02/03 UMS Fall Season Emerson String Quartet Fri 12/13 8 pm Lauded globally as a string quartet that Rackham Auditorium • Ann Arbor approaches both classical and contemporary music with equal mastery and enthusiasm, the Emerson String Quartet returns for its tenth UMS concert. With six Grammy awards, including two for Best Classical Album, the PROGRAM Emersons "give playing of exceptional techni- Smetana String Quartet in e minor, Op. 116 Shostakovich String Quartet No 8, Op. 110 expressive range. They continually offer new Schubert String Quartet in d minor, D. 810 insights into some endlessly enthralling cal accomplishment and an unusually wide ("From My Life") Adam Sandler voices an ex-Jewish Community Center basketball star named Davey Stone in "Eight Crazy Nights." music. Do hear them." (Gramophone) ("Death and the Maiden") 4 debut at age 17 (even his big brother, Scott, admitted he stunk), Sandler attended New York University and was discovered by Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels at a Los Angeles comedy club in 1990. Sandler went on to write and per- form for SNL for five years, creating memorable characters such as the fop- pish Operaman. He penned "The Chanukah Song" after Michaels liked a Thanksgiving ditty he'd written. "I was walking down the street when I thought up the first line," the comic said. "It went, Paul Newman is half Jewish/ Goldie Hawn is half too/ Put them together/ What a fine- looking Jew!'" Eventually, Sandler made a career of playing endearing and not-so-endear- ing losers, such as the bratty rich kid who goes back to school in 1995's Billy Madison. He has suggested that his affinity for playing loser-outcasts hails from grow- ing up Jewish in Smalltown, USA, a milieu depicted in Eight Crazy Nights. The movie began when Columbia Pictures' Amy Pascal heard the "Whitey and Davey" sketch from Sandler's 1999 comedy album Stan and Judy's Kid and agreed it would translate well into an animated film. In a videotaped interview, Sandler, looking scruffy in jeans and a T-shirt, said he'd hoped to turn himself into a cartoon character after "watching myself over the years in the movies getting progressively older and uglier." Behind the scenes, his goal was lofti- er: "At our first meeting he said, 'Let's make a movie about Chanukah,'" Arthur recalled. After studying holiday films such as It's a Wonderful Life, the screenwriters set up shop in a trailer near the set of Sandler's 2000 film Little Nicky, in which he played the son of the devil. Covert, who gained 40 pounds to play Nicky's gay roommate, recalled how Sandler used to rush over from the hell set between takes. "He'd have this matted black hair and that damn cape on and we'd be sitting there laughing;" said Covert, who met Sandler in a his- tory of comedy class at NYU. Arthur, who provides the voice and likeness for the film's bearded JCC rabbi, served as the movie's Jewish consultant; he taught the animators to correctly light the cartoon menorah and provided reading materials for his fellow writers. Ultimately, they decided to empha- size Chanukah's miracle theme rather than describing the historical or reli- gious aspects of the holiday. "We opted not to tell the story of the Greeks vs. the Maccabees to have a more widespread appeal," Arthur said. "I know Adam wanted to go that way, and we felt that Columbia would not want to treat the movie as a Bible study class." Some of the film's Jewish content is played for laughs, however, such as a scene in which the WASP-y townies dance the kazatzka while singing a Fiddler-esque tune. But the movie's creators remain seri- ous about Judaism. To help children , traumatized by suicide bombings, Sandler scheduled a New York screen- ing of Eight Crazy Nights to benefit a children's psychiatric hospital in Israel. Covert, meanwhile, said reading about Chanukah, in part, inspired him to schedule his bar mitzvah next year. "In the end, Eight Crazy Nights is about a Jewish guy who finds his faith," Covert said. "And hey, it's helped me find mine." E Presented with the generous support of Ann and Clayton Wilhite. Media Sponsor WGTE 91.3 FM. .ex sj ERS ITy urns A S 734.764.2538 www.ums.org mi' midrigmlogmdlfilr dm Mel Carlini/ outside the 734 area code, call 800.221.1229 UMS TICKET OFFICE LOCATED IN THE MI LEAGUE, 911 N. UNIVERSITY AVE. 0 0.1 Ticket Office closes Wed, Nov 27 at 6 pm and reopens Mon, Dec 1 at 10 am 0 .... 74 7-', ';i1 . ( W -71 7-01 ;31 .."" t• 1095 Sunday Early Bird Menu Chicken Fettucdne Jambalaya Pasta Primavera with Alfredo Sauce Salmon in Dill Sauce Whitefish with Remoulade Sirloin Steak all pasta served with bread all served with bread, vegetable 8 starch Regular Menu Available -- Available Sundays 3pm-9pm 20106 Franklin Road at Northwestern (248) 356-8881 1.► available at Southfield location onl 668440 1 -SOUSE OF INDIA Mon-Thurs 11:30-10 Fri 11:30-11 Sat 12-11 • Sun 12-10 Expires 12 /37 /02 • (248) 553-7391 28841 Orchard Lake Road (between 12 & 13 Mile Rd.) • Farmington Hills L . . A . ofirowcs 41 Clinical Teaching sesseo...osse • • Testing/Evaluation • • First fully accredited UISAbi [hi ES Education Clinic in the Eight Crazy Nights, rated PG-13, is currently playing in area theaters. LYNNE MASTER, M. ED Owner, Director 'NCI" N IC Accedited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools United States to receive North Central Accreditation. (248) 545-6677 (248) 433-3323 Bloomfield Hills Oak Park www.ldclinic.com 11/29 2002 91