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Arts & Entertainment

April 6-13

D011ATE USED BOOKS

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Colossal Collection:
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Colossal Collections: Feb. 3, March 9

additional drop-off sites:

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Sarah & Ralph Davidson
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5030 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield
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248-683-5030

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1N

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"A thoroughly delightful culinary experience."

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Danny Raskin,

In the heart of
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38o S. Main Street
Plymouth

734.416.9340

www.hammagrille.com • Open or dinner Monday - Saturday

C6

January 3 2008

If air

Andrew Lloyd Webber's inspiring
Whistle Down the Wind makes its
Detroit debut at Fisher Theatre.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

he uplifting Andrew Lloyd
Webber musical Whistle
Down the Wind would
have been a perfect entertainment
for Detroit audiences during the
Chanukah-Christmas season: The
show features a number of singing
children (including an 8-year-old
Jewish girl), dancing and even a char-
acter who purports to be Jesus Christ.
Instead, Whistle should help relieve
the post-holiday doldrums when it
makes its Motor City debut Jan. 8-Jan.
27 at Detroit's Fisher Theatre as part of
its first-ever U.S. national tour.
Whistle Down the Wind is based
on the 1961 movie of the same name
starring Hayley Mills, which itself
was based on a 1958 book by Mills'
mother, Mary Haley Bell. Webber and
his musical book co-writers, Patricia
Knop and Gale Edwards, along with
American rock lyricist Jim Steinman,
transferred the story to the American
South to incorporate indigenous
American musical forms like gospel,
blues and rock 'n roll.
The musical premiered in
Washington, D.C., in 1996, but nega-
tive reviews forced cancellation of
its Broadway run. A reworked and
more successful production played
three stints in England, with a new

producer-director, Bill Kenwright.
The London Daily Telegraph pro-
claimed Kenwright's Whistle "Andrew
Lloyd Webber's best show since The
Phantom of the Opera.
"Whistle Down the Wind is a fantas-
tic story for a musical dramatist, and
it took me back to my rock roots:' said
Lloyd Webber, composer of Joseph and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
and Jesus Christ Superstar. "It's a pri-
mal tale about salvation and forgive-
ness that everyone can relate to."
The musical, set in a 1959 Louisiana
small town, focuses on three children
approaching their first Christmas
since the death of their mother.
Discovering an escaped criminal
hiding in their barn, they become
convinced he is Jesus and agree to
keep his location secret from angry
townspeople.
The trio and their young friends
dominate the show."I changed things
around so the audience could see the
children better," said Kenwright. "I also
switched or cut some songs. It's a great
show with the usual Andrew Lloyd
Webber power ballads and a melodic
and haunting score. The story is an
extraordinary tale about the transfor-
mative power of love, with a colossal
message about hope and faith."
New Yorker Steinman, 60, whose
father was Jewish but who doesn't
practice any religion now, insists he's