Thanks and No Thanks : A Time for Annual Turkey Awards, Especially to Three Garden Grove Council Members, and for Praise Too

Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the biggest Turkey of all? Yes, once again the day has come for us to remember the lapses in taste, bad calls and downright airheadedness that have made us want to reach for the chopping block over the last 12 months.

No need for bloodshed, though--the pen (or word processor) is still mightier than the ax. So onward, to the 1988 Turkey Awards:

* Three members of the Garden Grove City Council--Robert F. Dinsen, Raymond T. Littrell and J. Tilman Williams, the outgoing mayor. These three get the biggest helping of this bird for branding Shakespeare an outlaw in their hamlet last summer. By voting to withhold the 15% of the Grove Theatre Company’s budget that the city had been providing, they forced the troupe, which organizes the annual Grove Shakespeare Festival, to its knees.

Fortunately (and just by happenstance following an outpouring of public outrage?), the mayor relented, changed his swing vote and sided with festival supporters. It wasn’t exactly all’s well that ends well, though--the city will phase out all support for the company over the next 3 years, at which time the Grove will be entirely on its own.

* Opera Pacific, for an ad campaign that emphasized not the quality of the company’s productions but the vast number of costume changes, not to mention tawdry melodramatic slants on the plot lines (Verdi’s “Aida” was hyped: “She wanted him desperately!”) As the group moves into its third season it has toned its ads down, but not much. The latest exhortations of “It’s Hot!” (below a portrait of 62-year-old soprano Joan Sutherland), “Feel the Heat” and “catch the sizzling performances” in mailers and print ads for the ‘88-’89 season still reek of a sidewalk hawker for a Vegas girlie show.

* The Orange County Performing Arts Center, which hasn’t booked any rock or country performers--even as classy as Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon or Leonard Cohen or as classic as Merle Haggard, Buck Owens or Chuck Berry. The only pop concert in the place at all has been a wild-card show with Johnny Cash last January, brought in by an independent promoter. Pop music isn’t the Center’s forte, we’re told. They did, however, find room to squeeze in a screening of Warren Miller’s latest ski film. Here’s to faultless aesthetic priorities.

* Author Gail Brewer-Giorgio, who shook up the American Booksellers Assn. convention at the Anaheim Convention Center last spring with her provocative, pelvis-resurrecting book “Is Elvis Alive?” If the King has pulled a fast one on the Grim Reaper, Brewer-Giorgio should leave him alone and just be happy that he apparently is fulfilled working incognito as a hairdresser somewhere in Dayton (if you believe your National Enquirer), instead of moping around Heartbreak Hotel.

* The Crystal Cathedral, for its bombastic “Glory of Christmas” and “Glory of Easter” extrava-gonzos. Instead of relying on the inherent power and beauty of the biblical stories, the church feels the need to spice things up with eardrum-splitting volume, blinding laser lights and veritable flocks of flying angels: the shows play out like the New Testament’s Greatest Hits. The problem is simply one of finding the right application. With their special effects expertise and Sensurround thunder-making, I’m sure they would do a great job with the “The Glory of Armageddon.”

* Disneyland’s security forces, who were so intent on maintaining order during Buster Poindexter’s performance there in June that they broke up a rumba line that was part of the act. Good thing it wasn’t the cha-cha--they might have had to call in the National Guard.

* Huntington Beach city officials, who are trying to woo a nightclub to one of their downtown redevelopment projects--after watching (if not causing) the death of two perfectly adequate clubs there less than 2 years ago.

* The Pacific Symphony, for charging up to $9 to attend its “open” rehearsals. That’s more than double what it costs to sit in on rehearsals by the New York Philharmonic, and as much or more than the Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony charge. The lowly Los Angeles Philharmonic admits listeners to its practices for--imagine this!--free.

* Magician David Copperfield, for performances at the Center in April that tried to play up his sex appeal as much as his magical powers. When Copperfield returns to the Center in January, one thing you won’t see vanishing from the stage is his ego.

* An extra scoop of stale stuffing to Opera Pacific for its sideshow, er, fund-raiser starring Luciano (Where’s My Check?) Pavarotti at the Center in January. It wasn’t cheesy enough that opera’s Top Banana actually sang for maybe 45 minutes at the concert, tickets to which cost up to $500. But the company also sold seats to his “press conference,” at which adoring, cash-wielding fans were kept waiting 3 hours while His Lateness took a nap.

Of course, such reminiscing also inevitably calls to mind those people and events who deserve our thanks for enriching cultural life in Orange County during the past year. So now, with the hatchet buried, so to speak, heartfelt thanks go out to:

* The Grove Theatre Company, not merely for surviving the aforementioned tempest, but for delivering some superior performances while under siege, notably Gregory Itzin’s masterful portrayal of “Richard II” and Benjamin Stewart’s sublime one-man reading of “Venus and Adonis.”

* Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, which lured Michael Jackson to Orange County. The county has been bypassed by several superstars--Springsteen, Prince, U2. At least we got the most dazzling tour of the year. (But where was Bubbles the chimp?)

* Dr. Dream Records, the city of Orange-based label that is getting several Orange County and Los Angeles bands on record, helping focus attention on the variety and quality of music burgeoning behind “the Orange Curtain.”

- Fractured Mirror comedy troupe, a Huntington Beach-based group that is displaying some very promising sketch writing and ensemble acting, despite the difficulty of finding venues on its home turf.

* South Coast Repertory’s potent production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which opened the ‘88-’89 season with a timeless message about the fundamental importance of individual integrity and responsibility. Another nod for picking up the 1988 Tony Award for regional theater, welcome recognition that all worthwhile culture need not originate East of the Mississippi--or north of the county line.

* Alternative Repertory Theatre, the scrappy Santa Ana troupe that is attempting ambitious and provocative plays. Sometimes, these people reach beyond their grasp. But for now, their lofty ambitions are accomplishment enough.

* The Pacific Symphony--excessive rehearsal ticket prices notwithstanding--for weathering a particularly brutal year of internal storms, most of which related to the imminent departure of founding music director Keith Clark. A fine recent concert with guest conductor Neal Stulberg reminded us that the group is still quite capable of making serious music.

* The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, for settling down during its second year as a concert club into one of the most congenial, professionally run clubs in the country. Now if they could just find a few more nights to give local bands some exposure, they would be as close to perfect as a rock fan could expect.

* The Forum Theater in Yorba Linda, for booking Queen Ida & Her Bon Temps Zydeco Band. This was a considerable departure from typical concert bookings featuring the likes of Anna Maria Alberghetti and George Gobel, and it took an important step to expand the horizons of an audience that wouldn’t normally see anyone as refreshingly far outside the cultural mainstream as the Cajun Queen.

* Finally a Unicorn Emporium, for presenting local, original theater with extremely limited resources and facilities in downtown Huntington Beach. The city’s redevelopment project is about to leave the troupe among the homeless. Here’s hoping a new site can be found.

* The Wild Cards, long one of the brightest talents on the county’s pop music scene, for finally releasing an album, “Cool Never Cold,” that delivers on the quartet’s considerable promise.

* The James Harman Band, another favorite in local clubs, for rebounding from the potentially death-dealing departures of guitarist David (Kid) Ramos and bassist Willie J. Campbell. The personality and chemistry that Ramos and Campbell took with them can never be replaced, but Harman and veteran drummer Stephen Hodges sound as enthusiastic as ever with the additions of guitarist Joel Foy and bassist Jeff Turmes.

Plus, the band finally rectified its vinyl shortage by releasing not one, but two fine albums this year.

* The Newport Harbor Art Museum, for resuscitating the Contemporary Culture series in 1988 with several performances by cutting-edge musicians and video and performance artists. Because art isn’t always the kind that hangs quietly on a wall.

* Hal Holbrook, for his performance as Mark Twain at the Center in March, which helped keep alive the ever-appropriate thoughts and words of this most American of writers.

* The Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, for bucking conventional wisdom and proving that there’s life for contemporary R&B; in Orange County via shows with Keith Sweat, Kool & the Gang, Jermaine Stewart, Zapp with Roger Troutman, Ice T and others.

* The California Cajun Trio, for its monthly series of dances in Anaheim featuring traditional Cajun and zydeco music, lending a welcome dash of Louisiana spice to Orange County.

* The Balboa Cinema in Newport Beach and Port Theatre in Corona del Mar, for surviving in the face of blockbuster movies and the omnipresent home video rental business. Both theaters provide a vital service by giving small, offbeat or art films exposure in Orange County that they aren’t getting from the major theater chains.

* Steve Redfearn, general manager of Pacific Amphitheatre, for his 5 years of informed and well-tempered guidance of the facility. Redfearn recently resigned to head up a concert amphitheater being built in Atlanta. His amiable presence, keen professionalism and good humor will be sorely missed from this often cutthroat concert marketplace.

* And, lastly, to everyone who aspires to make culture in Orange County mean something more than the corner frozen yogurt store.

Turkeys