Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 134

Hoe artrOO THEATER REVIEWMore music By Allan Wallach Phyllis new one-woman show "My Mother Was a contains a dozen musical selections strung on a loosely structured autobiographical narrative The show might work better if the balance ware changed with the narrative sliced up into short introductions to a lot more SHORT To save Town Hall A public hearing has been scheduled for Thursday by Manhattan Community Board No 6 to explore what can be done to prevent the doting of Town Hall this summer Joyce Mats speaking for the board said that the hsanng has been requested by Eric Blau chairman of the Committee to Save Town Hall She said the board has requested that New York University which owns the 1600-seat landmark concert hall hold off any final decision until Thursday so that the board may maka its recommendations The school has set Aug 81 aa the deadline to dose Town Hall because of the financial and management drain On the college The meeting will be held at 6 PM the community room of St Church 239 49th St Joan Robb speaking for Town Hall said that the weekly Wednesday aeries at 5:46 PM ia continuing and that business just as She added that starting June 14 the series will be ther who hurried her onstage when she was a child In a segment with an invisible psychiatrist she suggests that the ambitious beginning scarred her psyche But little is made of this The show moves on to her marriage to a "prince of (her husband is the theatre writer and performer Adolph Green) and her ultimate success La a show he co-authored (presumably "Subways Are for Some at this has a faintly self-congratulatory air By far the weakest material in "Fortune involves her relationship with her 13-year-old daughter another invisible presence There are some angry rebuttals to (unheard) accusations of being a neglectful mother and and an embarrassing section about an attempt to have an affair with the handsome young teacher Newman ia on firmer ground when die per- terial by a id by Enza- Cf tWO pi The gift for lighthearted satire emerges in medfoy of pop songs that shaped frivolous devoted seltaflacing sex-object There are a couple of pretty numbers notably "What Makes Me Love Hixnr by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick but a few songs (iwlmtiwg me-diocre title song by John Clifton with lyrics by Newman) seem to have been chosen only for their fowman a charming singer-actress sparkles in several of the songs But "My Mother Was a Fortune which opened over the weekend at the Hudson Guild Theatre (441 26th St) has much more talk than music and the talk is a problem It shifts from shrill to coy without ever illuminating anything significant about the narrator When the theme finally comes into focus it turns into that stock dilemma of talented women: career vs family Although there is no credit for the spoken material I'm told it was written by Newman and Arthur Laurents the director (Craig Anderson producing director of the Hudson Guild is the "production It may be time ran out before the writers could shape the material satisfactorily several musical numbers listed in the original program are emitted fadieeting some last minute revisions Whatever the reason "Fortune shifts awkwardly from a show about a performer who was pushed prematurely into the spotlight to one about womens lib to one about a woman struggling to bring her dual lives as performer and wife and mother into balance Fart of the time the show is a bit like the plot of (for which Laurents wrote the book) Newman talks about a fortune-teller mother who forecast her show-biz career and a vaudevillian fa opening Tally Hall more than 10 the declining character of ion area which the opening of Lincoln the "Fortune gives the impression of being a show in flux It may well improve by the time it ends its run (May 21st) and turn up at another theater or better still a with its problems solved replaced by Tduaic for a City Evening" a series of FM pop and jazs concerts to be held on Wednesdays during the summer The dadine of the once-popular hall the scene of many important New York concert debuts has been attributed to Center's Alice yean ago and the Times Square Town Hall TV BStM a six-hour movie by Stirling Silliphant goes into production next month for ABC It will revolve around the Uvea and loves of people just prior to and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor And now a beauty pageant of dogs "Canine Hall of ia an upcoming NBC special to be hosted by Joe Garagula It will feature all types of real imaginary pure-bred mutt prizewinning performing and work dogs Sandy of the Broadway musical and champion yorkshira terrier Cede Higgens best In the 1978 Westminster Dog Show will be joined by cartoon movie and television favorites Jerry Stiller and Anna' Mean are guests- "Festival of the Stare: will be the first in a series of CBS specials to be filmed Tmwlly in a different country It will be telecast May 18 9-10 PM with Susanna Somers and John Ritter as hosts Ricardo Montalban will be guest host Guests include Steve Allen Roy Clark Gary Collins Bert Convy Jamie Lee Curtis Barbara Eden Freddy Fender Mary Ann Mobley Rita Moreno MinnnnwlB)M Samantha Sang and Rip Taylor Radio disc jockey Don Tihmb formerly with WNBC has turned television tali show hoot Tmus will bow July 1 on Ch 6 where it will occupy the 11:80 PM to 1 AM spot Imus whose career has been surrounded by controversy won't let up on the tube His first show will explore the substance DMSO with a doctor who prescribes the drug for cancer patients He also hopes to book Victor Gold who was press aide to former VP Spiro Agnew and Patrick McGrady author of a book cm cosmetic surgery end other beauty treatments among jeteet-ters Franco Nero the Italian star who made his American debut in the movie version of and had the title role in "The Legend of will star in a six-hour adaptation of Harold best seller CBS will telecast the mini-series next season Jimmy 8tewart many times a roaster becomes a toastee on the May 10 "Dean Martin Celebrity I movie review French mystery CAI AND MOUSE FG) A romantic whodunit from Claude Lelouch a bit too much In love with his camera Fun though Serge Regglani and Michele Morgan By Alexander Keneas An entrepreneur is visiting his mistress-The phone rings His wife is ill He leaves When next we see him lying cold aa a mackerel on the floor of his villa a bullet in his head Suicide? Pler-hape But what about all those mwatar paintings Corot Renoir Van that have been stripped from the walls? insured of course as was life The beneficiaiy? Why Madame of course Cherchez la femme? not jump to hasty conclusions Besides die has what seems to be an airtight alibi (she was at the movies) So too does the mistress From the very beginning of "Cat and director Claude Lelouch Man and a "Another Man Another Chance?) announces his intention to play garnet We first see the husband (Jean-Pierre Aumont) and the wife (Michele Morgan) riding an elevator to the top of one of his buildings Once there' she pushes him off But wait Its only her fantasy witnessed Soon though dead for real and there are cops on the case (Serge Reggiani and as his young siaekick Philippe Leatard)7But no ordinary gumshoes Theyre on the take sort of put the squeeze on a counterfeiter Police corruption extends to a high faceless official How for would the cope go? The question takes on a greater relevance when the widow receives a hefty insurance premium ia kidnapped and her money stolen A smalltime criminal is arrested In mi possession the mining Renoir It turns out to be a fake More avenues more dead ends all what Hitchcock calls devices that seeih to be of vital importance but whose only purpose actually ia to keep us interested in the narrative Lelouch idles one aton another Admittedly he does keep guessing But before he unrevdsthe knots and sophistication his wily gynidsm (quickly deftly the final minutes) he has taxed ly liftumg elegance on one side yean pur curiosity with flsAlwh that mislead dwell- tine on the other ed-upon visual dues that are nothing of the kind scenes whose connections are not immediately apparent lees a manipulation of our emotions Serge Reggiani through the eye of the camera la Hitchcock than a self-conscious disorienting movement for its own mka Still French film veterans Morgan and Reggiani make the wait worthwhile Her vulnerability 51 idem play off nice of police "Cat and opened yesterday at the Cinema 1 in Manhattan We wont toll you who but Rsggiawi is called Inspector Lechat in rou- Zi.