Arts Life
CLASSICAL NOTES
The University of Michigan School of Music
Opera Theatre presents Engelbert Humperdinck's
opera Hansel and Gretel, based on the Grimm fairy
tale and translated into English, 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov.
11-14, at the Power Center in Ann Arbor. $9-$20.
(734) 764-2538.
University Musical Society hosts the Kopelman
Quartet, led by Russian-born violinist Mikhail
Kopelman performing works by Prokofiev,
Miaskovsky and Tchaikovsky, 8 p.m. Friday, Nov, 5,
at Rackham Auditorium, $18-$36; the acclaimed St.
Petersburg Philharmonic, conducted by Yuri
Temirkanov and playing works by Prokofiev, Dvorak
and Rachmaninoff, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, at Hill
Auditorium, $10-$65; and the Kremerata Baltica
chamber orchestra, led by artistic director Gideon
Kremer, playing works by Schnittke and
Shostakovich, 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12, at Hill
Auditorium, $10456. (734) 764-2538.
The Sunday, Nov. 14, concert of the Birmingham
Temple Vivace Music Series, A Four-Handed Treat
at the Piano, has been canceled. A new concert
offered by the Dennis Tini Jazz Quintet will replace
the canceled event 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at the
Farmington Hills temple. $18-$21; tickets for Nov.
14 may be used for the Dec. 11 concert. (248) 788-
9338 or (248) 661-1348.
POP/ROCK/JAZZ/FOLK
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra Pops presents
Broadway All-American, a collection of songs from
the Great White Way by Jewish composers George
Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Leonard
Celebrity Jews
Polar Express' Chugs In
The film version of The Polar Express, adapted from
one of the most popular contemporary children's
Christmas book ever, will have its exclusive Midwest
premiere in Grand Rapids on Nov. 5; premiere pro-
ceeds will go to the Hospice of Michigan's pediatric
program. Why Grand Rapids? Because Polar Express
author/illustrator CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG grew up
in East Grand Rapids, where his father ran a dairy.
The interesting thing is that
Van Allsburg converted to
Judaism more than 20 years
ago. Huh?
Well, first off one should
know that The Polar Express is
essentially a secular Christmas
story, if you count Santa and
the elves as secular figures. It
is one of those Christmas sto-
ries that most Jewish parents
generally don't have a prob-
Chris Van Allsburg
lem with their kids seeing.
11 / 5
2004
46
Best Bets
Bernstein and more, 10:45 a.m. and 8
p.m. Thursday, 8:30 p.m. Friday and
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11-14,
at Detroit's Max M. Fisher Music Center.
Erich Kunzel conducts; special guest per-
formers include soprano Betsy Wolfe,
tenor Geoff Packard and baritone Daniel
Narducci. Tickets and information: (313)
576-5111 or wwvv.detroitsymphony.org
GAIL ZIA/ IM ERMAN
ON THE STAGE
Arts Editor
Performance Network in Ann Arbor
presents She Loves Me, the stage musical version of
the Jimmy Stewart/Margaret Sullavan. film Shop
Around the Corner, with music and lyrics by the
Fiddler on the Roof team of Sheldon Harnick and
Jerry Bock and book by Joe Masteroff, 8 p.m.
Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays,
Nov. 11-Dec. 26. $20-$34.50. (734) 663-0681.
Forbidden Christmas, from the creators of
Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood,
spoofs the holidays, including Chanukah, and
returns to Detroit's Century Theatre Thursday, Nov.
11, for a seven-week run. $30.50-$39.50. (313) 963-
9800.
Wayne State University's Studio Theatre mounts a
production of British playwright Peter Nichols' A
Day in the Death of Joe Egg, dealing with the issue
of how a severely brain-damaged child affects a mar-
riage, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, Nov. 11-20.
Second-year Ph.D. candidate Cary Leiter directs.
$7-$9. (313) 577-2972.
The Players Guild of Dearborn stages 1776,
Sherman Edwards' musical re-creation of the days
when the Second Continental Congress argued
about, voted on and signed the Declaration of
But, there's no doubt that the so-called "December
dilemma" begins when Christmas movies begin hit-
ting the theaters this month. "The dilemma' Prefers to
the Jewish reaction to the 500-pound cultural gorilla
that is Christmas, as well as to the treatment of
Christmas in interfaith families, or in families where
one spouse is a convert to Judaism.
Van Allsburg, in an interview in this month's
Yankee magazine, gives an interesting perspective on
"the problem."
When asked "how he kept the magic of Christmas
alive for his children," he replied: "It's an interesting
question. ... We have a Jewish household. I converted
when I married Lisa. My wife wasn't a hard-liner
about it, and little displays of Christmas were all
right. But the theater you need to produce for kids
requires both parents on board. Oh, I hung stock-
ings, and we told all the tall tales about Santa...."
By "theater," Van Allsburg was referring to the all-
encompassing Christmas "experience" found in many
Christian homes. It appears that the Van Allsburgs,
who have two daughters, have found a way to meld
their traditions that works for them. Others may dif-
fer. However, of one thing there is no doubt: Polar
Express, which opens nationwide Nov. 10, has great
advance buzz and will be a blockbuster hit.
Independence, Nov. 12-Dec. 5. Call for
show times. $16. (313) 561-TKTS.
Village Players of Birmingham presents
Picasso at the Lapin Agile, comedian
Steve Martin's comedy about an imagined
meeting between Albert Einstein and
Pablo Picasso as young men, 8 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m.
Sundays, Nov. 12-21. $15. (248) 644-
2075.
Pontiac Theatre IV presents Joseph- and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,
directed and choreographed by Michael
Brody and starring Geoff Wrobel as Joseph, 8 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 12-20, at Pontiac
Northern High School. $10. (248) 681-6215.
LAUGH LINES
Carol Burnett Show regulars Tim Conway and
Harvey Korman join together on stage again to
recall the entertainment of the variety-show era 8
p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at Detroit's Fox Theatre. $45-
$65. (248) 645-6666.
At 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, the first annual Don't
Just Sit There comedy show, with proceeds to bene-
fit the Rehabilitation Institute for Spinal Cord Injury
Recovery in Detroit, takes place at Mark Ridley's
Comedy Castle in Royal Oak. Rocky LaPorte and
Doug English headline. $44-$99. (248) 542-9900.
THE SMALL SCREEN
ABC-TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,
featuring the Fairway Master Builders' transforma-
tion of the Vardon family home in Oak Park, airs 7-
Go Sox
As you've no doubt heard, the Red Sox have won
their first World Series since 1918. This despite the
fact that scads of Yankee fans visited Babe Ruth's
grave — with Jewish fans piling stones on the Babe's
tomb — during the playoffs, asking for the Babe's
help in beating Boston.
But up in the Boston area, BETTY SOLINSKY,
91, a resident of the Fall River Jewish Home, coun-
tered these prayers, telling the local paper, "I have a
gut feeling they're going to come through with flying
colors. They're my boys."
In the Jewish scales, this was the Red Sox's year.
Yes, St. Louis had Jewish pitcher JASON
MARQUIS, but the Sox had two Jewish players
(GABE KAPLER and KEVIN YOUKILIS); a Jewish
co-owner (Hollywood exec TOM WERNER); and
THEO EPSTEIN, their brilliant young general
manager, whose great trades brought the Sox into the
promised land.
It was an appropriate Hollywood ending for Epstein,
whose grandfather, Philip, won an Oscar for writing
Casablanca. Maybe Theo will recommend that his
brother-in-law, actor DAN FUTTERMAN, play him
in a movie about the year the "Ruth curse" ended.
FYI: For Arts and Life 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:
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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.