ENTERTAINMENT
GOING PLACES
WEEK OF
FEB.2-FEB.8
JEWISH EVENTS
JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER
6600 W. Maple Road,
West Bloomfield, "Let Us
Entertain You" series,
Mike Burstyn, 8 p.m. Feb.
3, admission, 661-1000.
B'NAI B'RITH
HILLEL
1429 Hill. Street, Ann
Arbor, Voice of the Turtle:
Great Early Jewish Music
8 p.m. Feb. 3; movie Ashes
and Diamonds, 7 p.m. and
9 p.m. Feb. 4, admission,
769-0500.
THEATER
BLOOMFIELD
PLAYERS
Andover High School, The
Music Man, through Feb.
4, admission, 433-0885.
Barry Rosenberg, Erin Schwartz, Erika Pone, Niev Traison, Mark Blitz and Abbie Schwartzberg, along with their classmates.
Curtain Call!
STEVE HARTZ
Special to The Jewish News
M
any moons ago (circa
1958), in a far-off
place lived a Heb-
rew day school principal
with a gloomy face, for he
couldn't stage a senior class
musical.
So, he sighed alas, and he
pined, alas.
By 1967, his school —
Hillel — was alive with the
sound of music.
The musical that year, My
Fair Lady, was performed at
the then-Oak Park-based
parochial school by its 9th
graders, the graduating
class of 5727 (that's the Heb-
rew year).
Since then, 23 musical
productions have been pro-
duced at Hillel Day School,
which made the move to
Farmington Hills in 1970.
Those musicals include
Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver,
Oklahoma, Bye Bye Birdie
and last year's Annie.
The money earned from
the plays goes to tzedakah,
Hillel is alive with the sound
of music as its senior class
says farewell.
Hillel scholarship fund and
defrays the cost for senior
trips.
In June, the senior class,
comprised of 31 8th graders,
will visit Toronto. But first
they will travel back to the
medieval days as they per-
form the musical Once Upon
a Mattress 7 p.m. March 18
and 3:45 p.m. March 19.
The show is directed by
Sharon Schwartz, a former
drama teacher at Hillel, and
produced by Robin Beth
Lash, who has been teaching
drama at Hillel since
Schwartz's departure last
year.
"It's a team effort," said
Lash, who also does the
music directing. "The kids
are fun to work with. They
really do well. Students also
do all the jobs, whether it's
make-up or costumes or put-
ting together the programs.
And our art teacher, Carol
Knoll, is working with some
students on the set."
The musical is based on
the fairy tale The Princess
and the Pea and was in-
troduced on Broadway in
1959 as Once Upon a Mat-
tress, starring a young and
upcoming comedienne —
Carol Burnett. Burnett
brought to life Princess
Winnefred the Woebegone.
In Hillel's production,
Erika Pone will star as Win-
nefred.
"I like performing," said
Pone, who has acted in other
plays produced by Lash, in-
cluding To live Another
Summer and To Pass An-
other Winter, at Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek.
The other female leads
belong to Erin Schwartz,
who will play Lady Larken,
and Abbie Schwarzberg, who
will take on the role of
Queen Aggravain.
"My role is more on the
obnoxious side," Schwarz-
berg said. "The queen is
really mean."
One of the characters the
queen chooses to pick on is
Lady Larken.
"Larken wants to get mar-
ried to Sir Harry, and to do
that he has to find a princess
for Prince Dauntless (per the
queen's orders)," Schwartz
said.
Niev Traison plays the
over-protected prince,
Dauntless. "I enjoy the sing-
ing and acting, but I don't
like all the preparation,"
said Traison, who hasn't ap-
peared in a play since 2nd
grade. "I feel very honored
to be one of the leads."
The other leading males
are Mark Blitz, who portrays
the speechless king, David
Rosemberg, who narrates
the musical as the minstrel,
and Barry Rosenberg, who
plays Sir Harry.
"The last big play I was in
ROSEDALE
COMMUNITY
PLAYERS
The Upstage, 21728
Grand River, Detroit, -
Barefoot in the Park, Feb.
9-24, admission,
534-4010.
FARMINGTON
PLAYERS
Farmington Players
Barn, Farmington Hills,
Waiting for the Parade,
through Feb. 24,
admission, 538-1670.
FISHER
Detroit, The Unsinkable
Molly Brown, through
Feb. 18, admission,
872-1000.
ATTIC THEATER
2990 W. Grand
Boulevard, Detroit, A
Shayna Maidel, through
Feb. 25, admission,
875-8284.
VILLAGE PLAYERS
Birmingham, The Trip to
Bountiful, through Feb. 4,
admission, 644-2075.
PLAYERS GUILD
OF DEARBORN
21730 Madison, Murder
Among Friends, through
Feb. 3, admission,
561-TKTS.
DETROIT
REPERTORY
13103 Woodrow Wilson,
Detroit, Fences, through
March 18, admission,
868-1347.
•
BIRMINGHAM
211 S. Woodward, Oh
Kay!, through Feb. 4,
admission, 644-3533.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
65