorly-realized "A Star is Born" of 1976, possibly manage duties as producer, co-writer, director and star on a big-budget musical? As it turns out, remarkably well.

"Yentl" is not without its small sins, but this handsomely-produced film of an Isaac Bashevis Singer story is warm and passionate and for most of its two-hour running time, tremendously moving. The story is of a young woman in turn-of-the-century Eastern Europe country) whose father secretly defies tradition by guiding his inquisitive daughter in studies of the Talmud. This is a By PATRICK TAGGART American-Statesman Staff You won't find anything hip or flashy or exotic about Louis Lane, but there he is a plain-vanilla symphony conductor in an era when such men and women are chosen as much for their charisma at the podium and cocktail parties as musicianship. When one considers how far Lane had to go, his case seems even more special. Born in Eagle Pass to a non-musical family, Lane studied piano at 5, took a degree from the University of Texas and served in the Field Artillery in World War II.

Studying for a master's degree at the Eastman school after the war. Lane won an apprentice conductorship at the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell. By 1973, he had become principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Five years later, he left that post to become co-conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, and beginning next year he will serve as principal conductor of the orchestra in Johannesburg, South Africa. TONIGHT AND SATURDAY, he will fill in for Sung Kwak as guest conductor of the Austin Symphony's program with cellist Janos Starker.

None of this would have been possible had it not been for an enterprising piano teacher many years ago in South Texas. "My mother had a friend who played piano" Lane said from his brother's house in North Austin, "and she would lure me up to the house with the promise of ice cream. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have gone back!" The piano lessons provided the musical foundation for his studies at UT in piano and composition. His only conducting experience up to the point of his Army discharge was a conducting course. Even so.

Maestro Szell apparently thought enough of the young Lane to make him Streisand has fashioned her film in the manner of a musical, even if no one ever simply bursts into song in the traditional manner. In fact, Streisand is the only one who sings, and the voice is still as persuasive studies Barbra Streisand, disguised as a man, the forbidden scriptures in Louis Lane conducts in Atlanta. an assistant in Cleveland. That association lasted 26 years until Lane's arrival in Dallas. THE DALLAS ORCHESTRA in the early 1970s was a kind of musical storm system.

Finances were bad; the conductor's post unsteady. "It was interesting," Lane said of his five years in Dallas. "I had some very good friends there, and I enjoyed living there, but professionally it was very frustrating The uncertainty of the financial circumstances spilled over into the artistic areas. I was very happy to go to Atlanta." Lane is officially called Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony, sharing duties with principal Robert Shaw. Along with the title change from co-conductor to principal guest came relief from youth concerts and other less prestigious but necessary work.

Lane's assessment of the Austin Symphony is favorable: "It's a very good orchestra. When I think what it was way back then More good string players would give it a more major orchestra sound, but there's the matter of money and availability of professional players. I'd say it's very commendable what they've done." Review as ever. Unfortunately the songs by Michel Legrand (the lyrics are by Alan and Marilyn Bergman) slow the action down at the very moment when it needs to be propelled forward and could have been dispensed with altogether. By film's end the audience is likely to wonder why none of Anshel's friends have gotten wise to the fact that this person is obviously a woman.

It's the one suspension of disbelief Streisand can't quite achieve. But she and the film have built such a reserve of good will by that point most audiences will be willing to let it go. "Yentl," rated PG, no offensive material, at the Highland Mall Cinema. man's role only, the culture angrily demands, but the bright and determined Yentl sees what women years after her would see in far greater numbers that their sex is no rightful barrier to learning. Unable to openly defy tradition, Yentl, upon the death of her beloved father, cuts her hair, dons a prayer shawl and hitches a ride to the nearest religious school for young men.

She is befriended there by the passionate, amiable Avidgor (Mandy Patinkin), who takes the person he believes is the boy Anshel under his wing. They study, debate and dine together, achieving intimacy at all levels save one. You can bet that is precisely the plane upon which Yentl Anshel would like to know her friend better. But, for the moment at least, this is not to be. But what an emotional rollercoast-er these likable characters provide for "small- fa Ice House 4 Jt i It Thirty i potatoes ii 2405 W.

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