CLASSIFIEDS The Telegraph4C Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 5CThe Telegraph CLASSIFIEDS

CLASSIFIEDS The Telegraph6C Wednesday, October 10, 2018

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having conquered the recording industry to the tune of 27 million albums sold and six career Grammys. They’re both brilliant in this amazing picture and several support-ing performances ground its celebrity story in real life’s authentic way.

Given his rep and his artistic hand all over the movie, it’s easily understandable to think of “A Star is Born” as Cooper’s film. In reality, though, his Jackson Maine is a true co-lead who even is at times out-shined by the titular “star” of the movie, Ally (Gaga), an unknown songwriter who catches Jack’s eye and heart one night at an open mic event at a drag show.

In fact, one of the drag queens approach-es Maine with a great line early in the pic-ture when he asks which song to sing for the house. “Whatever, baby, as long as you look at me while you do it.” That was when I knew this movie had its hooks in me and wasn’t going to let go.

Jack is at a stalling point in his career where the arenas are still packed for his country-laced rock shows, but the tinni-tus and the booze are starting to making performing a lot more like work that any musician ever expects it to be. He’s down to stringing himself along with pills and gin, staying one step ahead of his taskmas-ter manager/older brother, Bobby (Sam Elliot). And there’s the story, one genera-tionally-arranged to give us the hard look at a relationship between a fading star and one whose cache is rising.

Smitten with Ally and bringing her on tour to duet with him is medicinal for Jack. He falls for her as fast as she falls for the glamorous lifestyle of their tragic, opposing trajectories. Jack staves off failure when he couples his fortunes with hers.

Ally takes off like a rocket due to her pop reinvention, hair color change, and plum “SNL” performance (kudos for the Alec Baldwin appearance). It’s when she becomes a bigger name than him that the old addictions start to return. He can’t handle the fame he helped her achieve and falls back to his dirty habits despite some well-intentioned advice from friends old (Dave Chappelle, playing Jack’s child-hood friend) and new (Andrew Dice Clay, a straight man vision as Ally’s wannabe crooner father). These two performances are aces for both actors, but sadly too brief to be considered more than amazing cam-eos that left me wanting more.

The music in this movie is all original and a few of the tracks are quite good. They fit the plot nicely, but none have the earworm nature to exist outside of the auditorium. Musicals often do this better, such as “City of Stars” from “La La Land,” but that may be the defining reason to con-sider “A Star is Born” a great drama first and a musical only secondarily.

If the movie is good (and it is), and Cooper is great (for sure!), then the real prize is Lady Gaga. She absolutely brings down the house with a performance that is assured and deft despite being her first fully fleshed out dramatic performance on the big screen. What’re they going to do next?

“A Star is Born” runs 136 minutes and is rated R for language throughout, some sexuality/nudity, and substance abuse. I give this film three and a half stars out of four.

From page 1C

StarNicks, Def Leppard among first-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomineesBy David BauderAssociated Press

NEW YORK — Stevie Nicks, who’s already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac, has been nominated for inclusion as a solo artist next year, along with other first-time nominees Def Lep-pard, Todd Rundgren, Devo, John Prine and Roxy Music.

Nine other artists are returning to the ballot for another try, including Janet Jackson, Radiohead and The Cure.

Generally, about five to seven nominees each year are voted into the hall, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Past inductees and industry experts vote on who gets in, and fans have a ballot, too.

Winners are announced in December, with the 34th annual ceremony scheduled for March 29 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Nicks was inducted with Fleetwood Mac in 1998. But she’s maintained an active solo career, with her best-known songs coming in the 1980s, like “Edge of Seven-teen,” ‘’Stand Back” and the Tom Petty duet, “Stop Drag-gin’ My Heart Around.”

The highly polished metal of Def Leppard sold tons of CDs back in the 1980s, led by hits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Photo-graph.”

Rundgren has been over-looked through the years, despite 1970s-era hits like “Hello It’s Me,” ‘’I Saw the Light” and “We Gotta Get

You a Woman,” and his track record as a producer of oth-ers’ work.

Devo attracted punk-era attention with their theory of deevolution and oddball cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” They also made hits of their own, including “Whip It” and “Beautiful World.”

The artsy British band Roxy Music is best known for their romantic hits “More Than This” and “Love is the Drug.” The country-folk artist Prine is a cancer survivor, with songs like “Angel From Montgom-ery” and the Iris DeMent duet “In Spite of Ourselves” in his discography. His new album, “The Tree of Forgiveness,” is a career highlight.

Rapper and actor LL Cool J and the German elec-tronic band Kraftwerk each received their fifth nomina-tion. The explosive Detroit band MC5 is back for a fourth try, as are the 1960s rockers the Zombies.

Jackson has been nomi-nated the past three years in a row and Rufus (featur-ing Chaka Kahn) is also a three-time nominee. The Cure, Radiohead and Rage Against the Machine are back for a second try.

Fans can make their feel-ings known on rockhall.com starting Tuesday. The top five vote-getters will be included as a “fans’ ballot.”

HBO will broadcast the induction at a later date and SiriusXM will have a live simulcast.

Lyric Opera musicians go on strike, threatening opera season

CHICAGO (AP) — The 64th season of the Lyric Opera of Chicago was dis-rupted when musicians walked off the job Tuesday to protest cuts proposed by management.

The musicians set up a picket line outside the Civic Opera House on Tuesday and played excerpts from various operas as they expressed opposition by the opera company to cut the number of orchestra musi-cians by five.

“What we are suggesting to the orchestra is that we reduce the number of core players through attrition and with voluntary retirement benefits,” said Lyric Opera CEO Anthony Freud. “The thing is that currently, the core number of musicians is 74. Many of the operas we perform don’t need an orchestra of 74.”

The opera company also wants to cut the pay of remaining musicians by 8 percent and the number of working weeks by two weeks to 22 weeks.

“Anthony Freud and Lyric management are demand-ing radical cuts that would

decimate the orchestra and forever diminish Lyric Opera,” the musicians say in a statement.

As a result of the strike, the Lyric cancelled Thurs-day’s matinee performance of Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Saturday’s opening night for Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” have

been cancelled. The musicians’ contract

with the opera company expired June 30. At issue is management’s contention the previous contract no longer reflects the company’s economic reality. Lyric Opera contends its diminish-ing audience can no longer

support as many weeks of performances as in the past.

“It’s a national trend that opera performances are hard-er and more expensive to sell than they ever have been,” Freud said “We’re schedul-ing the maximum number of opera performances we believe we can sell.”

Jeremy Mueller, left, and other striking Lyric Opera musicians perform as their colleagues picket outside The Civic Opera House in Chicago on Tuesday.

Terrence Antonio James | Chicago Tribune via AP