Arts & Entertainment

Jewish Family Ties

Local theater stages comedy written and
directed by veteran sitcom scribe.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

I

f you laughed through TV episodes
of The Odd Couple, Happy Days and
Laverne & Shirley, then you might
very well laugh through the play The
Wearing of the Greens.
They all share a writer.
Mark Rothman, whose career thrived
in sitcoms, has turned to the live stage
and directs a production of his work for
the Oakland Theatre Guild. Performances
are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 2
p.m. Sundays, July 13-22, at the Starlight
Theater in Waterford.
"The title plays off the Irish expression,
but the story is actually about a Jewish
family that seems to be falling apart;'
explains Rothman, 59, now semi-retired in
Farmington Hills. "The play has to do with
the wearing down of the Green family.
"It's basically about a mother and father
and their grown son and daughter. The

parents live in Palm Beach, apart from
their children, and they clamor for atten-
tion. Every scene takes place in a different
VIP airport lounge after the parents call
the children [for help]."
Rothman, who grew up in New York
and moved to California to pursue work
opportunities, got the idea for the play
from a situation in his own family.
"It's primarily a comedy, but it's got a lot
more drama than most comedies," he says.
Rothman's entry into television writ-
ing also mixes comedy and drama. When
he first connected with the right people
through his dad's business, Rothman had
just graduated from Queens College and
was teamed up with Lowell Ganz, a close
friend who went on to write for feature
films (Parenthood, City Slickers, A League
of Their Own).
"My father ran a limousine company
and did a lot of the driving himself'
Rothman recalls. "At the time, there were
lots of talk shows based in New York, and

Clockwise from left: Andrea Briggs (Liz) of Beverly Hills, Joel Fabian (Jack) of Oak
Park, Patricia Bracey (Fay) of Swartz Creek, Stephen Sussman (Mel) of Bloomfield
Township and writer-director Mark Rothman of Farmington Hills.

my father had the limousine accounts.
"He knew in advance who was going
to be in the car, and it was his idea that
we should write material to show his cus-
tomers. Our first paying job was for Mike
Douglas, who did a couple of our sketches.
"The Odd Couple had been on TV for
a couple of years when my dad knew he
was going to have Tony Randall and Jack
Klugman in the car. He said we should
write a spec script for the series?'
Both actors, driven separately, liked
the script, and the writing partners were
hired for the show. Garry Marshall, who
headed up the creative team, became their
California mentor.
"Everything is getting the break and
being ready for it," Rothman says.

After Laverne & Shirley went off the air,
Rothman worked on a variety of shows
with less longevity. She's the Sheriff with
Suzanne Somers lasted two seasons.
"Laverne & Shirley made me very
wealthy because I was one of the creators;'
Rothman says. "It gave me the freedom to
do what I want?'
It's been about five years since Rothman
and his wife (nee Camille Jablonski)
moved to Michigan, where she was raised
and now works as a finance vice president
for an auto supplier. The two also have
a home in Malibu, where he sometimes
attends High Holiday services.
Rothman, who does some freelance
script editing, connected with the Oakland
Theatre Guild while going to the West

4,c ws

via I Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
emir

Lit

Classy Kiwi

Eagle v. Shark is a quirky com-
edy with a New Zealand cast
from young Kiwi
comic star Taika
Waititi, who won
an Academy Award
nomination for his
short film Two Cars,
One Night. It opens
in Detroit on Friday,
Taika Waititi
July 13.
In the movie, a charming but
quirky young woman takes a fancy
to a quirky but rather unlikable
young man; the title refers to the
outfits they wear to a costume
party on their first date.
Waititi, 28, who both wrote and
directed the film, alternately bills
himself as Taika Cohen. Waititi is
Taika's Maori father's surname,
while Cohen is his Jewish mother's
last name. A multitalented guy
— he's a photographer and a musi-
cian in addition to being an actor,

40

July 12

o

2007

writer and director — he sometimes
uses "Cohen," he says, to "avoid
being typecast as a Maori artist as
opposed to a Maori in the arts."
The Maori, the original
Polynesian inhabitants of New
Zealand, impressed the British set-
tlers who colonized New Zealand
in the 19th century; they were
fierce warriors who often managed
to fight the British to a standstill.
Because many Maori in addition to
their intelligence were also rela-
tively light-skinned, many British
(due to their racist attitudes) felt
the Maoris might just be descen-
dants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
Waititi told a reporter that his
family doesn't really practice
Judaism (except for observing a
few holidays). But, oddly enough,
his father's Maori tribe (but not
his father) practices a religion
called Binatu that is loosely based
on the Old Testament. Influenced
by British missionaries, the tribe
believes its members are indeed
descendants of the 10 lost tribes.

Jacob's Debut

Also opening July 13 in Detroit
is Joshua, a thriller with great
advance buzz. Sam Rockwell and
Vera Farmiga play
the upper-middle-
class parents of a
9-year-old prodigy
— a great student and
a brilliant musician.
Complications arise
when Joshua feels
Jacob Kogan
more than normal
sibling rivalry toward
his new baby sister.
Playing the title role is Jewish
actor Jacob Kogan, 12. This is his
film debut.
Jacob's mother is Deborah
Copaken Kogan, 41. She wrote
Shutterbabe, a best-selling memoir
about her career as a photojournal-
ist and NBC news producer. Last
March, Deborah wrote a piece for the
New Yorker in which she explained
her mixed emotions about her son's
desire to be a child actor.
Deborah's husband — and Jacob's
father — is Pavel Kogan, a Jewish

photojournalist and film producer
who was born in the former Soviet
Union.

Babs In Germany

Barbra Streisand, 65, is now com-
pleting a European concert tour that
included her first performance in
Germany. Paul Spiegel, the late head
of the German Jewish community
and a talent agent, once said that
he had tried to get
Streisand to play
Germany, but she
indicated she did
not feel comfortable
playing the country
most responsible for
the Holocaust.
Barbra
However, Streisand
Streisand
did add Germany to
her current concert tour, and her
Berlin concert, held June 30, wowed
some 18,000 fans. She charmed the
crowd by saying a few sentences in
perfect German. She quoted a favor-
ite line from Goethe, stated that the
Germany had changed and spoke
about the best parts of Germany's