The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 15

I g-- -y m- Vi mrir Un -n J. UP mi ji grip -T 1 i "fn T1 I irTr 1 TT Vt I pi g1" '-'gf --yi THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1997 A15 ENTERTAINMENT Show features lavish sets and costumes Oz is a land of danger Jail drama pulls no punches Planning a vacation early in the new year? Consider a trip to Oz. Unlike Dorothy you wont be following a yellow brick road. You will, however; encounter characters exotic enough to convince you and Toto that you've ventured on to terrain that bears scant resemblance to Kansas. Oz is a television series that begins Monday night on the Showcase specialty network.

The debut episode will be repeated on Friday, Jan. 9, in the time slot that will be Oz's home for the full eight-week run of the series. Oz is set in the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary It is home to "hard types doin' hard convicts serving long sentences for horrid crimes involving excessive violence. Donald Groves, a spacey longhair, is in for cooking and eating his parents. At least that's how we are introduced to Groves as Oz begins.

Viewers learn in a subsequent episode sound system reaches every corner of the arena with the help of technology supplied by Meyer Sound. Famous Disney couples including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck and Chip 'N' Dale appear at the start of the show to explain the storyline and then join the finale. Beauty and the Beast is at the Mol-son Centre Friday through Sunday. Shows begin Friday at 7p.m. in French, Saturday at 11 a.m.

in French, 3 p.m. (French), 7 p.nu (English), Sunday 11 a.m. (English), 3p.m. (French), and 7 p.m, (French). Tickets cost $12.50, $18.50, $23.

50, and fees, and are available at the Mol-son Centre box office (989-2841) and Admission outlets (790-1245) or by calling (800) 361-4595. Group discounts -20 or more available for 11a.m. and 7 p.m. shows Saturday, call 932-5449. There is a $5 discount for children 12 and under for the 7p.m.

shows Friday and Saturday. BEAUTY Continuedfrom Page All Produced by Disney show veteran Kenneth Feld, and using voice and music from the Disney film, the lavish, $6-million Beauty and the Beast show features 178 costumes and 205 props. There are 105 hats. On average, each skater changes costume six times during a performance. In one scene, skaters appear as formal tables set with dishes, cutlery, glassware and candles.

The creative team includes theatre and music director Jerry Bilik, set designer Robert Little, costume designer Arthur Boccia, prop designer Tim Fig-gatt and skating director and choreographer Bob PauL It takes up to 10 hours to set up the show and seven trailers to move sets, props and costumes on to the next tour stop. Joe Schweickert's lighting design is computerized and Roger Gans's "COMPLETELY INSANE! BTTTS! BERSERK! WILD! DSCONSTSUCTISO BAMS IS WOODT ALLEN'S WILDEST FLICK EVBRI" that he scarfed down his mother but was saving his father for Thanksgiving. Yecch. And Donald Groves is a model prisoner by the standards of Em (short for Emerald) City a prison within a prison that houses the most twisted and dangerous inmates at Oz. Separated from the general population of the prison, Em City residents align themselves with racial and ethnic groups: dopers, Muslims, white supremacists, mob wise guys.

Then there are divisions i Doccnstructlrm 7 MIKE BOONE TV RADIO A new mm uy vvuuuy miui i ggggg it 131 NOW PLAYING! I ETnEPLEX ODEON I I CINEPLEX ODEON IWSraiMail) EGYPTIEN g.Tt CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES vMmwvu mm i based on fear and power guards and prisoners, group leaders and followers, sexual predators and helpless prey And over everything hangs the threat of sudden, extreme violence. Oz includes scenes in which inmates are sodomized and beaten. In the climactic moments of Episode 1, a prisoner is doused with gasoline and set on fire. You like sweaty realism on the tube? Oz makes Brooklyn South look like Mr. Rogers's Neighbourhood.

The series made its debut during the summer on Home Box Office, an American pay-TV network. Because hit movies are available in video rental stores before they are telecast on pay TV, HBO's selling point is its original programming. The network airs music and comedy specials, Jmk, 1 ir K.i in Florentine Houdiniere: gracious, beautiful and feisty. All-Aboard For JheHoudaysi NOW PLAYING! OniOINAL ENQUSH VERSION CmfPlElfOOEON 1 1 CINEPLEX OOEON I tES CINEMAS GUZZO I CfNEPtEX ODEON FAUBOURG b. 1 1 LASAIXt (Place) i.

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Oz is HBO's first drama series. The pay-TV network wanted something that could not be done on commercial television. Oz was created by Barry Levinson and and Tom Fontana. Levinson works mainly in feature films (Diner, Rainman, Donnie Brasco). Fontana has won best-writer Emmy Awards tor St Elsewhere and for Homicide: Life on the Street The opening credits of the HBO series include a queasi-ness-inducing closeup of a huge, ornate "OZ" being tattooed on a bleeding bicep.

The arm is Tom Fontana's. Somehow I can't imagine Michael Crichton, creator of ER, undergoing a heart bypass for the opening credits of the show Fontana isabitodd-andhugely talented. Oz is a spellbinder Viewers will find themselves completely engrossed in the power politics and elaborate rituals of penitentiary life. TV dramatists have never sought inspiration inside prison walls. Fontana has turned a cold, cruel and claustrophobic setting into a fascinating place that viewers will want to visit every week that Oz is on the air.

A parental advisory: Somewhat limited in language skills, inmates and guards in Oz use the f-word as a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb and an expletive. The series includes graphic depiction of violence, sexual situations and full-frontal nudity Don't let your parents watch Oz alone. Oz begins Monday Jan. 5, at 10p.m. on Showcase.

The debut episode will be rerun Friday, Jan. 9, at 11 p.m., which will be Oz's regular time slot. Great variety of ways to spend a pathetic New Year's Eve at home, watching TV like a no-life loser CBC (CBMT-6) caps 1997 with laughter Absolutely Fabulous at 7, followed by 60-minute specials featuring the Royal Canadian Air Farce and the 22 Minutes crew. At 10:30, Radio-Canada (CBFT-2) will telecast 30 years' worth of Bye Bye highlights the best of the network's annual comedy specials. ABC (WVNY-22) telecasts yet another Dick Clark Rockin' New Year's Eve from Times Square.

The show begins at 11:30 p.ra and features the Spice Girls, Hanson and Shawn Colvin. The eerily life-like Clark is joined by Daisy Fuentes. If you're still conscious at 1:05, ABC airs an After New Year's Eve special with music by David Sanborn, Lou Reed, Boz Scaggs and Isaac Hayes. Fox (WFFF-44) will telecast When New Year's Eve Attacks, a live 11 p.m. special from Las Vegas featuring Chum-bawumba, Sugar Ray and Third Eye Blind.

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