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Arts & Entertainment

Jewish Tam from page 43

Irving Berlin wrote "White

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46

November 9 • 2006

AI

New Yorker McCollum and co-pro-
ducer Jeffrey Seller, the former Oak
Parker who began performing as a
young boy in a Temple Israel Purim
play, formed a producing team in 1995.
They hit the Broadway jackpot by win-
ning Tony Awards for the musicals
Rent in 1996 and Avenue Q in 2004.
"Any Jewish people who like musi-
cals will love this White Christmas
show," Seller promised, "and it doesn't
make any difference if you celebrate
Chanukah or Christmas. This produc-
tion recognizes a real Berlin classic,
but we also can consider it to be a new
musical."
Besides "White Christmas' other
film-tunes that appear in this new
musical are "Blue Skies' "Sisters,"
"Count Your Blessings,"The Best
Things Happen When You're Dancing,"
"Snow," and "Mandy:' Some of the
added Berlin songs are "I've Got My
Love To Keep Me Warm,""How Deep Is
the Ocean," and "I Love a Piano."
The additional songs are needed to
further the White Christmas story,
which tells of two successful Broadway
show partners who become romanti-
cally involved with two sisters. They
vacation at a Vermont ski resort, which
they learn, is owned by the former
Army general who commanded the
two men. But the four are the only
guests at the inn because there's no
snow. The men help the general by
staging their Broadway-bound revue
at the resort and making a television
appeal to their Army buddies to show
= up on Christmas Eve.
Dean Jagger, who played the retired
general in the movie, was somewhat of
a Dwight Eisenhower look-alike, writ-
ten into the script to take advantage of
Ike's popularity as U.S. president in the
1950s. Melody Hollis, 8, a Jewish per-
former from Lake in the Hills, Ill., plays
the general's granddaughter in the St.
Paul show; she has several solo songs
and dance numbers.
Starring at the Fox in the roles cre-
ated in the film version by Crosby
and Clooney are a married couple,
Graham Rowat and Kate Baldwin. In
the Kaye and Vera-Ellen roles are Mark
Ledbetter and Shannon O'Bryan.
"One reason I got involved develop-
ing this family-friendly show is that

I have a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old,
and they can't see my other shows,"
explained McCollum, 44. His wife,
Lynette, played Evelyn Nesbitt in the
musical Ragtime on Broadway.
McCollum was born in Hawaii,
the son of Susan Goldberg and Tom
McCollum. They divorced when Kevin
was age 2. His mom died of cancer at
40, and his father died of alcoholism.
"My aunt adopted me, and I moved to
Deerfield, Ill., where I attended Sunday
school and celebrated the Jewish holi-
days but never had a bar mitzvah," said
McCollum.
He learned to act, sing, dance and
play soccer, then graduated from the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and
earned a master's degree from the
Peter Stark Producing Program at the
University of Southern California. "I
preferred the arts because I believe
that, while sports build the body, the
arts build character," said McCollum.
"I chose producing over performing
because I found out that the thrill of
auditioning for, and getting, a job was
more exciting than actually perform-
ing, which bored me."
Seller, 42, the son of Caroline and
Mark Seller of Farmington Hills, per-
formed at the Stagecrafters Theatre in
Royal Oak and attended the University
of Michigan. He and his partner,
Joshua Lerner, have two adopted chil-
dren, a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old
boy, "who will be off to Hebrew school
before long:' added Seller. "I'm really
delighted to bring this show to my
hometown:' Li

White Christmas opens Friday,
Nov. 17, at the Fox Theatre,
2211 Woodward, in Detroit, and
continues through Dec. 30.
Performances are 7:30 p.m.
Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 p.m. and 7:30
p.m. Saturdays; 1 p.m. (no show on
Dec. 10) and 6:30 p.m. Sundays
(no show on Nov. 26); 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 20. Weekday mati-
nees are at 2 p.m. Nov. 24, 30 and
Dec. 6, 8,14, 20, 22, 26 and 27.
No shows on Nov. 23, 27 and 28,
and Dec. 4, 5,11,12, 18, 24 and 25.
Specially discounted preview per-
formances available. Tickets: $20-
$100. (248) 433-1515 or (248)
645 6666; OlympiaEntertainment.
com and at all Ticketmaster out-
lets. Information: (313) 471-6611 or
OlympiaEntertainment.com .

