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.