Arts & Entertainment About Cain't Say No In the decade preceding the March 31, 1942, debut of the musical Oklahoma!, the first collaboration between Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), not a single American musical had run for more than 500 performances. But Oklahoma! took Broadway by storm with an unprecedent- Mb- A Jewish cast members in the Farmington Players production of Oklahoma! include Barry Cutler of Ferndale as Ali Hakim, Jan Jacobs of Farmington Hills as Florence and Ari Kirsch of West Bloomfield as Slim. ed 2,248 shows. Based on Lynn Riggs' stage play ar Green Grow the c Lilacs, the musical built on the earlier innovations of Gail Zimmerman Hammerstein's Arts Editor collaboration with Jerome Kern on Show Boat. Rather than a flimsy frame- work for a series of tunes, the "book musical" incorporated songs and dances that were fully integrated into a well thought-out story with dramatic goals. Fully developed characters with evolving emotions were now able to evoke genuine emotions from the audience — in addi- tion to laughter. Also, Oklahoma!'s recur- ring musical motifs connected the music and story more closely than any musical had before. Of course, the songs stand on their own as well. The musical, recipient of a special Pulitzer Prize, spawned hit songs like "People Will Say We're in Love;' "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top." Farmington Players presents Oklahoma! at the Barn theater 8 p.m. Thursdays- ' Saturdays, May 31-June 2 and June 7-9. There also will be matinee performances 2 p.m. Sunday, June 3, and 2 p.m. Saturday, June 9. The Barn is located at 32332 W. 12 Mile, in Farmington Hills. Tickets are $16-18; student and group discounts available. Call (248) 553-2955 or go to www.farmingtonplayers.org . Pure Gold Talented Jewish comedian Elon Gold has worn several hats during his career. In addition to numerous standup appear- ances, he co-wrote, produced and starred in the Sony Television pilot Good As Gold; developed and starred in the NBC series In-Laws opposite Dennis Farina and Jean Elon Gold Smart; and most recently, starred in the Fox series Stacked alongside Pamela Anderson, Christopher Lloyd and Marissa Jaret Winokur. Currently, he is working on the Touchstone pilot Wifeless, which he sold as a spec, and is developing Goldmine, a standup-hidden camera hybrid for VH 1. Growing up in the Bronx, Gold attended a Jewish day school and a high school yeshivah. He wears his Judaism proudly on his sleeve — talking in interviews about keeping kosher and observing Shabbat. With his brothers Ari (now a successful R&B singer-songwriter) and Steven (now a composer of everything from advertis- ing jingles to TV themes songs), he was awarded top prize at the First Annual Jewish Children's Song Festival. Elon Gold makes his first Detroit appearance Tuesday, June 12, at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle, 269 E. Fourth St. in Royal Oak. His show is a benefit for Aish HaTorah Detroit. The comedian became involved with Aish when his brothers went to Israel on a life-changing Aish trip in the summer of 2003. "This benefit is vital to our organiza- tion's ability to continue providing Jewish outreach programs in the Detroit corn- munity:' says Rabbi Simcha Tolwin, execu- tive director of Detroit's Aish HaTorah, an international Jewish outreach organiza- tion with branches in every major North American city. Jews Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News For Laughs Sacha Baron Cohen and Judd Apatow are leading a "new Jew wave" in which Jews, once again, take the lead in film comedy. Cohen's film Borat took the mildly amusing mockumen- tary form and recast it as outrageous social satire. Apatow wrote and directed the surprise block- Seth Rogen buster comedy hit The 40 Year Old Virgin. In Virgin, Apatow managed the very difficult trick of combining "frat-boy humor" with well-written adult lead characters whose roman- tic life was genuinely touching. He may well become a major player if his new film, Knocked Up, which walks the same thematic tightrope as Virgin, is a box office knockout. It opens Friday, June 1. In the film, Seth Rogen stars as a Los Angeles slacker who is an "ille- gal Canadian Jewish immigrant." 52 May 31 2007 iN Not great looking himself, he meets a very pretty woman, Katherine Heigl, Ozzie on Grey's Anatomy) at a bar, and they have a one-night stand that results in her getting "knocked up," or pregnant. The film then concerns what relationship, if any, this improbable couple will have. Paul Rudd plays Heigl's brother- in-law, while Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel and Jason Segal play Rogen's Jewish slacker buddies. "Seth is a Jewish guy and all his friends are Jewish, at least the ones I cast, so I thought it'd be funny that they talk about [being Jewish in the movie] because it's truthful to their [real] experience," said Apatow. Kudos to Apatow for allowing a group of funny Jewish actors to play funny Jewish guys. That's rare in a mainstream film. Cannes Doings Jerry Seinfeld made a stir at the recent Cannes Film Festival when he got into a bee costume and pro- pelled himself down a wire strung from the top of a hotel to a pier near the beach. Jerry's wife, Jessica Sklar, left their three kids home in New York and jetted to France for the day to see her husband "fly." She joked after the stunt, "If you lived in my house, [you'd see] it is just part of Jerry Seinfeld our normal life." Seinfeld was in Cannes to create an early "buzz" for his animated comedy flick, Bee Movie, which will be released in November. As Jerry tells it, the whole project came about by acci- dent. He asked Steven Spielberg to direct a commercial. Spielberg declined but invited Jerry to dinner, which, says Jerry, "is like a second bar mitzvah for a Jewish kid from Long Island." During dinner, Jerry made a joke about making a "B" movie about bees. Spielberg took Jerry seriously, and the ball started rolling. This year, Cannes wasn't much fun for Woody Allen. Whatever harsh things American critics have written about most of his recent films, Allen could always count on a better European response. However, the Cannes film board deemed his upcoming movie, Cassandra's Dream, not even worthy of showing in the out-of-competition part of the festival. Facing Evil Edward Zwick, an intelligent film director whose movies include Blood Diamond, The Siege and Glory, has signed the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, to star in his upcoming film Ed Zwick Defiance, based on a true story about four Jewish broth- ers in Nazi-occupied Poland who fight with Soviet partisans. Filming begins in September. The acclaimed 2004 documen- tary, The Ritchie Boys, will air on the Military Channel (found on most cable systems) 8 p.m. Thursday, June 7. During World War 11, a group of young German refugees, mostly Jewish, underwent special training