CH ABA C1'5

CHILDREN 'csq

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CHERNOBYL

honors

Emmy Award Winning
Television Producer

Melinda "Mindy" Soble

with the annual benefit concert
featuring Israeli singing sensation

Kate Willinger, second from right, with the cast of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now
Change": "Very real relationships, but with a funny spin."

stein, the group's Midwest executive
director. The group usually hosts a fall
fund-raiser, and the theater offered the
opportunity at a time Goldstein was
looking to book the charity event.
"We have had a fall event every year

r

.

I

Formerly located across from the
Fox Theatre, the building housing
the Gem originally was built in
1927 as an addition adjoining the
20th Century Club, built in 1903 as
a facility for culturally minded
socialites. In 1928, the 20th Centu-
17 Club leased the new space to the
Motion Picture Guild.
In 1933, during the height of the
Depression, the women's organiza-
tion was forced to move out and
lease its property to a beer garden.
In the late '30s and early '40s, the
building was known as the Russian
Bear, a restaurant featuring authentic
Russian cuisine and music.
It later passed from theater group
to theater group until it became an
adult movie house in 1967. That
incarnation closed in 1978.
Detroit developer Chuck Forbes
bought the theater, in bad condi-
tion, in 1984 for $5,000. He poured
$2.5 million into renovating the
space to its original condition, with
cabaret-style main-floor seating and
a plush mezzanine level providing a
total of 450 seats. The painstakingly
restored theater reopened to stellar
reviews with The All Night Strut on
Dec. 31, 1991.
.
For just over five years, the Gem

for a number of years and I was look-
ing for something new to do," he said.
"I knew the Gem had moved and that
they were having a grand reopening.
They told me the date and it was as if
they were reading our calendar. I

continued to be the site of musicals
like Forever Plaid, Shear Madness,
Forbidden Broadway and The Lovely
Liebowitz Sisters, drawing hundreds
weekly to its performances.
But in January 1997, the Gem
closed after Detroit city officials
claimed the theater's site interfered
with plans for new football and
baseball stadiums.
Instead of letting the theater fall
• to the wrecking ball, however, the
city and the Forbes family reached
an agreement to move the theater
from its site in the theater district to
its current site in Harmonie Park,
across from the Music Hall and next
to the Detroit Athletic Club.
Fortunately, the disruption caused
little internal damage to the struc-
ture. But the owners took the time
to gut the box office, lavatories and
green room to assure handicap
accessibility.
The old 20th Century Club por-
tion of the building will undergo an
extensive renovation expected to be
completed in February 1999. It will
include a 200-seat theater, piano bar,
restaurant and catering facility.

—

Jill Davidson Sklar

Sunday
Nov. 1, 1998 / 7 PM
Southfield Centre for the Arts

For tickets and
donations call:
248.855.4482 or
248.855.8170

Also available at:
Borenstein's, Spiders and Esther's

Proceeds from the
concert will help
fund a flight to
transport radiation-
induced young victims

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9/11
1998

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