Arts & Entertainment
The Man With A Camera
Exhibit brings fashion photographs of
Richard Avedon to Detroit Institute of Arts.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
r
ed American fashion photogra-
pher Richard Avedon, shortly after
World War II, drove around Paris
before deciding where to pose famed dothing
designer Coco Chanel for a magazine shoot.
Apparently, his Jewish roots (he was the
son of Russian-Jewish immigrants) held
their ground.
Chanel, who had lived with a German
during the time of Nazi control, was placed
in an area associated with the occupation
rather than with fashion.
The editors decided not to print those
images, but there were so many others to
focus on from that time forward.
Many of those pictures — with glam
celebrities to light up the pages of Harper's
Bazaar, Vogue and the New Yorker will
be on view through Jan. 17 at the Detroit
Institute of Arts.
The exhibit, "Avedon Fashion Photographs
1944-2000:' features 181 works, including
vintage prints, magazines, contact sheets
and archival material from the Avedon estate
(he died in 2004). The illustrated, hardcover
—
book Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 will be on
sale in the museum shop.
"Richard Avedon had a huge, charming,
charismatic personality that really opened
up and allowed a lot of models to open up as
well:' says James Martin, managing director
of the Richard Avedon Foundation and for-
mer assistant to the camera icon.
"When he photographed people, he was
not directly behind the camera. He would
be off to the side, often mimicking the
types of poses that he wanted.
"He would jump around with [young
model] Twiggy on stage to get her to jump
around, and he would use the same type
of ferocity of life that he wanted to pull
from her."
The dramatic exhibit images often take on
the quality of portraiture. Barbra Streisand
is shown with makeup emphasized to
capture her stage presence. Director Mike
Nichols is depicted as the comedian he was
before becoming a noted director.
Avedon's work with luminaries, that
came to include film stars Elizabeth Taylor
and Brigitte Bardot and models Suzy
Parker and Detroit native Donyale Luna,
inspired the 1957 Fred Astaire-Audrey
Live In The Big Apple
Jewish talent populates new productions
on the New York stage.
Alice Burdick Schweiger
Special to the Jewish News
BROADWAY
A Little Night Music, a musical theater
revival set in a country home in turn-of-
the-century Sweden, centers on actress
Desiree, her ex-lover and his wife. Starring
Angela Lansbury, Jewish actor Aaron Lazar
and Catherine Zeta-Jones; score by Stephen
Sondheim. Previews begin Nov. 24.
At the Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 West
48th St., (212) 239-6200.
Bye Bye Birdie, in its first Broadway revival
and with a score by Charles Strouse and Lee
Adams, is set in the late 1950s as the man-
ager of an Elvis-like idol and his secretary
stage a contest among a group of teenagers
to give one last kiss to Conrad Birdie just
before he is inducted into the Army. Starring
Jewish actress Gina Gershon and John
Stamos, the show runs through Jan. 10.
At the Henry Miller Theatre, 124 W 43rd
St., (212) 719-1300.
44
October 22 • 2009
Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway
Bound, Neil Simon's classic plays centered
on Jewish adolescence in New York, are
playing in repertory on a varied schedule.
In Brighton Beach Memoirs, set in 1937,
Eugene lives with his family in a crowded
home in Brooklyn, dreams of a baseball
career and tries to develop his identity
as a writer. The show opens Oct. 25. In
Broadway Bound, set in the late 1940s,
Eugene and his brother Stanley have begun
writing comedy sketches — hoping it will
lead to fame — while their fam-
ily is in crisis. Previews begin
Nov. 18.
At the Nederlander
Theatre, 208 W 41st
St., (212) 307-
4100.
Oleanna,
written by
acclaimed
Jewish play-
wright David
o
Barbra Streisand with Madame
Gres, Paris, January 1966
Hepburn film Funny Face.
Carol Squiers and Vince Aletti curated
the exhibit, planned and organized by the
Richard Avedon Foundation and the Center
for Creative Photography.
"Our continuing amazement at Avedon's
achievements, year in and year out, is one
of the many things that inspired us as we
researched and wrote the book and orga-
nized the exhibition that it accompanies:'
the curators say about the man whose
early camera training came while he
served with the Merchant Marine.
"When Avedon was alive, he was able to
put together exhibits that show editions
and prints representing the pinnacle of his
career in fashion:' says Martin, in Detroit
to help with picture placement.
"Since he's passed away, we're also able to
display the underpinnings of those iconic
images, the pieces pulled from archives that
show how his work all comes together:'
Mamet and back on Broadway, is a drama
starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles about
a college professor whose student accuses
him of sexual exploitation.
At the Golden Theatre, 252 W 45th St.,
(212) 239-6200.
Present Laughter, by Noel Coward, stars
Jewish actor Victor Garber as a matinee
idol fighting off fans and becoming entan-
gled in the lives of the people around him.
The play runs Jan. 2-March 21.
At the American Airlines Theatre, 227 W
42nd St., (212) 719-1300.
Race, set on a college campus, is a new
play by David Mamet about three lawyers
who have to decide whether to defend a
white man charged with a crime against a
black woman. It stars David Alan
Grier, James Spader
and Richard Thomas.
Previews begin
Nov. 16; the show
opens Dec. 6.
At the
Ethel
Barrymore
Theatre,
Noah Robbins (Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs),
243 W. 47th
author Neil Simon, Josh Grisetti (Eugene in
St., (212)
Broadway Bound) and director David Croner
239-6200.
Suzy Parker with Mike Nichols, suit
by Simonetta-Fabiani, Rue Francois-
Premier, Paris, July 1962
"Avedon Fashion Photographs 1944-
2000" will be on view through
Jan. 17 at the Detroit Institute
of Arts. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Wednesdays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-
10 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturdays-Sundays. $12 adults,
$6 ages 6-17, $10 each for adult
groups of 15 or more, free for DIA
members. (313) 833-4005. Go to
www.dia.org for events and a photo
contest associated with the exhibit.
The Royal Family, written by Jewish
playwrights George S. Kaufman and Edna
Ferber in the 1920s, is about a famous
family of egocentric stage stars. Loosely
based on the Barrymores, it stars Jewish
actor Tony Roberts. The show closes Nov.
29.
At the Samuel 1. Friedman Theatre, 261
W 47th St., (212) 239-6200.
Superior Donuts, helmed by Jewish
director Tina Landau, is a comedy about
an establishment located in a Chicago
neighborhood that is emerging from years
of decay. The donut shop has been vandal-
ized, and a young black employee wants to
upgrade it.
At the Music Box Theatre, 239 W 45th
St., (212) 239-6200.
Time Stands Still, written by Jewish
playwright Donald Margulies, documents
the realities of war and features a journal-
ist and a photographer who have been
together for nine years. Both injured, the
lead characters have to return home to
New York and face the prospect of a more
conventional life. Starring Jewish actress
Alicia Silverstone. Previews begin Jan 5;
runs through March 13.
At the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261
W 47th St., (212) 239-6200.