Daily News from New York, New York • 47

Bootfi plans poof 'Leaf People-is- or 6e jirds Pi P3 i ra Ql 91 Tom Aldredge, Denise Delaphena and Ted LePlat: trouble in paradise interpreters, played by Grayson Hall and Anthony Holland, translate their dull comments for us from glass -enclosed suspended objects that are equipped with mikes and look like isolation booths. How they ever picked up the tongue of a people it took even Shaughnessy four years to break the ice with is not explained. I could tell you ail sorts of things about the Leaf People, By DOUGLAS WATT If "The- Leaf People, which opened last night and will close Sunday, is a fair sample of the five-play season Joseph Papp had in store for us at the Booth, it's small wonder that he's withdrawing to home ground, the Public Theater, for the remainder of the serie3. Dennis J. Reardon's play is a mess and couldn't be expected to draw even flies at the high-rental house.

Reardon, we learn from some narrated statistics at the end of the evening, is concerned that the progress of the highway being carved across Brazil through the jungle will wipe out or corrupt tribes of noble savages. But why take it out on 113 with something that looks and rounds like a low-budget Tarzan movie An elderly anthropologist named Shaughnessy (played by Tom Aldredge) has spent four years in the jungle swatting insects, losing weight and hoping for a glimpse of the Leaf People, a near-naked tribe numbering 30 who believe they sprang from trees, sport Beatle haircuts (the men, anyway) and have a vocabulary of 400 funny words. Now, some brown-skinned and some green-skinned, they appear before him and get to meet other "fishbellies" as well, most of whom they eventually kill though one, a rock keyboard artist and son of Shaughnessey, just gets his fingers bitten off for being so nosy. In time, we are told, the Leaf People themselves are either killed, die of white man's disease or wind up begging coins from tourists. The main trouble with the Leaf People is that they're an appalling dull lot and are doubtless so small in number from having bored one another to death over years.

To make matters worse, two It's a blue beginning for New World By DON NELSEN Faced with a projected $1.2 million deficit, Joseph Papp, producer of the New York Shakespeare festival, yesterday abruptly cancelled the program of. five new plays that he had scheduled to open in sequence at the Booth Theater on Broadway. Instead, the plays will be presented downtown at Papn's Public Theater and at the Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center. The first entry, Dennis Reardon's "Leaf People." which opened last night, will hang in there at the Booth until Sunday. Papp sadly recounted the bleak economics that forced his hand at a press conference in the Booth yesterday.

He blamed his Broadway decampment primarily on failure to win expected corporate and foundation support and on the recent month-long musician's strike. The strike, for example, cut off monies that would have stemmed from the profits of "A ics, the orchestra grew tentative when it should have been arrogant. Some fine work was heard from the woodwinds but only a hint of this masterpiece's colossal content was forthcoming. Pltnninf Chip4a Party WHERE CAN YOU GET A PARTY FOR 20 PEOPLE Including SIRLOIN STEAK Dinner LIQUOR UNLIMITEO TIP ANO TAX in 20 different prim Manhattan location FOR LESS THAN $200? 212-563-7450. TOUIGHT at Seats Avail.

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a Sat. imtss Chorus Line," the hit musical that is also under Papp'a production wing. Papp's plan had been to present five work3 of contemporary playwrights 'in a limited run of four week each for a combined ticket price of $10. For theatergoers hungry for the new and or experimental, tickets at $2 apiece for a Broadway staging was like finding a cut-rate Dior at Bergdoff's. However, such a ticket price could not cover actual production costs, so subsidy in.

some form was vital. This is where the corporations and foundations were to enter chortling, carrying money but it turned out they weren't even in the wings. And with "A Chorus Line" dark because of the strike, it was curtains for what Bernard Jacobs of the Shubert organization called the "most ambitious project in the history of the American theater." But Papp, a sort of hip -Don Quixote, remains undaunted. By raising his lance at the Public Theater and Lincoln Center, he's continuing his fight to bring contemporary theater to contemporary audiences. For him, it's not an impossible dream.

"In order to create an audience of 25,000 for new work in the theater; we sold the tickets for two bucks," hs said. "We did get 20,000, which is no mean feat." HOTEL ft RESTAURANT 'PARK AVENUE I at 56th STREET IT-idnight nack Oct.20-Nov.15 Super disco dancing. Dinner and late supper. 3 Shows nightly. No minimum.

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3 TICKETS ALSO AT TICKETRON: 541-720 who bear such names as Zhah-bahroosh, Yawahlapeetee and Keerah (she's the nude green sexpot of the tribe), asd even about the Fishbellies, among whom are P. Sigmund Furth, "a river rat, and Meatball, apprentice. Also, six of the Leaf People, non-talking acrobats, swing from the vines in the background and do tumbling tricks on the orestage. But the thing that interested "Trie most was learning that the five onstage musicians who play clattering, groaning and barking instruments as well as panpipes, were responsible for the "extra pay for body makeup" clauses written into the new musicians' contract. Supposed to be Leaf People, they are streaked with war paint.

Tom O'Horgan, working in his familiar ritualistic vein, has staged all this as idiotic--ally as possible, and Randy Barcelo, his partner in such earlier ventures as "Lenny" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," has designed the costumes and makeup. Speed that highway. to aggravating distortions. The last section owes much to Rossini, and the orchestra's clean, fresh sound gave some Holding to its tradition of playing the works of younger black composers, Lee' led his group in a sympathetic and perceptive rendition of TJ. Anderson's "Squares." The Bartok Piano Concerto No.

3, which dates from 1946, is full of passion, bounce aod provoking It is a hefty challenge, and Bates rose to the occasion only in the slow movement when he produced some lovely controlled playing that captured the mood completely. Lee and the band provided solid support even if it wasn't emugh to get Bates through the fiery finale convincingly. Lee was all at sea in Debussy's "La Mer." Long on sound but short on dvnam- New York Shakespeare Festival presents ABfcSI MUblLSL IV75 N.Y. Drama Critics Circle Award CHORUS LINE SHUBERT 225 W. 44th St.

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Credit Cards (ttSt M9-7J77 L7ACI3 cmr tsVTgg. MAHUUCt rff'' mm PRESENTS 2SoyaItyoSfZBoeIr WEEK umi czsr tke Pius TONIGHT TOMT unujUMS THC COASTEKS Bosaic LEWIS THC MAPVtLETTES By AM. TANNENBAUM The wet blanket of the weekend's weather permeated Carnegie Hall Sunday afternoon ami brought the blahs to the first concert in the Symphony- of the New World's 11th season. Conductor Everett Lee, his players and the soloist, pianist Leon Bates, never got it together. A pity, really, because the program's content was full of promise.

Verdi's "Overture to the Sicilian Vespers" is a feisty, braggadocio piece that needs to be alternately whipped and coddled, but Lee chose to take the schmaltzy route that led OF nOCKEFEUH CENTO wcowrsor TOOT WILLIAMS GARY U.S. BONOS THC MMVELETTES aoaaiE lewis HOTEL RESTAURANT Italian food A great place for your next party. Another Restaurant Ateochrto Great Place. TONIGHT and TOMORROW ONLY AM seats rmorvtd S8.50. S7.50.

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