Newsday from New York, New York • 200

ENTEBTAINNENl A Rockaway Beach House Goes Hollywood for a Week Photas by Dn Seibert By Joseph C. Koenenn THE HOUSE LOOKS like an orphan, Bitting alone amid vacant lots overgrown with weeds, its shabbineBB exposed on all Bides. It is the last survivor of what was once a community almost on the beaches of the Rockaways, in the far reaches of Queens. In its better days, it was a rooming house bustling with people. Now, it is home only to Dolphus Murph, who has lived there since the '60s.

But for a few days this week it is home, too, for Treat and Phillip, the eccentric brothers of Lyle Kesslers play "Orphans, which director Alan J. Pakula is translating to film. "This house is the core of the film, Pakula said as his crew began shooting outdoor scenes around it. The interior layout had been recreated at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Long Island City and filming began there last month. Pakulas location manager, Celia found exactly the house he for the exterior shots, one that looked abandoned, lust as the two young brothers had been abandoned.

She knew where to look for it, in an area near Rockaway Beach Boulevard, because she had spent time there as a child. The house is now owned by New York City and was to have been torn down, like its neighbors, to make way for a housing project that never materialised. Even in its current condition. Director Alan Pakula; right, Pakula diracta Kavln Anderson In a acens from Orphans, now filming In Rockaway Beach. with its peeling paint and blown-away shingles, it wasn't quite shabby enough.

Costas crews uprooted Murphs rose bushes with a promise to replace them after filming and an ancient privet hedge. They scattered additional debris, rusting metal chairs and garbage cans, around the tiny lawn thats bordered by an unkempt fence. Nor was the surrounding area bleak enough. "We hand-picked leaves off those trees, Costas said. "You notice the weeds.

Theyre all dead and dry here and theyre still across the street We sprayed IP In the play, which Kessler adapted for filming, the older brother, Treat, played by Matthew Modine, is a small-time crook who supports a reclusive brother, Phillip, played by Kevin Anderson. Treat has convinced Phillip that the outside world is hostile and that Phillip is incompetent to deal with it. Their relationship changes when Treat brings home a drunk stranger, Harold, played by Albert Finney. Treat has tied him securely, intending to hold him for ransom, and charged Phillip with guarding him. Harold convinces Phillip that he Continued on Page 13 Although the tum-of-the-centuiy house is in New York, it is cast as one in New Jersey, where Pakula has set the story.

In the play, which was brought to Manhattan by the Steppenwolf Company of Chicago, the setting was Philadelphia, Kesslers hometown. Pakula decided on a New Jersey setting because, in opening it up from the confines of this boys living room, where all the stage action took place, he wanted to use some New York City settings, like Central Park. "Weve kept the street names," Pakula said between takes, "and, hopefully, kept the spirit. Frankenstein With a Song HAVE I GOT A GIRL FOR YOU TOE FRANKENSIBN MUSCAL Book by Joel Greenhouse and Penny Rockwell, music and lyrics by Dick Gallagher. Directed by Bruce Hopkins, with choreography by Felton Smith.

With Semina De Laurents, Gregory Jbara, Walter Hudson, Angelina Fiordellisi, J. P. Daugherty and others. Second Avenue Theater in Manhattan. THEATER in His Heart tis), whose only attractive feature is the money shes about to inherit.

Mary isn't destined to be the bride of Frankenstein. Doctor Pretorius (J. P. Dougherty), "the most evil man alive, has other plans for her. Pretorius, who like Frankenstein dabbles in the mysteries of life, is planning to create his own monster, which he hopes to turn into a movie star by using the body parts of Hollywoods most glamourous women.

For some reason he wants to use Marys brain (maybe because its been used so infrequently, theres a lot of mileage left on it). Will Frankensteins lovesick monster ever get together with Pretorius Hollywood creation? Will Marys head ever get together with the rest of her body? The answers to these and other ques- tions are revealed after a handful of passable gags and many sophomoric ones (including the inevitable "Oh, for goodness sake, dont lose your head). Director Bruce Hopkins production is like a "Saturday Night Live sketch that runs too long past its optimum 10-minute length. When the assorted people and monsters do one of Felton Smiths dances, it invariably misses the cleverness of the top-hat-and-tails number in "Young Frankenstein. Hudsons Dr.

Frankenstein is only a bland house doctor, and Doughertys Pretorius is more like a friendly Hollywood agent than an evil genius. Jbara gives the monster a likably lost quality, but the only sharp performance is by De Laurentis. Whether playing mousy Mary or the vampirish female monster, she kids the cliches neatly, and her tremolo singing makes you understand why they used to call it "warbling. The show does have a girl for us. Too bad it doesnt have a whole lot more.

i NEWSDAY. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 30, 1986 NY Part 11 11 Rita marie Kelley meats a ledartiosened monster (Gregory Jbara) In Have I Got a Girl for You! Fip HE WORD "Taste is displayed on one side of JL the stage "Dignity on the other. The words arg obviously there to call attention to their absence anywhere else in "Have I Got a Girl for You! The shortage of such other qualities as originality and deft humor is purely unintentional. "Have I Got a Girl, subtitled "The Frankenstein Musical, is the latest attempt to create an Off-Broadway musical that gets its laughs by spoofing an old Hollywood chiller flick.

But the show doesnt have nearly the fun quotient of "Little Shop of Horrors, just down the street Maybe all the slick gags on the subject were used up in Mel Brooks movie "Young Frankenstein. Or maybe Joel Greenhouse and Penny Rockwell, the authors of "Have I Got a Girl, and Dick Gallagher, who did the music and lyrics, dont have the comic wings needed to taka off on Brooksian flights of fun. The movie that the musical tries to kid is the 1935 "The Bride of Frankenstein. I don't know how closely the writers followed the original, but "Have I Got a Girl isnt so much a spoof as a compendium of obvious and campy gags, many of them relying on mimickiy of movie and TV stars. REVjEW Allan Wallach One song for the heroines severed head is moderately amusing, but the ones sung by people with a foil complement of heads and torsos are mostly routine.

In this version, Frankensteins monster (Gregory Jbara) runs around "a Bavarian forest just east of Hollywood encountering peasants with an odd resemblance to such celebrities as Joan Rivers, Shirley Temple and Bette Davis. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Dr. Frankenstein (Walter Hudson) is carrying on with the sexy maid (Angelina Fiordellisi) though he's preparing to many his mousy, dim-witted lab technician, Mary Phillips (Semina De Lauren-.