Razzle
Dazzle
UT's
Chicago a blazing success.
BY
SHARLEEN NELSON
If you haven't had a chance to attend the
UO's production of Chicago at the Robinson Theatre, get your
tickets now and expect to be "razzle-dazzled."
 |
|
YASMIN
RAVARD, NATHAN LOVELESS AND KIMBERLY BATES SHINE IN CHICAGO.
|
Based on Bob Fosse's 1975 Broadway musical, which
enjoyed a 1990s revival and touring road show, Chicago is
a satire on the justice system and a tribute to the days of vaudeville
— a sordid tale of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation,
treachery, and adultery — "all those things we hold dear to
our hearts."
It's the story of Chicago nightclub singer Roxie
Hart, who impulsively shoots her lover for leaving her. Landing
in the slammer, she meets Velma Kelly, another performer and murderess
currently enjoying media attention and legal manipulation via her
smarmy attorney, Billy Flynn. When Flynn agrees to take Roxie's
case, Velma suddenly becomes old news as Roxie moves into the spotlight
as the most famous murderess in town and the latest darling of the
fickle media. However, Velma has a few surprises in store for Roxie
and tensions rise as the two women stop at nothing to outdo each
other in their pursuit of fame and notoriety.
A pixyish ball of energy, Kimberley Bates is perfectly
cast as Roxie. Despite Roxie's obvious character flaws and superficial
machinations, Bates makes her likeable, easily wrapping the audience
around her little finger with her sassy style. Yasmin Ravard is
simply fabulous in her role as the hardened-by-the-system yet ambitious
murderess Velma Kelly. With her strong, resonating voice, Ravard
throws her heart and soul into numbers such as "All That Jazz,"
"Cell Block Tango," and "When Velma Takes the Stand," among others.
Together, Bates and Ravard are a dynamic, show-stopping team.
Nathan Loveless is great as the charismatic and
exploitive lawyer Billy Flynn, who claims he's "only in it for love."
Bigger than life and boasting a bevy of fawning, fan-waving admirers,
Loveless is at once contemptuous and charming.
An equally strong supporting cast includes Noelle
Ferguson as Mama, the corrupt, but "affectionate" matron of Chicago's
city jail. Her duet "Class" with Yasmin Ravard showcases her formidable
comedic talents. C. Frank's operatic background is evident in the
over-the-top portrayal of bleeding-heart reporter Mary Sunshine,
who sees the good in everyone and offers a few surprises of her
own. High praise goes to Curtis Williams, who plays Roxie's long-suffering
husband Amos. For most of the play, as his wife becomes the center
of attention, Amos is banished to the sidelines. But his star finally
gets to shine in a pitiful scene in which he laments that no one
ever notices him. Even when the spotlight fails to follow him, Williams
manages to win the hearts of a sympathetic audience with his affecting
rendition of "Mister Cellophane."
The production wouldn't be complete without the
superbly talented ensemble players, who dance, sing, and otherwise
make the show a glitzy and spectacular success. Those members include
Ian Hanley as the Master of Ceremonies, Bryan Buck, Darren Utt,
Jay Hash, Sarah Griner, Nora Ryan, Megan Tipton, Jane Schmieding,
Sarah Turnquist, Marco Davis, Rachel Gitner, Evynne Smith, Riley
Pristyak, Jon Sharpy, Parrish Danforth, and Anna Joham.
Rounding out the performance is the incredible on-stage
orchestra, a rocking ensemble of talented musicians including Mark
Kaczmarczyk, Dan Mitchum, Dylan Dwyer, Dave Camwell, David Bender
and Jordan Glenn.
From the fabulous, well-constructed set depicting
the heart of the Windy City to the flashy costumes, stylish dance
numbers, toe-tapping jazz ensemble, and saucy tunes, this production
wholly captures the essence and attitudes of Chicago during the
heady "roaring 20s." Musical theater at its best; this high-energy
production is a must-see.
The play runs through Nov. 23.
Back to Top
Parsons
Project
DTO
opens its seventh season.
BY
MARTHA ULLMAN WEST
Comedy, nostalgia, autobiography, memoir,
and David Parsons' choreography are all wrapped up in a package
called New York New York which the Dance Theatre of Oregon
presents in the Soreng Theater this weekend as it opens its seventh
season as the Hult Center's resident modern dance company.
There was a time when the lines between ballet and
modern dance were as firmly drawn as an international border, and
for choreographers, could be just as difficult to cross. These days,
with Parsons choreographing for American Ballet Theatre and Mark
Morris virtually in residence at San Francisco Ballet, those barriers
between genres are increasingly obsolete. This is also the case
at DTO, which has a modern focus but is directed by a couple in
whose choreography the classical lexicon is frequently highly visible.
Co-Artistic
Director Marc Siegel will premiere his "Trocks," a piece about dancing
with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, which he did in 1988
and 1989, both in New York and on tour. Obviously that piece has
to be firmly rooted in classical technique — today, the men
who perform in tutus and toeshoes in expert spoofs of classical
story ballets are among the most highly skilled pointe dancers in
the country, better than some women. In his two years with the Trocks,
Siegel loved creating the characters of Marca Paranova and Menachem
Psilly, although as the all-male company's sole heterosexual dancer
he felt himself to be an outsider for much of his tenure.
His goal, the choreographer said in a recent interview,
"is to capture the feelings and emotions that stay with me, the
feeling of closeness of working with men who are good friends, as
well as the feeling of being an outsider that eventually took the
fun out of it for me." Humorous, but also poignant,
as the best humor is, the Trocks will be danced by the choreographer,
Pamela Lehan-Siegel, and company members Eric Smith, Darrell Shaft,
Sheri Farnsworth, Kristen Wilson, and Jamaica Vawter to the music
of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Lehan-Siegel's "Jones Beach, Long Island circa 1929,"
not to be confused with the Jerome Robbins-George Balanchine "Jones
Beach" which premiered in New York in 1950, is an homage to the
"oceanfront playground" for everyone, no matter how rich or poor,
developed by Robert Moses, New York's highly controversial parks
commissioner and city planner. Lehan-Siegel played there as a child,
although her choreographic tribute, featuring dancers in period
bathing suits accompanied by recordings of the Fletcher Henderson
Orchestra with Louis Armstrong, belongs to a far earlier era. This
is light-hearted nostalgia, complete with inner tubes and a cast
of six dancers that includes the choreographer.
DTO is closely connected to the Parsons Company
by dint of Lehan-Siegel's performance career there. "Sleep Study,"
the witty piece featuring seven pajama-clad dancers tossing and
turning and playing with their pillows, will be repeated on this
program and the choreographer's "The Envelope," which will also
be performed by Oregon Ballet Theatre in Portland this spring, receives
a company premiere. The dancers, costumed in CIA/ FBI-like trench
coats and looking slightly sinister, pass around an envelope whose
contents are assumed to be pretty hot, without opening it, moving
in circles, chains and spirals that show Parsons' early craft at
its best.
In the decade plus since its founding, DTO has grown
considerably and developed a highly idiosyncratic style of its own.
The Siegels are both highly experienced performers and teachers,
with a take on the world as well as their art form that can be highly
engaging. Their humor is gentle, their dancing accessible and audiences
tend to like their work.
Back to Top
Raw
and Grate
Mini-reviews
of area dining spots.
BY
MARINA TAYLOR
Sundance
Deli
748
E. 24th Ave. 343-9142
What can I say, I just love a salad bar. There's
something wonderful and decadent about putting all those fancy little
things on my plate. Add some sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toss on
some olives, grated carrots, celery, onions, what have you. It's
all there, sliced and diced, healthy, delicious, efficient and quick.
Of all of Eugene's salad bars, I've gotta say the
Sundance Deli salad bar is the best. No limp lettuce, no slimy Jell-O
salad (though I might have to try some if they did), no stale and
tasteless croutons. Instead, it's almost entirely organic, all vegetarian
salads and entrées for only $4.79 a pound. If you avoid the
Toby's salad dressings (yes, the same Toby as the Tofu Paté;
my favorite is the dill-infused creamy ranch), your meal can be
completely vegan.
I spent $9 at Sundance for lunch for two, which
included a bottle of juice and two organic string cheeses. We had
a nice salad, a heap of succulent baked tofu, some Thai noodle salad,
a little taste of a kale pesto salad, and the sweetest yams with
long dark strings of seaweed. I'll be back for more of those yams
next time, if they've got them.
Salad bar: 10 am-9 pm daily. Hot bar: 11 am-9
pm daily. $.
Tre
Amici
2532
Willakenzie St. 342-6861
Three friends get together and start a café:
Breakfast, lunch, coffee, nothing too fancy. Many a restaurant in
Eugene starts this way, and many a restaurant closes its doors in
the first few years. This one, however, I predict will have a better
ending.
Tre Amici, meaning "three friends" in Italian, opened
almost a year ago in that strip mall off Coburg Rd. near Sheldon
High School. One of the three friends is Max Orsini, owner of Caffe
Orsini coffee roasters and the genius behind the wood-roasted, herbal
infused beans sold under that name. He already has a thriving business
selling coffee in supermarkets and through his café/factory
out west 11th. The other two friends are Beppe and Gianni, from
the self-named trattoria that can't seem to stop winning awards
and loyal customers.
Inside, the place feels sophisticated and very Italian.
The furnishings tend to simple black, accenting the stonework on
the floor and the pale gold of the textured walls. A classic-looking
fountain chatters along to "That's Amore" playing quietly in the
background. It's one of those order-at-the-counter places, which
works well if you want a biscotti and coffee or gelato in a cone
to go. If you need more time to peruse the menu, there's a stack
of them in a stand to the right of the cashier (I didn't notice
that until I was leaving).
During breakfast on the weekends, the line can be
almost to the door. This place has been discovered — and with
good reason. I had a buttermilk pancake with whipped cream and fresh
strawberries, as well as bites of a French Omelette with Swiss cheese
and shitake mushrooms. The flavors of the omelette were a little
too delicate to hold up to the heavy egg, but the pancakes were
lovely: fluffy, sweet and light, with a little amaretto flavor in
the whipped cream.
The first time they arrived they were without the
cream, but the very friendly waiter fixed it in a jiffy, and gave
me an extra dollop or two. The omelette was served with delicious
bread, grilled with butter, rosemary potatoes and fresh fruit.
The prices were a little high — the omelette
was $6.95 and the pancakes were in the same range. With coffee,
biscotti and tip it came to $20 for breakfast. Lunch prices are
similar, and the menu is Beppe and Gianni straight up. In fact,
the two even spend their Wednesday afternoons cooking lunch at Tre
Amici. Since their other restaurant is only open for dinner, this
place gives you a chance to eat Beppe and Gianni-style cuisine three
times a day.
7 am-5 pm M-F, 8 am-4 pm SA & SU. $-$$.
Leftovers
I always feel a twinge of guilt when a
great restaurant closes, especially one I rarely went to. If only
I'd bought one more $3-bowl of soup at Benni's Giant Grinder,
perhaps they would be in businsess now. As it is, Issac and Dianna
Gayles closed their doors last week, and the chance to sip their
wonderful soups is gone.
One door closes, others open. Horsehead Bar
is up for music and brews now, in the somewhat cursed space across
from Café Paradiso and Quan's restaurant. Mexican restaurant
Cancun was only closed a little while before Moctezuma's Mexican
Restaurant opened its doors.
Campus eats are always a revolving door. After changing
its name from Bubba's Place to Yelo, the space on Alder St. near
Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop is now Flying Dogs, a similar-styled
all-American sandwich and hot dog joint. And add another pizza option
too: The inexpensive Black Jack Pizza is delivering from
their new location on 11th Ave.
Morsels is a revolving feature that tries to capture
the atmosphere as well as the cuisine of some of our favorite places
to eat in and around Eugene, along with food news. Suggestions? Call
Ben or Marina at 484-0519 or e-mail marina@eugeneweekly.com
Back to Top
Tall
Timbers
Some
of the tallest trees in the world are just an hour east of Eugene.
BY
JAMES JOHNSTON
You don't have to travel all the way to the
redwoods of northern California to see really tall trees. Some of
the tallest trees in the world are found just 15 air miles east
of Eugene-Springfield around the Tall Timbers trail on the Willamette
National Forest.
This is an awesome hiking experience and only about
an hour drive, but you will have to navigate a maze of Forest Service
logging roads to get there. I strongly recommend you pick up a Lowell
or Middle Fork District map from the Forest Service, either at the
Lowell Service Center or the Federal Building in downtown Eugene.
Directions: Take I-5 south from Eugene for approximately
3 miles. Take the Oakridge/Klamath Falls exit (Exit 188A). Stay
to the left onto Hwy. 58. Drive 58 for approximately 13 miles and
take the left onto the Jasper-Lowell Road (next to the white covered
bridge). Drive through the town of Lowell, following the signs for
Fall Creek (a left on W. Boundary and a Right on Moss Street). A
mile outside of Lowell, you'll come to a four-way intersection with
another covered bridge ahead. Take the right onto Fall Creek Road.
In a half-mile stay left on North Shore Road (stay to the left at
the intersection in seven miles). This paved road follows Fall Creek
and turns into Forest Service Road 18.
One mile past the boundary of the Willamette National
Forest, just past the Dolly Varden Campground, take a left onto
the graveled FS 1817 Road (stay right at the junction in 2 miles).
In 4.5 miles take a left on FS 1818. In 1.5 miles, take a right
on FS 424 (stay right at the junction in 2 miles). In 2.3 miles
take a left at the unsigned FS 1806 (stay left at the junction in
several hundred feet). In 3 miles take a left at a sign for the
Tall Timbers trail. Park on the right in .3 miles. The trailhead
is on the left hand side of the road.
The trail itself is only a 20-minute stroll, but
it'll take you through some spectacularly lush forest and dozens
of outrageously tall Doug-firs. The trail is just a small glimpse
at an almost 1,000-acre grove located in the Little Fall Creek drainage
at the western edge of the Willamette National Forest. I believe
that this grove contains the largest contiguous block of uniformly
near record sized Douglas-fir in the world.
The Douglas-fir isn't Oregon's state tree just because
of its good looks. Its sturdy wood formed the backbone of Oregon's
economy for almost a century. On the drive up you probably noticed
that vast swaths of the magnificent old growth forest that once
blanketed the landscape have been converted to even-aged tree farms
less than 30 years old. Logging levels have declined dramatically
in the last decade, but the Willamette continues to log giant old
growth trees more than 500 years old. Just about three miles up
the 1817 road you passed the Clark sale where tree-sitters have
been perched 200 feet in the air to prevent logging for almost five
years (to find out more visit www.cascwild.org/timbersales/Clark.html).
To really experience the Tall Timbers grove, get
back to the 1806 road and drive a quarter of a mile back the way
you came. Park and hike cross-country bearing west-southwest. In
both the third and the fourth drainages to the west of the road
you'll encounter Douglas-firs more than 300 feet tall.
This hike shouldn't be attempted unless you're carrying
a map and compass and are accustomed to rugged terrain. But if you
can handle the bushwhack, you'll see some world class tree specimens
right in our own backyard.
Back to Top
Hitler's
'People's Car'
Did
Adolph really 'design' the Beetle?
BY
JIM MOTAVALLI
Everybody's heard the story that Adolph
Hitler had something to do with the design of the original Volkswagen
Beetle, but did you ever wonder what that specific involvement was?
I did too, and considering that Volkswagen is not likely to trumpet
that information on its website, I had to do some digging. Turns
out the stories are true.
 |
| ADOLPH
HITLER AND FERDINAND PORSCHE (AT LEFT) GO OVER DESIGNS FOR THE
VOLKSWAGEN IN 1934. |
The Fuhrer, whose early career was after all in
art, actually sketched his idea of what the people's car ("Volkswagen")
should look like, and it wasn't too far from the finished product.
As the excellent historical website "Volkswagen: A Hitlerian Dream"
(www.serial-design.com/mechanical_design/vw.htm) points out, Hitler,
an auto buff, had an idea in 1934 for an air-cooled car with a top
speed of 62 miles per hour and a fuel consumption of 42 miles per
gallon that would nonetheless be able to carry two adults and three
children in relative comfort.
The man he hired to make his dream a reality was
Ferdinand Porsche (yes, that Porsche). Hitler was definitely hands-on;
he disliked the early drawings, so he sketched out a new front view.
"It should look like a beetle," he allegedly said. "You've only
got to look to nature to find out what streamlining is."
Two prototypes were built in 1935 at Porsche's home
in Stuttgart by a team that included representatives of Auto Union
(including Audi) and Mercedes-Benz. One horrific note is that the
team's early business manager, Adolph Rosenburger, was Jewish, and
was forced to leave in haste.
In 1937, with progress on the Volkswagen (whose
design included Porsche's brilliant torsion bar suspension and four-cylinder,
air-cooled boxer engine) going well, the project became state property,
overseen by the German Labor Front. Members of the SS took part
in testing work. Early versions of the car were called KdF-Wagen,
the German abbreviation translating as "strength through joy."
A split rear window (much prized by collectors today)
was added to the design in 1937, as were the distinctive running
boards. The car as it stood then was very much like the version
that appeared after the war, to great acclaim. The KdF-Wagen would
undoubtedly have proven very popular with the German public (Hitler
rode in one to the dedication of the VW factory), but Hitler's invasion
of Poland in 1939 put an end to mass production plans at that time.
Meanwhile, Porsche had been turned down on his plans to build a
competition version of the Beetle, and so developed the first Porsche
car (the type 64) on his own, and drove it around the deserted autobahns
of wartime Germany.
 |
| THE
SPEEDY JETTA GLI. |
The military Kübelwagen (later to be adapted
as "The Thing" and sold to a good reception in the U.S.) was based
on the Beetle. They "saw action" in Poland and North Africa, if
that bloodless phrase can be allowed. After Germany surrendered
in 1945, the British took over Volkswagen production at Wolfsburg.
Luckily for German industry, the British overseers took no interest
in the visionary car, considering it inferior to British steeds
of the time. History has not been kind to that perception, has it?
A Newer
Model
I've been much enjoying my time with the 2002 Volkswagen
Jetta GLI, which comes standard with a 200-horsepower, 2.8-liter
six-cylinder engine. Since its introduction in the mid 1980s, the
Jetta has been moving steadily upmarket. This very nice entry ($22,950
as tested) slots under the GLX for enthusiastic drivers. Very good
performance, and 30 mpg fuel economy on the highway.
Jim Motavalli is editor of E The Environmental
Magazine. Questions or comments? jimm@emagazine.com