Arts & Entertainment
Those Funny Jews
Originally directed by Sheldon Patinkin,
one of the founding members of famed
improv company the Second City, Jewsicall
The Musical is a comedic look at Jewish life
and culture, utilizing classic scenes from the
Second City's archives as well as new mate-
rial created by the next generation of the
troupe's writers and satirists.
Scenes and songs include a musical ode
to the online Jewish dating service J-Date, a
visit to the country's first Thai/kosher fusion
restaurant and Joseph and Mary's session
with a very confused marriage counselor.
"We are trying to be humorous about the
situations in the world, the situations that
one lives with as well as what it's like to be
Jewish in this world:' said Patinkin of the
musical revue.
Celebrating all things Jewish with a decid-
edly irreverent look, Jewsicall The Musical
will be presented July 9-Sept. 7 at the Second
City in Novi, located at 42705 Grand River
Ave. Show times are Wednesdays and
About
II la
the DSO selections are
Thursdays at 8 p.m.,
compositions by Jewish
Fridays at 9 p.m.,
composers: Morton
Saturdays at 8 and 10
Gould's Fanfare for
p.m. and Sundays at 4
Freedom, songs from
and 8 p.m.
Leonard Bernstein's West
Tickets are $15
Gail Zimmerman
Side Story and Aaron
on Wednesdays,
Arts Editor
Copland's Lincoln Portrait.
Thursdays and
The culmination of the
Sundays and $20 on
Fridays and Saturdays and can be purchased concerts is a grand finale of fireworks choreo-
graphed to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
over the phone by calling the Second City
Preceding the concerts will be perfor-
box office at 248-348-4448 or online at www.
mances by the 1st Michigan Colonial Fire
ticketmaster.com.
and Drum Corps at 6:45 p.m. and the
River Raisin Ragtime Review at 7:30 p.m.
Patriotic Performances
Additionally, attendees have full access to
300 years of American history at Greenfield
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's "Salute
Village with more than 80 authentic struc-
To America" concerts, now in their 16th
tures, a cast of dramatic performers in peri-
year and taking place July 2-5 in Greenfield
od attire, children's activities on the Village
Village, feature fireworks, patriotic music
Green, a vintage baseball game and classic
and a Lincoln bicentennial salute.
songs performed by the all-female Village
The DSO concerts at 8:30 p.m., led by
Trio and the men of the barbershop-style
Resident Conductor Thomas Wilkins, are
Greenfield Village Quartet.
the centerpiece of the evenings. Among
Gates open at 6 p.m., and concert
attendees are welcome to bring chairs and
blankets to the concerts. Food and bever-
ages are available for purchase.
For more information, including ticket
prices and purchase, call (313) 576-5111 or
(313) 982-6001 or go to www.detroitsym-
phony.com or www.The HenryFord.org .
Mortgage Help
In keeping with the spirit of its film
Hancock (about a misunderstood superhero
who is encouraged to improve his public
image when he meets a good-hearted
public relations executive), which opened
locally July 2, Columbia Pictures is holding
a contest to pay off a deserving family's
home mortgage (up to $360,000).
Entrants must write a 200-word essay
explaining why they are deserving of the
grand prize. To enter (by July 6) and find
the official contest rules, log on to
www.Hancockmovie.com. 11
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.
ews
Gam
I
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Red, White & Blue
A reader question prompted me
to check which famous Jews were
born on the Fourth of July. The list
is a bit longer and
more diverse than I
expected.
Each person's
age as of this com-
ing Independence
Day follows his or
her name: Al Davis,
Pro Football Hall of
Michael Milken Fame football coach
and the owner of the
Oakland Raiders, 79; Michael Milken,
disgraced businessman turned major
Jewish philanthropist, 61; Mitch Miller,
music producer, 97; Geraldo Rivera,
journalist, 65; Neil Simon, playwright,
81; Abigail Van Buren, columnist, born
Pauline Friedman, 90 (her twin sister,
columnist Ann Landers, born Esther
Friedman, died in 2002).
July 4 also was the birthday of
these famous deceased Hebrews:
Irving Caesar, songwriter ("Tea for
Two"); Rube Goldberg, cartoonist;
Leona Helmsley, businesswoman;
Lionel Trilling, major literary critic-
professor; Meyer Lansky, gangster;
and Louis B. Mayer, movie mogul.
(European-born Lansky and Mayer,
who were unsure of their exact dates
C4
July 3 x 2008
of birth, chose July 4 out of patrio-
tism, as odd as that might sound in
Lansky's case.)
Film Premieres
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which
opened July 2, stars Abigail Breslin
(Little Miss Sunshine) as a plucky
Cincinnati teen who does all she can
to help her family survive the Great
Depression. Along the way she unsuc-
cessfully tries to sell some news
stories to a gruff
newspaper editor
(Wallace Shawn).
Shawn's small but
distinct character
role in this film is
typical of his acting
career. For more
Wallace Shawn than 20 years,
he has delighted
filmgoers and TV audiences with his
gnome-like appearance and distinctive
lisping voice (he was the voice of Rex
in Toy Story). Everyone knows Shawn,
64, from something — whether the
comic evil mastermind in The Princess
Bride, the Ferengi Grand Negus Zek
in Star Trek: Deep Space-Nine or the
disheveled high-school teacher in
Clueless.
The son of legendary New Yorker
editor William Shawn, Wallace has
used his acting earnings to subsidize
his other career as the writer of seven
well-received stage plays. Several of
his works have become films, includ-
ing My Dinner with Andre and The
Designated Mourner.
Wallace Shawn's companion of 30
years is short-story writer Deborah
Eisenberg, 62, whom the New York
Times describes as "one of the most
important fiction writers now at
work."
Opening Friday, July 4, in select cit-
ies is Diminished Capacity. Matthew
Broderick, 46, stars as a journalist
suffering from memory loss who
returns to his rural hometown, where
he bonds with his old flame (Virginia
Madsen) and Alzheimer's-impaired
uncle (Alan Alda).
Alda has been married for 51 years
to his Jewish wife, Arlene Weiss Alda;
their three daughters were raised
Jewish.
Eyeing Eisner
Michael Eisner, 62, the man who
rescued and reinvented the Disney
Company, has hosted his own once-
a-month talk show on CNBC since
2006. Eisner was forced out of Disney
in 2005, but he still commands a lot
of respect in the entertainment world.
That respect is reflected in the quality
of guests his under-the-radar show
attracts.
Most of the past shows can be
viewed on the CNBC Web site. Jewish
celeb guest interviews include Jann
Wenner, the publisher of Rolling Stone
Michael Eisner
magazine; Kenneth
Cole, the fashion
designer; and Ben
Silverman, 37, the
co-chair of NBC
entertainment and
the "wunderkind"
who's been behind
the network's hit
shows.
Mad Men On DVD
The DVD of the first season of the
award-winning AMC cable show Mad
Men went on sale on July 1. Mad
Men, created by executive producer
Matthew Weiner, premiered in July
2007 and returns
for a second season
on July 27, 2008.
It's about advertis-
ing agencies in the
early '60s, a time
when WASP males
almost exclusively
ran them.
Maggie Siff
Last season, we
saw one Jewish character, Rachel
Menken, the beautiful daughter of
a Jewish department-store owner.
Playing Menken is Maggie Siff, 34,
whose real-life father is Jewish.
Working as sound editor on the
series is Julie Altus, 28, formerly of
West Bloomfield. ❑
Contact Nate Bloom at Middleoftheroadl@aoLcom.