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Brummel, but she does worry about
perishable food, so Flora has a thing
about perishables, too," says the 40ish
Cohen, whose hero, Morris "Moe"
Brummel, starts out dominated by a
controlling matriarch.
"My wife's grandmother was quite a
character and had her own rules about
what was kosher. She had a thing
about chicken, and there's definitely a
significant mention of chicken."
No Way to Treat a Lady, a winner of
the Outer Critics Circle and Drama
Desk Awards for Best Musical, was
written in the 1980s and has since
undergone revisions. It does more
with Jewish themes than the other 10-
plus productions he has crafted.
"This play has one theme prevalent
in a lot of my work — a frustrated
performer:' reveals Cohen, who per-
sonally toyed with being in the spot-
light before settling into a creative
niche behind the scenes.
"I view the killer as a frustrated
performer first because I think what
he enjoys most of all is the perform-
ance. He really is after approbation
and Considers stories about him in the
New York Times as the quintessential
form of praise."
Performer themes come across in
Cohen's play The Gig, which is about
jazz hobbyists booked for their first
professional appearance. Similarly, The
Big Time deals with two lounge enter-
tainers who get on the wrong cruise
ship.
The Meadow Brook production was
done in collaboration with the
BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing, where
the play had its Michigan premiere.
Directed by John Manfredi, managing
director for Meadow Brook, the cast
includes Alan Ball as Moe Brummel,
Kate Willinger Manfredi as the moth-.
er, Andrew Huff as the serial killer and
Jennifer Joan Joy as Sarah, the detec-
tive's girlfriend.
"I love that this play is a-musical for
actors with the songs furthering the
plot:' says Willinger Manfredi,
Meadow Brook special projects man-
ager who has four other roles besides
the detective's mother. "I've done mul-
tiple parts before and can change cos-
tumes very quickly
"My mother converted to Judaism,
so I base the character on the mother
of my best friend in high school,
which was in New York. I've taken
other parts in which the character
came across as Jewish, including the
neat person in the female version of
The Odd Couple!'

Rabbi's Son
Cohen's interest in drama actually
developed while watching his father,
Hirsch Cohen, a Reform rabbi.
"There was a theatricality that my
father employed at the podium, and
that was my first taste of the world
that can be created in theater:' Cohen
says. "There are other people in the
family tree who also have shown a
proclivity for the dramatic.
"My father's mother was a per-
former in the Yiddish theater in
Massachusetts. My mother's mother
was the first woman in Philadelphia to
get a musician's union card and played
the piano on radio and in concerts. My
mother was a child actress and
appeared on television and radio in
Philadelphia."
Cohen started playing the piano by
ear before he was 4 years old.
Although his parents enrolled him in
formal lessons, he did not take them
seriously because he preferred not
using sheet music.
The first song he wrote was for a
fifth-grade play to enlarge a part he

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Since 1948
RESTAURANT OF DETROIT _\.N I) TROY

DECEMBER 13-3ANUARIF

Directed by Harold Jurkiewid

The sophistication, wit, insight, heart and genius
innovative and influential artist is at the cente
composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim's best-known
numbers from landmark shows that revolutionized t

Playwright-composer Douglas

Cohen: This musical does more

LaiLniikati_RE-1.---i
irce;alt- ra,

details.

with Jewish themes than the

other 10-plus productions he

has crafted.

was given. In high school, he wrote his
first original musical based on a
Russian folktale. His senior thesis at
Amherst College was a fantasy musical
that took place in a bar.
"I worked summers as the pianist-
vocalist in a number of restaurants on

Manhattan Murder on page 50

1r259,90

December 29 - 2005

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