Arts & Entertainment

About

II

Lehman) — from birth to
summer at Camp Granada;
from marriage to his beloved
Sarah Jackman (Kelly Rossi)
to suburbia and the shopping
mall; to retirement in Florida.
Playing the many characters
Barry and Sarah encounter
are John DeMerell, Matthew
Stewart and Leah Smith. Kayla
Leah Smith and Matthew Stewart singing "Harvey
Gordon directs and Marty
and Sheila" to the tune of "Nava Nagila" in JET's
Mandelbaum is the musical
production of Hello Muddah! Hello Fadduh!
director.
Preview week includes
JET Up dates
performances at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 21-23,
and 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25. The opening
As a prelude to its 2007-2008 season,
Jewish Ensemble Theatre will remount last night performance is 8:30 p.m. Saturday,
year's big hit Hello Muddah! Hello Fadduh: Aug. 25. Regular performances are 2 p.m.
Wednesdays, Aug. 29, Sept. 5 and 12; 7:30
The Allan Sherman Musical Aug. 21-Sept.
p.m. Thursdays, Aug. 30 and Sept. 6; 5 p.m.
16 in the Aaron DeRoy Theatre, located
and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sept. 1, 8 and 15;
inside the Jewish Community Center in
2 p.m. Sundays, Aug. 26, Sept 2, 9 and 16.
West Bloomfield.
There also will be a 7:30 p.m. performance
Hello Muddah! Hello Fadduh! was con-
on Sunday, Sept. 9.
ceived and written by Douglas Bernstein
Tickets: $29 to $39 with discounts for
and Rob Krausz incorporating the song
seniors and students; $18 rush tickets
parodies originally written by Allan
when available one hour before perfor-
Sherman (including the Grammy Award-
mances. For tickets, call (248) 788-2900.
winning title song). The musical was
JET will host its third annual "Behind
first produced at the Circle in the Square
the Scenes" fundraiser gala, honoring Jim
Theatre in New York City in 1992 and
August, 5:30 p.m. Monday Sept. 10, with
received the Outer Critics Award for out-
cocktails, dinner and entertainment at the
standing Off-Broadway musical.
The plot of Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! home of Dr. Brian and Annette Adelman.
Profits will benefit both JET's main stage
tells the story of Barry Bockman (Joe

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

ism

16w 61'

Teen Spirit

Director Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-
Old-Virgin, Knocked Up) pursues his

ambition to be
the mogul of frat-
boy humor with
Superbad, a teen
comedy that he
produced but didn't
direct. It opens in
area theaters on
Friday, Aug.17.
Seth Rogen
While Virgin and
Knocked balanced
adult themes with outrageous humor,
Superbad mostly goes for the bawdy,
juvenile joke. Still, it seems clever
enough to be a guilty pleasure.
Seth Rogen, who had the lead
male role in Knocked Up, co-penned
the semiautobiographical teen flick
with his current writing partner, Evan
Goldberg (the two met at a bar
mitzvah as young teens). Rogen also

40

August 16 • 2007

for of the Center for
and outreach pro-
Catalan Studies and a
grams. Comedian
professor of Spanish
Marc Weiner, who
at Catholic University;
currently provides
Brian Catlos, associ-
voices on the hit ani-
Gail Zimmerman
ate professor of his-
mated series Dora the
Arts Editor
tory at the University
Explorer, will perform.
of California, Santa Cruz; Ahmad Dallal,
Call (248) 788-2900 for more information.
associate professor of Arabic and Islamic
studies and chair of the Arabic and
Getting Along
Islamic studies department at Georgetown
University; and Raymond P. Scheindlin,
The documentary Cities of Light: The Rise
professor of medieval Hebrew literature
And Fall Of Islamic Spain, airing Aug. 22
at the Jewish Theological Seminary and
on PBS stations nationwide, takes viewers
director of JTS's Shalom Spiegel Institute
back into one of the most fascinating and
of Medieval Hebrew Poetry.
important periods of world history — to
"This is a rare history because it is
the medieval period when Jews, Christians
and Muslims co-existed peacefully togeth- shared by both the Muslim and Western
worlds," says executive producer Alex
er in the lands of southern Spain.
Kronemer."In many ways, medieval
"Islamic Spain shows the rise and fall
Spain provides the closest model to the
of a very rich culture, a complex culture
global world we live in today, in the way
that struggled with many of the things
that Muslims, Christians, Jews and others
that face us today — diverse populations,
intermixed, competed and tried to cooper-
nationalism, fundamentalism, power and
ate. Its history presents examples of long
war;' says director Rob Gardner. "When
periods when diversity was embraced, and
complexity and diversity were embraced,
other times when bigotry, fear and exclu-
the culture flourished. When fundamen-
sion dominated. Seeing the great heights
talism and absolutism set in, the culture
and terrible lows that followed can help
became toxic and failed."
open a deeper dialogue about where we
The documentary incorporates fea-
are headed in the world today"
ture-film-style re-enactments, footage
Detroit Public Television-Channel 56
of great Islamic architecture, scenes of
presents Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall
Spain's beautiful landscapes and analysis
of Islamic Spain 9-11 p.m. Wednesday, Aug.
by world-class historians and scholars,
22. Check your local listings.
including Lourdes Maria Alvarez, direc-

has a supporting
role in the movie as
a wacky cop.
The film stars
the rotund Jonah
Hill, 23, who had
a smallish role in
Knocked Up as one
Jonah Hill
of Rogen's buddies.
Hill plays a very crude and quite
geeky high-school senior. His best
friend, played by Michael Cera, is
sweet and smart but equally geeky
in his own way. Some popular girls
tell Hill and Cera that "favors will be
theirs" if they procure alcohol for the
girls' party. The duo's attempt to fulfill
the girls' request sets off a cascading
series of misadventures.

i

Chelsea, 27, has a graduate degree
in international relations and now
works for a top management-consult-
ing firm in New York.
The Times describes the couple as
very serious, and friends are specu-
lating about a White House wedding
if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency.
It may be an interfaith ceremony:

Almost A Minyan

Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky

Chelsea's Chum

Quite a few people have asked about
Chelsea Clinton's boyfriend of at
least two years, Marc Mezvinsky, 28.
A recent New York Times profile of
Chelsea gave some details about their
relationship.

Sachs, the large investment-banking
firm. His parents, Marjorie Margolies-
Mezvinsky and Edward M. Mezvinsky,
both served in Congress. Edward rep-
resented an Iowa district back in the
1970s. Defeated for re-election, he
moved to Pennsylvania, where he met
Marjorie. She served one term from
a Pennsylvania district before being
defeated in 1994. Sadly, Edward was
a key figure in a major financial scan-
dal and was sent to federal prison in
2001. His prison term ends next year.

Chelsea is a practicing Methodist.
The Times also said Chelsea recently
attended a Sabbath dinner at the
home of a Jewish friend hoping to
learn more about Marc's Jewish faith.
Mezvinsky works for Goldman-

Comedian, director and screenwriter
David Wain, 38, has had his ups and
downs. His movie Wet Hot American
Summer received mixed reviews. His
Comedy Central TV series Stella,
co-starring his buddies Michael
Showalter and Michael Ian Black, had
the patina of hip comedy but didn't
deliver the comedic goods and soon
was axed.
But I leave it to you to judge how
well he did as the director and co-