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■ SOUNDTRACK
Don t miss Art Linton and Mike Robinson In the Nth Degree at
the Lighthouse tonight. Their art Is a guitar duo that plays orig
inal acoustic rock music. Mike said they will also be playing
some hammered dulcimer. Show starts about 10 p.m.
The Red and Black • Wednesday, February 7, 1990 • 5
A&E
Tony award-winning ‘Evita’ to be shown at Clarke Central
By RACHEL CURRY
Contributing Writer
Evita will be showing Feb 8-10.
Shows begin at 8 p.m. Call 357-
6060 for reservations or for more
information. Tickets are $7.
“Evita," the musical that ran on
Broadway for five years and won
seven Tony Awards, can be seen in
Athens Feb 8-10.
The joint production of the
Athens Creative Theatre (ACT)
and the UGA Opera Workshop will
be performed at Clarke Central
High School’s Mell Auditorium.
The musical was written by An
drew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice,
the same team responsible for
“Jesus Christ Superstar.”
University music professor,
David StofTel, the musical director
and conductor for “Evita,” said the
show is done in the same musical
style as “Jesus Christ Superstar”
and Webber’s solo creation, ‘The
Phantom of the Opera.”
He said “Evita" will run on An
drew Lloyd Webber’s impressive
reputation as a music writer.
StofTel shares directing duties
with ACT director, Tom Coleman,
who also designed the set.
“Evita” chronicles the life of Eva
Peron, the shrewd opportunist who
manipulated her way into the
postion of Argentina’s first lady
and ruled with her dictator hus
band, Juan Peron.
The play follows her from her
days as a flirtatious, back-stabbing
young girl to her early death from
cancer at the age of 33.
Florence King, a University li
brarian, is featured as “Evita.”
King, who is making most of her
own costumes, has worked with
ACT before and has also performed
with the Athens Town and Gown
Theatre. It was there that she
played the title role in ‘The Mys
tery of Edwin Drood.” Given Eva
Peron’s ruthless reputation, King
still finds her somewhat appealing.
‘Though you tend not to like her,
you have to admire her for her am
bition, and how she got to where
she was from where she was,” King
said.
Steve Eubanks plays Che Gue
vara, a Latin-American revolu
tionary who despises Eva and
leads the audience through a tour
of her faults and dirty dealings.
Eubanks, an Athens salesman,
describes his character as, “a coun
terpoint to everything Evita stands
for.”
He also said Guevara is loosely
based on an actual revolutionary
by the same name. The real Gue
vara had nothing to do with the
Perons, but the character modeled
after him serves an important con
trast to Evita’s personality.
Eubanks has performed with the
Athens Town and Gown Theatre
and is a member of the Theatrix
Entertainment Group.
Since the UGA Opera Workshop
is part of the musical, many Uni
versity students are involved.
David Jones, a graduate student
in music, plays Juan Peron.
Sophomore Stephen Owen, a
member of the chorus, said he has
learned “how time-consuming and
yet really interesting acting can be.
I’ve learned that it (acting) takes a
lot of patience, time, energy and co
operation."
David Jones and Florence King: Star in musical ‘Evita' to show Feb. 8-10
Dan Jenkins’ latest, ‘Fast Copy,’ contains too many subjects to follow
By ROBERT WOODRUFF
Contributing Writer
"Fast Copy" by Dan Jenkins now on paperback for
$5.95. (editors note: we review paperbacks for those
students who don't have funds for hardcovers.)
Dan Jenkins likes big things. It’s all the man can
write about, the bigger the better.
He’s written about football (“Semi-Tough" and “Life
Its Ownself"), the pro-golf tour (“Dead Solid Perfect”),
country music and Texas (“Baja Oklahoma”) and net
work televison (“Limo”). Some will tell you there’s
nothing bigger under the sun, but Jenkins’ latest
novel, “Fast Copy,” is bigger than all the aforemen
tioned topics, bigger even than a rasslin’ match on a
Saturday night in a small South Georgia town. Now
that’s big - too big.
“Fast Copy” isn’t so much a novel as it is a runaway
train. Unfortunately, the reader is tied to the tracks.
Let’s run down the list of major themes that Jen
kins has stuffed into this 468 page book: football, love
Texas, lust, Texas Rangers, divorce, the Depression,
“smokin and drinkin,” the “oil bidness,” journalism,
murder, Prohibition, bank-robbing and death. The
Bible didn’t have this many themes, and it had a
better editor.
All of these aspects Jenkins tries to rest on the
shoulders of the book’s protagonist, Betsy Throck
morton, although her shoulders aren’t near sturdy
Texas, it’s said, knows no
boundaries, and Jenkins sets out to
prove this. Once “Fast Copy” gets
to Texas, look out, the train she’s a
cornin’ through.
enough to carry the rambling story. Atlas’ shoulders
wouldn’t be enough to carry this story.
The book follows the exploits of Betsy, a self-pro
claimed “ink-stained wretch” of “News Hen,” and her
curious cast of supporting characters through Prohibi
tion New York and Depression Texas.
The first part of the book deals with Betsy’s college
days in New York. Her love of football, instilled in her
at an early age by her widowed father, Ben Throck
morton, whom she affectionately refers to as “Football
Silly;” her love of hard drinking and fast living with
her close friend and college roommate Millie Saun
ders; and her love of, well, love which leads her to
marry Ted Winton, whose most important character
istic seems to be that before he became a writer for
Time, he was a star halfback for Yale; and her love of
journalism, which is the driving motivation in her life.
All these subjects are covered in the first 60 pages,
and then we’re on to Texas.
Texas, it’s said, knows no boundaries, and Jenkins
sets out to prove this. Once “Fast Copy” gets to Texas,
look out, the train she’s a cornin’ through.
Betsy comes home to Claybelle to run her daddy’s
newspaper, while husband Ted runs daddy’s radio
station. She immediately turns the local rag into a
top-flight newspaper, even if she does have to occa
sionally bend to her father’s “Football Silly” persona
and run stories about the much-beloved Texas Chris
tian University Horned Frogs on the front page.
Between football games Betsy manages to fall into
a scandal involving a Texas Ranger with a quick
trigger finger and a slew of bank robberies as well as
becoming Bob Walker. Ben manages to start fooling
around with his best friend’s ex-wife, and Ted man
ages to stand around and be a former star halfback for
Yale.
The characters manage to stay busy.
The story is convoluted, to say the least, and there
are more side trips than main plot. Jenkins has spent
so much time getting lost in the mounds upon mounds
of story that his characters are never fully developed.
Consequently, they come across as superficial, you
never get a real feel for them, but you don’t like or dis
like them. They’re just there.
And this is why Jenkins fails where he has pre
viously succeeded; his strength has always been in his
characterization. Previous characters, well maybe
they weren’t terribly deep, but you liked them, they
were the kind of friends you wanted.
Who can forget the wit and witticisms of Billy Clyde
Puckett and Marvin “Shake” Tiller (“Shake” Tiller
had one of the greatest understatements of all time in
“Semi-Tough,” talking about the chances of winning
The Super Bowl in which he and Billy Clyde are about
to play, “Hell, B.C., nobody said it wasn’t gonna be
semi-tough.”), the perfect Barbara Jane Bookman, all
from “ Semi-Tough” and “Life Its Ownself.” Also, the
infinitely wise D. Wayne Cooper and the hard-living,
brilliant and wily Frank Mallory, from “Limo,” or in
fact any of Jenkins’ characters from his previous ef
forts.
These are people you want to read about. Really you
want to go out and have fun with them, you look for
ward to hearing about them and what’e more they all
have great names. Let’s face it, Betsy, Bob, Ted and
Ben: Booooring. “Fast Copy’s” most interesting char
acter with the best name is Lank Allard and he’s the
main bad guy.
Despite the somewhat flat characters, the scattered
story and the boring names, "Fast Copy” is not a bad
book. What saves it is that Jenkins can flat out write.
For writing about fast living, hard drinking, cussin’,
lovin’, Texas and football very few, if any, do it better.
His characters talk like you do and like people that
you know. His dialogue is snappy and funny, his de
scriptions are classic.
Unfortunately for long-time Jenkins followers as
far as “Fast Copy” is concerned, he’s done it all before
and he’s done it better.
ON CAMPUS
"It only takes
30 seconds to
love this car."
Mary Frasco, a grad student in Education
at the University of Detroit, talks about
falling in love with her Volkswagen.
"Thirty seconds. That's how long it
takes to put the top down on my Cabriolet.
And that's how long it took me to fall
in love.
"There's nothing quite like the feeling
you get driving a convertible. And there's
no convertible quite like my Cabriolet.
"Sunglasses on, wind in my hair—I
love driving this car. And it's a good thing.
Because when I go out with my friends
there's never any question of whose car
we'll take.
"Everybody just hops in my Cabriolet.
"I can't imagine driving anything else."
The Volkswagen Cabriolet. It's the
distinctive European convertible with the
Volkswagen price.
It's time to think about
Volkswagen again.
If you drive a Volkswagen, you might be selected to appear
In an ad like the one above Send your story and a photo to:
Volkswagen Testimonials • 187 S Woodward. Suite 200
• Birmingham, Ml 48009