Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 54

E-3 ARTS ENTERTAINMENT PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1999 The West Wing' holds promise as TV drama i t-tj ttl ill, ii JO msmmmM J4 leather r.d jwVols create daytime drama Wednesday. Seotember 22nd Thursday, September 23rd Chic fur, cashmere, Jf Featuring the TRILOGY collection and the jewelry of STARRRE 826 South Aiken Avenue Shadyside Village 412-683-1533 Kevin FoleyNBC The halls of the White House inspire the stories of "The West Wing." The series stars, from left in front: John Spencer, Martin Sheen and Bradley Whitford. In the back, from left, are Rob Lowe, Allison Janney and Moira Kelly. "The Secret Lives of Men." In tonight's pilot, horndog Hunter (Stephen Dunham) discovers he has an 18-year-old daughter (Niesha Trout) he didn't know about, artist-in-the-making Norris (David Alan Basche) vows to give up his dream if he can't sell a painting, and newly gay Ford (John Duecy) faces his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Suzanne (Rena Sofer), who's bottled up a little hostility about their dissolving marriage. Although it's a show about three guys who refer to each other as "dude," Suzanne is the funniest element In the mix.

Sofer was over-the-top last season in "Melrose Place, but she's slightly more down to earth in this standard-issue sitcom. "WeU, honey, you promised to love, honor and not go nancy on me!" Suzanne yells at Ford. In the wrong context that line would sound blatantly homophobic, but in "Oh Grow Up it's just shockingly juvenile. For a comedy about people who still have some growing to do, that's somehow appropriate, "Star Trek: Voyager" (9 p.m., WNPA) When we last visited the good ship Voyager, Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was about to get killed by a flying alien that looked like it escaped from a "Ghostbusters" movie.

Suffice it to say, Mulgrew signed her contract to return to the snow, and Janeway lives to save the day once again. But first she gets in a tiff with her first officer, Cnakotay (Robert Beltran). That's the best part of this cliff-hanger wrap-up, titled "Equinox Part 2." The conflict between Janeway and Chakotay resonates even as her actions seem extreme and illogical. Ultimately she admits as much, realizing she holds a wee bit of a grudge against Capt Ransom (guest star John Savage), who has broken Starfleet rules in an effort to quickly escape the Delta Quadrant and return to Earth. Just as the Janeway-Chakotay conflict gets interesting, the Janeway-Ransom discord disappears and the episode's resolution comes about too quickly and easily.

In that regard, "Voyager" remains true to form. Rob Owen can be reached at 412-263-2582 or For more TV news, go to www.post-gazette.comtv. .3 i vfv in overly common, but aside from a handful of failed sitcoms President" on Fox in 1987 and "Hail to the Chief on ABC in 1985), the White House is fertile ground for television drama. Some prognosticators speculate the American public won't watch "The West Wing" because we hate politicians. Undoubtedly true, but moviegoers showed up in droves to support actors playing the chief executive in "Dave" ana 'The American President" Viewers might also grow accustomed to weekly visits to "The West Wing." "Oh Grow Up" (9:30 p.m., WTAE) Despite the stereotypical sitcom situation three guys live together in Brooklyn: One's horny, one's an artist and one's gay ABC's latest attempt to program the half-hour after "The Drew Carey Show" fares better than last fall's stinker, stylishness, "American Plan" feels Actors with more subtlety might make a better case for it.

Least subtle of all is Susan Skosko's i 1 i i fir-' Sh fa Inv. I I in i.JL Susan Skosko Entertaining mother. You'll never have to waste your time shopping for groceries again. We'll shop for you! Special features we provide: Over 7,000 items available, including all major brands. Premium quality meat and produce, selected fresh daily.

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"The West Wing" was created by Aaron Sorkin, who unveiled ABC's "Sports Night" last season. Don't hold that against "The West Wing." So far the characters aren't as an-noyingly full of themselves or prone to the same redundant banter as the cast of "Sports Night" Instead, the dialogue is similar to Sorkin's work in the films "A Few Good Men" and "The American President" Although President Bartlet is clearly a Democrat tonight's pilot won't alienate conservatives as much as I originally feared. There's still a scene with the president giving right-wing zealots an earful, but balancing scene had been added where McGarry makes it clear Democrats have their own bad apples. If nothing else, NBC's "The West Wing" provides a different workplace setting. Shows based in hospitals or squad rooms have become promotional spots airing over the summer, NBC beat the drum continuously for iu new White House drama "The West Wing." And guess what? It lives up to the hype.

"The West Wing'' is an intriguing behind-the-scenes drama with moments of dewy-eyed idealism. Martin Sheen makes a commanding entrance late in tonight's premiere as President Josiah Bart-let. But it's the men and women who work for the president who are the lead characters in "The West Wing," including Rob Lowe as deputy communications director Sam Seaborn. Seaborn is supposed to be one of "The West Wing's" most important characters, but in tonight's premiere (9 on WPXI) he's not good for much more than a few unintentional. Seaborn gets involved with a woman whose vocation and habits would ROB OWEN TUNED IN lead to his dismissal from the White House if word of their association leaked to the press.

So he has to part company with her, and viewers are expected to feel sorry for him after a one-night stand. Sorry if I didn't feel too bad for you, Sammy. But despite that preposterous element, the rest of tonight's pilot is dramatically sound. While NBC plays up Lowe's character in promos, John Spencer (Tommy Mullany on "L.A. is the show's true center as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry.

He's a longtime friend of the president who obsesses over an error in The New York Times crossword puzzle. The job assignments of the rest of the characters aren't always clear, but they all scurry about the White House and look busy. Here's a viewer's guide: Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) is communications director, C.J. Gregg (Allison Jan-ney) is the press secretary, and John Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is the deputy chief of staff whose job is on the line tonight. Moira Kelly appears as Madeline Hampton, a political consultant who used to date Lyman and now plans the campaign of a senator Acorn offers a By Christopher Rawson Post-Gazette Drama Critic We can't really call him young, since he has won the PENLaura Pels award "for an American playwright in mid-career." But Richard Greenberg seems young.

Set among the contemporary urban young, his plays have a today feel or just yesterday anyway. They resemble those New Yorker short stories of pallid irony. And since we've hardly seen Greenberg in Pittsburgh, he must be young, mustn't ne, not having cracked through to non-coastal consciousness? Indeed, the only Greenberg play I can recall here was "Eastern Standard" a half-dozen years ago at the Upstairs Theatre. That's his only Elay to have reached Broadway e's an off-Broadway staple. Now the New Acorn Theater gives us Greenberg's "The American Plan." As its name suggests, the company is small but hopeful.

Its actors are of a community theater level and the Gemini Theatre in Point Breeze is confining, but they get the play up on its feet and let Greenberg be heard. He tells a familiar story of the enigma of love and oppression how to tell them apart? and of the uncertain motives of the heart. At its best, "American Plan" is ellip- IV-Me'I Fg f5 r. 3. 5 niri tti- a Is or PmlbYou SJ Your Personal Shopping Service no -frills 'American Plan' Serving customers in most Allegheny County Communities and New Castle For more information, Call (412) 364-1066 or visit our web site at www.hourstoyou.com mum.

4ft- STAGE REVIEW "The American Plan" Where: New Acorn Theatre at Gemini Theatre at The Factory, Point Breeze. When: 8:05 p.m. tomorrow through Saturday. Tickets: $7 and $10; 412-823-5634. tical and Albee-like, with uncertain passions rippling beneath a surface part melodrama, part dry implication.

At its worst, it feels like much ado about little, the passions of its characters never engaging our concern. The story comes close to being a direct adaptation of Henry James' "Washington Square" Heiress," the recent theatrical version is called). Lili, a wealthy young Jewish woman, is held in thrall by her domineering German mother, Eva. A plausible young suitor (Nick) appears. But is he what he seems? she? Is the mother's tyranny love neurosis? Greenberg supplies many an arch, urbane line.

Perhaps tnis is what comedy of manners has become in a time when manners are Easse and comedy is complicated moral relativity and failure of nerve. Still, within its minimalist aisrif mraif yoim slic it. Home of the Dream Maker mother, snarling with Teutonic relish and savoring every twitch along the filaments of her web. Subtler might be better, but Dragon Lady proves entertaining. Closest to the wry crispness Greenberg seems to desire is David Kaye as a former lover.

Scott Kablach makes the central young man pleasant but faint, and Teresa TVich Lili whines unconvincingly. Evelyn Tmie is coolly calm as a servant-companion. There are 13 scenes, some very brief, and director Chuck Penick's choice of blackout music sets the play firmly in 1960 as well as commenting on the action. But for an investigation of the human heart, this version of "American Plan" never journeys very far. tfmtn Ala, wffl, ippratraa mN.

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