The Herald Statesman from Yonkers, New York • 15

SECTION Comics B2-Television B3 Ann Landers Bf Movie dock B4 Gannett Westchester NowspapersMonday, April 28, 1986 Readers revive Bobby Ewing in unusual ways doubt it could be palled together in time for the ild be palled I episode. diffhanger April Lorlmar Productions announced that Patrick Duffy was returning to Dallas, no small feat for someone whose character has already been interred. While this shocking bit of news may have seemed But wait a minute we're talking "Dallas" here. When anything can happen right, Ms. Rickards? youre not a Dallasfan, well set the In for you.

Mark Grayson is a too, too nice young man who i at first, fans of the nighttime soap surely to past that it could be done. After all, I sgpgently has won PamEwingshearthis without trepidation. After all, he at doubt seasons they hare witnessed many miracles of modern science, todudtog the famous case of Donna Reed turning Into Barbara Bd Geddea. But Just how would the producers puU this one off? You knew. And you told us.

We asked for acenarios for how "Dallas would bring back Duffy and we heard from about 25 people, all schooled in the machinations of Southfork and the Fine art of stetching credulity. We promised to publish the best diffhanger, which came from Pat Richards of Eaetcfaester. was about to many her last season when her ex, Bobby Ewing, wee struck by a car driven by Pam's mad sister, Katherine Wentworth, and killed. Although JL cried last season, dont be fooled. He still despises Pam, his one-time sister-in-law and now hia business psrtner.

Meanwhile, poor Suclletl, J.R.'s woebegotten wife, continues to suffer in silence while her woman: husband tries to patch their leaky relationship, seeing Dr. Jerry Kenderson, a well-meaning i wfao'd physician secretly like to. get JJL on the A warning: Ms. Richards' scenario is so internecine that only "Dallas fans will understand it And her hypothesis is so wild that quite frankly, we seriously mhnek bum of Mo oodkoo Capers capture the essence of 'Dallas THE NIP AND TUCK THEORY Awene of entrants sent ne their Dallas' diffbanger scenarios once the word was out that actor Patrick Duffy will return to tbe nighttime soap tbit Plastic surgery was the running theme through many of the diffhangers, although the patient couM have been anyone: Mark Grayson, evil I kg had an evil twin brother who will surface to the diffhanger. But unlike the others, Ms.

Fland'S explanation gives ua several choices. "Where was the twin all these years? she asks to her letter. "Held somewhere Alaska by a woman who thought she had adopted him legally, but finds out through a croaked lawyer that heis: A. a Ewing B. an heir to a huge fortune C.

a mental case Ms. Fland, you forgot all of the above. Pat Richards of Eastcbester was on1 winner, but many entrants managed to pull together complicated story lines. Other entries were so bisarre that even Rod Setting would recoil in Jock Ewing (we thought he gone). In true Dallas fashion, many of you deserve credit for using plastic surgery to devise a great plot twist Michele Bartee of New Rochelle writes that the red Bobby was actually kidnapped and held in an abandoned house "on the other side of town or even in another town.

But we liked every one of them, even those insisting that Bobby Ewing (Duffy's old character) bad beea cloned. There were three universal theories, any one of them as unbelievable as tie next THE 'HE AINT A HEAVY, HEW MY BROTHER THEORY THE DARN, IT WAS ALL A DREAM THEORY A number of you fell asleep on the Job here, insisting that Bobby never died but dreamed the whole kaboodle. Oh, Meanwhile, "an imposter is at the ranch posing as Bobby (thanks to a good plastic surgeon) he acts like him, looks like him, no one could teQ Renee Fland of Yonkers is one of a number of entrants who thinks Bobby the difference." But then, she writes, the imposter "gets hit by a car, dies, is buried and (last i forgotten (last season's diffhanger)." According to Betty Silverman of Yonkers, Bobby slipped into a coma and fooled us alL "In the coma, writes Mrs. Silverman, "be is dreaming that he has died, that Mark is dive and that Pam has become engaged to Mark. Mrs.

Silverman adds: "Ninety percent of this season's story could all have been a dream of his Incredible. But not impossible, when Tbe red Bobby escapes from his kidnappers, recovers from hia amnesia (somehow, amnesia worked its way into almost every diffhanger we received) and runs home to Miss EUto, showing her his childhood scar as proof of Ids identity. Not bad, Ms. Bartee. Si And it all leads nicely into next 8680000 opening show, when Bobby asks a plastic surgeon to change Ms identity to William Hurt so he can do a movie with Rad Julia.

"Dallas to) meatier acting parts. Talk about atmmtsm i BDPJY LOCAL LAUGHS 'Charity is still a mighty sweet revival SCOSlE ME. WHICH WAY TO GEORtE (WE- By Jacquwn to Sourd Drams Critic THEATER REVIEW downbeat This reflects not Just his own view of life but also the rampant disillusionment of the '60s and a conscious choice to turn away from the happy endings that were once obligatory for Broadway musicals. wisecracking best A score by Cy Coleman that has more punch than any other in his canon. Lyrics by the late Dorothy Fields, who is only equaled in our day, perhaps, by Stephen Sondheim.

Michael Rupert is perhaps a lbere as Charity's too fevered I reproduced and at these moments "Sweet Charity soars. The problem with the production is Debbie Allen, of TVs "Fame. She's cast as Charity, but she isn't Charity because nothing about Allen spells vulnerability. She may affect a squeaky little speaking voice, hut Allen's version of Charity is a tough street kid, tougher than any of the other dancers to the Fan-Dango Ballroom. You wouldn't want to mess with her, let alone push her into a lake, as two of Charity's boyfriends do to the course of the NEW YORK If you need to be reminded of Just how sensational a musical, even a minor modern musical, could be in the glory days of Broadway, check out Bob Fosses revival of his own "Sweet Charity at the Minskoff Theater.

This 19M musical comes to us in period costume and clearly in the spirit of the original, but it works on its own terms today as a smashing entertainment And the -elements that make it a classic vie for first mention. As everyone knows, Gwen Verdon starred to the original production of "Sweet Charity. (She's also had a hand in choreographing this one.) Verdon embodied a vulnerable dance-hall hostess who had hard luck but high hopes. She sang "If My Friends Could See Me Now and "There's Got to Re Something Better Than This, and she stole Broadway's heart bit most promising suitor, Oscar. a Neil Simon New York Neurotic if ever there was one.

Bebe Neuwirth is a major discovery in the role of Nicfcie, tbe tough-talking dance hall girl from Brooklyn with a heart of gold. Who dances? she tells a new girt. "We defend ourselves to music. Without trying to, Neuwirth completely upstages Allen whenever they're on together, most notably in the trio number (with Allison Williams), There's Got to be Something Better Than This. Robert Randolph's lOs-modem set and lighting designs must have Certainly Fosse's spectacular dances one showstopping mini- ballet of undulating gyration follows another and his -inventive direction are of historic quality.

But we've seen (most recently in Big Deal) that these can falter when they must stand alone. There's no question that Allen can dance, however, she twists and hurls her body into the Fosse contortions with muscular power. But she is an unconvincing stage actress and an indifferent singer, so her "If They Could See Me Now anthem becomes just another cute number. This is a musical with a very peculiar ending, as Fosse insists on delivering an 11th hour Tbe numbers that stop the show at the Minskoff are the group numbers, in which Fosse fills our eyes with a kind of movement that is totally his own. All this is wonderfully So note that "Sweet Charity has a book by Neil Simon at his Please see CfMJWrr onpogeM ()4o, iTs Her nr VbWmI I I 0 '4.