Upscale southern dining
served in a casually
elegant ambiance.
Southern flavor
for the soul.
29508 - NORTHWESTERN HWY.
(IN THE SUNSET STRIP),
SOUTHFIELD
248-208-1680
M
'1074790
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eollscover
famous for our...
Dover Sole, Sauteed Perch,
Medallions of Beef, Pancho Burger.
* * *
Reservations Recommended
Private Party Room Available
*
the *
* CaucuS
DINNER MONDAY-SATURDAY
LUNCH MONDAY-FRIDAY
• Club *
150 West Congress Detroit
313-965-4970
Main Floor Penobscot Building
A Detroit institution Since 1952.
Detroit's Legendary Steak House
A Classic Since 1920
CHOP HOUSE
Make your reservations today!
We can accommodate any size
Celebrating 85 years in business and voted
Best Steak House by Metro Times • Playboy
Magazine • Delta Airlines • Hour Magazine
•Maxim Magazine • City Search -
both Peoples and Editor's Choice
gathering large or small
Our Certified Angus
6 Pack of Steaks
a great gift...we ship anywhere
c Ho _e• H o us e
Jerry Neeley at the piano
Fri/Sat eves
3020 Grand River/Detroit
(313) 833-0700
Gift Certificates available in any denomination
Open 7 days 11 am - Midnight
Shuttle Service Available to all Downtown Events
Sunday Brunch 10:30 am 2:30 pm
10r,o0
TRUST YOUR AFFAIR TO THE FINEST CATERER
WE'LL BEAT YOUR BEST PRICE!
Weddings • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Showers • Banquets
Reunions • Anniversaries • Birthdays • Etc.
We Cater at Most Synagogues,
Temples, Hotels and the
Halls Of Your Choice
PHILIP TEWEL, Food & Beverage Director
248.6614050
Full Bar
Exquisite Wines
Casu al Elegance
Farmington Hills
CLASSIC CUISINE
.-Appmved hl' Council of ( )71/1,41m: Rabbis
uisite food, glorious presentatt
tra clean, home at
ere.
Danny Raskin; IP Defiit Jt inith
CHEF'S
CUISINE
www.cliefic4isine.net
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107,m f fighland Rd, (M-591 Wh ake Township 6 3 .' "11 Eli:1. 11,11,1 .kew
24-698-8823
• 50
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ions it
February 2 • 2006
mended or Call Ahead Seating Open:
Photos by Joan Marcu s
NOW SERVING BEER & WINE
gun - Simi
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5litn.Vnt
Jersey Boys Daniel Reichard as Bob Gaudio, Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito,
J. Robert Spencer as Nick Massi and John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli.
Many-Hit Wonder
Marshall Brickman has another
success on his hands with
Jersey Boys on Broadway.
I Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News
T
here was a stretch of time
between the '60s and the '80s
when it was impossible to
turn on a radio without hearing a
falsetto voice singing songs of teenage
angst.
"Sher-her-ee, Sherry baby"
"Walk like a man, talk like a man."
"I'll be a big man in town."
Those were, of course, the hits of the
Four Seasons, one of the best-known
pop groups of all time. Who possibly
could have lived through that era and
not been a fan of their music? What
human being didn't admire the spunk
of the young man who told "Dawn" to
go away because he wasn't good for
her, who had no time for her tears
because "Big Girls Don't Cry" and then
changed his mind and said, "Let's
Hang On (To What We've Got)"?
Well, that would be Marshall
Brickman.
Former Folkie
Brickman is the Academy Award-win-
ning co-screenwriter of Annie Hall,
among numerous films of Jewish
angst he co-wrote with Woody Allen.
He was the head writer for both the
Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett shows.
And now he is the unlikely co-writer
of Jersey Boys, the new hit musical
about the Four Seasons that opened
on Broadway in November.
"I was a Red Diaper kid," Brickman
said in a telephone interview, referring
to himself by the name ascribed to the
progeny of socialists. "I really didn't
know much about them. I wasn't in
the back of the Chevy making out to
the Four Seasons!'
What he was doing was singing and
playing folk music. He was a member
of a folk group called the Tarriers, a
banjo player behind the bestselling
Deliverance soundtrack and a member
of the New Journeymen, which
evolved into the Mamas and the Papas
after he left the group.
What would he know about life for
four Italian kids from the other side of
the Hudson? Turns out, he didn't have
to know much. This was a story that
wrote itself.
Friends had arranged a meeting
with Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio, the
last two active members of the group
and the ones who controlled the Four
Seasons' rights.
"They wanted to do their Mama
Mia," Brickman says. "We (he and co-
book writer Rick Elice) were looking
to do something together. We had a
lunch with them, and they opened up
about their early life, about getting
mobbed up, and it was just a wonder-
ful story. It was Shakespearean. It had
love, hate, betrayal, jealousy"
Write Jewish
Though it was not his natural milieu,
Brickman wasn't worried about cul-
ture shock. Besides, he says there's an
old theater adage: Write Jewish, cast
British — Or in this case Italian.
Certainly, there are Jewish moments to
the play.
"I think it's inevitable," he says, and
goes on to offer an example. In the
second scene, Valli and Gaudio are the
only two original members left in the
group, and Gaudio wants to take on a
reduced role. He suggests that the
group be renamed Frankie Valli and
the Four Seasons.