Best Bets
CLASSICAL
NarEs
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra launches its 2002-
2003 season with a gala Opening fund-raiser featuring
opera-star soprano Kathleen Battle 9 p.m. Friday, Sept.
13, at the Detroit Opera House; concert only tickets:
$25-$75. At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, Itzhak
Perlman leads the DSO in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
and works by Mozart and Mahler, also at the Detroit
Opera House; $15-$80. (313) 576-5111.
Kerrytown Concert House hosts its 7th Annual
Parisian Soiree, featuring French classical and cabaret
music performed by local musicians, 8 p.m. Friday
and Saturday, Sept. 13-14. $15-$30. (734) 769-2999.
The Friends of the Opera of Michigan present
Pietro Mascagni's signature work, Cavalleria
Rustanica, 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Ford
Community and Performing Arts Center in
Dearborn. $20. (313) 943-2354.
RocK/ Pop/JAzz
The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival presents
two days of outdoor shows 1-9 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday (erev Yom Kippur) at Gallup Park. Koko
Taylor headlines Saturday; Lenny Kravitz sideman
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe headlines Sunday.
$15-$25. (734) 747-9955.
The Ark presents singer-songwriter John Prine 8
p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Michigan Theater in
Ann Arbor. $28.50-$35. (248) 645-6666.
DTE Energy Music Theatre hosts the Righteous
Brothers, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, $20-
$32.50; and Aerosmith, with Cheap Trick and
Run-DMC, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18,
$35.50-$83. (248) 645-6666.
Kid Rock, with Lynyrd Skynyrd, performs 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 19 (Sept. 20 show is sold out), at
Joe Louis Arena. $35. (248) 645-6666.
Tickets are now on sale for Bob Dylan and his
band, appearing 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at
Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena. $34.50. (248) 645-6666.
and pre-release movie screening of the
season 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at
the Star Southfield. For membership
info, call (248) 547-0847.
THE SMALL SCREEN
9/13
2002
78
WHATNOT
Detroit Public Television-Channel 56
airs Lost Tribes of Israel, a Nova episode
exploring advances in DNA technology
to solve an ancient Jewish mystery, 8
p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1-7.
Author Eileen Pollack reads from her new
book, Woman WalkingAhead• In Search of
Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull, about a
GAIL ZIMMERMAN
Arts & Entertainment
widowed Brooklyn artist who became an
Editor
advocate of Indian rights, 8 p.m. Tuesday,
THE ART SCENE
Sept. 17, at Shaman Drum Bookshop in
Marcia Freedman exhibits oil paintings in "A Line of Ann Arbor. (734) 662-7407.
Color," at Rochester's Cary Gallery, Sept. 13-Oct. 11.
The Detroit Historical Museum celebrates the histo-
Opening reception: 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13. (248)
ry and current flavor of more than 20 Detroit neigh-
651-3656.
borhoods and suburbs in Connections: Metro Detroit
Detroit's Elaine L. Jacob Gallery hosts Exposure!
Neighborhoods, running through August 2003. (313)
Sexuality and Voyeurism Through the Lens, an edgy
833-1805.
photographic exhibit running Sept. 20-Nov. 9.
Homearama, a baker's dozen of new model
Opening reception: 5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20. (313)
homes in Macomb Township, opens Sept. 19. (248)
933-7813.
862-1019 or wwwbuilders.org.
BIALYSTOCK AND BLOOM
T
his weekend, the Detroit
Film Theatre at the
Detroit Institute of Arts
will show what is often regarded
as one of the funniest films ever
made: Mel Brooks' classic show-
business farce, The Producers. But
it won't look like the movie we're
used to seeing.
According to DFT founder/cura-
tor Elliot Wilhelm, "If you-look at
the VHS cassette that's currently
available commercially, you can see
that it looks kind of yellow and
grainy. That's because it was made
from other old prints of the movie
LAUGH LINES
and not actually from the original
Billing herself as "the love goddess of comedy"
negative."
and promulgating her own religion of "Judyism,"
In one of the all-too-common
comic Judy Tenuta takes the stage 8 p.m. Thursday-
stories of Hollywood's early
Saturday, Sept. 19-21, at Ann Arbor Comedy
archival failures, the original nega-
Showcase. $16-$21. (734) 996-9080.
tive, a casualty of the original pro-
Detroit Public Television welcomes political
duction company going bankrupt
satirist Mark Russell to PBS Premiere Night, a spe-
soon after the film's 1968 release,
cial strolling dinner/performance benefit, Monday,
was left to deteriorate in a Los
Sept. 23, at Detroit's Gem Theatre; the evening
Angeles storehouse for decades.
runs 6-10 p.m. $250 per person. (313) 876-8375.
It wasn't until the current
renewed interest in The Producers
THE BIG SCREEN
- stemming from the popularity
DAFT - Detroit Area Film and Television -
of the Broadway hit musical -
holds its first third-Saturday-of-the-month meeting
that people went looking for the
agr
Birmingham's Artspace II presents
Marlborough Graphics, an exhibition featur-
ing works by Alex Katz, Robert Motherwell
and more, through Oct. 21. (248) 258-
1540.
Agamil:„
Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock
and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom
in "The Producers."
film's original print.
They soon realized the original
negative was in terrible condition.
But the film's new distribution
company had a stroke of luck: a
pristine duplicate negative of the
movie's original print was discov-
ered (where else?) in France.
Says Wilhelm, "The irony is
that the French were taking better
care of the original negative than
the American company that had
the rights to it initially."
Because of this serendipitous
find, there was no need to labori-
ously restore the damaged origi-
nal. "All they had to do was strip
off the dubbed French soundtrack
so that Max and Leo wouldn't be
saying; 'Comment allez vous?' to
each other," Wilhelm quips.
"Then, they put back the origi-
nal English-language track, which
was in perfect condition and had
been preserved perfectly well."
Unlike other film restorations,
this print of The Producers does
not incorporate additional scenes
or lost footage. "Rather," says
Wilhelm, "it is a genuine restora-
tion in the sense that it looks now
the way it originally did for the
first time since 1968."
Also showing along with the re-
release of The Producers is Mel
Brooks' The Critic, a rarely
screened animated short film from
1963 that even many Brooks afi-
cionados have never seen. The
Producers and The Critic are the
only two films for which Brooks
received Academy Awards.
-Audrey Becker
,
The Detroit Film Theatre at
the DIA screens The Producers
and The Critic 7 and 9:30
p.m. Friday and Saturday and
4 and 7 p.m. Sunday (erev
Yom Kippur), Sept. 13-15. $6.
(313) 833-3237.
FYI: For Arts and Entertainment related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number,
to: Gail Zimmerman, JN Out & About, The Jewish News, 30301 Northwestern Highway, MI 48334; fax us at (248) 539-3075; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com Notice must be received at least three weeks before the
scheduled event. Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.