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154 S. Woodward, Birmingham
(248) 540-8780

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Bloomfield Township
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4763 Haggerty Rd. at Pontiac Trail
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SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

G

NEW LOCATION:
525 N. Main
Milford
(248) 684-1772

UPTOWN PARTHENON

HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT

33292 West 12 Mile
Farmington Hills
(248) 489-9777
Serving whitefish, lamb shank,
pastitsio and moussaka

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Above:
Rena Strober:
"There's no
community
that I'd rather
be around than
a Jewish
community,
especially now
while IM
on the road."

Written by Alain Boublil,
a Tunisian-born Jew, and
Claude-Michel Schonberg,
Les Miserables was adapted
from the French by Herbert
Kretzmer and has addition-
al material by James
Fenton.
"Les Miserables has been
one of my favorite shows
since I've been 14," says

Cast in "Les Miserables," Rena Strober never loses
her enthusiasm for the musical making its seventh
visit to Detroit's Fisher Theatre.

4301 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
(248) 538-6000

I

etting in touch with religion
was not what Rena Strober
expected when she began
touring in the musical Les
Miserables, but that's what happened.
Strober, a member of the chorus and
the understudy for the adult Cosette,
uses offstage time to attend services,
scout Jewish activities, find
outlets for kosher food and
study Hebrew.
During some breaks from
appearances at the Fisher
Theatre Dec. 5-Jan. 13, the
actress will be visiting with a
person whose family she met
at a Cleveland synagogue.
Throughout the 10 months Strober
has been traveling away from relatives
and close friends, she has found stabil
ity through religious connections.
"I was raised Conservative and just
started going to synagogue on
Saturday mornings before matinees,"
says Strober, 24. "I picked up a book
[that is a] basic guide to Judaism and
fell in love with what it had to say and
the guidance it was giving me.
"I feel like I fit into any community
because I'm an extrovert, but there's no
community that I'd rather be around
than a Jewish community, especially
now while I'm on the road. Every syn-

agogue really has welcomed me,
and I always meet people with
wonderful stories."
Being able to find religion-
based activities has rounded out
Strober's days because she never
loses her excitement about
being cast in Les Miserables, the
musical based on Victor Hugo's
classic novel.
The epic saga sweeps through

three turbulent decades of 19th-centu-
ry France as it tells the story of fugi-
tive Jean Valjean (Randal Keith), who
is pitted against the cruel and self-
righteous Inspector Javert (Stephen
Bishop) in a lifelong struggle to evade
capture for stealing a loaf of bread.
This will be the seventh time Les
Miz has been booked at the Fisher.
The $4.2 million production replicates
the Broadway version in its entirety.
Now in its 15th year in London and
14th year on Broadway, the play has
won 50 major awards internationally,
including the 1987 Tony Award for
Best Musical.

Strober, in her first traveling produc-
tion. "I saw it on Broadway, and this
tour actually came to a theater a half
hour from the small New York town
where I grew up, so I got to see it
again when I was 15.
"I can listen to the CD over and
over without having to fast forward
through any song. It's a three-hour-
and-15-minute musical, but audiences
don't feel it's that long because they're
trapped in the journey of Jean Valjean.
"I think I've grown to appreciate it
more being on the road because we're
on a journey as well. Jean Valjean goes
day by day trying to find out who he