I ENTERTAINMENT I
Baby Dance Addresses
Moral Guilt Problem
You are cordially invited to a bountiful feast.
• An afternoon of epicurean delights
presented by more than 30 of Michigan's premiere chefs.
Special to The Jewish News
-
Pearl City
Pike Street
Ranier's Pastry
Ristorante Di Modesta
Saad Pastries
Savino Italian Sorbet
Sebastian's Grill
Shanghai Cafe
The Sizzling Crab
The Skyline Club
Southfield Marriott Hotel
Superior Coffee Co.
Tango's European Bistro &
Bouquets
Vineyards/Taste of Seasons
Van Dyke Place
The Whitney
Wine by General Wine Company
For more information, contact Southfield Community Relations Department, (313) 354 4854.
-
RESPONSE CARD MICHIGAN THE BOUNTIFUL
February 2, 1992 — 3-6 p.m.
—
Southfield Pavilion, Southfield Civic Center
NAME
ADDRESS
STATE
CITY
TELEPHONE: (home)
ZIP
(work).
@ $39.50 each Total enclosed: $
Number of Tickets:
Advance ticket deadline: January 28, 1992
Advance ticket deadline in person: January 31, 1992
Return this form, with check payable to Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association, to:
MICHIGAN THE BOUNTIFUL
Community Relations Department
City of Southfield
26000 Evergreen Road
P.O. Box 2055
Southfield, Michigan 48037-2055
SOUTHFIELD
AN INTERNATIONAL CITY
60
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1992
4
T
Participating Establishments
The Baker's Loaf
Chimayo
Cocina del Sol
Detroit Athletic Club
The Detroit Club
Excalibur
The Golden Mushroom
Hogan's of Birmingham
Jacques Demers Restaurant
Le Metro
Machus, Inc.
MacKinnon's
Mark of Excellence Catering
Morels, A Michigan Bistro
Musashi Japanese Cuisine &
Sushi Bar
Pals of Bloomfield
The Peacock
4
MICHAEL ELKIN
Sunday, February 2, 1992, 3 6 p.m.
Southfield Pavilion, Southfield Civic Center, 26000 Evergreen Road.
$39.50 per person advance ticket (by mail by January 28)
$45 per person at the door
Tickets available at the City Hall Reception Desk
at the Civic Center (through January 31).
Co-sponsored by the City of Southfield
• and the Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association.
Proceeds benefit the Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association Scholarship Fund.
Hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, entrees, desserts, pastries and wine.
Experience the ultimate—Experience Michigan's finest cuisine.
Semi-formal attire requested.
•
he Baby Dance is a
bitter two-step bet-
ween two couples
pitted against each other in
an adoption procedure, with
an unborn child caught in
the middle.
The Jane Anderson drama
is a taut and touching
"dance" of diametric oppo-
sites — the yapping yuppies
from L.A. who time their
lives by the Rolexes they
sport, and the dirt-poor
Louisiana couple, pregnant
with problems, whose un-
born baby the California
couple covets.
Ms. Anderson's play takes
an issue usually portrayed
in stark, uncompromising
tones and colors it with the
reality of red-hot tempers,
moody blues and the grays of
morality that temper the
process of "buying babies."
There is no simple formula
to follow when this adoption,
as all concerned learn quick-
ly, becomes anything but
child's play.
L.A. law hasn't prepared
Richard (Joel Polis) for his
brief encounter with Loui-
siana ethics and ethnics.
When he and his urbane
wife (Stephanie Zimbalist)
tangle with the down-home
hicks (Genie Francis and
Richard Lineback), it
becomes a rube awakening.
It is to the playwright's —
and players' — credit,
however, that the characters
created aren't caricatures,
that the clash of city/country
is a dramatic conflict arising
naturally out of conditions
on stage.
As Richard, Joel Polis is
caught in a precarious
parent trap, bending, but not
breaking, when push comes
to shove in an emotional
showdown over the unborn
baby's future.
A gifted actor whose
credits include considerable
stage work (Family Busi-
ness, Ghetto) on both coasts,
Mr. Polis is a familiar figure
to TV fans who cheer his ap-
pearances as the barbarous
barkeep Gary on "Cheers."
There is much to cheer
about in Mr. Polis' polished
work in the play. His per-
formance as the Jewish at-
torney is outstanding, offer-
ing a powerful perspective of
Michael Elkin is entertain-
ment editor for the Jewish Ex-
ponent in Philadelphia.
4
-4
Joel Polls:
As Rachel's husband.
a man forced to cope with his
own sense of moral guilt.
The fact that Richard is
Jewish is no accident, says
Mr. Polis, who is Jewish
himself. "He happens to be
the kind of entertainment
attorney" one often runs
into in Los Angeles.
Mr. Polis is enjoying a
healthy run with Dance. He
has been in the play for the
past 1Y2 years, crisscrossing
the country and trailing
critical kudos.
But there has been one re-
view that has stung cast and
crew by criticizing the play's
focus on the character's Jew-
ishness. One major New
4
York critic carped that
writing Richard as Jewish
was nearly an anti-Semitic
act.
-4
"I was stunned," says Mr.
Polis, who considers such
criticism of the lawyer un-
just.
•
Facts are facts, even when
it comes to a stage fiction:
many entertainment peo-
ple in power out L.A. way
are Jewish, says Mr. Polis.
Portraying such a character
on stage is not a wild — nor
anti-Semitic —stretch of the
imagination.
Richard is somewhat of a
stretch for Mr. Polis, a good-
'4
natured guy whose off-
putting onstage character
bears the brunt of making a
painful decision about the
baby at play's end.
"I'm the bad guy in the
play," says Mr. Polis, who
made many a friend atten-
ding the University of
Southern California and
then the Yale Drama School.
In reality, he says, the
decision he is forced to make
concerning the unborn