Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 114

G8 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Sunday, August 5, 1984 A 'Ghostly' Star Is Born Spacemusic' Captivates Nation's Radio Listeners t.f By MARK DAWIDZIAK Knight-Ridder Newspapers Three months ago, Ernie Hudson could walk through downtown Los Angeles without turning a head. He was an actor in a town with millions of actors. It didn't matter that he had appeared in major television shows and that his film credits included "Two of a Kind," "Spacehunter," "Going Beserk," "The Jazz Singer" and "The Main Event" He was just an actor. What happened? Simple: a film called "Ghostbust- ers." Ernie Hudson is no longer just an actor. He's a star.

That's what one hit theater movie can do for you. And "Ghostbusters," starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ra-mis, haseone through the proverbial roof. "I've been waiting for this one for a long time," Hudson said during a stop in Cleveland. Hudson is preparing for a continuing role on NBC's critically acclaimed but low-rated "St. Elsewhere." The Michigan native decided to permanently settle in Losngeles in 1976.

Unlike most actors, Hudson public radio program in January 1983, "Hearts of Space" has been picked up by over 100 public radio stations. Turner says the format is an attempt to provide a balance to our increasingly "frantic and noisy environment" without falling into the "trivial or musically vacuous" formats of so-called easy listening stations. John Berky, station manager for Connecticut Public Radio, says the response he's received locally suggests that spacemusic is appealing to a diverse audience. "I would say, judging from the letters we've gotten, that this is an eclectic group," Berky said. "The show is generating enough interest that we're also seriously considering moving it up to an earlier time on one of the weekend nights." SfciSf i found a job his first week in Hollywood.

"I was quite cocky then," he said. I'd tell the producer, 'Look, you're putting millions into this production. I assume you're serious. So, how can you not cast "I can't believe I had that kind of nerve. But it worked." Still, even though there was work, Hudson found it wasn't good work for a black actor.

"When I first went to Los Angeles," he recalled, "the parts I got offered were the physical Mr. T-type roles. I didn't work as much as I could, because I refused to do stereotyped roles." Yet Hudson thinks Hollywood is changing and black performers are helping it change. "We've got a long way to go," he said, "but a lot of back actors will take a role and try to change it from within." An example from his own career is "There were some things in that script I didn't like. At some point, the black actor has got to take responsibility and draw the line show them another approach." By STEVE METCALF Courant Music Critic It can be a Tibetan bamboo flute or the unearthly chanting of the David Hykes' Harmonic Choir or even the slow movement of a Bach cello suite.

But according to the format of a popular new public radio show, it's all "spacemusic," and it's attracting large audiences throughout the country. Spacemusic is the term coined by San Francisco radio producers Stephen Hill and Anna Turner for the carefully chosen material played on their program, "Music From the Hearts of Space," now heard weekly on public radio stations coast to coast. In our area, the hour-long show is broadcast on WPKT-FM (90.5) and its twin, WNPR-FM (89.1), at 1 a.m. Saturdays. The show features an improbable blend of slow-paced, contemplative electronic music, non-Western music of various origins, an occasional touch of soft jazz and selected portions (usually the slow movements) of conventional classical repertory by the likes of Ravel, Mahler or Vaughan Williams.

Since making its debut as a nationally syndicated -XT KPFA-FM The term 'spacemusic'. was coined by San Francisco radio producer's Anna Turner and Stephen Hill for their program, "Music From the Hearts of Space," which made its debut in January 1983. Write Steve Metcalf in care of The Courant, Features Department, 285 Broad Hartford, 06115. 4 Vieux Carr6 Set For Williamstown INTERSTATE B4 EXIT SB SILVER LANE By MALCOLM L. JOHNSON Courant Theater Critic EAST HARTFORD SA HR.TELEPHONS 56B-SBTO 'f v.

Marsha Mason and Richard Thomas head the cast of Tennessee Williams' "Vieux Carre," opening Tuesday at the Williams-town Theatre Festival as the fulfillment of a promise made to the late nlav- Ill 4" 0 ltiTxiSB) mm "Hello, Dolly!" and "Funny Girl" that season. To bring back fhe musical adapa-tion of Coward's play about a first wife who returns to haunt her former husband and his second wife, the Berkshire Theatre Festival has recruited a trio of seasoned Broadway performers, in addition to Ballard. John McMartin, whose musicals include the original productions' of "Follies" and "Sweet Charity," will play Charles Condomine, the husband of the late and living wives. The ghostly Elvira Condomine will be played by Patricia Elliott, whose last book musical was the celebrated "A Little Night Music," while the present Mrs. Condomine, Ruth, will be played by the first choice for Broadway revivals, Christine Andreas.

The actress has played leading roles in recent productions of "My Fair Lady," "Oklahoma" and "On Your Toes." Randal Hoey, who previously staged the revival of "Carnival" at the festival, is directing "High Spirits," with choreography by Terry Rieser. The productions will open Thursday after previews Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, apd will continue through Aug. 26. "Africanis Instructus," a new and innovative musical-theater work by the avant-garde director-playwright Richard Foreman and composer Stanley Silverman, opens Wednesday at the Lenox Arts Center in Citizens Hall in Stockbridge's Inter-laken section. It continues through Aug.

26. Roy Brocksmith, the actor-director who also staged the revival of the Foreman-Silverman "Dr. Selavy's Magic Theatre" earlier in the season for the Lenox Music Theatre Group, is also directing "Africanis Instructus." Cast in this music-theater piece centering on European intellectuals traipsing about darkest Africa from Victorian times to the present are Susan Browning, David Bryant, Kate Fuglei, Tommy Hollis, Jana Schneider, Henry Stram and Jeff Trachta. Mimi Hines, Sandy Baron and Marilyn Sokol will be seen Tuesday through Aug. 19 in "Lovers and Other Strangers" by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, the next production at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex Rowayton resident Betsy Palmer takes on the role of radio personality Bess Dichinger in Lee Kalcheim's "Breakfast With Les and Bess," while Keith Charles reprises the role of her co-host and husband Les in the revival of the recent Broadway success Monday through Saturday at the Westport Country Playhouse.

MASON -wright by Williamstown artistic director Nikos Psacharopoulos. The play, in which Williams depicted his early days in a low-rent boarding house in the Vieux Carre of New Orleans, was a failure when originally done on Broadway. When Psacharopoulos was preparing to honor the playwright with "Tennessee Williams: A Celebration," Williams asked the director to consider giving "Vieux Carre" a new life. Now "Vieux Carre" is being prepared for a new production under the direction of Austin Pendleton. Pendleton was among the ensemble for the Williams "Celebration," playing Tom in "The Glass Menagerie" and Williams himself in selections from his autobiographical writings.

Pendleton's directing career has included the Broadway revival of "The Little Foxes," with Elizabeth Taylor. Thomas, seen earlier this season at Williamstown in Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple," will play the Williams character in "Vieux Carre." Mason, who has recently returned to the theater after a string of successful movies, makes her Williamstown debut as Jane, a fashion designer whose career and health have deteriorated. And former West Hartford resident James Naughton, a veteran of stage, film and television who also worked in "A Celebration" at Williamstown, plays Jane's lover Tye. Also in the cast are Mary Fogarty as Miss Carrie, George Morfogen as Nightingale, Barbara Orson as Mrs. Wire and Katherine Squire as Mary Maude.

"Vieux Carre" continues through Aug. 18 at the Adams Memorial Theater on the campus of Williams College, to be followed by a one-week run of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," Aug. 21 to 25. mm soiik nil! Iftnj tfff iM 1 Mir Kaye Ballard heads the cast as the eccentric singing clairvoyant Madame Arcati in "High Spirits," the final (production of the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Mass. Based on Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," the Hugh Martin-Timothy Grey musical ran nearly 300 performances in 1964 on Broadway, but was overshadowed by both b1 heart-wrenching affairs embellished with string synthesizers, tin whistles and bagpipes.

If Mark Knopfler's score for the film "Local Hero" did anything for you, Cunnngham's LP should be a must-have. BAD MANNERS, "Forging Ahead" (Portrait). These guys are the poor man's answer to the rock group Madness, as if Madness wasn't bad enough. It is all contrived ebullience: doggedly upbeat music that mixes elements of British dance hall, disco, pop and rockabilly. It's also thoroughly exhausting and annoying.

KAREN KAMON, "Heart Of You" (Columbia). Well, if you're married to veteran super-producer Phil Ra-mone, then sure, go ahead and record an album. The material on this debut LP is nondescript pop-rock; the production is impeccable. Yawn. SPIRIT, "Spirit of '84" (Mercury).

Randy California and the rest of the original '60s California combo reunite, only to offer up rehashed retakes of their old material. For Spirit fans and '60s nostalgists only. By STEVEN X. REA Knight-Ridder Newspapers "Stroll On With the Duke" (Solid Smoke) is an excellent and historic collection of songs culled from the works of Chicago soul crooner Gene Chandler, best known for his 1962 smash "Duke of Earl." Chandler's vocals are smoky and eloquent, and his ballads are simply outstanding. Most of Chandler's best songs, recorded in the '60s and early 70s, were written by Curtis May-field; seven of those, including "You Can't Hurt Me No More" and "What Now," are on this album.

"Duke of Earl" is the lead-off cut on the 15-song compilation. PHIL CUNNINGHAM, "Airs Graces" (Green Linnet). Cunningham, the Scottish accordionist and musical leader of the Celtic folk band Silly Wizard, delivers a solo album of uncompromising beauty and spirit. These instrumental sound simultaneously as old as the hills and as new as any music being made today. The jigs and reels are varied and lively without any sense of forced gaiety; the slow airs are i til MUm i tw; WWW mB.ssm.