Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 99

B3a THa Broadway rovhral of reapaeta Ha midiancas and haa a kick doing 3 Julian March 308 musical extravaganza The fellow turns out to be the dnr captain a relatively minnr character named jAndy Lee dancnd with such propulsion and ebullience by Michael Arnold that we are surprised to find not already a star Hie atar-is-bom character of course is Sawyer from Allentown Pa who into the chorus and when the diva Dorothy Brock breaks her foot just has to go out there and do it for every speck of stardust on Broadway Kate Levering is every speck a Peggy the ingenue who only looks demure from the knees up Down in her tap shoes she explodes with the abandon that only immaculate precision can justify When her romantic lead David sweetly masterly Billy Lawlor tells her a looker you can chirp like a bird and you're pretty dam good in the hoofer department we dam well trust him Christine Ebersole is delicious as the diva a musical-comedy treasure who can color bitchy tones with melancholy Bramble wisely added Only Have Eyes for to the parade of Harry Warren-Al Dubin classics thus expanding the role to give Ebersole the chance to soften Dorothy with torchy virtuosity The silly treat of the evening is Michael Cumpsty as Julian March star director the role defined by Jerry Orbach Cumpsty the serious actor who just spent months in the intense cerebral world of seems almost at his release into the cheesy won- world of old Broadway Mary Testa and Jonathan Freeman are sweeties as the composers while Roger endlessly lavish costumes and Douglas gorgeous deco scenery make the unexpected rediscovery of musical comedy seem as natural not to mention as dangerous as tapping down a glittery staircase in trappy shoes Nimdiy Photo Ari Mints Joely Richardson stars with Macaulay Culkin In opening tonight Jaunty Joely Richardson relishes the risk of an Off-Broadway debut By Blake Green 8TAIT WB1TKR ET THE RECORD SHOW that Joely Richardson smoke before during or after a recent pre-performance vegetarian dinner The actress aid however mention cause for concern over her recent nicotine intake Maneuvering her fork and knife in the European manner backward from the American (or forward depending how you look on it) Richardson recalled how she felt when she realized she and co-star Macaulay Culkin would be lighting one cigarette after another know Americans are so rigid about says Richardson a self-described occasional smoker who how audiences would react to all the cigarettes The play in which Richardson plays Claudie the title role a sophisticated teacher who seduces Carl an impressionable teen (Culkin) opens tonight at Off-B Promenade Theatre Playwright Richard Nelson also the director set his story in Paris in 1966 a place and time much more tobacco-friendly than right here right now But the story is a flashback and when the grown-up present-day Carl mentions that Madame Melville later died of cancer wondered if people in the audience would break into Richardson says only half joking (That hasn't happened so far) Puritanical and or politically correct sorts doubtless will be relieved to observe that the worldly seducer is French the seducee a 15-year-old American (Culkin is 20) whose parents are properly scandalized The play kind of a of for the 21st century was a hit in London earlier this year with Culkin and another actress This marks the New York stage debut of the British-born 36-year-old Richardson youngest daughter of Vanessa Redgrave (from whom she inherited her brilliant blue eyes) and the late director Tony Richardson Best known on both sides of the Atlantic for her film work also be playing a Frenchwoman Marie Antoinette in the upcoming movie of the and was supposedly French in 19988 With strange because I really don't look French: Pm naturally quite says Richardson dyed her shoulder-length hair dark brown for the Gallic Claudie I take it as a compliment the French can be quite The French-accented English she speaks in the play comes easily: As a child Richardson went to school in Paris She also was educated in the United States in Cal- ifomia where her father lived after he and Redgrave divorced and Florida during periods when she had dreams of being a gymnast and a tennis player In retrospect both dreams she says Tm practically much too tall for gymnastics and she didn't pick up a tennis racket until she was 12 people win Wimbledon at There was of course a connecting thread and sports are so intertwined like you come up against yourself and either you msk it work or you But it was nice to have family connections When she was 3 Richardson was an extra in Charge of the Light directed by her father and her first featured role was a younger Jane Travers her mother's character in the 1984 film come from a so-called theatrical Richardson says But she insists it wasn't a foregone conclusion that she would continue in the tradition actors really like to entertain but by nature Tm quite shy My mother opposed my going mto acting But my father was a massive Trained in London Richardson was in many stage productions but gravitated toward film really adore filmmaking I love that intimacy of working with the camera ana the essence of that short concentrated time been more than a decade since she was in a play I knew sooner or later I should go back to the the- Richardson says Because she has a daughter 9-year-old Daisy (with ex-husband film producer Tim Bevan) she was reluctant to maks a long commitment of evenings away from her London home has meant leaving the country as well (Daisy will go back and forth between her parents) Once she read the play however she says "It was such a great part I knew if I had the courage to do it it would be a fabulous experience a massive possibility of failure but in a weird way that excites me I believe in taking In luring Carl into her bed Madame Melville is herself a bit of a risk-taker although Richardson says she see herself going down quite that path have very mixed feelings about her surprised she says the number of my male friends whoVe seen the show and then come out with these stories about similar things that happened to them during their school days and they felt they were very much willing msmiis- ops ns tonight at the Promsnads Theatre 2152 Broadway at 76th Stnat Manhattan For ticket Intormatloi and partormanea times call 212-580-1313 I When you see arms waving frantically you know a confrontation of some kind is taking place If you see somebody felling down immediately stop the tape and rewind In this way you can have the whole experience in 15 minutes Fine tuning the method may have it down to 10 minutes by the time airs The inventor is applying to the National Institute of Mental Health fin: a grant for further experimentation viewing is already a danger to mental health has produced an alarming side effect called Colby Complex induced by overexposure to Colby Donaldson the Texas truck customizer Ex-Generation Xers who are now mature women with careers women who have been in committed relationships with boyfriends for five years have gone gaga over this cowboy It is almost as if he has been deliberately planted in the show to get hearts beating again Not since Kirk Cameron in the 1980s and Chris Noth in the 1990s has the social fabric holding the TV audience together been so dose to being tom asunder If Colby wins tonight and he starts making the rounds of TV shows and malls as Richard Hatch did last year he could become even bigger than Craig Bierko of Music Sedate women are becoming teenagers again with their secret i i See KITMAN onB35 iY THURSDAY MAYS 2001.