-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, August 4,T988-Page 31
Willis eases into straightman role
Toronto bodybuilder Chuck Sturgeon c(>-stars with Melissa Smith (left) and Denise Killion in High Voltage, the summer musical revue at the Imperial Room.
Bv
FRANK RASKY
TORONTO -
When it comes to musical revues , Toronto audiences are a puzzling breed.
They may genuinely enjoy a shpw, but they tend to be ail undemonstraiive, uptight bunch. Too often they exhibit their enthusiasm by'sitting on their hands.
A case jn point is High Voltage J the .electrifying .new 2-houf extravaganza whose Yankee vjtality has been Harnessed and packaged by Las Vegas impresario. Greg Thompson, it's scheduled for an indefinite run at. the .Royal York Hotel's Imperial. Room.   ;.
, I caught the show the night after its .pfficial opening. To my delightiit.'sthe most exciting summer revue Tve seen for lo these many years at. ma'itre. d' Louis-'Jannetta's. opulent, supper club! It's what a good Vegas
show should be. With a cast of 14 sleek professionals and changed of 70 gorgeous costumes designed by Jazmin Mercer, it's gaudy and . garish, saucy and sensuous, and consistently entertaining.
When high-kicking their way through 28 sizzling numbers deftly choreo-graphed by : mistinguett; ranging ixom'~~?itl Tfiat
' Jiizz to Slaughter On
: Tenth /lv(?;///i'. the singing hoofers generate erio.ygh diesel-po.wei-cd energy ,,tq.
.. fuel a half dozen hockey teams.
A lot of epidermis is exposed (most notably by three topless chorines and a chestyH; stripped-down;^
"* Muscleman, Toronto body-builde'r champ Chuck Sturgeon). And several .novelty acts are on display (the standout being Texas magician-dancer Kurt Larson, who seemingly bends two 7-foot rods like bobby .
., pins, appears to stick a vicious spear' through his neck, then "segues into a
passionate adagio with his recejnl real-life bride, dancer Regina Powers).
In other words, it's a miiii-spectacular, ablaze with flashing neon lights and bubbling with fun and fresh surprises. Yet you'd never know it from the restrained applausie it drew from the audience.
.1 know they liked it, be-. cause I questioned guests seated at tables surrounding mine, and they iill said they" did'.-.-' .. : '
"Then why didn't you show your feelings by giv-ing them a great . big hand?" T persisted; •
"Well, I don't like stick-; ing out in a crowd," ; re-plied one patron, the epitome: of Toronto introverts.
Even if you're bashful, I urgeyou io ciAcYi High Voltage. It crackles with electric zest, and I guarantee it'll give you^a lift and a glow and spark ySu up during the summer doldrums.
By
SHELDON KIRSHNER
TORONTO -
Bruce Willis has usually been cast as a sort of bumbling funnyman. But in Die Hard, now playing at Famous Players theatres, he is a New York offduty cop fighting terrorists.
Willis makes the transition from. comedian to straightmarr without pain. Several situations bring out the old Willis. But, on the whole, he assumes a new identity here.
John McTiernan's Fdm, which is taut and strong most of the time, is about a group of German terrorists wJio take over a skyscraper in Los Angeles and hold 30 par-tygoers for ransom.
their objective is a S600 million prize — negotiable bonds stored in a company vault that can only be • reached if a computer cixJe is cracked,.
The terrorists break into the building without trou^.. 4)le, commandeering it as the select workers of a mul-ti'natibnal company celebrate the end of a prosperous, year.
Everyone is terrified, including Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), whose estranged husband. John (Willis)., it New York
policeman, just happens to have been invited tcxUhe party.
John, who always carries a pistol, is momentarily at a loss. How, after all, can he disarm and incapacitate these ruthless, skilled terrorists? .
The manner in which he takes them on is what D/V Hardh all about. Willis is the guy who stymies their plans — or. as he puts it. "the fly in the oimment." "the pain in the ass."
With the exception of its corny, unacceptable ending, Hard is a c o m p e t e n 11 y - m a d e thriller that should appeaL to the summer crowd.: There is rarely a moment when it Ls notsuspenseful. - Willis, clambering down elevator shafts and ducking bullets, is pretty convincing as a cop who does his best to make- the best of a bad situation.
Alexander Godunov. the exiled Russian bajlet dancer, his blond locks iframing his grave face, is one'pf the terrorists. He's an effective heavy, exuding a sense of doom as he goes about the business of trying to catch Willis. .
Alan Rickman plays the part of Hans, the terrorist leader. He's cool and Com- -posed and so Germanic. ' ' Die Hard V other charac-
ters include a sympathetic Los Angeles- policeman who communicates with. Willis through a GB radio; a traitorous executive who endears himself to the terrorists; a stupid assistant
police chief; and a pair of gungho FBI agent$ who think they're still : in Vietnam.
Die Hard, despite its silly final scehe^ is worth the price of admission.
focus of weekend
TORONTO -
: The Yiddish theatre is the themeof the 4th annual Yiddish Weekend, sponsored bv the Friends of Yiddish- Oct. 14-16. at Blue Mountain Inn. Col-n-iihg^vood,
Workshops are related to-^ the Jewish theatre experience and will include; acting, singing, and klcz-mer music. There will be a se.ssion on , Yiddish theatfe^terrninology (did you-know the word for stage is tzene"!).
Special guest will be Mel Gordon; dramatist, art critic, theatre.director, and associate professor at New York University's Tisch: School of the Arts.
Gordon, who is a specialist in European and American Yiddish theatre, will di.scuss the roots of Yiddish theatre and the development of Jewish h umou r.
Chazanit Esther Ghan Firestone is the musical director for the weekend. Sandy Starkman will lead folk dancing.
' 'These \yeekends have : been so successfur we've had to turn .people away." -said Bess Shockett,. fornv-erly director of the committee for Yiddish. Toronto Jewish Congress. ■"So this year, we're at Blue Mountain Inn which has more room." .
The Friends of Yiddish began in 1984,when seven people got together and decided to join in the worldwide revival of Yiddish. Since then the group has expanded to more than 200. \ -■ ■ All'meals on the weekend will be dairy,, includ--ing fish.
. For information and registration call Mary Barrer (416) 638-527-9 or. Bryna Rose (416) 633-7461..
essays c
historical views
Tree o£Kn chronicles
TORONTO
Pubeny is arTtme .pf. wrenching transition in everyone's life, and in Nils M a 1 m ros' . 77? e Tree of Knowledge, it is presented as a natiiralistic, empathetic^ rite of passage.
The film, which is set in a provincial Danish city in the late i950s, unfolds over a 2-year period, dur-ing which a viewer watches the physical and emotional development of a group of children from the 7th grad«rto their eommeneement dance in the 9th grade.
Now playing at Cineplex theatres, 77?^' Tree of Knowledge treats the trivial and the ; serious with .
equal regard as it meanders through the lives.i)f these self-absorbed nii.ddjerclass adolescents.
Malmros has ia fairly good eye for revealing details, b«r~they childish pranks played put in front of a prudish teacher trying to explain New York City to her distract-, ed students, or the awkward, funibling attempt biFthe teenagers to ex-^ plore their budding sex-
The film, which is essen:^.-tially Trghthearted and nostalgic in.tone. revolves. around Elin (Eva Grani Schjoldager), the most mature and self-assured girl in her class. She plays on her
advantages, albeit subtly, with, the resuh-rthat she alienates her peers". The girls become jealous; the boys grow unsure of them-
■ selves. I-■ ■
"After a while, she's frozen out of the tight little circle in which they
• move, and her unliappiness is exacerbated by the attitudes and reactions of her prudish parents.
Tlie Tree-of Knowledge \ cuts sharply ,froni_rone" sceneto the next, perhaps
jotv sharply. And the end-
, ing is nothing if not abnjpt.'~ But these flaws, if this is what they are; can be condoned because Malmros has things pretty niuch in
, hand.
DAVID BIRKAN
. Rabbi Israel Baal Sheni : Tov did not make concert-ed efforts to take.^X,ba-sidism to the masses, according to researcher EmanuerEtkes. The principles of the ISth century religious charismatic and ■ wonder worker; spread through his disciples:
Etkes' is.one of three essays dealing with the origins of modern chassidism in Harvard UhTversily Press' newly . published Hasidism: Continuity or In-/wiY///wi7(U.S..Sl6).'The ■ essays challenge certain hi.stbfical views. Jewish mystic circles predated the Baal Shem Tov.
Etkes invokes three considerations in his claim:
• Accounts of the Baal Shem Tov's travels do not mention him teaching chas-sidic worship directly to the. public-
• The revolutionary concept thatevery Jew strive . to achieve devekut, an intense spiritual prjbxiniity to; God, was never explicitly described by the BaarSheni but by his disciples. .
„   •His mystical 6/n«/j/m. discourses, as recorded by .disciple Rabbi YaacOv
Yosef, are too arcane and, . individualistic for mass consumption. "It seems hfuclVniore logical that they express the Besht's needs, to : share . his: ex-priences and. achievements .with his smallgroup of disciples or other cha.ssidim:" writes -Etkes.   ; '
.Etkes' essayal.so stress-: es the -Baal Shem: fov's love of the Jewish people and. his.appreciation of its.. spiritual mission. .The opponents in the
conflict launched--against the chassidim by tradition-^ . ali.st Jews were not as dis-^ linct and clearly defined.as history ivi^uld have it-, ac-cording . to researcher" Yaakov. Hasdai. His .ex-" amination of';a wide range of contemporarS' literacy sources" suggests a sub--stantial deg^ree of .sympathy. between the: two sides' iGaders. with some exceptions.
In his own essay, the ; •iimk's editor.  Bezala.1 ;
Safran. culls the writings of 17th century. Prague scholar and mystic .Rabbi Judah: Loew to demonstrate the latter's pioneering achieve-liient in the cohcA-^pt ■ oi" devekut. ;
The slim 150-page volumey clearly written for an academic publica-tioh, seems a valuable contribution^^-^^^ our know ledge of ah important aspijct of modern Jewish history.
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