Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 149

7 nn nnrunn of onnonon coiov Nov. .12, 1972 CRITICS RAVE! About THE PRODUCTION: "A gathering of fine voices from both coasTT. splendid musical theater -Ken Ackerman, KCBS "lively, lustv and enchanting'" -CRITICS RAVE! About ALLAN JONES: brings poignancy, charisma and a fine singing 1 oice to his dual rote A. Jeanne Miller, Jr Examiner CRITICS RAVEl About THE PLAY: glorious and exciting musical theater a lustv ron dv, thrilling show! -lack Gaver, DPI ALLAN JONES A TODAY AT iiyjSn oJ? i BARBARA COLBY HAS HAD ENOUGH OF NEW YORK Life in San Francisco is so much more real ANNETTE CARDONA P- EDMOND VARRATO FOUR WEEKS ONLY! AMHtMPHfUM NOW THRU NOV. 26 1 Time Wed.

Thur 6 30pm ORCH $7 SO I MEZZ 6 SO BALC 4 SO FrI and Sat 8 30pm ORCH S8 SO MEZZ 7 SO BLC SO Wed. Sat Sun 2 30pm ORCH S6 SO MEZZ 6.50 BALC 3 60 Tickets NOW et Orpheum Box Office, Macy's and Leading Agencies, Information Phona 871 5000 Group Sales Phone 60 I mail YOU ro RDER "today Lfmited tngaementl lOrpheum Thepter, 1 192 Market, San Francisco 94102 Mctll I Please send me. for 2ND CHOICE DAT! Phone. Nme By ROBERT TAYtOR Tribune Drama Writer If Barbara Colby is such a good actress, what is she doing back in San Francisco? Well, she -is a good actress, and shes back with the American Conservatory iTheater after a four-year absence because shes more committed to the continuum of regional theater than the smash hit, smash flop life style of New York. Where else could she open to rave reviews as the madly comic Bunny Flmgus in John Guares House of Blue Leaves, and two weeks later step into The Merchant of Venice as Portia, Shakespeares most intelligent heroine? Miss Colby has had enough of New York for the moment.

Her first Job in the professional theater was off-Broadway in Bill Ball's Six Characters in Search of an Author nine years ago. In 1965 she appeared on Broadway with Jason Robards and Anne Jackson in The Devils. Last winter she was back on Broadway playing Patrice Lumumba's fictional secretary and loveNn Murderous Angels. So she doesnt feel that she's stopping off in regional theater on the way to something bigger. I dont think there is anything bigger, Miss Colby said last week.

Ive been in the commercial theater, and I've had it. I spent last winter in New York and there was not one play in town I wanted to see. Ive seen the life style of other actors, and I dont want IL Four weeks of rehearsal, playing ego games. And its just like they say ask an actor how he is, and hell tell you what his last job w'as. I dont enjoy the actors life in New York.

Im not a drinker, and I dont enjoy hanging out in bars after the show. I dont enjoy all that theatrical gossip. Life in San Francisco is so much more real. She said her reasons for returning to the city are both simple and complicated. I believe In timing, and being in the right spot at the right time.

When I left, it was to explore other areas. What I want more than anything else is to integrate my work with my life, and the only way that seems -possible is to have a continuum I have some control over. ACT and I seemed linked-by other things. I was getting into transcendental meditation and so was the company. Some of my dearest friends were here, and the season looked wonderful, and it seemed the right time to come back.

Miss Colby has chosen' to spend much of her career in regional repertory theater because it gives continuity to her life, and gives her a chance to grow -as an actress. Im not concerned with being a star per se. If I were I would have geared my life differently, she said. And I dont consider myself actress. Im a person whose work is acting.

a But Miss Colby is as striking a figure off stage as she is on stage, and cant help being recognized. For instance, the owners of a health food store where she shops have seen her photograph in newspapers and City. I Address. I check payable to the Orpheum Theater for I amaI-lna a etemiuJ ulf 1 -t enuelAna fnr ha I also enclose self addressed envelope for the 1 stamped, return of my 04 now consider her in the same celebrity category as Red Buttons, who was also a customer while he performed in San Francisco. It reminded Miss Colby of the line in House of Blue Leaves in which Bananas, who might be called her rival, says I know these people better than you Johnny Car-son, Cardinal Spellman, Jackie Kennedy.

I see them on TV every night If you want Ignominy that's easy enough, Miss Colby said, but every famous person I know says the public owns a part of yon. Speaking of famous people, Miss Colby is married to Robert Six, Ethel Merman's son, and It seemed natural to ask what it was like having Ethel Merman as a mother-in-law. Its exactly what you would Imagine," Miss Colby replied. What is ironic," she continued, is that the first show I ever saw when I was a little girl was Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun. I was absolutely stage struck.

Who would have known that my husband was a little boy. backstage being a nuisance. Both Six and Miss Colby were with ACT during its first years in San Francisco, he as a stage manager, she as an actress playing such parts as Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Dear Liar," Gittel Mosca in Two for the Seesaw, the woman in Death of a Sales-, man, all the women in Don't Shoot Mabel Its Your Husband, the stepdaughter in Six Characters in Search of an Author," Mrs. Ogmore-Prit-chard in Under Milk Wood, Claire in A Delicate Balance and Masha in The Sea Gyjl.

I asked Miss Colby which -plays she enjoyed most. I loved doing Seesaw, and Delicate Balance was fun to do learning to play the accordion and all. It was very hard doing Dear T.iar, because I felt Sada Thompson was so wonderful in It and I was always working in her shadow. We worked so hard on Mabel, but there wasn't a laugh in the show, and we knew it. The one I like the best was Masha in The Sea Gull, and that was our biggest flop." Now, on her return, Miss Colby is pleased with her success in The House of Blue Leaves" and excited about the possibilities of thd' revival of The Merchant of Venice," which opens Tuesday night at the Geary Theater.

Ellis Rabbs concept of Merchant just knocks me out, she said. I think when it is traditionally played it is clearly anti-Semitic, but played this way its so much about bigotry, about money and greed. Everyone in the play is concerned with money except Portia. Portia is the most Intelligent woman Shakespeare ever created. I think my Portia will be more eccentric than Michael Learneds was in the first production.

For one thing, I get to wear my own hair, which is kind of crazy, and my costumes will be, too. When we put Michaels clothes on me, I looked like someone who should not be shopping at Best and Company. And since the lines refer (o fair Portia they had this wonderful blonde wig made for me, but then I looked like someone on Turk Street. Of course shell continue with The House of Blue Leaves after The Merchant of Venice opens. She likes John Guares play very much, but she said its caused a crisis in her life because my husband hates the play, and unfortunately he came to a preview and told me what he thought of it.

Theres something in that play that hurts and my hus-' band will die when he sees this in print but I suspect that one of the things we fear in ourselves Is insensitivity. We can take our cruelty if we dont mean it The House of Blue Leaves is a play about humiliation, and Bunny Flingus is not going to be humiliated. Bunny is a survivor, and shes going to survive on her own terms. Shes the only one in the play who doeY survive." SAT. NOVI25 OH WEEKEHDS a Axmkik DEC.

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