The Birmingham Post from Birmingham, West Midlands, England • 34

The Birmingham Post 34 SATURDAY May 9 1998 ON NIGHT OUT IN LONDON Fever pitch Showboat Prince Edward Theatre Saturday Night Fever London Palladium Cleaned Royal Court Screen Guide SNEAK PREVIEWS Deep Impact (12) First of the meteors heading for earth disaster movies this is the more modest less gung ho more provocative (win the lottery stay alive) one with Morgan Freeman as the US Prez (Thursday) Wild Things (18) Stylish and steamy noir thriller starring Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon with shades of The Last Seduction and more twists than a twelve foot corkscrew (Tonight late Odeon NEW THIS WEEK Amy Foster (12) Dreary Mills Boon style period romance tragedy about two outsiders in a small Cornish village The Big Lebowski 1 8) The Coens latest a typically quirky black comedy Raymond Chandler pastiche with laid back pothead Jeff Bridges caught up in a kidnapping scam mistaken identity and ten pin bowling Love Etc (15) Romantic triangle French style as a womanising best mate falls hopelessly in love with his new bride and sets out to win her over Stylish but uneven Martha Meet Frank Daniel and Lawrence (15) Frothy new Brit romantic comedy in which Yank Monica Potter becomes the romantic focus of three mates (Rufus Sewell included) though not aware they know each other Something To Believe In (PG) Awful sloppy schmaltz ridden romancer about love and miracles as a devout dying young woman hooks up with a failed aetheist pianist en route to visit a (faked) weeping statue in the hope of a cure ALSO SHOWING Un Air de Famille (15) Barbs are tossed resentments aired and birthday presents rejected in sharp French satire on a dysfunctional suburban family (Electric) Amistad (15) worthy but flawed and often dull true account of illegally abducted Africans and the courtroom battle between the US government and abolitionists that sparked the American Civil War (Until Mon mac) Anastasia (U) Nicely animated but bland fairy-tale rewriting of history in which a charming con man tries to pass off an amnesiac orphan as missing Russian royal family survivor of the Revolution unaware she really is As Good As It Gets (15) Hysterically funny romantic comedy with a shake of acid as misanthropic Jack Nicholson discovers compassion and humanity through waitress Helen Hunt and his gay cute dog and relationship with a hooker Paws (U) A canny canine called PC fixes himself up with Billy voice in this harmless Australian kids adventure The Rainmaker (15) Matt the idealistic young lawyer taking on the big boys in the latest plot cluttered but watchable Grisham adaptation Regeneration (12) Pat factional WWI novel about war poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen and compassionate army shrink Dr Rivers charged with their shellshock to return them to the trenches gets a sensitive sober but never emotionally involving treatment (Sun-Thu mac) Scream 2 (18) Wes even better sequel to his post-modern self-referential ironic slashercomedy horror Sliding Doors (15) Bittersweet British what if? romantic comedy as two possible destinies play out in parallel pivoting on whether Gwyneth Paltrow catches or misses her tube train Some Like It Hot (12) The immortal Curtis Lemmon and Mun-roe comedy here in the MGM Classics season (From Fri Electric) Sphere (12) Ponderous psychological sci fi as Hoffman Stone and Jackson find their inner fears manifested by a psychotic computer and an enigmatic golden sphere at the bottom of the Pacific Balls in every sense Spiceworid: the Movie (PG) The Girls prove better singers than actresses in this brash accident of a movie And they sing Stella Does Tricks (18) Bleak downbeat and tragic account of a Glaswegian prostitute trying to get off the game and revenge herself on all abused her Double bill with Trainspotting (Tue-Thu Electric) Titanic (12) James doomed love story is slow to get going but got a huge romantic sweep and the sinking is stunning U-Turn (18) Oliver Stone on great form with low budget blackly comic faithful noir homage as Sean Penn gets caught up in lust greed murder and the car mechanic from hell in nowheresville Arizona US Marshals (15) Run of the mill rehash of The Fugitive this time with Tommy Lee Jones hunting down both Wesley Snipes and something resembling a functional plot The Wings Of The Dove (15) Henry 1902 novel about love twisted by class money and morals receives an elegant near flawless adaptation from Iain Softley with a career best Oscar nominated performance from Helena Bonham Carter (Wed UCI Solihull from Fri mac) Disco revival: Adam Garcia in Saturday Night Fever Frothy comedy: Martha Meet Frank Daniel and Lawrence opens this week the scatty boffin who invents a flying green goo with a mind of its own Gattaca (15) Ethan Hawke and Jude Law star in an absorbing but cold look at a future where genetic engineering dictates your place in society (Electric) George of the Jungle (U) Excruciatingly awful live action version of the old Tarzan spoof cartoon with Brendan Fraser as the bungling ape-man in the loin cloth Great Expectations (15) Misfiring emotion lacking update of classic to contemporary America with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow as the fated lovers Hard Rain (15) Waterlogged soggy thriller with Christian Slater trying to stop career thief Morgan Freeman making off with a security dosh as the town floods Jackie Brown (18) Quentin Tarantino swaps flashy violence for considered character studies of thirty something losers with Pam Grier caught between a rock and a hard place playing the Feds and gangster Breakdown (15) Kurt Russell searches for his missing wife in what promisingly starts off as The Vanishing but ends up a routine kidnap thriller in Deliverance territory The Butcher Boy (15) A rural Irish adolescent turns his sense of rejection frustrated anger and over-active imagination into a gruesome bloodbath in Neil ambitious but flawed loss of childhood tragedy Carrington (18) Emma liiompson and Jonathan Pryce superlative in touching account of the society scandalising relationship between artist Dora Carrington and gay writer Lyt-ton Strachey Plus discussion with director Christopher Hampton (Sun Picture House) Fairytale: A True Story (U) Enchanting hymn to the imagination and the need to believe based on the true story of the photos taken of the Cottingley Fairies by two young girls in 1917 Flubber (U) Charmless remake of The Absent Minded Professor with Robin Williams particularly weak as Samuel Jackson against each other with help of world weary Robert Forster Ma Vie En Rose (12) Charming bittersweet and touching French tale of a young boy determined he should have been bom a girl causing embarrassment and emotional torment for his upwardly mobile parents Double bill with Toto Le Hero (Until Mon Electric) The Man In The Iron Mask (12) Romp-free adaptation of the Dumas classic that wastes a stellar cast (Irons Malkovich DiCaprio Depardieu) with plodding plotting and banal dialogue Mouse Hunt (PG) Roald Home Alone basically With Nathan Lane and Lee Evans pitting Laurel and Hardy routines against a cunning rodent who refuses to quit their valuable mansion Inspired comedy My Son The Fanatic (15) Written by Hanif Kureshi a serio-comic drama cum love story as an Islamic fundamentalist youth clashes with his Anglo-Asian English values sy high-np" jroi mixed CD REVIEWS 1974197 Seventies retro is hot and it come much hotter than Saturday Night Fever the high energy disco musical inspired by the film that launched John Travolta into the stratosphere The colourful £4 million venture has already recovered the initial outlay in forward bookings and the show looks like a sure-fire hit The film drama has been condensed into more or less a dialogue-free sung-through series of numbers based on the original Bee Gees soundtrack the dance spectacle devised by Arlene Phillips is a lot of fun and Tap Dog Adam Garcia looks every inch the part in white suit and attitude All subtlety of character and plot have been sacrificed to song and dance sensation but that really matter as Tony and his adolescent Brooklyn side-kicks look for love beneath the flashing lights at 2001 Odyssey The only real problem is the singing The cast sings true enough but lacks the Gibb brothers and the sound is disappointing If you enjoy a traditional musical prefer twenties revival Show Boat The American epic charts the highs and lows of a travelling troupe in a spectacular soap that follows three generations from Mississippi floating theatre to Chicago and back again a tale of love and loss family and colour-blind friendship that celebrates theatre folk in rubber-limbed Vaudeville comedy sentimental duet and heart-melting melodies by Jerome Kem and Oscar Hammerstein II Directed by Harold Prince the Tony award-winning Broadway smash is a lavish production that uses all the hi-tech wizardry of the nineties to hurtle the action seamlessly from one visual delight to the next but the show still lasts over three hours That was too long for me but the vocals are amazing the choreography is charming and the performances are polished Many of the songs are well-known and if not familiar with them at the beginning you will come out humming 01 Man River and Can help Lovin Dat Man Outrageous twenty-something talent Sarah Kane achieved notoriety with violent sex and cannibalism and played Blasted at the Royal Court Upstairs Jack Tinker did a Mary Whitehouse on News Night but I really see what the fuss was about Cleansed latest offering is more revolting Described as tender and violent on the text cover set in a world of rejects where a lonely psychopath called Tinker presides over a heroin addict his schizoid would-be transsexual sister who is also his lover a gay couple and a retard He discovers their sexual activities and punishes them horribly but beatings book burning force feeding mutilation electric shock treatment and even untimely death fail to deter the would-be lovers Then Tinker discovers love in the arms of a peep-hole stripper In your face sex violence and nudity emerge in an unpleasant surreal soft-pom confusion of desperate degraded humanity Are the characters destroyed or redeemed by their passion? Search me? IS this a self-conscious attempt to wind-up the thought police? For sure Prince Edward Theatre box office 0171 447 5400 London Palladium box office 0171 494 5032 Royal Court box Office 0171 565 5000 Indi Boyd Maunsell POP CD OF THE WEEK DAVID BOWIE The Best Of 1374 he best of oaviq bowk 79 (EMiy As lovingly and thoughtfully compiled as its 1969-73 predecessor this compilation tracks the years when Bowie produced some of his most challenging and experimental i of Golden Years Young lots a small piece on the rack with a nine-note line Billy Martin slaps that nt snare drum to give the modem leei and oranfet John Medeskl whips at the Royal Festival This 1958 Vienna recording finds the Phif er's Meltdown festival harmonia at the peak of its legendary form rfo revisit old Velvet joining It is the sonorous Singvereln der Minor and Vicious the GeseHscfraft der Musikfreunde The wetted and rarely performed 2-CD set also Includes a Karajan rehearsal Curbing Kids (from the Schwarzkopfs own reminiscences favourites IV mevnaoie rm mu 1 1 mifci SUCn a mmm Alongside single wuriitzer ln fine retro fashion Try Hot- Berlin) and Dirtv of mis momentous occasion and a patrician New performance of sequence career-reviving Prague Symphony ant vocals remain the as a generous filler I think this would be one hough in keeping with of my Desert Mid Discs Pianist Reed is his Marsalis flight Reeling album the conversational FINE ARTS BRASS ENSEMBLE Mtiafe Joined by Wynton Septet co-alumni Reginald Veal on bass and ie recant Set The TVC1 5 and Heroes there are the i 1984 The Secret Life OF Arabia and Can You Hear Me as well as version of the Bruce Springsteen song Ifs Hard To Be A Saint In The City recorded during the 1975 Station To Station sessions but oniv available previously on the hard to find Ryko compilation Sound And Vision Although not arranged chronologically it is still fascinating to trace uowte development from the mutant funk of Fame and John veer more tow redalfy on three new fromUBnNtCourt83Wiikim)Fomdod BiMwayandaoelebration of the show tunes than the melodic Gregory Hutcftioson on drums for a walk down they Timerocker sXage in Birmingham in 1980 the Fine Art) sw cnronrciers ot uroan cnsemote nas developed mto one or me ted most popular purveyors of a wide that love become standard fare The Side Story are joined by more tracks from Robert production there are life as perceptive as I i quirky choices Uutlrn il Hi wonka ano tne i WM ChoccUe Factcy Theonly queattonabh nf nfAviot ic ftifrtiinM IS isOn of previous centuries mI-u rSi-1 rri UIa fi If 44 ja 1J-I different rtiytnm section its a natr tune and even Reed fails to find anything to say on it lia'iM'ira mjaML i ijiatrL Aa jijijtji Iti j- aamma uKHKh u06s tne eonos josttoe Here we have a somewhat niggardly collection (less than 59 minutes) of some of their most characteristic material jolly and more serious offerings from English Renaissance and Baroque composers Performances are deft and persuasive culminating in FABE signature-tune Henry Pastime with good company (Testament SBT 2126): One of the abiding memories from my early 'teens was hearing the Dei" from Missa Solem-nis broadcast on Alan Your Hundred Best Tunes Radio 2 programme The performance under Herbert von Karaian with as fine a solo quartet Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Christa Ludwig Nicolai Gedda Nicola Zac-caria as one could wish wes dark sombre with a fine range of playing from delicate vignettes to surging grandstanding in die McCoy Tyner tradition maTism of Breaking Vision and on to the avant-metai of Look Back In Anger and DJ arguably (with the exception of Scary Monsters) produced little to compare with thisi SAINT ETIENNE Good Humor (Creation): Given the current return to fashion of shoegazing introspection this is a welcome return for these masterly purveyors of post-modem pop Messrs Stanley Wiggs and Crackneil may know their pop history but when they look backwards (as they frequently do on this do so with a knowing wink rather album) they do i a deeply Now that savoured on estament awesome salvation account can be special reissue from the rest of of this key work among Other more histor THE CRUSADERS and YELLOWJACK-ETS Prtcetess Collection (GRP): The GRP labefs new mid-price collection series offers two cracking jazz-fife discs from these class A Go Go (Verve): Hie acts Turn your front room into a wine-bar in he is called' byhte fans) daring thing omSiSnsS SSs (Bill with his first album for Verve ana went or 1 acoustic added a horn section and producing the sublime Quiet in the process on vocals) or the River Waltz Distance only lend enchantment it offers the chance of reassessment and these two than an earnest frown That Girl manage to ethos of 60s Swin Europop of The Badi TV have been out of place in the NIA tonight Now a thought LOU REED Perfect Night Reprise) This ically interpretations may be more fashionable and indeed bring special insights but none can match this one for capturing the immense import of vision of a world can I Hlipvil Ul UDUUIUVC1IO VIOMI Ul 0 Id where only the most striving aspiration hope to attain testing peace Here he presente the flip side of the Scofield coin with his amp turned up and the hip young organ trio of Medeski Martin and Wood for support The result is the musical equivalent of POST REVIEWS No contest here Gripping drama exposes anarchy in the UK Unsung heroes Bad Weather The Other Place European Union Chamber Orchestra Symphony Hall Amidst the rising tide of Eurovision hype which engulfed Birmingham this week the European Chamber timely appearance promised something more substantial from continental co-operation than the vacuous babble There were no disappointments as within seconds the players summoned up the sombre delicacy of the Praelu-dium to Little Suite with meticulous care their hallmarks a lustrous sound quality near perfect phrasing and unerring ensemble skills Affection for the music nurtured and articulated under the energetic directorship of Lavard Skou Larsen from lead violin was evident in the unaffected liveliness of the Intermezzo and the vividly realised mood changes in the closing Allegro It was hardly surprising that a group of this calibre (now joined by excellent oboes and horns) should respond to the imaginative riches of Sinfonia Concertante K364 with such expressive directness and to fine solo performances from violist Tasmin Little and Philip Dukes (viola) with such sensitivity Any musical uneasiness between the demonstrative Ms Little and the intense more introverted Dukes was forgotten in the passion and sweetness of the Andante and a crackingly paced Presto The simple heavy lyricism of Angelus was executed with authority but it was the assurance and bravura of Symphony No 57 which will remain the abiding memory and one was left wondering why such a vigorous orchestra adopt a title about as exciting as the euro Perhaps something more dynamic would cheer up the players Clare Mackney The Devlins The Varsity Wolverhampton Joni Mitchell will tell you that she only bought one album last year and that was Waiting by The Devlins Madonna told guests at an awards ceremony that they were the new face of rock roll lunched with Alanis Morrisette played with Sheryl Crow and been feted by Michael Stipe Bruce Springsteen Neil Finn and Ben Harper Not that they drop names themselves you understand After a sell-out Stateside tour of 7000-seater arenas an imminent tour with Tori Amos and a 40000 crowd to play for this summer at the San Francisco Fleadh festival finest arrived at the Varsity To be greeted by an audience of 30 Not as in the typographical slip but as in thirty Three-oh Welcome to Apathy Central Bashfully bemused but undeterred the trio Devlin brothers Colin and Peter and drummer Sean Devitt -turned in a set drawn mostly from their forthcoming second album Waiting with three songs from acclaimed 1995 debut Drift From the opening World Outside to the final Big Decision the trio served notice of their return after years of record company wrangling The soaring Years Could Go By and haunting album title track Waiting seemed especially apt Forthcoming single Heaven Wall walked a tightrope between subtlety and arena rock but it was the fragile beauty of Reckless that all but stole the show and the hearts of the thirty faithful The Devlins support Tori Amos at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on May 25 Conrad Cox Robert play addresses contemporary issues of mayhem and violence among teenagers in urban society and it succeeds (where many TV documentaries fail) in being both perceptive and richly instructive The story is centrally defined by an off-stage scuffle at a Chinese restaurant in Middlesbrough A man is badly hurt after being kicked almost to mutilation by a teenager called Luke But another boy the mate carries the can and goes to prison for it The burden of escaping from a situation where one is patently guilty the Luke character handled by Holman with a poetic sensitivity thus providing compelling dialogue which reflects perfectly urban teenage anarchy four letter words and all From the past emerges philosophical french woman one-time nanny to the mother of the jailed boy Jamie Here the play moves into a territory of regret and refusal as the action changes to France The young hoodlum is drawn inexorably towards a question of conscience and at the same time he is attracted sexually to the french woman who is 40 years his senior The anarchic situation which develops mirrors the anarchy shown at the start of the play The sexual violence and social violence may well be seen as two sides of the same coin The play is the kind of dramatic experiment which is handled very well these days at Stratford and its seri- Rainy days: A scene from Bad Weather ousness is to be admired along with the performances by Paul Popplewell as Luke Susan Brown as Kay and the wonderful Susan Engel as Agnes the french woman But my goodness something should be done immediately to improve the dreadful seating at The Other Place which makes a three hour stint an agonisingly painful passage of time Running time: 3hours For the season Richard Edmonds.