rTArts

ntertainment

Shaffer Triumph
Fans of Jewish Czech director Milos
Forman's 1984 Best Picture Oscar-winning
film, Amadeus, will have a chance to see
the stage play upon which it is based when
WSU's Hilberry Theatre mounts a produc-
tion of the 1981 Tony Award-winning Best
Play beginning this weekend. It debuts in
repertory at the Detroit-based theater 8
p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 12-13, and
runs through March 3.
Set in the late 18th century, playwright
Peter Shaffer's play (he also wrote the
film's screenplay, though the two works
differ somewhat) explores the rivalry

Photo by Eric Vaughn Messing

Christopher M. Bohan is Antonio Salieri

in the Hilberry Theatre's production of

Peter Shaffer's Amadeus.

between the
extraordinarily
gifted Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
and Antonio
Salieri, the court
composer for
the emperor of
Austria. Salieri,
overcome with
hearing the "voice
of God" corn-
ing from an "obscene child:' sets out to
destroy his rival.
Shaffer, born Peter Levin Shaffer in
1926 to a Jewish family in Liverpool,
is the twin brother of Anthony Shaffer,
another playwright perhaps most famous
for Sleuth. Anthony died in 2001. Peter
Shaffer studied history on scholarship at
Cambridge University and worked as a
coal miner, bookstore clerk and assistant
at the New York Public Library before
discovering his dramatic talents. He also
won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play,
for Equus, based on the real-life story of
a teenage stable boy who blinded several
horses; it was turned into a 1977 film, as
were his plays Five Finger Exercise and

The Royal Hunt of
the Sun.
Additional
Amadeus perfor-
mance times are 2
p.m. Wednesday, Feb.
21; 8 p.m. Thursdays,
Jan. 18, Feb. 22 and
March 1; 8 p.m.
Fridays, Jan. 19, Feb.
2 and March 2; 2 p.m.
Saturdays, Jan. 27 and
Feb. 17; and 8 p.m. Saturdays, Jan. 27, Feb.
27 and March 3. Tickets are $15-$28, with
student rush tickets available the day of
the performance for $10. Group discounts
also are available. (313) 577-2972 or www.
hilberry.com.

Jungle Fever
Neil Goldberg's signature style of inventive
acrobatics, unique costumes and creative
choreography — enhanced by an original
musical score and special visual effects
— takes a Detroit stage once again as
Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy comes
to the Fisher Theatre Jan. 16-Feb. 4.
Following in the footsteps of his other
touring shows, Cirque Ingenieux and

Cirque Dreams, this new production
— a colorful fantasy set in an enchanted
forest — hosts an international cast of
graceful aerialists, spine-bending contor-
tionists, vine-swinging characters, strong-
men and balancers. The two-hour adven-
ture, performed in two acts, is suitable for
family audiences.
Originally from New York with a degree
in scenic design, the South Florida-based
Goldberg created Cirque Productions,
the first American company to produce
European, theatrical and cirque-style
shows for corporate events, theaters and
tours, in 1993.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-
Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m.
Saturdays and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays.
$27.50-$49.50. Information:
www.nederlanderdetroit.com or (313)
872-1000; tickets: (248) 645-6666 or www.
ticketmaster.corn.

Hip-Hop 'Hood
On Monday, cable channel VH 1 debuted
the first episode of the new comedic real-
ity series Egotrip Presents: The White
Rapper Show.
It will repeat tonight, Thursday, Jan. 11,

ws

I

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Movie Globes

Last week, this column covered those
Jewish nominees up
for a Golden Globe for
their TV work. Here
are the tribe members
up for a Globe in the
film categories:
Maggie Gyllenhaal,
whose mother is
Jewish, is up for best
Patrick
actress in a drama
Marber
(Sherrybaby), while
Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) is nomi-
nated for best actor in a comedy.
British director Stephen Frears is

nominated for best director for The
Queen, while another British Jew,
Patrick Marber (Closer), is nominated
for best screenplay for Notes on a
Scandal, the recently released film
starring Cate Blanchett and Dame
Judi Dench. The movie is from a novel
of the same name by British Jewish
writer Zoe Heller.
The Golden Globes award show airs
8-11 p.m. Monday, Jan.15, on NBC.

Film Facts

Like Notes on a Scandal, Freedom
Writers, a film based on a true story,
opened last Friday in Metro Detroit.
Hilary Swank plays Erin Gruwell, a
woman from an upper-class back-
ground who decides, after the

Rodney King riots of
1992, to teach Los
Angeles inner-city high
school students.
Even though he was
once a civil-rights
Scott Glenn
activist, Gruwell's
father in the film
thinks taking this teaching post is a
mistake. Playing the father is actor
Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff, Silence
of the Lambs), who converted to
Judaism when he married artist
Carol Schwartz, his current wife, in
1967. The Glenns are active members
of the Idaho Jewish community and
hosted a reception in their home for
Elie Wiese!, when he came to Idaho in
2002 to talk about the Holocaust.

Gruwell faced administrators who
wouldn't give her textbooks because
"the students would only destroy
them" and sullen black and Latino
kids who found little of relevance in
the standard curriculum.
She managed to reach these kids
by having them write diaries about
their own experiences and by show-
ing them that others have lived in
danger and fear - namely, Anne
Frank. Remarkably, The Diary of Anne
Frank proved to be a great teach-
ing tool, and the non-Jewish Gruwell
supplemented it by having the stu-
dents go to a Holocaust museum. The
students even got to meet with Miep
Gies, the Christian Dutch woman
who helped hide the Franks - she

SERVING OAKLAND COUNTY
30 yea s a Expe.471e/tce

(248)

36-MUSIC

(248) 366-8742

WWW.MUSICINNOVATIONSOAKLAND.COM

"INSTRUCTION IN YOUR HOME"

38

January 11 2007

Hours:

Monday- Saturday 9:30-6:00
Closed Sundav

265

Old Woodward

248-642-2555

