The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 117

4 "NT fv THE SUN section: JANUARY 15, 1995 Two networks debut this week in Baltimore area im. I I 'V: 0 a I ''V. 4 i f) 1 i i fi 0 I i V. I If By Steve McKerrow Sun Staff Writer The greenest crew In the ever-expanding "Star Trek" universe embarks tomorrow on the most daunting mission yet: launching a new national television network. "Star Trek: Voyager" carries the flag for the United Paramount Network (UPN), boldly leading four other new series and establishing UPN on 96 stations across the nation.

Initially, UPN programming will run Monday and Tuesday evenings; a Saturday afternoon movie rounds out the lineup. "Voyager." the fourth series in the fictional future created by Gene Roddenberry, '4 i I 3t i A1 ijr premieres tomorrow on WNUV-Channel 54 in Baltimore and on WDCA-Channel 20 in Washington. They have a show with a built-in audience. All the Trekkies will be watching land I think their lineup is as good as anything I've seen. These shows could go on ABC, CBS or Fox tomorrow," says Steve Marks, general manager of WNUV.

Mr. Marks predicts Baltimore will be one of UPN's Kate Mulgrew in UPN's "Star Trek: Voyager." ALGERtNA PEHNVSUN STAFF PHOTO Lauretta Dorsey Young rehearses the Charm City Choir for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," playing at the Lyric Jan. 17-29. strongest markets, In' part because the battle of the new networks taking place nationally is barely happening here. That battle pits UPN against fellow newcomer, Warner Bros.

Network (WB). The only Baltimore affiliate for WB Is tiny Towson State Television. The low-power, education-oriented outlet broadcasts on UHF Channel 61, but its signal can be received only within a three- to five-mile radius of the TSU campus. WB also can be seen locally on a few cable systems. WB previewed three of its four series last week.

Starting this week, its four sitcoms will air from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday. Both new networks are backed by major entertainment companies Viacomhrls-Craft, See UPN, 3H into a full-length Broadway production. (Colncidentally, that version was co-produced by two Baltimoreans Susan R.

Rose and Gall Berman whose Investors included 25 other Baltimoreans.) i irtni 1 1 -1 ll i. A 1 Local children will sing onstage with cast of Joseph9 er-scale version at the London Palladium, ill "at Producun was re-staged on Broad- I I waY last season, and now It's on a two- 1 year tour, starring Sam Harris and open By 'J. Wynn Rousuck Sun Theater Critic he Bible story is known as "Joseph and his coat of many colors." For the musical stage. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice renamed it "Joseph and Ml 1 I ll 3 i 5 5 i ing at the Lyric Tuesday. "Andrew and I were very concerned that the sort of innocence of the show, the simplicity of the show, shouldn't disappear beneath the glitz.

In this respect the children were key," says Steven Pimlott, the show's London-based director. "Joseph is the first commercial production for Pimlott, who has spent most of his career at such govemment-subsidized companies as the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The show was originally conceived for children to See SHOW. 4H 1 the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." But the production launching a national tour in Baltimore this week should probably be called "Joseph and the cast of many kids." That's because, in addition to a touring cast of 30 professional actors, the show features a "Joseph" choir made up of approximately 50 local children. In Baltimore, two choirs were selected In auditions held two months ago the Charm City Choir and the Towson Children's Chorus.

The children are 9 to 14 years old and range in experience from Christopher T. Knudsen. a ninth-grader at Towson High School who has appeared in a few children's shows, to Abigail Margulls, a 10th -grader at the Baltimore School for the Arts who has a professional agent and an array of credits. Christopher, 14, plays trombone in three school VI 'X ') UPN's "Pig Sty" Is about five bachelors. UPN's new shows not so boldly go where others have gone before From Wire Reports groups and only recently has become a little more Interested" In drama.

He says he wanted to be In "Joseph because "I thought it would be a lot of fun. and it would Just be a once-in-a-lifetlme kind of thing." On the other hand. Abigail, also 14, Is determined to have a career as an actress. She's already rehearsing for a dinner theater production in March. Though "Joseph" is the biggest production she's been In, Abigail is setting her sights beyond Its two-week Baltimore engagement Tm hoping to get a national tour," she says.

1 have a thrill when 1 get on stage, kind of a high. When I hear the overture start playing, and the lights go on. there's a big rush. I can see myself on that big (Lyric Opera House) stage and that whole audience, and it's the rush 1 get "Joseph originated as a 20-minute pop cantata written for a British school choir In 1967 which helps explain the philosophy behind including local children in the production. Fifteen years later, tt grew Sam Harris stars in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" you've got the bucks to start a new TV network.

Maybe you've got the guts and the will to glory, too. But how to fill all that air time? JLO MRSCHBAkAVSUN STAFf PnOIO Rebecca Ventura. Natalie Grimsley and Beth Wetzel of the Towson Children's Chorus. Clowns, jugglers, mimes tap vaudeville's rich vein of silliness The New Pickle Family Circus appears this week at TSU. No problem.

Just whip together a few sexy sitcoms and action shows, and follow the sure-fire formula of ratings-proven deja vu. It's mostly spelled T-R-E-K and F-O-X. At the United Paramount Network (Channel 54 in Baltimore and Channel 20 in Washington), tried and true Is the motto. From trekking with Kate Mulgrew and crew on "Star Trek: Voyager" to action-adventure shows and more sitcoms, everything tastes like reheated leftovers. Here's the UPN menu: "Star Trek: Voyager" (drama: premieres 8 p.m.

tomorrow). From producers Rick Berman, Michael Pllk-r and Jeri Taylor, who were at the helm of "Star Trek: The Next Generation' and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." In the 24th century. Capt Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and crew take the USS Voyager into a distant part of the galaxy, where they get lost and where lurks their enemy, the Maquis. To find Federation space again, Maquis and Voyagers must cooperate. The concept Yet another orbital spin for Trek-kers.

The outlook: With the "Star Trek legend behind tt this one will fly as high as a new network show can. given its clearance in 10 percent to 15 percent less of the country than ABC. CBS, Fox and NBC But airs opposite strong competition, from The Nanny on CBS to KBCs "Fresh Prince" and steamy "Melrose Place on Fox. "Marker" (drama: premieres 8 p.m. Tuesday).

From Stephen CanneO, creator of The Rockford Files and "21 Jump Street Richard Grteco Jump stars as a New Jersey carpenter By Mike Gluliano Special to The Sun a 1 though there's a lot of clowning around at Towson State University, there's no need to become alarmed about declining academic standards. This Is officially sanctioned funny business. Clowns. Jugglers, mimes and all sorts of other movement theater folks are converging on TSU for the sixth annua Mid Atlantic Movement Theatre Festival, running through Sunday. Kicking off the exquisitely choreographed silliness la the one-ring.

San Francisco-based New Pickle Family Circus, will perform a movie spoof titled Mump CutsT at 730 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday In Stephens Hall Theatre. There is a definite method to the festival" comic madness. These performers come out of a "new vaudevlDe movement that during the past 20 years, has been reviving the circus, vaudevflle and side- Is old fashioned, small-scale fun that relies on nine performers and a four-piece And there are no animals at all. making this a circus that even animal-rights advocates can adore.

1 "It's a theatrical circus. explains Jeff Razz, a Pickle company member who goes professJonally by Just the name Razz. Tve always loved the idea that we combine the circus, theater, music and dance. I feel we're defining them." He says most contemporary theater re-' lies too much on the psvcnologk-al realm and not enough on what the body has to. say.

By supplementing age-old circus skills with theatrical elements. Razz says, the Pickles can really present "human beings and their silliness. One of the great things about a circus is that it's very accessible. Audiences understand tt everywhere, Until now. however, 'everywhere" hasn't encompassed Baltimore.

The Pickle See THEATER, AH show routines that withered at mkl-ceritu- Founded ki 1974. the Pickle Family Circus was an carry champion of the cause. Early company members included such now-celebrated clowns as Bui fawin and Geoff Hoyle. Run as a fiear-coDecuve. the troupe took Its modestly scaled shows to tittle towns where no circus bad ever per formed.

And It helped pave the way for public acceptance of such small cbiuats as New York's ESg Apple Cimis, the Canadian Cirque du Soleil and the Australian Circus Oz. Just don't go to a new vaudeville-spawned circus like the Pickle Family drew expecting lions and tigers and bears and technciogy -enhanced spectacle. This.