Arts & Entertainment
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
The cast of Hello Muddah, Hello
Fadduh: Eric Gutman, Catherine
Lutz, Fred Buchalter, Matthew
Stewart and Leah Smith.
A
the summer camp season
ends, the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre gets ready to open its
18th year with a musical show featuring
probably the most popular camp song of
all time: "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh."
That's also the name of the show, which
is spun off the comedy song parodies
originally written by Jewish lyricist-sati-
rist Allan Sherman in the early 1960s.
"We wanted to start the 2006-2007
season
our "chai" year — with a rous-
ing musical comedy, so we chose Hello
Muddah, Hello Fadduh," said JET
Artistic Director Evelyn Orbach. "We're
hoping the show will help us recommit
ourselves to a vibrant new season — and
another 18 years at least for JET in the
Jewish community."
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh opens
Tuesday, Aug. 22, and runs through
Sept. 17 at the Aaron DeRoy Theatre in
the Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield. JET is starting the new sea-
son earlier than usual because many of
—
the Jewish holidays are on weekends this
fall, and "we would not use those days for
performances. The JCC will not be open
anyway," Orbach explained. "This show is
sort of JET'S gift to summer stock."
The song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh"
describes a youngster's letter home to
his family from Camp Granada. It helped
launch Sherman on a meteoric but brief
career of writing more than 100 song
parodies, mainly Jewish folk-culture lyrics
to old tunes.
Summer Start on page 56
August 17 2006
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