Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 31

1 1 i GENERALNEWS 11 CLASSIFIED ADS 11-15 FEATURE PAGE 17 I I Call Entertainment: 222-6828 DETROIT FREE PRESS Fred Johnson's is friendly vf i and informal; Page BO. cmtein call Full moon over shamrock time V.J It's St. Patrick's Day weekend and there's a full moon. Hooboy! It is Mark Ridley of the Comedy Castle in Royal Oak who noticed that happenstance and will be on guard as he guides visiting San Francisco comic Evan Davis through his paces this weekend. Why? Ridley notes from experience that the clientele isn't too comedic when the lunar landscape is fully evident, not even mentioning the influence of St.

Paddy's Day inebriation. During full moon gigs, Ridley recalled, "Once somebody pulled a knife on me. And once a woman in the iX Ail! j' ftS vi- HY fr am I4 il I A Ustinov i nim.nmi.wi i ti rJ A i "is audience tried to beat me up." But look on the brighter side of the weekend, not the moon. Shining on this weekend's entertainment calendar are: Peter Ustinov in "Beethoven's Tenth" at the Fisher Theatre. Cy Coleman's "I Love My Wife" at the Birmingham.

A shamrock patch full of other options on pages 6 and 7, enough to make any child of Erin (real or imagined) go bragh forever or at least until Monday morning. Free Press Photos by MANNY CRiSOSTOMO Maureen McDevitt and Bethany Carpenter share a stage in the Meadow Brook production of "The Heiress." on top of it Detroit's youn Moreno, Struthers to be 'Odd Couple' Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers have signed to play female counterparts of cigar-smoking sportswriter Oscar and his fussy roommate Felix in Neil Simon's new version of "The Odd Couple" next Fehrnnrv nn Rrrwirl- Like the famed actresses, thef re making it on talent, beauty and determination To Detroit's hard-core group of theatergoers, actresses Bethany Carpenter and Maureen McDevitt are like young Hepburns respectively, Katharine and Audrey. In recent months, the two have been appearing everywhere you look. Each has a highly individual style, one as different from naiiii I A Vll Wl VA aW VV way. Danny Simon, Neil's brother, will i i i nmniiiiiiri in' direct, and the show once planned to feature Joan Rivers will try out in October in Dallas.

Funny? Danny Simon said his brother "had tears in his eyes, laughing at his own new stuff." Rieht Mi me and, you know what? One year I collected unemployment that meant I'd made it, I was an unemployed actressl This month, coincidently, both women are in a show together. At Meadow Brook, McDevitt is playing the pretty, vacuous cousin opposite the plain-Jane heroine of "The Heiress," which concludes this weekend. Carpenter is featured as the poor-but-proud widowed sister of the heiress's fortune-hunting suitor. "I hate it when actors say there's nothing here," said McDevitt, who's the actress with the more vulnerable and romantic style and the classic dark-haired beauty like the younger Hepburn's. "There are places all over Detroit where you can hone your skills.

You can actually work here." And, she said, in intramural compliment, "you don't get any better than Bethany Carpenter or (the Attic's) Lavinia Mover. Actresses like Ellie Smith, Divina Cook. They can act on any stage in the world." (Moyer, co-founder of the Attic, appears less frequently than in past seasons due to her other job as the theater's artistic director. Currently, however, she is back onstage as co-star of "Sea Marks." Ellie Smith, a speech pathologist usually described as looking exactly like Goldie Hawn, was featured in the Attic's "Bleacher Bums." Divina Cook, a founding member of the Attic, last was seen there in BOTH McDEVITT and Carpenter say with some enthusiasm that they must be on a roll. McDevitt, only one year out of Hilberry's post-grad repertory company, starred as Roxane at Meadow Brook, then plaved three roles in "A Christmas Carol" there, did "Awake and Sing!" and went into "The Heiress." She also pops up all the time in the television commercials that pay the 1980s actress' rent telling her TV husband to shop at Hudson's, See ACTRESSES, Page 7C; Maureen McDevitt: Simon Bethany Carpenter: "The last couple of years have been very good for me One year I collected unemployment.

That meant I'd made it, I was an unemployed actressl" 1 i tivL Lawrence DaVine theatgf tne otner as aay ana nignc. bui Larpemer and McDevitt are symbols of what an actress can do in Detroit if she has skill, looks and true grit. Over the tough, arid seasons of recent Detroit theater, the two have worked and worked often. Carpenter has played Lady Macbeth and the American-born countess in "Watch on the Rhine" at the Attic, the blind heroine of "Wait Until Dark," the poignant Birdie in "Another Part of the Forest," the harassed schoolteacher of "The Children's Hour" at Meadow Brook, and the homicidal French hate it when actors say there's nothing here. There are places all over Detroit where you can hone your skills.

You can actually work here." Jewish daughter Hennie in the Attic Theatre's hit "Awake and Sing!" BY NOW, with only seven years' exposure between them, the two would be sure bets on anybody's all-star Detroit theater team. "I've been real lucky," said Bethany Carpenter, the actress with the high-tension style and chiseled cheekbones like Katharine Hepburn's. "The last couple of years have been very good for maid in "My Sister in This House" at the Fourth Street Playhouse. McDevitt took out a patent on the romantic role of Roxane in two serial productions of "Cyrano de Bergerac" at Hilberry Theatre and yet a third "Cyrano" in this season's opener at Meadow Brook. She played the Ghost of Christmas Past in a long yellow wig, then really broke the glamor mold as the rebellious IU.A I tlli Il I 3 now, said Danny Simon, Oscar has become "Olive" for Moreno, and Struthers' Felix may be "Phyllis." Scores of males have had their chance at the famous t.wo roles, including Walter Matthau and Art Carney on Broadway, Matthau and Jack Lemmon in the movie, and Jack Klugman and Tony Randall in the long-running TV series.

COMING ATTRACTIONS "Evita," with Florence Lacey as Eva Peron will return to Masonic Auditorium for a one-week run April 17-22. Tickets go on sale Sunday at the box office and all Ticket World outlets Continental singing star Enrico Macias will make his Detroit debut March 31 at the Masonic Temple. Romantic baritone Macias, who is best known in France, is Algerian-born land sings in seven languages including French, Arabic, Hebrew and English. Macias' Detroit appearance is a spin-off of his two-week engagement on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre. Macias is part of a New York series of international singers co-produced by James Nederlander that began last month withi Domenico Modugno.

IT'S OFFICIAL Detroit's Channel 50, WKBD-TV, has officially become the latest Cox Communications station. The $70 million sale to the Atlanta-based chain by the disbanding Field Enterprises was completed this week. LOOK OUT BELOW "Splash," the movie that plunged the family-oriented Walt Disney movie company Touchstone Films into adult filmmaking, has made a big impact at the box office and in Disney corporate bank accounts. "Splash," which stars Daryl Hannah as a love-struck mermaid who cohabits with a New York bachelor played by Tom Hanks, took in nearly $6.2 million at 829 theaters nationwide in its opening weekend to top all the competition. Lee Isgur, entertainment stock analyst at Paine Webber in New York, predicted that although "Splash" alone would not turn around Disney's film division, the movie, when combined with the success of "Never Cry Wolf," Disney's 1983 release, could return Disney films to profitability by the end of fiscal 1984.

Lawrence DeVine and Free Press wires hours later, it's time well spent By CATHARINE RAMBEAU Free Press Movie Crlllc Most of the talk about "Berlin Alexanderplatz," the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic film, has centered on its 15-hour, 21-minute length. After seeing all of "Alexanderplatz" in just two days, it a pleasure to report that I'd go see it again. Like a shot. i i i i i i i 1 Like a grand roman a clef. "Berlin Alexander Director is a legend in death, too By BOB McKELVEY Free Press Staff Writer Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the wunderkind of West German moviemaking, directed 41 films in his 14-year career, many of them towering accomplishments.

In death, he starred in a minor mystery: Did he kill himself with an overdose of pills or was death accidental? For his grand exit, Fassbinder, the cult hero of Germany's New Wave cinema, had stripped to the skin, swallowed a few pills, flopped down on a mattress in a friend's home, and started to watch one of his films on a videocassette player. He never awakened. His body was found lying on a notebook, the film still running. That was in June 1982; Fassbinder was 36. The answer to his final riddle may never be known.

Much of the world outside of Germa- free I'' BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ EBBBBlitl Detroit Film Theatre Franz Biberkopf Gunter Lamprecht Reinhold Gottfried John'; Eva Hanna Scbvoulla Mieie Barbara Sukowa Una Elisabeth Trissenaar AAeck Franz Buchrieser Max Claus Wirt Frau Bast Brigitte Mira Directed and written bv Rainer Werner Fassbinder, based on the novel "Berlin Alexanderplatz" bv Alfred Doblin. Photographed bv Xaver Schwarzen-beraer. Edited bv Juliane Lorenz. Art direction bv Harrv Baer. In German with English subtitles.

Shown five consecutive Sundavs at 7 p.m. beginning March 18 at the Detroit Film Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts. PARENTS' GUIDE: Unrated; nudity, sex, flagellation, brutality, murder. Tlrlfotc AfA tftiri Allt platz" deserves its own who's who, so a separate roundup of the film's characters and their actions is included on Page 4 today. But let's deal with the usual questions: Why In the world would anyone sit through a 15-hour, 21-minute film? How does "Because it's there" sound? Seriously.

People think absolutely nothing of spend- Rainer Werner Fassbinder died due to an accidental or deliberate overdose of pills. ny has forgotten Fassbinder, if Indeed it ever knew his name. But his screen legacy is beginning to have a giant impact on the movie cognoscenti. His magnum opus, "Berlin Alexan-derplatz," will open at the Detroit Film Theatre Sunday. Fassbinder's enigmatic life was a study of contrasts: He was a strident Marxist, yet it was through the capitalis-See LEGEND, Page 4C Another milestone Veteran Detroit classical conductor Valter Poole marks his 50th wedding anniversary this weekend, a personal milestone in a life distinguished with musical achievement.

Free Press classical music writer John Guinn reports that the 8 1 -year-old maestro still conducts his life with much gusto. The story is on Page 5. ing a couple of weeks reading a big novel. Why shouldn't moviegoers enjoy me same luxury, especially when it's worth the effort? See HOURS, Page 4C I 7.