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News 6- Reviews.

hectors FUrtwangler with endless
questions, entirely unswayed by
The only clear thing about Ronald
the maestro's lofty reputation and
Harwood's Taking Sides at the Jewish
his defense of high art.
Ensemble Theatre is its ambiguity.
The superb Robert Grossman
By remaining in Hitler's Germany,
projects
a cool aloofness as the
was the great German conductor Wil-
imperious
conductor, whose
helm Furtwangler a Nazi sympathizer?
haughty
composure
crumbles as
Or was he, as he so adamantly main-
he's
forced
to
examine
his con-
tained, merely staying in the country
science.
he loved, "walking a tightrope
Charles McGraw turns in a
between exile and the gallows"?
fine
performance too as a weak-
Further, can art and politics remain
willed
German musician. As a
separate in a time of deep moral crisis?
sensitive
American lieutenant
As his Jewish colleagues fled, how
whose
parents
were killed in the
could the great artist Furtwangler
Holocaust,
David
Wolber is a bit
remain in a climate that suffocated
stiff
physically,
but
his delivery is
artistic expression?
shaded
with
subtlety.
Joanna
JET'S production offers no pat
Hastings
is
fittingly
skittish
as a
answers; in fact, it provokes several
high-strung
war
survivor,
and
more prickly questions. However,
Betsy Brandt adds depth and feel-
that's precisely the play's allure: It
ing to her role as a German secre-
causes playgoers to think, and think
tary.
Danny Gurwin: Acting's "the thing."
hard. Director Evelyn Orbach keeps
Taking
Sides
It
can
be
argued
that
the play intense and focused, and
is a bit too sympathetic
graduated from the University of
to Furtwangler's case, but
Michigan with a degree in musical
that's just one more ques-
theater in 1994 and has been perform-
tion to be settled in this
ing for regional companies around the
urgent drama.
country since then.
"It's the clearest adaptation I've ever
— Reviewed by
seen,
and audiences can really under-
George Bulanda
stand what's going on. We play
women as men to compare the
JET's Taking Sides runs
repressed Elizabethan Age to the
through March 8 at
repressed lives of the boys in prep
Aaron DeRoy Theatre,
school."
6600 W Maple, West
Gurwin portrays three roles —
Bloomfield. Tickets
Balthazar,
Tybalt and the Nurse.
$13-$23. Call (248)
"It's always been important to me
788-2900.
to be an actor first," said Gurwin.
"If a performer is not a good actor,
TAKE A BOW
it really doesn't matter how good he or
John Michael Manfredi, David Wolber and Robert
Grossman in JET' "Taking Sides."
Danny Gurwin, the son of
she is at singing."
Donald and Nancy Gur-
Still, Gurwin, who previously
win
of
Southfield,
was
cast
played
the role of Sebastian in Twelfth
despite the talky nature of the drama,
Shakespeare's
in
the
off-Broadway
show
has
put his vocal talents to
Night,
she keeps the pace rather crisp.
after
competing
with
50
other
R
61
work
in
a
cabaret
show, I Won't Dance,
Set in the American zone of occu-
hopefuls.
The
adaptation
follows
four
at
New
York's
Rainbow
& Stars.
pied Berlin, 1946, the play is set in
prep school students — all males — as
"I want to be as versatile as possi-
the dreary office of an American army
they act out Romeo and Juliet.
ble," he said.
officer.
There are no authentic costumes
John Michael Manfredi plays the
— Suzanne Chessler
or sets so the acting is, in Shake-
major intent on nailing Furtwangler as
speare's terms, "the thing." And just as
a closet Nazi. Foul-mouthed and
R 61will be performed through
in Shakespeare's times, the men take
uncultured, he's the perfect foil to the
May at the John Houseman Studio
on the women's roles.
courtly, polished Fiirtwangler. His
Theatre,
450 W. 42nd Street, New
"The play has been sold out until
voiced curled with sarcasm and mal-
York.
$40.
(212) 354- 2220.
the end of May," said Gurwin, who
ice, Manfredi is highly effective as he

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