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Tent
"Beau Jest" at the Birmingham Theater.
Restaurant & Lounge
Sherman's 'Beau Jest'
Keeps Its Promise
Open for lunch and dinner
7 days a week.
OUR NEWEST LOCATION:
SOUTHFIELD
27522 Northwestern Hwy.
(11 Mile Between Lahser & Telegraph)
354-3700 FAX: 354-0647
ROCHESTER HILLS
ROSEVILLE
2601 South Rochester Rd.
20753 13 Mile Rd.
(North of Auburn Rd.)
(At Little Mack)
852-0170
Rosemack Shopping Center
293-4640
$3.00 OFF DINNER
20% OFF CARRY-OUTS
Purchase 1 entree and receive
$3.00 OFF
the purchase of a second entree.
For any carry-out order
totalling $20.00 ore more receive
20% OFF your total.
One per person, per order. Sun.-Thur.
Doesn't apply to split orders.
PEARL CITY
GOOD THRU 11-30-90
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One coupon per order.
Offer good every day.
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QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY IS OUR PRIORITY!
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FORMERLY OF TALLY HALL
HOME. OF THE 2 FOR 1 DINNER MENU
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All Natural Ingredients . . No Preservatives ... No Additives
Featuring Homemade Mid-Eastern Specialties
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84
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1990
A Tradition Since 1934
-gine
21 irtin9
and
C octictiA
In a Warm, Friendly
Atmosphere
Choice Meats and
Fresh Fish Daily
ALL FRESH FRUIT PIES,
APPLE STRUDEL,
COGNAC TORTES
1128 East Nine Mile Road
(1/2 Mile East of 1-75)
Hazel Park, MI 48030
(313) 541-2132
EDWARD KARAM
Special to The Jewish News
T
he first big laugh
in James Sherman's
Beau Jest comes about
20 second into the show, and
it's such a good one that it's
unsettling. Can it be that Mr.
Sherman has promised us too
much at the start? Not at all.
Mr. Sherman's comedy,
which is playing at the Birm-
ingham Theatre until Dec. 16
is about the search for iden-
tity and the need for children
and pai'ents to redefine their
relationships as adults. A
30-ish kindergarten teacher,
Sarah Goldman, is having
problems with her overbear-
ing parents, Abe and Miriam,
who disapprove of her non-
Jewish boyfriend Chris. To
placate them, Sarah has
hired an escort to pose as a
new Jewish boyfriend,
although she's still dating
Chris.
The folks, along with her
brother Joel, are due any
minute for dinner to meet her
new suitor. But there's been a
glitch. Bob Schroeder, the
sometime actor who's been
hired was supposed to be
Jewish but he doesn't know
a bagel from a kugel, and —
gosh, there's the doorbell!
Kathy Danzer as Sarah is a
marvel of neuroses. Her face
always seems scrunched up in
wince, her long blonde hair
looks as frazzled as her
nerves. "They'll know!" she
keens. "They can spot a Jew
a mile away! It's like radar!"
But Bob is an actor, and even
if he isn't Jewish, he has
chutzpah.
Allen Fitzpatrick's Bob may
hyperventilate and wring his
hands just a little, but then
Sarah didn't mention that he
was supposed to be a surgeon.
Mr. Fitzpatrick balances the
character's nervousness and
self-assurance skillfully.
When Miriam asks him,
"What are you, Sephardic?",
Bob's answer is perfectly
reasonable: "No, I'm Jewish."
Chemistry intervenes, of
course, and by the end of the
evening's charade it's clear
that Bob doesn't want to go
and Sarah is more than
grateful for his help. Mr. Fitz-
patrick and Ms. Goldman
play this scene with a ten-
tative awkwardness that's
The sometime
actor who's been
hired was
supposed to be
Jewish but doesn't
know bagel from
kugel.
since
But,
endearing.
Passover is two weeks away,
Sarah has to call for his help
again.
Sarah's problem is that she
doesn't want to disappoint her
parents, so she suppresses her
own feelings to please them.
There's an eccentric clutter of
hats and various clothes
around the mirror in Stephen
P. Litwin's excellent set —
combination living and din-
ing room — that suggests
Sarah's confusion about her
identity. With help from Joel
and Bob, she eventually ac-
cepts responsibility for defin-
ing her own life.
Bob, too, is a man with an
uncertain identity — the
typical actor-waiter-bar-
tender-masseur. But during
the Passover supper, Mr. Fitz-
patrick's face and voice sud-
denly acquire gravity, and we
know that Bob has found an
identity in Judaism.
Director Susan Rosenstock