Arts & Entertainment

Wicked Wends Its Way

To Detroit Opera House

Musical was nourished by a Jewish producer
with a soft spot for outsiders.

Shoshana Lewin-Fischer

Jewish Journal of Greater L.A.

0

n the Hollywood side, producer
Marc Platt is responsible for suc-
cessful films like Legally Blonde
and acclaimed miniseries like HBO's
Empire Falls. But he's dipped his hand into
theater as well.
Born on the Universal lot in 1999 and
nurtured by the Hollywood-turned-
Broadway producer, Wicked, the Tony-win-
ning mega-popular musical that tells the
pre-Dorothy story of Oz witches Glinda
"the Good Witch" and Elphaba "the Wicked
Witch of the West" returns to Detroit for
a run Dec. 10-Jan. 4 at the Detroit Opera
House; and Platt is happy to talk about it.
Had Platt followed through on his origi-
nal plans for Wicked, it would have had a
similar Hollywood treatment as its Baum
1939 counterpart, The Wizard of Oz — but
sans musical numbers. As the former head
of production for Universal Studios in the
late 1990s (he now has his own produc-
tion company), Platt had acquired the
rights to Gregory Maguire's best-selling
novel Wicked, fully intending to adapt it
for the big screen.

Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz
(Godspell) and book writer Winnie
Holzman (thirtysomething) wanted to
turn Maguire's tale into a musical and
contacted Platt in 1999 with the hope of
securing the rights from Universal. The
three met and what emerged became the
2003 blockbuster Broadway hit.
"When we did our first reading here on
the lot of Act 1 and 2 [in 2001], we expect-
ed it to be fun and charming and witty,"
Platt said. "I don't think anything prepared
any one of us — Winnie, Stephen or me
— for the overwhelming, passionate, emo-
tional response from the 50 to 60 people
that were sitting in the room that day. And
it sort of made us think, 'You know, I won-
der if we get this right ... maybe we really
have something!"
That "something" includes a Platinum-
certified album, a makeup line with Stila
cosmetics and the online Ozdust Boutique,
which sells everything from "Defy Gravity"
T-shirts (named for the goosebump-
inducing Act 1 closer) to Wicked golf balls.
Platt notes that the grandfather of a
friend even has the lyrics "I have been
changed for good" from the song "For
Good" engraved on his headstone.
Another song from the show, "Thank

Goodness," which exposes
Producer Marc Platt and composer-lyricist
how Glinda deals with get- Stephen Schwartz
ting everything she thought
she always wanted, touches
a chord with Platt, who
grew up in a traditional Conservative home
"Some of the metaphors you find in
in Maryland with a family always involved
Wicked — how those in power can exploit
in some form of tikkun olam:
fear in others to maintain their power — I
"It has some of the most brilliant lyr-
think, as Jews, we've seen that historically
ics I think written in a long time. For
on more than one occasion!" '__
---
example, 'There are bridges you crossed
you didn't know you crossed until you
crossed: To me it is very meaty in terms of
Wicked runs Dec. 10-Jan.4 at the
thematically what the show is about"
Detroit Opera House. Show times
Since the success of Wicked, Platt's
are 8 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays (no
theater division has produced the drama
performances on Dec.15, 24, 25 or
Three Days of Rain, which starred Julia
Jan. 1); 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11; 2
Roberts and Paul Rudd. He currently has a
p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; and
revival of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey run-
7:30 p.m. Sundays (no performance
ning in previews on Broadway.
Jan. 4). $33-$93. Info: (313) 871-
While he's now as inside as most
1000. Tickets: (248) 645-6666 or
people can hope to get in Hollywood, Platt
www.ticketmaster.com/Wicked.
maintains a large place in his heart for
There will be a performance of
the stories of the outsiders, like Wicked's
Wicked benefiting JARC, providing
Elphaba, which he attributes to his Jewish
homes and services to developmen-
upbringing.
tally disabled individuals, 7:30 p.m.
"The notion of someone who is fitting
Thursday, Dec.11. For price levels
in or trying to become part of a larger
and to purchase tickets, go to
family — it's hard to separate that from
www.jarc.org or call (248) 538-6611.
my own Jewish roots.

4ori WS

Ormi

.12

w

B12

I

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Holiday Stuff

Four Christmases,
opening Friday,
Nov. 28, is the type
of almost secular
holiday flick I often
enjoy: a good cast
assembled to play a
meshugah extended
family. Vince
Vaughn and Reese
Witherspoon play a young mar-
ried couple forced to spend X-mas
vacation with their four sets of par-
ents/stepparents after bad weather
grounds their plane. The family
crazies include Vaughn's minister
stepfather (Dwight Yoakam) and his

November 27 = 2008

brothers, one of whom is played by
Jon Favreau, 40. Co-stars include
Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall
and Jon Voight.
Favreau, now hot as the director of
the mega-hit Iron Man, had another
huge hit as the director of 2005's Elf.
When Elf came out, Favreau remarked
that Christmas was long a sad time
for him. His Jewish mother died when
he was 12, just before Christmas.
His grandparents worked together
to give him a nice holiday - his
Jewish "grands" had a bagel-and-lox
breakfast with him each Christmas,
and he spent the rest of the day
celebrating the holiday with his non-
Jewish father's parents. Both sets
of "grands" cooperated to make
sure Jon was a bar mitzvah, as his
mother wanted. As an adult, Favreau

is a practicing Jew.

Shatner Sit - Down
William Shatner, 76, is a bit of a
"wild and crazy guy," and he cer-
tainly doesn't have to worry about
his career. So I am looking forward
to him hosting his own cable talk-
show on the Biography Channel. I
have a feeling the former Capt. Kirk
will be a lot looser and more candid
than most hosts.
Called Raw Nerve,
the show debuts
10 p.m. Tuesday,
Dec. 2. Shatner's
guests will include
his old Star Trek
pal Leonard Nimoy
("Mr. Spock`").
William
Shatner has
Shatner

invited George Takei (Mr. Sulu) on
the program. The two have feuded
for decades, with Takei claiming that
Shatner always hammed it up in
their Star Trek scenes together. Takei
married his long-term gay partner
last September and says he invited
Shatner as a peace gesture. Shatner
says he never got an invite. Whatever
the truth is, these guys get a lot
of publicity out of this "feud," and
maybe that's what they want.
It would be cool if any of Shatner's
three adult daughters appear on the
show. Although the actor has been
married four times, he only had
children with his first wife, who is
Jewish. Last spring, Shatner men-
tioned that one of his daughters
makes a Passover seder each year
for the whole clan.

❑