Gilda Live Reviews

GILDA LIVE is simply "The Best of Gilda Radner," as the comedienne reprises her most popular characters from TV's "Saturday Night Live" (then at the peak of its initial success). Radner fans may find this a welcome compilation, but there's little here that wasn't done better on the TV show. The performance opens with Radner singing "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals" (lyrics by the sardonic Michael O'Donoghue). After a brief monologue in which she talks about having always wanted to be onstage, she appears in a number of skits on a set designed like a high school gym. In the first, she reprises an audition from her post-college days, tap dancing while singing a song called "I Love to Be Unhappy." Like much of the show, the skit calls for physical comedy that allows her to be charmingly graceless, a large part of her appeal (though one seldom utilized in her later, forgettable films). She is followed by Don Novello as his "Father Guido Sarducci" character. He gives the first of several monologues which, while designed primarily to occupy the audience during set and costume changes, provide some of the film's funniest moments. Radner returns as Judy Miller, a preteen girl who loudly improvises what she calls "The Judy Miller Show" while being confined to her room. Rock impresario Don Kirshner (Paul Shaffer reprising a wonderful impression from SNL) introduces Rhonda and the Rhondettes, led by Rhonda Weiss (Radner), the ultimate Jewish princess, who sings a song in praise of saccharine. Father Sarducci returns to talk about his proposed "Five minute university," where you can learn everything the average college graduate remembers five years after graduation. As Candy Slice, a combination of Patti Smith and Janis Joplin, Radner sings an ersatz punk ode to Mick Jagger. (Her backing band includes Shaffer on drums, soon-to-be-husband G.E. Smith on guitar, and future film composer Howard Shore on keyboards.) Nerdette Lisa Lubner takes to the piano to play "The Way We Were," by her idol, Marvin Hamlisch. Father Sarducci theorizes that in heaven, you will be required to pay for your sins--literally. Murder will cost $100,000; masturbation, maybe 25 cents. Emily Litella, who was always getting into a froth over misunderstood news items on "SNL," is a substitute teacher at an inner city high school, where she reads a fairy tale that is about to turn pornographic when the bell rings. Ultra-cute Romanian gymnast Nadia Comenici demonstrates the use of different acrobatic equipment, giving Radner a chance for more physical comedy. Gleefully crude newscaster Roseanne Rosannadanna grosses out the graduating class at the Columbia University School of Journalism. The show concludes with Radner telling a story about making out with a boy while listening to Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks's "2000 Year Old Man" and singing "Honey," whose seemingly jokey lyrics ("Touch me with my clothes on...kiss me with your mouth shut") give way to a wistful and surprisingly effective bit of adult nostalgia for lost innocence. Conceived as a record album before expanding into a Broadway stage show and then this film, GILDA LIVE was inspired by the success of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's "Blues Brothers" project. But the show makes no attempt to break new ground for its talented star, whose career faded after she left "Saturday Night Live." With virtually no chance to interact with other performers, the spotlight tends to pick out the similarities among her characters rather than the range of her abilities. The dialogue includes enough profanity to have earned the film an "R" rating from the MPAA, but that's about all the writers (all "Saturday Night Live" regulars) do to take advantage of this vacation from the NBC censors. And too many of the bits depend on the audience being familiar with the characters from regular exposure on "Saturday Night Live," which makes the film (directed by Mike Nichols with no particular fire) seem dated. (Sexual situations, substance abuse, profanity.)