Arts & Entertainment

Double Bill

A Chorus Line opens at Fisher;
its composer guests with DSO.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

T

he music of A Chorus
Line is coming to
Detroit — in a new
production at the Fisher and in
a Detroit Symphony Orchestra
concert with its composer.
While the play — about 17
chorus dancers' lives, as told
through their own words, songs
and dance during auditions
for a Broadway show — will
be staged Jan. 13-Feb. 1 at the
Fisher Theatre, composer Marvin
Hamlisch will include its songs
as he-conducts the DSO and plays
piano Jan. 22-25 at the Max M.
Fisher Music Center.
Hamlisch returns to the area in
the midst of a busy tour schedule
and after scoring a new film, The
Informant with Matt Damon.
"I've been doing Christmas
shows, and I think there's some-
thing very nice about a Jewish
guy performing Christmas
music," Hamlisch, 64, told the
Detroit - Jewish News in a con-
versation about the Motown
programs. "It reminds me that

Irving Berlin was Jewish and
wrote 'White Christmas."

JN: Are there any changes to
this revival of A Chorus Line?
MH: Only two things have been
changed. In the show, there are
new musical arrangements, and
the characters tell their ages in
the beginning. [Also], in 1974,
one of the big deals in the sto-
ryline was homosexuality. That
now takes a back seat, but what
do come to the forefront are ques-
tions of what it means to be a
good person.

JN: Do you think A Chorus
Line has special relevance as
we hear about increasing job
losses?
MH: I think it unfortunately
does add on a little more real-
ity with the competition to get
jobs. But, because of the total
faith I have in the American will
— I hope that what's going on in
Detroit — will somehow bring
about a better Detroit.

JN: Is there an emotional
difference between seeing an
original play staged and see-

ing the revival staged?
MH: When the original comes
out, the cast and crew pray,
hope and maybe bite their nails
wondering how the audience
is going to like it. If they know
it's been well received the first
time around, there's no reason to
think the revival is not going to
be well received — so the pres-
sure is not the same.

JN: What will you perform
with the DSO?
MH: The concert will be a cel-
ebration of American composers.
There'll be music by Irving Berlin,
Scott Joplin, Richard Rodgers,
Jerome Kern and me.

JN: How do you feel con-
ducting and playing the piano
rather than just doing one of
those two?
MH: Whether conducting
or playing, I'm making music,
and that's pretty much what I
do. It's almost like driving a car.
You know what you're doing;
so whether you're stopping at a
corner, moving forward or going
in reverse, you're just driving the
car.

JN: Has the advent
of technology
affected the way you
compose?
MH: I don't let it
affect me. I don't own
a computer. I don't do
Marvin Hamlisch on performing:
e-mail. I'm still liv-
"It's almost like driving a car."
ing in 1952, and I'm
happy that way. I write
with a pen. If I make a
mistake, I cross it out and start
people will bring their children.
again.
It's a great chance to hear good
music played live, which is such
JN: What should people
an exciting event. There's a lot of
know about the concert?
comedy, and I think the audience
MH: The songs I do are very
is going to have a good time. ❑
family-oriented, and I hope

A Chorus Line will be per-
formed Jan.13-Feb. 1 at the
Fisher Theatre in Detroit.
Show times are 8 p.m.
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays and
7:30 p.m. Sundays. There is a
1 p.m. matinee Thursday, Jan.
29, and no evening perfor-
mance Feb.1. $30-$84. Info:
(313) 872-1000. Tickets:
www.ticketmaster.com or

(248) 645-6666.

The Marvin Hamlisch con-
certs with the DSO are 10:45
a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday,
8:30 p.m. Friday and
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday,
Jan. 22-25, at Orchestra Hall
in Detroit's Max M. Fisher
Music Center. $19-$105.
www.detroitsymphony.com or
(313) 576-5111.

Jews

oifr

41111 I

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Films Open Jan. 9
Bride Wars stars Kate Hudson, 29,
) and Anne Hathaway as lifelong
friends who get engaged at about
41, the same time. Everything is going
great until the wedding planner
tai) (Candice Bergen) slips up and sched-
ules their weddings for the same
time, at the same swanky hotel.
Neither bride wants
to reschedule. Bryan
Greenberg, 30, plays
Hudson's fiance.
Hudson, by the way,
is a haiachic (accord-
ing to Jewish law)
.1 Jew since her mater-
nal grandmother,
Kate Hudson

I

C

411

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January 8 @ 2009

Goldie Hawn's mother, was Jewish.
Hawn's late mother, whom Hudson
was close to, was Hudson's only
Jewish grandparent. Hudson was
raised with some Jewish religious
background and calls herself Jewish.
Ann Arbor native David S. Goyer,
43, had a huge hit last year as the
co-writer of The Dark Knight, the
Batman flick that broke box office
records. His new film, which he wrote
and directed, is The Unborn, a hor-
ror fantasy thriller somewhat based
on the Jewish folklore figure of the
dybbuk: a malicious possessing spirit
– believed to be the spirit of a dead
person.
As the film opens, a young
woman (Odette Yustman) feels that a
spirit is trying to take control of her
and use her as a vessel to come into

this world. It turns
out the spirit is
that of a relative of
Yustman's character
– a boy who died in
the Holocaust. Gary
Oldman co-stars as
a rabbi who tries to
David Goyer
exorcise the spirit
or dybbuk.
Goyer recently told a Web site he
learned about dybbuks in Hebrew
school: "I knew about dybbuks ever
since I was a kid. I'm half Jewish, I
went to Hebrew school; and so when
I was growing up, like anybody, I was
into monsters and I thought about it
and was like, 'Are there any Jewish
monsters?'
"So there's like the dybbuk and the
golem and that's pretty much it."

The much antici-
pated Revolutionary
Road, based on the
acclaimed Richard
Yates novel about
1950s suburban
angst, reunites
Titanic lovers
Sam Mendes
Leonardo DiCaprio
and Kate Winslet
as the novel's desperately unhappy
married couple. Winslet in real life is
married to the film's director, Sam
Mendes (American Beauty), whose
father is of Portuguese heritage and
whose mother is an English Jew.
DiCaprio, Winslet, Mendes and the
film itself are nominated for Golden
Globes. The Golden Globe Awards
airs 8-11 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, on
NBC.

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