Arts & Entertainment
About
Star Vehicle
Israel In N.Y.
Ann Arbor's Performance Network pres-
ents the Michigan premiere of Exits and
Entrances, an autobiographical play based
on playwright Athol Fugard's own early
experiences in South African theater,
April 24-June 1, with performances 8 p.m.
Thursdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays
and 2 p.m. Sundays.
The play is based on the true story
of the life-changing friendship between
the idealistic young Fugard and an older
actor (legendary Afrikaans actor Andre
Hugeunet, known at the time as the
"Laurence Olivier of South Africa") strug-
gling to find meaning and dignity at the
end of his career.
Set in the apartheid world of Port
Elizabeth, South Africa, it seeks to define
why art matters, especially as a weapon
against oppression.
Taking the role of the older actor is
Metro Detroit-based performer Robert
Grossman.
"It is a tremendous role for Robert
Grossman, who blew people away in 2002's
Man of the Mancha," says director David
Wolber.
Tickets are $25-$37 ($20-$28 during
preview performances April 24-May 1); dis-
counts available. (734) 663-0681 or www.
performancenetwork.org.
New York City's offi-
cial observation of
the 60th anniversary
of the State of Israel
will take place at 8
p.m. Wednesday, May
7, with a major musi-
cal gala at Radio City
Music Hall. The event
will feature Reggae superstar Matisyahu,
Paul Shaffer of the David Letterman Show,
composer-performer John Zorn and top
Israeli music artists Idan Raichel, Rami
Kleinstein, David Broza and Habanot
Nechama, with additional performers to
be announced. General admission tickets
are $36, $60, $120 and $180. VIP tickets are
$360 and $1,000. Net proceeds of the event
will benefit three leading Israeli organiza-
tions helping children in need. Info and
tickets: www.60at60.org or (212) 608-0555.
Shoah Stories
Detroit Public Television-Channel 56 will
broadcast two programs later this month in
honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Primo, airing 10 p.m. Thursday, April 24,
on Great Performances stars South African
actor Anthony Sher in a stage adaptation
of Italian chemist, author and Holocaust
Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Smith House' in Bloomfield Hills
survivor Primo Levi's memoir Survival in
Auschwitz. The one-man play unfolds in
controlled, lucid prose, detailing the time
the author spent in Auschwitz during the
final year of World War II.
Escape from Auschwitz, an episode of the
PBS series Secrets of the Dead, airs 8 p.m.
Wednesday, April 30. The documentary tells
of two young Slovak Jews, Rudolph Vrba
and Alfred Wetzler, who escaped by hiding
in a woodpile for three days, then fleeing
across enemy territory, determined to tell
the world about the atrocities being com-
mitted at the camp. Ultimately — despite
bureaucratic and other roadblocks — their
heroic efforts saved many thousands from
the gas chambers and crematoria.
The National Geographic Channel jour-
neys back to Auschwitz to witness Nazi life
beyond the death camp 9 p.m. Sunday, April
27, in Nazi Scrapbooks from Hell, which
exposes the privileged life led by those
overseeing genocide.
Wright Stuff
The Smith House in Bloomfield Hills was
designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd
Wright in 1948 for Jewish schoolteachers
Sara and Melvyn Maxwell Smith. Wright
called the Usonian design "my little
gem."
In 1997, the home was designated a
historic site and listed in the National
Register of Historic Places.
Today the home is open only on very
rare occasions for tours and features many
of the original furnishings designed by
Wright.
The Cranbrook Art Museum hosts a
tour of the Smith House 3 p.m. Sundays,
April 27 and May 4.
There is a charge of $15 for the tour for
Cranbrook members and $20 for non-
members.
For reservations, call the Cranbrook Art
Museum at (248) 645-3314.
❑
FYI: For Arts related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to: Gail Zimmerman, JN Out &
About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com . Notice must be received at least three weeks before the scheduled event.
Photos are appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.
Jews
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Another Hit
It seems as though Judd Apatow
•
•
(Knocked Up, Superbad) has another
hit on his hands with the bawdy
comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall,
which he produced. The flick, open-
ing Friday, April 18, features leading
members of what many are calling the
"Apatow Repertory
Company."
Sarah Marshall
co-stars Jason
Segel, 28, who also
co-wrote the mov-
ie's script. Segal's
first
acting role
#10
was
on
Apatow's
Jason Segel
short-lived 1999 TV
series, Freaks and Geeks; he currently
co-stars as Marshall on the CBS series
How I Met Your Mother.
In the film, Segel plays Peter, a
sweet guy with a slacker attitude
C6
April 17 2008
who ekes out a living writing inciden-
tal music for a TV show. Mostly he
lives in the shadow of star actress
Sarah Marshall, his beautiful girl-
friend. Playing Sarah is Kristen Bell
(Veronica Mars, Heroes), who grew up
in Huntington Woods.
Peter's devastated when Sarah
leaves him for a British rocker. He
decides to get out of his funk by going
to a Hawaiian resort. Much to his dis-
may, Sarah and her new boyfriend also
are at the resort. But things break
Peter's way when he meets a beautiful
hotel clerk (Mile Kunis of That '70s
Show fame) who is recovering from
her own heartbreak. Peter also inter-
acts with a dazed surfing instructor
(Paul Rudd) and an aspiring musician
(Jonah Hill).
In Da House
FOX will rerun a Jewish-themed epi-
sode of the medical drama House 9
p.m. Monday, April 21 (see story on
page C10). Here are few more interest-
ing tidbits about the episode and the
show.
Laura Silverman, 41 and the sister
of comedian Sarah Silverman, plays
Roz, the bride. Israeli actor Eyal
Podell, 32, currently appearing as
Adrian Korbel on the soap opera The
Young and the Restless, plays Roz's
handsome husband.
During the show, the Jewish
background of three staff doctors is
touched upon: Dr.
Chris Taub (Peter
Jacobson), Dr. Cuddy
(Lisa Edelstein) and
Dr. Wilson (Robert
Sean Leonard).
In real life,
Leonard is engaged
to Gabriella Salick,
Laura
a top equestrian
Silverman
rider whom he
met in college. In 2005, Salick, an
American, made aliyah to Israel; she
may represent Israel at the Summer
Olympics.
Olympic Trials
David Wallechinsky , 59, is uniquely
qualified to comment on the current
controversy about holding the Olympic
Games in China while the Chinese
government cracks down on Tibet
and provides financial and diplomatic
support for the genocidal Sudanese
regime. Wallechinsky, the son of the
late novelist Irving Wallace, is a lead-
ing historian of the Olympics (his new
book, just out, is called The Complete
History of the Olympics), and he's
done Olympic Games commentary for
NBC. He also compiles a yearly list of
the "World's 10 Worst Dictatorships,"
which runs in Parade magazine.
In a recent commentary,
Wallechinsky said, "The International
Olympic Committee made a mistake
by choosing Beijing to host the 2008
Olympics. With 125 democracies in
the world, there was no excuse for
awarding the Games to one of the 70
or so countries still ruled by a dicta-
torship." El