(Formerly The Leather Bottle) We've improved our look and our menu. Now serving even better handcut steaks, plus ribs, pasta and more. Weidman to join the project. Their collaboration led to two other story lines — including one that features a man as uncomfortable with social dancing as is Weidman himself. In 2000, the show received four Tony Awards. They included a best choreography award for Stroman and the grand prize of all — best musical of the year. Finding the courage to make contact with others is essential, says playwright John Weidman. writer's role on a more conventional musical — making sure that the structure is working and has maximum impact on the audience. "In a conventional musical, the talking reach- es a point where the talk- ing is no longer adequate and people have to burst into song. Here, instead of bursting into song, they burst into dance." All dinners include soup or salad, bread basket, potato & vegetable. Road. 20300 Fannin (248) 47z1-2420 Between 7 & 8 Mile 'on ast Side 100/0 OFF SENIOR CITIZEN DISCOUNT Open Daily Three Cases For Contact Father's Footsteps Weidman got his inspiration for writ- "Contact's message is that in order to feel truly alive, it's essential to find • ing from his father, Jerome Weidman, whose talents were shown in the the courage to reach out and make books for the musicals I Can Get It contact with another person," for You Wholesale and Fiorello! Weidman says. Although the senior Weidman used The show, developed in stages, con- to joke that he wanted to raise the sists of three seemingly unrelated stories. The first is based on a 1787 painting first Jewish president, he only got as of an elegant woman in a swing, by the far as encouraging completion of law school at Yale. French artist Jean-Honore Fragonard. Before graduation, John Weidman Unlike the staid painting, however, had begun writing Pacific Overtures, Contact's version has a kinky ending. which later acquired a score by The second story, set in an Italian Stephen Sondheim. Another restaurant in the 1950s, delves into Weidman-Sondheim collaboration is the fantasies of an unhappy house- Assassins. wife. The third, actually developed "My dad wrote about being Jewish first, follows a desperate advertising his whole life, and all his best work writer attracted to a woman in a night spot — the "Girl In The Yellow was anchored in his life as a Jewish kid, the son of immigrants on the Dress. " lower east side of New York," says Although Contact can be loosely Weidman, married and the father of defined as a musical, the actors on stage do not sing. The decision to use two. "My mom is not Jewish, and I was raised in a family where religion recordings instead of live singers was talked about but not practiced." emerged as a way of giving emphasis Weidman is currently writing the to the choreography. book for another musical, Wise Guys, The music that propels the charac- again with Sondheim. Based on a ters includes Robert Palmer's "Simply true story, it's about two brothers Irresistible," Dean Martin's "You're who led enormously complicated Nobody Til Somebody Loves You," lives pursuing business ventures the Beach Boys' "Do You Wanna around the country. Dance?" and Benny Goodman's "Sing Although the form of the new work Sing Sing." There also are classics by is more conventional than Contact, Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Bizet. Weidman says he and Stroman never The dance play came together with set out to do something unconven- the help of a series of workshops that tional. included set designer Thomas Lynch. "We set out to create a show that "The finished product on stage told three stories, and we used the does look very much like we imag- tools that we felt would be most ined because it really unfolded step- effective to tell these particular sto- by-step-by-step," Weidman says. ries." 71 "Each song was carefully selected to be a piece of the puzzle which helps tell the story." Contact will be performed Nov. "Because dance is the primary tool 27-Dec. 23 at the Fisher Theatre. for storytelling here, the dialogue is The show starts at 8 p.m. relatively thin," says Weidman, who Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. also writes for the PBS children's Saturdays and Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. $32.50-$67.50. show Sesame Street. "My role as the book writer was (313) 872-1000. not that different from the book yvf ",,,Y=aleMsst, Phone (248) 827-1600 www.newseoulgarden.com newseoul@hotmail.corn 27566 Northwestern Hwy. 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