Arts & Entertainment
QUEEN OF ACERBITY from page 43
former, a social commentator, a provo-
cateur."
Balabusta
Bernhard was less provocateur than
balabusta during a recent in-person
interview. As her 6-year-old, Cicely,
prattled in the background, she
described the Shabbat dinner she
intended to cook (kosher steak, pota-
toes, vegetables, challah); her daily
Zohar meditations that "connect to
the upper sephiroe ; her Saturday
sojourns to synagogue; and her new
comic bit about international shul
hopping.
"I like the intensity of hearing the
whole Torah reading," she said. "I
never miss it wherever I go."
She was less meticulous about
attending services during her
Conservative childhood, when
Bernhard herself became the victim of
verbal attacks upon moving from
Michigan to Scottsdale, Ariz., at age
10. She says the local children were
not as sophisticated as those in the
East and ragged on young Sandra, the
daughter of a proctologist, because she
"was different."
Bernhard, who said people were
more accepting of her iconoclastic
nature in Michigan, added that she
developed her humor as a survival
mechanism and took it with her to
Kibbutz Kfar Menahem, which tough-
ened her up and gave her what she
describes as "a fabulous work ethic."
Upon her return to the United
States in the 1970s, she drove her
Plymouth jalopy out to Los Angeles,
worked as a manicurist during the day
and practiced her caustic act at clubs
at night.
By 1983, Bernhard had earned rave
reviews playing a crazy fan opposite
Jerry Lewis and Robert De Niro in
Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy.
She went on to star in films such as .
Hudson Hawk and to portray the first
regular TV character to come out as
gay on "Roseanne."
Along the way, she teased the public
with her ambiguous sexuality (she has
since come out as a bisexual); her
equally ambiguous relationship with
ex-gal pal Madonna (she eventually
admitted they did not have an affair);
and her outrageous stage shows. Her
act combined wicked riffs with torchy
renditions of nick 'n' roll songs and
sometimes concluded with Bernhard
ripping her blouse off to Prince's
"Little Red Corvette."
On Kabbalah
Of late, Bernhard's re-invented herself
as a prime-time TV guest star, playing
the kinds of characters one might
expect of the Queen of Acerbity: a
scathing creative-writing professor on
the lesbian chic show The L World, for
example, and a gritty detective on
Crossing Jordan.
And what Jewish woman doesn't
remember the Will & Grace episode in
which she announced that The
Forward had named her "Jewess of the
Year"?
Bernhard is even more famous —
among Jews and non-Jews — as one
of the first celebrities to study
Kabbalah. She discovered the practice
when her non-Jewish, Brazilian trainer
took her to a lecture at the Kabbalah
Centre in Los Angeles on her 40th
birthday.
Although she had always enjoyed
celebrating the Jewish holidays,
Bernhard had been so focused on her
career that she was feeling a spiritual
void. So she frequented the center's
lectures, purchased a full set of the
Zohar in Hebrew and English and vis-
ited the kabbalistic city of Safed,
Israel.
Why was she drawn to Kabbalah?
"It's the only thing that really
explains why you're doing what you
do [in Judaism]. Why you light can-
dles, why you drink wine, why you
make the brachas over your food. It
puts all kinds of tradition and ritual
into a spiritual context. You just start
putting it into your daily routine and
it just brings a sense of order."
What does she think about all the
other celebrities jumping on the
Kabbalah bandwagon?
"If you really want to change and
you're really connected to it and you
can integrate it into your life day to
day — fabulous," she said. "[But]
there are so many different levels of
hypocrisy and weirdness in people's
desire to connect to something and a
lot of it is fashion.
"When you're constantly proselytiz-
ing or running around letting people
know you're studying Kabbalah, it's
really irritating and I don't like it," she
said (Bernhard doesn't name names).
"I mean, I'm not judging. I'm like,
great, if they're into it. I think that's
fabulous but I think ... you either are
into it or you're not."
The performer is gentler when dis-
cussing the Kabbalah Centre.
"I've gotten a lot out of it, but it's
changed a lot since I started 10 years
ago," said Bernhard, who now hopes
to find additional teachers for herself.
"I think they are a little bit lost on
their own spiritual path right now I
think they've been overwhelmed by
celebrity, and that's always a corrupt-
ing experience."
The performer will no doubt evis-
cerate the corrupting experience of
celebrity in her new show.
"It's not about offending people; it's
about waking people up," she said. CI
Sandra Bernhard in Everything
Bad and Beautiful comes to the
the Power Center in Atm Arbor 8
p.m. Thursday, June 30. This
performance contains strong lan-
guage. $22-$38. For information,
go to www.summerfestival.com .
Tickets also are available online
at www.tickets.com, or call (734)
764-2538 or (800) 221-1229.
Ann Arbor Summer Festival will highlight musical side of "Law Order" and "Cheers' star.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Ann Arbor
ebe Neuwirth won two
Emmy Awards for her role as
Jewish therapist Lilith
Sternin-Crane in the 'TV sitcom
Cheers, but her upcoming Michigan
performance will recall songs that
brought one of her two Tony Awards
in musical theater.
When Neuwirth appears at 8 p.m.
Tuesday, July 5, as part of the Ann
Arbor Summer Festival, she will fea-
ture numbers from her starring role
B
6/ 9
2005
48
in the hit play Chicago, scored by
John Kander and Fred Ebb. The
actress-singer-dancer also will present
numbers from other Kander-Ebb
shows as well as songs by Kurt Weill,
whose music filled Here Lies Jenny, an
off-Broadway production in which
she recently starred.
Neuwirth, who this TV season has
been seen in the dramatic role of
Tracey Kibre in Law 6- Order: Trial
by July, has been disappointed that
her proposal for a TV variety show
has not been accepted by a network.
"I am not completely content in a
performance without dancing,"
Neuwirth, 46, told Terry Gross of
National Public Radio's Fresh Air. "I
have been dancing since I was very,
very young."
Neuwirth, who will be accompa-
nied by the Ann Arbor Symphony
Orchestra at Hill Auditorium, has
been seen in a variety of theater, film
and TV roles. Although Jewish,
Neuwirth has had no religious train-
ing, but she says she enjoyed appear-
ing as a Jewish mother in the 1999
film Liberty Heights.
Among the musicals to be spot-
lighted by Neuwirth are Cabaret,
Three Penny Opera and Spider
Woman. Songs include 'All That
Jazz," "Stranger Here Myself" and
"Razzle Dazzle."
Two other Mainstage programs in
the festival also have Jewish ties.
Pilobolus Dance Theatre, known
for its gymnastic style and unusual
configuralions, will appear at 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 25, at the Power
Center. Jonathan Walkon, co-founder
and an artistic director of the compa-
ny, is Jewish.
"Our dancers require very special
training," Walkon says. "Our strength
is in the agreement of people who are
collaborating."