Arts & Fintertainmei
Photo by Yacov Faytlin
Art Imitates L ife
JET musical tells
romantic tale of hit
Jewish songwriters.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
A
romantic musical comedy
— based on the long-ago rela-
tionship of composer Marvin
Hamlisch and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager
— becomes the next production of the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre.
They're Playing Our Song, with a script
by Neil Simon and score by the song-
writers who inspired the script, will be
JARC Benefit
The Lion King, in performance at the
Detroit Opera House, is this year's
benefit event for JARC, the Michigan-
based nonprofit, nonsectarian agency
dedicated to enabling people with
disabilities to live full, dignified lives
and to providing support and advo-
cacy for their families. The fundraiser
performed Nov. 27-Dec. 31 at the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield.
Alan Ball, a Jewish actor from Chicago
whose JET experience includes the roles
of Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls
earlier this year and Motel in the musi-
cal Fiddler on the Roof portrays Vernon
Gersch, the Hamlisch character (originat-
ed on Broadway by Robert Klein). Terry
Clark Linden makes her JET debut as
Sonja Walsk, the Sager character (origi-
nated on Broadway by Lucie Arnaz).
"This play showcases very solid materi-
al, and it makes for a very likeable produc-
tion',' says Ball, 44, who also has worked in
dramas produced by the Meadow Brook
Theatre in Rochester and theaters outside
Michigan. "I don't think the characters
show begins 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, at
1526 Broadway. Tickets start at $60.
Bus transportation, at $5 per person,
is available from and to the JARC
Katzman Administration Building,
30301 Northwestern, in Farmington
Hills. The bus leaves at 11:45 a.m. and
returns at 4 p.m. (248) 538-6610, ext.
343 or www.jarc.org .
exactly come across as Jewish,
but Neil Simon's dialogue has
that kind of rhythm."
Linden, who relates to the
Alan Ball and Teri Clark Linden in They're Playing
rhythm of the music, has been Our Song
vocalizing songs from the play
Shir Tikvah in Troy for his religious
since she was 14.
courses.
"I love the script and the music:' says
"I've always enjoyed performing, and I
the actress, 41, who has worked with the
did a lot of acting in college. I also worked
Detroit Repertory Theatre, Performance
at the Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheater
Network in Ann Arbor and the Purple
in Ohio. Eventually, I hope to find roles in
Rose Theatre in Chelsea. "I've seen the
films."
play twice."
The three cast members, directed
Linden, who holds a theater degree from
by Harold Jurkiewicz with Martin
Roosevelt University in Illinois, has been
Mandelbaum conducting the music, will
acting for 20 years and has done staged
readings for JET. Her background includes be part of a special New Year's Eve celebra-
tion. Plans will be announced soon. Fl
commercials and audio books.
Eli Green, an understudy in Old Wicked
They're Playing Our Song will be
Songs and an intern with the theater
performed
Nov. 27-Dec. 31 at the
company, has two responsibilities in the
Jewish
Community
Center in West
upcoming play. He takes the part of the
Bloomfield.
Show
times
are 7:30
waiter and plays saxophone with the band.
p.m.
Wednesdays-Thursdays,
5 and
"I like the biographical plot of They're
8:30
p.m.
Saturdays
and
2
p.m.
Playing Our Song and the upbeat music','
Sundays. There will be additional
says Green, 22, a theater graduate of
performances at 2 p.m. Wednesday,
Rollins College in Florida and a former
Dec.19, and 5 and 8:30 p.m. Monday,
student at Detroit Country Day School for
Dec. 31. $30-$39. (248) 788-2900.
his secular education and Congregation
,2ws
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
:ot
Ins
la Catch-Up Note
It sometimes happens that a Jewish
angle regarding a film is discovered
7
11; after the movie opens. Such is the
case with Lions and Lambs, which
opened on Nov. 9 to lukewarm
reviews and anemic box office.
In Lions, Robert Redford plays a
college professor who has long polit-
ical discussions with one of his stu-
dents, played by
newcomer Andrew
Garfield, 24. Right
after the film came
out, Garfield told
an interviewer that
he is Jewish.
His American
Jewish mother
Andrew Garfield married a British
Jew, and Andrew
was born in
California. His parents moved to
England when Andrew was 3, and
he was raised there. In October,
Garfield was named one of "10
CV
0
C8
November 22 • 2007
young actors to watch" by Variety.
He will next appear in The Other
Boleyn Girl, opening in February
and starring Natalie Portman and
Scarlett Johansson.
Star Trekery
Winona Ryder, 36, has been cast
as Mr. Spock's human mother in the
upcoming Star Trek film about the
adventures of the
young Spock and
the young Captain
Kirk. As Trek fans
know, Mr. Spock
is the product
of a mixed mar-
riage: his father is
Vulcan.
Anton Yelchin
Likewise, I was
recently able to
confirm that Ryder
is from a mixed background: her
father is Jewish and her mother is
not. Ryder, who was born Winona
Horowitz, has called herself Jewish
a couple of times, but she was not
raised in any faith.
The new Trek film, directed by
J.J. Abrams of Lost fame, is set to
open in late 2008. It was recently
announced that William Shatner
will not appear as "old Kirk," but
Leonard Nimoy will appear as "old
Spock." Anton Yelchin, 18, will play
Chekov, the role created by actor
Walter Koenig.
Shelly Tribute
Filmmaker and actress Adrienne
Shelly was murdered at age 40
in November 2006 (her killer has
reportedly confessed and awaits
trial). A few
months after her
murder, Shelly's
film, Waitress,
opened to good
reviews and strong
ticket sales. It
comes out on DVD
on Nov. 27.
Keri Russell
Shelly's hus-
band, Andy
Ostroy, founded
the Adrienne Shelly Foundation
after her death to award film-
school scholarships and grants to
women filmmakers. The first gala
benefit for the foundation was held
in New York on Nov.12. Among the
attendees were Rosanna Arquette,
Gina Gershon, Edie Falco and Keri
Russell, who had the lead role in
Waitress.
Russell, 31, co-stars in August
Rush, a film about a young musi-
cal prodigy and his search to find
the parents he never knew. The film
opened on Wednesday, Nov. 21.
While it is not known how she was
raised, Russell was described by
J.J. Abrams, who cast her as the
star of the hit TV show Felicity, as
"partly Jewish" in a recent inter-
view. Russell herself has made refer-
ence to her at least partly Jewish
heritage.
She laughed off a report that she
had converted to Scientology when
starring in Mission: Impossible III
with Tom Cruise. The London Daily
Mail reported she had told Vanity
Fair: "I had all my Jewish grand-
mothers calling, going, 'Is Keri a
Scientologist? Do we have to be
worried?"