Newton-John Dominates musical fantasy
Olivia Newton-John is catapulted into fancier, more-stylized magic-like trimmings in Xanadu, a musical fantasy, and it's clear that the motion picture is designed to be totally hers, from beginning to end.
The picture, now playing at the Odeon Theatre in Saskatoon, is a delightful, lyrical romp and, in a sense, has to take on a magical and highly-spectacular appearance for an encore befitting the talent of a Newton-John.
Her first picture. Grease, was the most successful film musical in history and the catch in trying to maintain her career at an even keel was in finding the right property. Xanadu establishes Newton-John as a muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, who comes down to Earth to brighten up the lives of two men.
One is Gene Kelly, a former clarinet player and big band ace in the 1940s, who longs for a return to show business even though he's been financially successful in a family construction empire.
The other is Michael Beck, a young artist who duplicates record album covers for billboards and is thoroughly unhappy with the static condition of his life.
It takes the urging of a muse to bring the two men together in a venture of building a nightclub which will be the ultimate on the scene.
And it takes the muse's recitation of Coleridge's famous poem. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure dome decree.
to provide the inspiration for the name of a modern-day structural miracle.
Newton-John, as the muse, starts her mission innocently enough, rollerskating on a boardwalk adjacent to a beach and kissing the passing artist, but a friendship, which was supposed to be fleeting, suddenly turns into something quite emotional. The threat is that the young man is bound to wind up in a pool of emptiness.
Newton-John does what is expected of her. She looks pretty, maintains an atmosphere of sweet-ness, sings extremely well (although some sparkle is lost in voice-over manufacturing), and blends all the qualities into a designed shot at being filmdom's new love goddess.
Not only does Newton-John find herself surrounded by neon-like coronas on occasion but she is thrown into a most lavish finale. She tap-dances in a 1940s sunsuit with her hair in an updo Betty Grable style. She wears a tiger skin vest and slit mini-skirt for a hot rock number. She wears a white-fringed cowboy outfit in a country hoedown. And she glides up the ramp in an elegant Erte-Influenced gown in the show-girl number.
In the finale. there are 237 dancers, roller skaters and speciality acts amidst rotating platforms, stages, mirrored panels and fountains, with the music of different eras blended into a rousing climax.
Kelly threatened not to dance in this film but he does. Beck, who showed a dynamite presence in The Warriors, was oast as the young hero and succeeds admirably in the quiet one-to-one situations but tends to get lost in the big production routines. Any other speaking parts are minimal.
The carrying powers of the picture are Newton-John: the music and the production numbers; and the amazing special effects.
The movie obviously contains some hit song material like Magic, I'm Alive. All Over The World, Suddenly and the title song. John Farrar wrote five songs for Newton-John and Jeff Lynne, driving force behind Electric Light Orchestra, penned another five. Cliff Richard does the singing on Beck's behalf and The Tubes also appear in a couple of energetic numbers.
There are some splendid achievements in special effects but the peak is attained when two lovers, standing under a star- littered sky, become figures in a world of fantasy, magically transformed for moments into birds and fishes. The two-minute animated sequence was provided by Don Bluth Productions. their first work in a major film.
Some people may find Xanadu an over-indulgence in brilliant colors and effects, much like The Wiz, but fortunately this time, Newton-John's presence will keep the picture from being a box-office disappointment.
It's simply good, escapist fun and even though it has an adult rating, some mildy-suggestive dancing. Isn't going to keep the family audience away.
By Ned Powers of the Star-Phoenix