One of my birthday gifts was a DVD of BREAKING AWAY (1979), a charming story about four Midwestern boys trying to figure if there’s life after high school. Dennis Christopher is the most passionate (about bicycling, Italy and cute coed Robyn Douglass), Dennis Quaid the most troubled (“Those college kids will never get any older.”) and Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley rounding out the quartet. Barbara Barrie plays Christopher’s mother and Paul Dooley as his long-suffering father steals every scene he’s in. Lives up to my memories; it might double bill well with Stand By Me with its own male foursome. “I’m not glad to be alive, I’m glad I’m not dead—it’s not the same.”
THE SORCERER was this year’s local Gilbert and Sullivan production and as usual, TYG took me as my birthday gift. The team had previously done the one-act Trial by Jury without being sold on further collaboration, but theater manager Richard D’Oyle Carte convinced them they should try again. The production was good, but the story of two young lovers who dose everyone in their village with love potion (thereby freeing them to marry for love, instead of rank or money) isn’t G&S’ best—the early scenes don’t have anywhere near enough funny stuff. That said, the score is great (“My Name is J. Wellington Welles” is unquestionably one of G&S’s greatest patter songs) and the cast performs well (while having the potion turn them to zombies was not a good idea, it did give them a chance at some great physical shticks). “Beauty will fade with time, but personal cleanliness never dies!”
