48. Friday, November 16, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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"Sometimes, I think I wouldn't
wish New York on anybody," says
singer-actress Rochelle Rosenthal, as
she brews herbal tea in her art-decoed
high-rise apartment in Birmingham.
"Unless you can go- there with a
$50,000-a-year job, everything in New
York is a hassle — from taking your
bottles back to the grocery store to
picking up your dry cleaning to not
having a car and having to drag every-
thing around with you all day long —
not to mention dealing with all the
nasty people.
"And to get to anyone of impor-
tance in the entertainment business,
it's such a huge mountain — such a
huge mountain. And there I was, just
approaching the foothills. There were
days when I just didn't want to face it."
To Rosenthal, 33, who spent al-
most five years studying and perform-
ing in New York, there's no business
like show business. There's also, how-
ever, no place quite like home to the
diminutive soprano with the big,
brassy voice.
Consequently, she said good-bye
to the Big Apple a year ago and re-
turned to Detroit and environs, deter-
mined to carve out a successful career
in show business for herself here in her
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Special to The Jewish News
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and
own backyard.
She's off to a good start.
Shortly after her arrival home
last October, she did a number of TV
commercials for local auto dealers.
Then, in February, she was cast as the
Fairy Godmother in the Prince Street
Players' Cinderella, playing over 100
performances in Detroit and through-
out the East Coast. She also became
involved in an outreach program for
the Michigan Opera Theatre called
"Overture to Opera," an ensemble
which performs musical revues for
local conventions and organizations in
the metro area. Lastly, she auditioned
for and won the role of the Beggar
Woman in the Michigan Opera
, Theatre's production of Sweeny Todd,
which opens tonight at the Music Hall
and runs through Dec. 1
"I'll be terrified," says Rosenthal,
speaking of tonight. "I was even ter-
rified on the first day of rehearsals.
The nervousness is always there. But,
I'll tell you, I would get really nervous
if it wasn't, because that nervous
energy can definitely help your per-
formance. It focuses your concentra-
tion so tightly that your mind simply
cannot wander."
In the past eight years, since earn-