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WESTON, VT., Playhouse. Two men suffering hangovers from marriages on the rocks try setting up an all-male household in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple.
NASHVILLE, IND., Brown County Playhouse. Neil Simon again, churning up breezes of hilarity as a newly married couple learns how to walk Barefoot in the Park.
EXCELSIOR, MINN., The Old Log Theater. A psychiatrist writing about teen-agers despairs of ever coping with his own offspring during The Impossible Years.
DANVILLE, KY., Pioneer Playhouse. Stanley Markel's new play, Pregnant Thought, follows a married couple, both writers, through a series of mistaken matings.
CUSTER PARK, S. DAK., Black Hills Playhouse. Two old ladies from Brooklyn seduce men with wine and kill them with kindness in Arsenic and Old Lace.
RECORDS
Pop
PLAYBACK: THE APPLETREE THEATER (Verve-Forecast). Never let it be said that the Boylan brothers, John, 26, and Terence, 21, lack a sense of humor. This cycle of rock songs is an explosion of surprises, blending fey whimsy with just plain loony-bin clowning. A country corn put-on called I Been Spending Too Much Money at the Fair is a hilarious frontal attack on the Nashville sound.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (Columbia). The name this group chose for themselves may sound a bit square and their topics—sex, drugs and what's wrong with the U.S. —are hardly novel. Yet the gut level lyrics and third stream rock accompaniment are inventive and challenging. The ring modulator and Durrott Synthesizer, electronic instruments, are used as if they were invented for this group.
LUMPY GRAVY: FRANK ZAPPA AND THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION (Verve). Long before the Beatles turned acid with Sgt. Pepper, the Mothers were setting a new rock trend with their first release, entitled Freak Out. This is Album No. 4, and their musical anarchy of electronic sound, dialogue, parody, rock improvisation and jazz has developed into a vastly complex style unparalleled on the rock scene. It's not for dancing. Just lend an ear.
STRANGE NIGHT VOYAGE: THE MERCHANTS OF DREAMS (A & M Records). Peter Pan, Captain Hook, the clock-gulping Croc; Dorothy from Oz and Alice from Wonderland are aboard for this Strange Night Voyage. "Grow young," plead The Merchants. "Stay young while you can." And off these dream vendors sail in a rocking-beat boat to celebrate the joys of childhood fantasies. A solid performance, full of vitality, taste and style, with meticulous, well-wrought orchestration.
AERIAL BALLET: NILSSON (RCA Victor). While most rock singers sound like so many caterwauling cats conjugating the verb "to be," Nilsson, 25, sings with clear honesty and lack of pretense. He has composed a highly creative rock-vaudeville show with all the acts: a tap number, a cowboy ballad, a torch song, and an acrobatic display of vocal jazz scatting. Altogether an excellent performance despite an overlying, oddly out-of-place air of melancholy that sometimes threatens to spoil the fun.