Television: Jul. 23, 1965

(2 of 4)

LIVE LIKE PIGS. Violence erupts when a band of nomads is forced to settle in a housing development in the north of England. British Playwright John Arden makes an auspicious U.S. debut with a boisterous and stunning play.

KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, by Samuel Beckett, and THE ZOO STORY, by Edward Albee. Two fledgling classics—one about an old has-been, the other about a young never-will-be—are unsettling and provocative.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ENTIRE WORLD AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF COLE PORTER. The Porter wit and worldly wisdom shine through his lesser-known songs in this bright and bouncy revue.

VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. Arthur Miller's brooding tragedy fuses Greek themes with the story of a Brooklyn longshoreman and his family.

THE ROOM and A SLIGHT ACHE. Harold Pinter's one-acters are opaque finger exercises on the theme of dread.

RECORDS

Ballads & Broadway

NANCY WILSON TODAY-MY WAY (Capitol). These are hit songs of the last couple of years, and most of them have never had it so good. All Nancy Wilson's celebrated virtues—polish, vitality and intelligence, mixed with a dash of the late Dinah Washington—are much in evidence. She sings with such relish that the listener feels sure that she would be belting them out all the time for fun even if it hadn't made her rich.

FLORA, THE RED MENACE (RCA Victor). Liza and lyrics are the story here. Liza Minnelli, when she isn't trying to break the Streisand barrier, is sprightly and winning with a talent for singing a song from the inside plus a little of the Rex Harrison magic with talk songs. This is fortunate since Composer John Kander's Broadway score is notable mainly for recitatives and some Brechtian impressions. Fred Ebb's lyrics have drive and irony appropriate for hungry young people looking for jobs and ideologies to cling to.

BOBBY VINTON SINGS FOR LONELY NIGHTS (Epic). Bobby remembers that in his high school there were 300 shy introverts for every ten successes. He aims at the 300, and the assault is awesome. Backed by a big orchestra, a diaphanous chorus and an echo chamber, Vinton takes the most self-pitying lyrics imaginable and invests them with beat and warmth. A teen-ager could get a crush on any one of them.

JACK JONES: MY KIND OF TOWN (Kapp). Jack's town is filled with melody but is still uninhabited. Timing, phrasing, diction, breath control are all estimable but no personality emerges. He is at ease with ballads, blues and patter songs, and when he learns to let go with the lyrics he may become the great interpreter that admirers like Frank Sinatra have predicted he will be.

DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (Columbia). This musical adaptation of The Time of the Cuckoo is far from Rodgers' best, but still it is a pleasant score and shows off admirably the talents of Elizabeth Allen, Sergio Franchi and Carol Bruce. Almost alone among current musical comedy composers, Rodgers understands the human voice and writes for it lovingly. This love gives charm even to the ballads that sound like reprises of older Rodgers songs.