Three For The Stage

A trio of plays of Jewish interest open in metro Detroit this month.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News

T

hree plays that capture dif-
ferent times in the Jewish
experience are about to
open at area theaters.
Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize and
Tony Award-winning comedy-drama
Lost in Yonkers draws from Simon's
youthful experiences living among
Jewish immigrants from Europe. It is
the story of two teen-age boys left in
the care of their domineering grand-
mother while their struggling widower
father goes off to look for work during
World War II. The play runs April
15-May 10 at Meadow Brook Theatre
in Rochestei.
The musical Cabaret, with book by
Joe Masteroff and music and lyrics by
Kander and Ebb, explores relation-
ships in a pre-World War II German
nightclub as the world teeters on the
edge of disaster. It will be staged April

IT=

17-26 at the Bonstelle Theatre in
Detroit.
Ivan Menchell's comedy The
Cemetery Club introduces three Jewish
widows in their early 50s who meet
monthly to remember their late hus-
bands. When a handsome love interest
enters the picture, the women's feel-
ings come to the surface and their life-
long friendship is threatened. The
Cemetery Club opens in previews April
22 and runs April 26-May 13 at the

Fund-

Raisers

To help raise funds in celebration
of its 10th anniversary, JET has
planned two fund-raisers.
The first will be a group visit to
see New York comedian Jeff Stilson
at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in
Royal Oak. The event, from 5-9
p.m. Sunday, April 19, includes
dinner, desserts and show for $45.
To celebrate his 75th birthday,
Paul Winter will debut his new
one-man, one-night-only show, Al.'
Yes, I Remember It Well, in which he
will "reinvent the past" and feature
music by the Gershwins, Yip
Harburg, Kurt Weill, Stephen
Sondheim and more.
Winter will perform at
p.m. Monday, April 27, at the
Kahn Jewish Community Center.
Tickets are $20 and $75 for
patrons.
For information on both bene-
fits, call (248) 788-2900.

Jewish Ensemble Theatre (JET) in
West Bloomfield.
In Meadow Brook's Lost in Yonkers,
Henrietta Hermelin Weinberg plays
the grandmother to Adam Rochkind's
portrayal of the older grandson. When
the two were in the same play for JET,
Rochkind took the part of the
younger grandson.
"This is not an easy family," said
Weinberg, whose character is an
immigrant. "It's about a woman who
made a conscious decision that
life was tough and she would
prepare her grandsons by being
tough with them."
Weinberg, voted last season's
best supporting actress at
Meadow Brook, thinks of the
immigrants in her own family
when she approaches the part.
Also in the cast is Julie Yolles,
who plays Aunt Gert.
In Cabaret, the center of the
action is the Kit Kat Klub in
Berlin, where a young American
writer meets the cabaret's vocalist
and engages in a troubling affair.
In a time of strife, heartache and
ugliness, the cabaret is in direct
contrast, with its nights of lights
and laughs.
Kristi Sorkin, who is part of
the chorus, says the Nazi pres-
ence is seen through soldiers in
uniform. Also in the cast is

Above left: Thom Mathis as the
Master of Ceremonies and Kit Kat
Girls Jennifer Paige Hoemke and Pasha
Demetria Stanford take the stage in the
Bonstelle production of "Cabaret."

Above: Adam Rochkind, Terry Heck
and Parker Plague perform in Meadow
Brook Theatre's production of Neil
Simon's "Lost in Yonkers."

Right: Evelyn Orbach, Arthur Beer,
Mary Bremer and Carolyn Younger star
in JET's production of "The Cemetery
Club."

Randy Topper.
Cabaret is performed locally on the
heels of a smashing revival of the play
currently playing on Broadway.
The three widows in the JET pro-
duction convey three distinct ways of
responding to death and the presence of
a handsome widower entering their
lives.
Ida (Carolyn Younger), the most
recently widowed, has deep memories
but seeks to fashion a new life. Doris
(Mary F. Bremer) clings to the past.
Lucille (Evelyn Orbach) is a would-be
vamp trying to block out memories of
her husband's philandering.
"This play is very character driven,"
said director Susan Arnold, who has
performed in two other JET plays,
Sight Unseen and Unexpected
Tenderness.
"Although the characters are Jewish,
they have the universal qualities I
think any audience would recognize in
themselves or their neighbors. One of
the universal issues they face has to do
with aging."
Arnold, in her first directing assign-
ment for JET, summarizes a thought
by writer Soren Kierkegaard in
describing what she wants viewers to
get out of the play: "Life must be
understood going backward but lived
going forward." ❑

Lost in Yin2kers will be performed
Tuesdays-Sundays, April 15-May
10, at Meadow Brook Theatre.
$18-$32/student, senior and group
discounts. (248) 377-3300.
Cabaret will be staged
Friday"Miks, April 17-
26, at the BOnstelle
Theatre, $8-$13/si0 stu-
dents, seniors and Wayne
State staff and alumni.
(313) 577-2960.
The Cemetery Club will
run Wednesdays-Thu
and Saturdays-Sundays,
April 22-May 24, at the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre.
$13-$23. Senior • ent
and\group disco
48) 78

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