gle at"Sti
foot btu
Our NienwtrEoducing
Executive Chef
Michael D'Antoni
`Sunset' Cast Performs AIDS Benefit
Come On In and Try
Our Authentic New Orleans Cuisine
"Celebrating Life," a musical presentation featuring Petula Clark and other
cast members of Sunset Boulevard, will be performed 7:30 p.m. Monday,
March 15, at Temple Israel, 5725 Walnut Lake Road, in West Bloomfield.
Proceeds from the program will benefit the Michigan Jewish AIDS Coalition
(MJAC), Broadway Cares: Equity Fight Against AIDS, and Steppin' Out.
Tickets are $72 for reserved seating and $36 for general seating. Other levels
of sponsorship are available. For information, call MJAC, (248) 594-6522.
MMAN.MtW AVIVaSiat.Mak'e0 a. k . ft:olveVaNaktVakalattSAM:zavnt.iftMla:MMeaadAta
I can't do something," reveals the
director, who guided The Secret
Garden productions on Broadway and
then on tour with former Detroiter
Douglas Sills. Sills currently appears in
the Broadway production of The
Scarlet Pimpernel.
"I was told all the time that I could-
n't [direct] by well-meaning people
who didn't want me to be heartbroken.
They felt I could never make a living
from theater, and for a long time, they
were right. I only started making a liv-
ing when my first Broadway show,
Sweeney Todd, opened in 1990. I had
been directing all around the country
but made so little money."
Schulman credits some of her suc-
cess to having the feistiness of a
native New Yorker. She also credits
the encouragement of her father, a
Jewish immigrant who maintained
that America held the golden
promise that let people realize their
brightest dreams.
"The thing I didn't anticipate was
how people treated Sweeney Todd after
they realized that a woman had direct-
ed it," recalls Schulman, who was
nominated for a Tony Award as Best
Director. Her later play Violet won the
Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding
Musical and the New York Drama
Critics Circle Award for Best Musical.
"I was shocked that [my being a
woman] seemed to be the bite and
hook of every article, even the reviews.
That was only 10 years ago, but things
have changed remarkably.
When Schulman agreed to direct
Sunset Boulevard, she took on a daunt-
ing task. An earlier tour had to be
stopped in its tracks because the sets
were too cumbersome to move.
"I wanted to set the play inside a
metaphor that would enlighten the
audience about Norma's mind, and
that's why we set it inside a movie
sound stage," Schulman explains about
the production scheduled for 47 cities.
"Everything that happens gets cre-
ated inside that sound stage, where
reality and fantasy get all mixed up,
which is clearly what's going on in
"
You don't need New Orleans
for that Great Mardi Gras Cure.
NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER MONDAY-FRIDAY
Put a little party in your lunch hour.
skaat
Norma's mind as well. It also allows
for a seamlessness and movement
that's very cinematic."
While the subject of the show can be
very heavy, the play lightens up with
fun music that recalls the '50s, a con-
trast to the high-emotion songs per-
formed by Clark, whose rock recordings
hit pop charts in America as well as her
homeland of England in the '60s.
"I think Petula brings a kind of
warmth and sassiness to Norma,"
Schulman says. "She was a child movie
star and went through [some of what
Norma went through] before becom-
ing a pop singer, and she has a very
quixotic sense of humor. She can turn
on a dime, and it shows what a facile
movie actress she must have been.
"Lewis Cleale, [who plays the
young screenwriter and Norma's
romantic interest], said to me, 'I have
no trouble falling in love with her.
Apart from the fact that I find her
very sexy, she's so entertaining."'
Schulman, busy preparing Richard
Chamberlain to become the male lead
in Broadway's The Sound of Music and
taking on the new play Time and Again
set for Broadway in 1999, relaxes at her
home on a lake, where she reads —
and is beginning to write — novels.
"I want to do plays that are true to
me and courageous," the single
Schulman says. "I direct because I feel
strongly that I'm telling the story that
was created.
"It gives me great pleasure when
someone like Stephen Sondheim or
Andrew Lloyd Webber says, 'This is
what I had in mind or never realized.'
It gives me great pleasure to sit at the
back of a house and watch an audience
respond to something I've directed." ❑
Sunset Boulevard will be per-
formed at the Detroit Opera
House 8 p.m. Tuesdays-
Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays and
2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, March
2-21. $32.50-$65. For informa-
tion, call (313) 872-1000.
ataggr4/7 4egA,
or taste the perfected Old Favorites you loved.
Bring this ad in with you and get $2.00 off your entree
thru 3/6/99
248-442-2531
30685 West 12 Mile Road
(East of Orchard Lake Road)
Farmington Hill
413eAlve
.,,, ,,v,
`.">
Food & Spirits
Presents
kftS ss.," 4
::.. ": ,a'1:`W‘;'‘N.":
N,'z;,:':W% x4 '"ns:OWN
A Little Night Music...
sic... Wed. thru Sat.
NOW APPEARING AT THE PIANO BAR:
JOHN PERRY
Thurs.7:00 7 I I :00 • Fri. 6 Sat., 7:30- Midnight
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK • 248-626-2630
4108 WEST MAPLE • BLOOMFIELD HILLS
immilmilaguillalawilliallawww
\
k1111111111111111MMENNININNINIENE
Private Garden Room or Fireside Setting for
parties, receptions, wedding rehearsals,
showers, bar mitzvahs, business meetings
• Seating up to 200 people •
30715 W. TEN MILE RD.
I
(Just East of Orchard Lake Rd.)
248.474.3033
Distinto Italiano
QUALITY IS OUR PRIORITY
• 1 coupon
per person
• Dine In Only
• Expires
3-4-99
• OPEN 7 DAYS
SUN.-THURS.
11-10
MON:Was40E0.::61.:;:z.t.dee,zasit,>,m::::::ms..*::
118 SOUTH WOODWARD • ROYAL OAK
'JUST NORTH OF 10 MILE NEXT 10 ZOO
L 544-1211
FRI. & SAT.
11-11
BROASTED
OR
BAR-B-Q CHICKEN
AND WHOLE SLAB
OF RIBS
WHOLE SLAB
OF RIBS &
ROASTED OR
BAR•B•Q CHICKEN
FOR 2!
2/26
J
Detroit Jewish News
1999
89