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‘Weird Al’ Puts on Delightfully
Unique Performance
By Mark Brockett
The Sangamon Auditorium
has played host to several amazing performances over the years.
Over the past two years, acts such as Carrot Top, Jerry
Seinfeld, and Willie Nelson have graced the stage and were
received greatly by their fans. This past Thursday, however,
assured those who were in attendance that we would not forget
this slightly unusual performance. Why was it unusual? Al
Yankovic and his accordion are the answers to that question.
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, a
parity performer, has been changing lyrics to popular and trendy
songs and remaking them into clever and quite humorous innovations
of his own work since the late 70’s when he was only 16 years old.
His first big hit parity was from
 the
band The Knack, who sang “My Sharona”. Al concocted what would be
one of his patented parities about food entitled, “My Bologna”.
Over the years, he has done parities of artists such as Michael
Jackson, Nirvana, and Coolio. In this show, he would leave no fan
disappointed as he sang the majority of his hits.
The show was opened up with
a comedian from the Springfield area. He entertained what was
relatively a young crowd with his dancing and balloon blowing. He
involved participants from the audience and laughter was ringing
through the auditorium throughout his fifteen minute act.
After a short intermission,
Al Yankovic came out to a standing ovation. Less than a week from
this performance, his parents died from carbon monoxide poisoning
in their home in Rhode Island. The show was dedicated to them and
the crowd provided a classy show of respect. Yankovic opened up
the performance with the latest polka medley, a collection of
chart topping hits done entirely in polka style. This has been a
main stay on every album that he has done over the past twenty
years.
Al is not only a parity
artist, but he also writes songs of his own that are just as
humorous. He played quite a few songs like that from his latest
album, Poodle Hat, as the night progressed. It was interesting to
see all of the fans in the audience know those songs and sing the
lyrics word for word with Al.
One of the great things that
Yankovic does during his shows is that he gets into character for
a lot of his songs. He would go and change periodically throughout
the night while the fans would be entertained by clips from Al TV
that were played on the screen. These were comedy bits involving
other pop stars that usually are run on VH1 and MTV specials. One
of the more entertaining outfits of the night was the enormous fat
suit that he wore while he played one of his parities of Michael
Jackson called “Fat”. The song is a spoof of the Jackson hit
“Bad”.
The highlight of the evening
was the encore performances that were related to the Star Wars
movies. He sang “The Saga Begins,” a parity of the Don Mclean
classic, “American Pie”. The crowd gave Yankovic a standing
ovation in which Al almost came to tears.
Overall, the Weird Al
Yankovic visit to the Sangamon Auditorium was anything but normal.
It was a unique experience for everyone in attendance and nobody
left with unfulfilled expectations. Yankovic performed as well as
he has for all the years that he’s been an artist. Truly, he is a
great performer that deserves the recognition that he has
received.
The Best of Sangamon Auditorium:
2003-04 Season
By Emily
Chase
The Chieftains
Before the explosion of Riverdance,
Lord of the Dance and all the other neo-Celtic groups, Paddy
Moloney and his small group of dedicated Celtic musicians spread
the sound of the uilleannn pipes and bodhran across the world. In
January they brought that sound to Sangamon Auditorium.
Moloney has proved again and again
that while his is the granddaddy of Irish music he is flexible
enough to move with the times. In addition to his three regulars
he travels with a half dozen eminently talented young people like
brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzke. Jon played fiddle and they both
danced in the kind of lower-body movement only style associated
with Irish dancing along with the two professional Irish dancers
accompanying the Chieftains. The Canadian Pilatzke brothers,
however, gave it the kind of reckless enjoyment associated with
Savion Glover in the tap dance world.
“Jesus Christ Superstar”
Critics often find an easy target
in Andrew Lloyd Webber; his productions are overblown, his
librettos historically inaccurate and his lyrics at times
ridiculous.
(True, Lloyd Webber writes only the
music, not the libretto or the lyrics but he does choose his
collaborators. He selected Tim Rice, a talented lyricist who
somehow wrote the abominable “Hosana, hey-sana, sana,
sana, ho, sana, hey, sana ho-sana.
J.C., J.C., won’t You die for me? Hosana-sana, hey, superstar!”
Yes, that is the song welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem.)
Anyway, Lloyd Webber is a success
for a reason and his “Jesus Christ Superstar” perfectly
illustrates how he can annoy and offend people with pop melodies
and sanctimonious drama while still engaging his audience. The
“diversitizing” of theater has its drawbacks but seeing an
African-American Jesus delivered a well-placed blow to
Christianity’s sense of northern-European superiority.
“JCS” is a powerful drama, as
emotional and though provoking as “The Passion of the Christ,” if
not as nauseating. Its performances in Springfield came just a
week or two before Lent and, to me at least, started the season of
introspection and spiritual exploration with a theatrical flair.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Modern dance and mid-America often
do not gel and some aspects of Hubbard Street’s February 20
performance did not reach the audience.
The hilariously funny “Call the
Whole Thing Off” number, however, more than made up for the
disappointing finale “The 40s.” Two dancers explored their
dysfunctional relationship through the Gershwins’ “Let’s Call the
Whole Thing Off” and Mose Allison’s “Your Mind Is on Vacation.”
And, of course, the fabulous medley
of Rolling Stones’ songs “Rooster” erased all memory of the
pseudo-primitive “Diphthong.” “Rooster” showcased the male
dancers and featured such Stones’ classics as “Paint It Black,”
“Little Red Rooster,” “Lady Jane” and “Sympathy for the Devil.”
…and finally, a special mention:
“Les Misérables” & Student Affairs
Admittedly, the cast touring
Springfield October 21-26 was not the best I had ever seen and I
must admit grudgingly that Sangamon Auditorium is a touch too
small for the grandeur of “Les Misérables.”
The show makes the “Best” list,
however, thanks to an incredibly generous gift from the Office of
Student Affairs. Led by Vice-Chancellor Chris Miller, Student
Affairs arranged for students – with campus ID – to buy tickets to
the many of the performances for half price. Dozens of students
who otherwise could not have afforded the ticket or would not have
bothered were able to attend a performance of one of the greatest
musicals on earth.
In all honesty, the production of
“Les Misérables” that came to SA in October does not deserve to be
on this list; Student Affairs, however, deserves the gratitude of
all UIS students.
UIS Theater Presents ‘Hay Fever’
By
Heather Shaffer
The
UIS Theater Program closed its second season with performances of
Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, directed by Eric Thibedeaux-Thompson.
 Hay
Fever is an English Comedy, written in 1924 and first produced
in 1925. It is considered by many to be one of Coward’s earliest
masterpieces.
The play is about a family of ill-mannered individuals.
The two children have always been allowed to do whatever they
wish, as the mother and father have been too involved in their own
professions to fuss about conventional matters.
On a
Saturday, each family member inadvertently invites a strange guest
for a weekend visit without knowing that everyone else also
invited a guest as well. The daughter Sorel Bliss (Erica Smith)
invites the dashing diplomatist Richard Greatham (Brian Trammell),
whom she met at a dance. Sorel is determined to change the
ill-mannered ways of her family during Richard’s visit. Sorel’s
brother Simon Bliss (Chad Eversgerd) also invited a guest, the
saucy Myra Arundel (Melissa Betty). Simon could care less about
the ill-mannered ways of his family, as he is more worried about
winning Myra’s heart.
The mother Judith Bliss (Beverly Ryan) is outraged to
hear of her children’s guests, as she has invited the bubbly and
overly excited Sandy Tyrell (Edward Barnett) to fuss over her the
entire weekend. Judith attempts to drown out the fact that she is
aging by “flaunting around with younger men.” Her husband, David
Bliss (Paul Cary) invites the flapper Jackie Coryton (Anna Dow),
who is a fan of his writing.
The high strung and ill-tempered Bliss family members are
rude and sharp with other people’s guests. Throughout the play,
the guests learn that the family member that invited them is a lot
different than they thought. By the start of the second act, the
guests are mixed around with family members; creating drama,
controversy, and deception among the members of the Bliss family.
The setting of the play is in the Hall of the Bliss
Family home in Cookham, England in 1925. The set of the play
properly suited the English 1920’s setting. The furniture and
decorations of the Bliss home suited the family’s off personality
nicely.
Chris Hamberg did a brilliant job creating costuming appropriately
fitting each character’s personality as well as the time frame of
the play. Judith Bliss’s flowing costume especially stuck out to
me, as it so appropriately fit her flamboyant and overly dramatic
personality.
Beverly Ryan gave a stunning performance as the washed-up
actress and mother Judith Bliss who is determined to overlook her
current status and age. The character is written to be incredibly
dramatic throughout the entire play, and at times overbearing to
the audience. To borrow a line from the play, “The theater is
always with her.” Ryan portrayed this character exactly as one
would imagine her to be.
Eversgerd and Smith also accurately performed the temperamental
personalities of their characters.
Upon the play’s opening, the stage was cluttered with
various drawings, assumingly drawn by Simon Bliss. An aspect of
the play I particularly like was the incorporation of the UIS
Visual Arts Program into the preparation of the play. All of
these drawings used as props were done by Visual Arts Program.
Thibedeaux-Thompson believes that there is a link to this
play and our own society. “That link is the self-absorption which
exists to varying degrees in all of us, as well as in the Bliss
family household. Although there is a deliberate ‘larger than
life’ style in this Comedy of Manners, we see people we know in
our own lives, as we watch [some] characters in Hay Fever
behaving badly,” he wrote.
Spring Movies wrap up
By Nanette C.
Turner
Along Came
Polly
For risk
analyist Reuben Feffer, a well-planned life has the appearance of
being low-risk…but when his wife has an affair on their Honeymoon,
the boat starts rocking! When his wife, Lisa (Debra Messing), has
an affair on their honeymoon, Rueben (Ben Stiller) has a new risk
to assess.
 Returning
home, his friend convinces him that going out will help. Clumsily
Reuben bumps into a lady of the past—Polly Prince (Jennifer
Aniston) from Jr. High. A lot has happened since then, but Reuben
is love-struck none-the-less. Carefully avoiding the fact that
he’s recently wed, he determines to pursue a relationship with
Polly.
The film
clearly earns its title as a Romantic-Comedy, but the romance
seems to be a side note. There seems to be more passion and
chemistry during Messing character’s 3-minute fling with Azaria’s
Claude, than there ever was in the hour “romance” between Stiller
and Aniston.
Aniston is
unashamedly a great actress. She brings character, liveliness,
and spontaneity to the film. While Stiller was great in “Meet the
Parents,” his role here seems to contain many of the same
mannerisms, although the character was written completely
different.
50 First
Dates
Adam Sandler
and Drew Barrymore rekindled their on-screen chemistry from the
previous Sandler film The Wedding Singer, giving love a
little more than a second chance…a 52nd chance!
 With
the typical Sandler crew in place, 50 First Dates
introduced the theaters to a new perspective on dating. Lucy
(Barrymore) meets Henry (Sandler) at a local diner in Hawaii.
Henry is twitter-pated from the first meeting. Everything seems
to go well, and Lucy even asks if Henry wants to come back and eat
breakfast together again tomorrow.
However,
when Henry shows up the next day, Lucy won’t even give him the
time of day. As the title of the film and of course all of the
previews suggest, Lucy has no short term memory.
Trying to
remind Lucy of who he is every single day, somehow Henry refuses
to get discouraged. Sweeping her off of her feet becomes a daily
task, falling in love all over again….and again, and again….
Sandler and
Barrymore did beautifully, as always. Sandler was as charming as
Barrymore was sweet. They really are a great combination. I can
see why they would recast the two into roles opposite each other.
Mona Lisa
Smile
 In
the early 1950s, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a progressive
woman from the West Coast arrived at Wellesley College, accepting
a job as an art Professor there. Tackled by the concept that
Wellesley College is merely a glorified finishing school, Watson’s
students seemed more interested in their M.R.S. degree than
actually attending classes for the purpose of learning.
Watson’s
teaching techniques quickly change to meet the needs of her
pupils, presenting the idea that although art has come to the era
of mass production, women need to be more than mere replicas of
each other—or a Van Gogh in a box.
Playing the
part of Betty Warren--the stereotypical opinionated young woman
who is more than happy to live up to her expected role as the
housewife, Kirsten Dunst comes off a little shallow. Attempting
to extend her sphere of influence, Warren stops at nothing,
striving to transform her friends into the spitting image of her
own stereotype. To her, Giselle Levy (Maggie
Gyllenhaal) is the basic sore thumb of society stealing
boyfriends, husbands, and exploring her sexuality. With Warren’s
judgements stopping at nothing, even her closest friend cannot
escape her verdicts. Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles), plays Warren’s
traditional friend, but when Warren gets married, she begins to
force Brandwyn into her footsteps.
Big Fish
Soon after
discovering his father, Ed Bloom (Albert Finney) is dying, Will
Bloom (Billy Crudup) begins to look below the surface of past
misunderstandings. Realizing that most of what he knows about his
father is from the stories he has heard his dad tell, which would
not be such a bad thing if it were not for the fact that his dad
was quite the storyteller. The older Will gets, the more he
begins to question the stories he has heard over and over again,
until eventually, he can hardly believe a word coming out of his
dad’s mouth. But since his dad is on his death bed, Will is ready
to do anything it takes to find out what kind of a life his dad
really lived.
Each of his
father’s stories has given Will a tidbit of information—the
problem is trying to decipher “fact from fiction; the myth from
the man.”
As a larger
than life tale, as should be expected, the film contains some
ridiculous themes (and the acting often follows the dramatics of a
stage comedy), but remembering that these recollections are coming
from memories Will has of the stories he was told as a young boy,
keeps everything in perspective. For the type of mystical film it
is, incorporating comedy and drama definitely presented the
actors/actresses with some challenges—none of which fell short of
the toll.
A film about
the perceptions we have of others, dreams, fact, and fiction, the
ending brings everything together into a nicely packaged
presentation. After seeing the end, your eyes will be opened not
only to the rest of the film, but to life outside the theater as
well.
Starsky and
Hutch
When David
Starsky (Ben Stiller), the uptight officer, can’t keep a partner,
Captain Doby (Fred Williamson) takes the opportunity to continue
to remind him how Starsky’s mother—the model officer—would be
rolling over in her grave.
 Then
Ken Hutchinson (Owen Wilson), the cop on a power high using his
power to promote himself, busts a few too many bookies without
turning in any of the confiscated funds. Not knowing what else to
do, Captain Doby decides that they deserve each other and sticks
them together as partners.
Set in the
1970s, Starsky and Hutch seem to always get the un-crack-able
cases from Captain Doby. Starsky’s 1974 Ford Torino drives the
pair through the film, setting the plot of their first big case as
partners--a prequel to the TV show—involving a former college
campus drug dealer, Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn).
Assigned to
a huge cocaine deal, finding the secretive dealer poses a huge
problem—they’ve created a new type of cocaine that the drug dogs
cannot detect—allowing the crack cocaine to fall under the radar
and be transported safely.
Relying on
Hutch’s all-knowing friend, Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg), for any
leads, Starsky and Hutch often find themselves off on a wild goose
chase trying to bust the culprits.
The Passion
of Christ
Gibson has
made a statement, through this film, that will impact his career,
and quite possibly Hollywood, forever. His step of faith,
directing and funding the movie out of his own pocket, does demand
respect for his cause.
Whether you
have never heard the story of Jesus Christ or you’ve heard it
almost a million times, seeing the film will put the torture,
mocking, and reality of the events surrounding the crucifixion.
Sometimes, even the most powerful story loses some of its impact
when you’ve heard it a bunch of times. A film like this helps see
it in a fresh way that inspires praise and gratitude.
Gibson did,
as every director does, take a little artistic license while the
movie was being produced. The focal point should not be that the
few differences, but note the unimportance of each.
The Prince
and Me
Pre-med
senior, Paige (Stiles) returns to Wisconsin for her final year
with goals to finish with enough momentum to get into John Hopkins
Medical School. Little did she know that chemistry isn’t always
predictable…especially when it is outside of the classroom!
 Prince
Edvard 'Eddie' Valdemar Dangaard (Luke Mably) is fed up with the
implications of being royalty in Denmark and after viewing an ad
for a College Girls Gone Wild (Wisconsin), he decides he needs to
venture to the States. When his funds run out (since he left
without the blessing of his parents), he is forced to get a job at
a local bar, which just so happens to be at the same bar his love
interest—Paige—works. Friends to foes, lovers to losers, Paige
and Eddie go through it all.
Overall, the
film was cute. As an avid Julia Stiles FAN, I would have to say
that I am honored to watch her career flourish in the way that it
has. Although the chemistry between Stiles and Freddie Prinze Jr.
remains at the top of the list, Mably and Stiles weren’t entirely
unbelievable. |
