l Arts & Entertainment

Adam-ized!

American Idol fans await their fave at Auburn Hills concert.

Karen Schwartz
Special to the Jewish News

New York
ans screamed as he stepped on
stage. He pointed into the crowd
where a mass of fans held signs
that said, "We love you, Adam," hoping to
catch his eye.
They had lined up on Aug. 7 before dawn
at New York's Central Park for a chance to
see American Idol's Adam Lambert, Kris
Allen and David Cook perform as part of
Good Morning America's Summer Concert
Series. Parents hoisted their daughters onto
their shoulders to get a glimpse of Lambert,
and a sea of cell phones and cameras poked
out from the audience, snapping pictures of
the American Idol Season 8 finalist.
While Detroiters had to watch Lambert's
Central Park performance of Muse's
"Starlight" on TV or on the Internet (go to
abc.com ), it won't be long before they can
see Lambert live — he's set to perform at
the Palace of Auburn Hills on Aug. 26 as part
of the "American Idol Live!" summer tour.
For many reviewers, his performance
— including covers of Led Zeppelin's
"Whole Lotta Love:' Gary Jules' version

F

of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" as well as
a David Bowie medley — has been the
highlight of the show.
Jewish Metro Detroiters aren't shy about
showing their support for Lambert either.
Speaking from her Beverly Hills, Mich.,
home, Rae McIntosh, 62,
said she wouldn't want
to miss Lambert when
he comes to town. "I was
a fan of his. I think he
has amazing charisma,
and I think he'd prob-
ably do a fantastic show."
Rae McIntosh
A voice student who
has been involved in
musicals over the years, McIntosh said she
has an eye for performance values and
that Lambert's "star quality" set him apart.
"I watched [Al] with an open mind;
they start out with [36] people, but he
was the one that always stuck out to me. I
think he should have won!"
Jayme Barouch, 27, of West Bloomfield
said he was drawn by Lambert's show-
manship, "but once I found out he was
Jewish, I was even more of a supporter." A
longtime Al addict, Barouch said Lambert,
also 27, is the show's second Jewish Idol

(the first, Elliott Yamin,
came in third during
Season 5).
Most people probably
still don't know about
Lambert's religious
affiliation, Barouch said.
They're just struck, as
Jayme
Barouch is, by Lambert's
Barouch
dynamic style.
"Every week he put on a spectacular
performance," Barouch said.
The show in some ways has become a
family affair, he added. "My grandma was
obsessed with Adam Lambert this season.
We had a couple of family dinners and
Adam Lambert was a topic of conversa-
tion!'
The Idol stars even made it as water
cooler chatter at Sam Magar's commercial
real estate office. Magar,
54, of Bloomfield Hills
said people would come
in happy about who won
or sad about who didn't
win.
"You watch the con-
testants develop and, of
Sam Magar
course, you like the ones

you like
and root
for them:'
he said. "It's
kind of like
arn,ricanitfot.com
a sporting
Adam Lambert: No. 1 in the
event:'
hearts of his fans.
Magar
watches or
records all the episodes and expects the
concert will be well attended."[Lambert]
definitely has talent. He did some wild
things; he really had chutzpah to get his
butt out there [the way he did]:'
Magar said he likes the originality
Lambert brings to his music and the cre-
ativity that lets him make the songs his own.
"My vote was right there with him;' he
said. "I didn't know he was Jewish."
Questions for Adam Lambert? E-mail
them to Arts Editor Gail Zimmerman at
gzimmerman@thejewishnews. corn.

American Idols Live! comes to

the Palace of Auburn Hills 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 26. Doors at 5:30
p.m. $40.50-$69.50. (800) 745-
3000 or www.Palacenet.com .

A Different Kind Of Love

Adam writer-director crafts lovely outsider romance story.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

anomaly. Looking back, the veteran the-
ater and television director thinks being
an only child had a larger effect.
finding himself with a free hour
But there was something else that made
in Washington, D.C., not too
him feel separate from the great swath of
long ago, Max Mayer visited the
Americans.
U.S. Holocaust Memorial
"For my generation, the
Museum. He boarded the
identification with the
elevator with the crowd to
Holocaust made you under-
go to the permanent exhibit,
stand that you were outside in
when something unexpect-
some way:' he says.
ed happened.
The experience of being an
"The last thing, just
outsider deeply informs the
before they close the doors,
central characters in Adam,
they ask, 'Who here has lost
Mayer's altogether lovely and
family in the Holocaust?"'
touching film about an unusu-
Mayer recalls. "I raised my
al New York romance between
hand. And I realized that I
two twenty-somethings.
was the only one. I had this Filmmaker M ax Mayer
Jewish elementary school
sense of shame, and a sense
teacher Beth Buchwald (Rose
of pride, and a sense of otherness, which I
Byrne) is rebounding from a disappoint-
hadn't felt for a long time:'
ing break-up, while Adam Raki (Hugh
As a red diaper baby (child of commu-
Dancy) has Asperger's syndrome, a type
nists) growing up on the Upper West Side
of high-functioning autism distinguished
of Manhattan, Mayer hardly felt like an
by extreme intelligence and extreme dif-

F

46

August 20 2009

ficulty reaching beyond the
internal world.
Despite her attorney
father's opposition to a rela-
tionship with a high-mainte-
nance partner, Beth pursues
her attraction to Adam. The
film doesn't emphasize her
Jewishness, but it's there if
you look for it; and it was
fully present for Mayer when
he wrote the screenplay.
"I think that the sense of
not being at the exact center Rose Byrne (Beth) and Hugh Dancy (Adam) in Max
Mayer's Adam
of the society, for all of us
[Jews], hopefully encourages
a lot of us to be curious about others:'
raised in Christian Science) and Peter
Mayer says in an interview in a downtown
Gallagher (who's played numerous Jewish
hotel the day before a packed screening
characters, notably in The O.C. and Robert
of Adam at the San Francisco Jewish Film
Altman's The Player), are clearly Jewish, but
Festival. "And have maybe a little bit more
you won't see a menorah or any such bric-
compassion or empathy for a sense of out- a-brac in their house. A key subplot involves
siderness, a sense of outsideness."
a complaint brought against Beth's father,
Beth's parents, played by Amy Irving
and Mayer confides that — long before
(whose father is Jewish, though she was
Bernie Madoff — he consciously avoided