The Westfield Leader Newspaper
The Times of Scotch Plains-Fanwood

CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK

Arts & Entertainment

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Lucille Ball (19111989 )

Lucille Ball

Music Box

A Review of Local Concerts

David Palladino’s

WITH KERRIANNE SPELLMAN CORT Take the Stage

Continued on Page 20

Pen and Ink

By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN Whitney Houston Whitney’s Oscar Dismissal Stirs Up

Rumors of Drug Abuse, Suspicions

It’s probably inappropriate to list this as a hobby on my resume, but I deliver a pretty good version of Whitney Houston’s “I Believe In You and Me” and “The Greatest Love of All” during a Saturday morning shower. I’ve long emulated and admired Houston’s vocal range and loved watching her rise to the status she deserved to attain. A supreme Diva if there ever was one, she has stolen every

Courtesy of Barbara Guidi Daaimah Talley and Andre DeSandies With blazing red hair,

America’s favorite funny girl Lucille Ball had an uncanny habit of taking life’s bowls of sour cherries and turning them into sweet surprises and successes.

A native of Jamestown, N. Y., Ball was left without a father at age 4 and became determined to succeed in entertainment. Because of several failed auditions for Broadway chorus lines, Ball decided to turn to modeling at fashion designer Hattie Carnegie’s studio.

Capturing the eye of movie execs as the Chesterfield Cigarette Girl in the early 1930s, Ball earned her first silver screen role in Roman Scandals.

In the next decade, 60 films would follow with Ball’s name in the credits. In 1940, she married Desi Arnaz.

Teaming up with Arnaz was both a blessing and a curse for Ball in the “I Love Lucy” television series which began in 1951 and grabbed five Emmy Awards. Quirky, whiny and whimsical, Ball’s rendition of Ricky Ricardo’s wife was unmistakably one of the most classic characters in television history.

When the marriage’s tumult became too intolerable for Ball, she split from Arnaz in 1960 and began “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” While cameo roles and television specials followed up to the late 1980s, attentive audiences were hard to find.

After open heart surgery in April 1989, Ball died a week later at the age of 77.

Special Notice:

The Arts & Entertainment Section will turn 1 yr. old next week. To celebrate, we will publish articles dedicated to the ambiance and opportunities of New York City.

Michelle H. LePoidevin for The Westfield Leader and The Times

COOKING IN GRAND STYLE... Westfield resident Liz Scott drizzles olive oil atop spears of fresh green asparagus at the Cranford home of Beau and Janet Hopkins.

show s i n c e h e r early Gospelsinging days in Newark. She has stolen every show… except for this year’s Oscars – one of the biggest yawners of Academy Award history.

Reportedly, Houston was asked by Burt Bacharach to leave rehearsals for a compilation of favorite love songs when she could not focus and perform the music.

An Oscar source revealed, “She was clearly very out of it. It was so obvious.” However, representatives for the star of The Bodyguard and

Waiting to Exhale retorted that Houston was only suffering from a “sore throat” – a comment most Hollywood insiders balk at since rumors have been flying about the vocalist’s possible drug use since she was supposedly caught in Hawaii with 15.2 grams of marijuana at an airport security checkpoint in January.

Since her marriage to Bobby Brown back in the 1990s (which wasn’t all that long ago), Houston’s relationship with Brown and his reported jaunts have been fodder for the hungry press who can’t seem to get enough of digging into her private life. As I have expressed in earlier editorials, we should look at these celebrities as the human beings that they are and not infallible icons.

It is my sincere hope that if Houston is really suffering from substance abuse problems, she has the courage to conquer them and win. While it was not unreasonable for Bacharach to ask Houston to leave the rehearsal stage (he reportedly gave her time for breaks to rework her vocal cords), I hope Hollywood will not turn its back on a probable problem. Instead, they should encourage the Diva to find her true path again before it is too late and no one can reach her. Continued on Page 20

By KERRIANNE SPELLMAN CORT

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times

CRANFORD — The Theater Project at Union County College (UCC) recently staged the A. R. Gurney comedy, The Golden Fleece, at the Roy Smith Theater on

the Cranford Campus of UCC. Mr. Gurney’s wonderfully funny and touching work has been seen across America and on the terrific OffBroadway stages of The Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and The Westside Theater, to name a few. His interesting, witty plays focus on the intimate and sometimes bizarre relationships of human beings and include The Dining Room, Overtime, Later Life, Love Letters and the outstanding Sylvia.

His work is the kind that makes acting students salivate, filled with wellwritten, fastpaced dialogue and timeless messages. The casts of his plays are usually on the small side, allowing the audience to get a closer look at the characters that are featured in the piece

and not be overwhelmed by a larger ensemble.

The celebrity vehicle Love Letters

is still an enormous hit, playing in summer stock and regional theaters around the country.

The Golden Fleece is actually two oneact plays by Mr. Gurney. The Problem plays first and is followed by the second oneact,

The Golden Fleece. The two pieces are performed without an intermission.

The Problem is a hysterical look at the relationship between an average married couple in suburbia. The husband and wife have resorted to playing tricks and telling dirty little lies to one another in order to keep their love life interesting. The wife is “pregnant” with another man’s baby, (which is actually a balloon that her husband later pops) and the husband insists that he is the African American gentleman caller that she insists impregnated her.

How could this average Cauca

The Golden Fleece Production Teaches Lesson: Less Is More

Continued on Page 20

Tortelloni with Rustic Ragu and Porcini Mushrooms. In a recent project, Liz Scott combined her art and food knowledge to create dishes reflecting the palette of Italian Renaissance painters.

Courtesy of Liz Scott

WSO Spells Success After Jonas, Pierce Performance Westfield Chef Liz Scott Makes

Healthy, Personalized Cuisine a Breeze

Fine 14 Karat gold jewelry, custom

arranged to feature the birthstones of mother’s gems – her children.

All year long she indulges you. It’s time you returned the favor.

NOW IN OUR 55 th YEAR

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PERSONAL CHEF HAS COOKED FOR ROCKEFELLER, ASTOR AND DUPONT

By DAVID PALLADINO

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times

WESTFIELD — Drawing a crowd from central and northern New Jersey counties, The Westfield Symphony Orchestra (WSO) combined a number of musical elements last weekend to produce one of their great successes of the season.

The concert was held at the Union County Arts Center in Rahway and featured a number of special elements. With musical genres moving from the structured Classical era up through the passionate Romantic era and up into the modern classical and jazz styles.

To have the accomplished pianists Joshua Pierce and Dorothy Jonas made the evening even more special. Additionally, the concert offered a world premier piece as well as a powerful rendition of the

“Brahms 3rd Symphony.” The concert opened with a world premier piece by Mark McGurty which was commissioned and written in 1999 for the WSO and dedicated to the memory of C. Alexander Peloquin. The 10minute single movement piece had six sections based on sections from the medieval chant Te Deum.

The piece was turbulent with many tempo changes, which Maestro David Wroe handled with precision. A particularly outstanding performance by the brass section. The full orchestra played with vigor and very aggressively.

A dramatic change in pace brought pianist Pierce to the stage to perform the Duke Ellington “New World AComin’.” Here, with this parting from classical music and into the realm of jazz, we were truly able to see the versatility of Pierce as well as the orchestra.

Both demonstrated a strong showing in the jazz style. Pierce has full command of the jazz genre. Of particular note were Principal Clarinetist William Shadels short, but perfectly intonated solos. Principal bass Vincent Carano provided the stable, musically driving bass for the piece.

In the next change of genre, the dualpianists took the stage to perform the charming Classical piece, “Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, K. 365.”

As with all Mozart, the piece was very well put together. The opening Allegro was typically Mozartian; smooth, refined, bold. Their styles became immediately apparent.

Pierce, who has immense technical command of the instrument along with highly articulate phrasing combined and complemented perfectly with the sensitive phrasing, accuracy and finessed interpretation of Jonas.

Musical ideas were tossed back

By BILLY CALLAHAN

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times

WESTFIELD — Families absorbed in the rush of life now have a new opportunity to catch a break.

Westfield resident Liz Scott offers her culinary talents to busy families wishing to free up quality time while still eating a healthy balanced meal together. Once only a privilege the wealthy enjoyed, having a personal chef is now an affordable and convenient answer to the neverending question, “What’s for dinner?”

“It’s an important social action to sit down to a meal together,” Liz opined. “When I was growing up, homecooked meals were a big part of my life. Dinnertime was when the family got together to catch up on things and share fabulous food prepared with care.

“Unfortunately, schedules are so stressed to the limit these days that there just isn’t enough time to prepare meals the way we used to,” she continued. “There are so many activities going on around this area, and parents want to have more family time together than just stopping at McDonald’s on the way home from basketball practice.

“We’re living in an era where people are more conscious of what they eat, more interested in organic products and expanding their palette. So the question is, ‘How do we fit this into our lives? With the service I provide, people can return to the basics of quality family time and a healthy eating schedule,” she said.

“There’s a trend in the restaurant industry where diners are being lured into ‘familystyle atmospheres’ for ‘oldfashioned

comfort food, ’” Liz observed. “But, somehow, it’s just not the same as enjoying a meal at home.”

Her “Top Cat” service prepares exquisite meals in portions large enough to be used for further “reheats.” Ideal for twocareer couples, new mothers and seniors,

Top Cat also offers a catering service for weddings, birthdays, luncheons and dinner parties. When on certain weeks it’s not convenient to cook at a client’s house, Liz cooks in her own kitchen

and delivers the week’s meals, done in the same fashion.

“When I meet a client,” she stated, “we just sit and discuss if anyone is allergic to anything, if anyone is on a specific diet; we discuss menu, what the kids like, what they don’t like. Everything is very personalized and so I feel like I’m participating in making their lives more full.”

In 1998, Time

magazine published a list of the top 10 upandcoming occupations for the millennium. Personal home chef was one of them. In this regard, Liz feels confident in her abilities.

“I have a true passion for cooking,” she enlightened, “a palette for it, and I relish what I do. I have a good visual sense and a really broad knowledge, and these are all things I bring to the process. You don’t have to have these as a chef, but to me, I think it enhances the final product.

“I think that with the end product you can taste if someone has given it attention,” she observed. “I also firmly believe that if you are lucky enough to find your unique talent, you should give it back to your community. It’s tremendously satisfying to know you are making a difference in people’s lives and in their health.”

During a cooking tour of the Cranford home of Janet and Beau Hopkins, where Liz has worked her magic for the past 2½ years, it was evident that the couple and their two young children were all well pleased with this concept.

“She comes every Tuesday and Friday,” said Mrs. Hopkins, “and what she makes usually lasts until she comes again. She does all the meal planning, as well as the shopping that’s related to the meal. We are likeminded about nutrition and work very well together.

“Typically, we talk the night before on the phone, about different meal possibilities and whether relatives or friends might be coming,” Mrs. Hopkins revealed. “She can gear her cooking to different types of diet or nutritional needs, and, to exactly what we want. She’s very flexible.”

“This has helped my wife tremendously,” offered Mr. Hopkins, “because it relieves her hectic schedule, freeing up her afternoon. If you have to do laundry and house chores and cooking, too, you get in a rhythm of sameness, and get easily bored with it.

“This way, we have variety, not the same meals every week. Sometimes you get in a routine in family life where every certain night you have this, the next you have that again. Now there’s a lot more spice in what we have.”

“I’m a pretty good cook myself,” Mrs. Hopkins told The Westfield

Leader and The Times, “but with two kids I’m busy. Now I have more time in the afternoon with my kids, to help them with homework and all the afterschool activities they’re involved in, and I don’t have to worry about getting