Word: bettering
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...them in a minute. First, a B.U. epilogue. Consolation game against Cornell, meaningless except to Ithacans. (Every B.U. game is a big game--for the other team.) Many of the Commonwealth Ave. fans don't even show up for this one--and the team doesn't do much better...
Flesh Gordon. If you're a little less stewed, maybe you can convince your buddy that Flesh Gordon is really lots better. It isn't, but it's shorter. Parodying the thirties Flash Gordon series, Flesh, an all-American Mr. Clean hero and his two musketeers, pursue the evil sex ray to its source, discovering a sexual munchkin land where Prince Precious and his tandy tribe frolic in spite of the Evil Wang's despotic rule. The special effects--including penises as monsters, trees, spaceships, etc.--all seem like the products of a pervert with a chemistry set in someone...
...talented treatments, and the singing is impressive for a college production. Perhaps the fact that conservatory students or graduates take all but one of the main roles helps to explain that. But trying to take Vienna out of Strauss is like trying to perform a heart transplant--you'd better have the replacement handy. The first act, for example, could as easily be set in Yonkers as in Vienna. True, the Lowell dining hall has little potential to be converted into a ballroom, but Lowell Opera gives up in despair from the start...
...opera at the college level takes guts, and it would be patently unfair to expect professional quality singing and playing from a group like Lowell House Opera. What's frustrating about this Fledermaus, though, is that the singing is the strongest part of the show. If the orchestra were better prepared and the director had replaced Strauss's Vienna coherently, Lowell's Fledermaus could please everyone. As it stands, the program lists the show's time-setting as "uncertain"--a word you might better apply to the whole affair...
...FEMALE leads fare better. Andrea Eisenberg as Natalie Yellowbud is disarmingly charming. Eisenberg is the perfect airhead, from the flower-in-the-hair Nature's Child look to the shit-eating grin. Amy Acquino as Maureen Bad complements Eisenberg very well. Cast against the blond frizzy dumb-dumb, Acquino makes a perfect villain; eyes drifting to the sky, slinking on the edges of the stage, and scheming her way through the show. Her solo number "I'm a Bitch" is probably the best of the evening...