Arts & Entertainment In The Spotlight Our roundup of new shows with a Jewish connection on Broadway and Off-Broadway stages. Alice Burdick Schweiger Special to the Jewish News BROADWAY Anything Goes, starring Joel Grey (Dancing With the Stars winner Jennifer Grey's dad!) and Sutton Foster, is a revival of the Cole Porter classic. Previews begin March 10. Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 West 43rd St.; (212) 239-6200. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, mixes fact and fiction in telling the story of America's seventh president. Joining Benjamin Walker as Jackson is Darren Goldstein, who plays John Calhoun. Closes Jan.2. Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W 45th St.; (212) 239-6200. Catch Me If You Can, a new musical based on the 2002 Tom Hanks/Leonardo DiCaprio film about a charming con artist who disguises himself as a pilot, doctor and lawyer while being pursued by the FBI, stars Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal), with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman. Opens in March. Neil Simon Theatre, 250 W 52nd St.; (800) 745-3000. How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, a revival about a young window cleaner who rises from the mail room to vice president of advertising at the World Wide Wicket Company, stars Daniel , Radcliffe (Harry Potter himself)). Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Previews begin Feb. 26; show opens March 27. Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 W 45th St.; (212) 239-6200. La Bete, written by David Hirson and starring David Hyde Pierce, is a comedy set in 17th-century France about a popular street performer and a classical writer who vie for a royal endorsement. Closes Jan 9. Music Box Theatre, 239 W 45th St.; (212) 239-6200. Cohn Quinn Long Story Short is a one-man comic look at the history of the world, written by and starring Colin Quinn (Saturday Night Live) and directed by his pal Jerry Seinfeld. Closes Jan. 8. Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W 44th St.; (212) 239-6200. Lombardi tells the story of the iconic Packers football coach Vince Lombardi; Judith Light (Ugly Betty) plays his wife Marie. Circle in the Square Theatre, 235 W 50th St.; (212) 239-6200. The Pee-wee Herman Show, starring Paul Reubens, re-creates the ground- breaking hit TV show Pee-wee's Playhouse. Through Jan. 2. Stephen Sondheim Theatre, 124 West 43rd St.; (212) 239-6200. Sister Act, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater, is fresh off a successful run in London's West End and is based on the 1992 Whoopie Goldberg film of the same name. Directed by Jerry Zaks. Previews begin in March; the show opens in April. Christina Ricci in the Donald Margulies play Time Stands Still Broadway Theatre, Broadway and 53rd St.; (212) 239-6262. Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, based on the Marvel comic book character and directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) with amazing special effects, is the most costly show ever to hit Broadway. Music and lyrics by Bono and the Edge. Currently in previews; show opens Jan. 11. Foxwoods Theatre, 213 West 42nd St.; (212) 307-4100. Time Stands Still, by Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright Donald Margulies, tells the story of a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent who try and find happiness and make a difference in the world. The all- star cast includes Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James, Eric Bogosian and Christina Ricci. Closes Jan. 30. Cort Theatre, 138 W 48th St.; (212) 239-6200. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a comedy adapted from the Pedro Almodovar film of the same name, has a musical score by David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and features Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Danny Burstein. Through Jan. 23. Belasco Theatre, 111 W 44th St.; (212) 239-6200. OFF-BROADWAY Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's work about the beginning of the AIDS crises of the 1980s. Its two parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, alternate in repertory. Closes March 27. Peter Norton Space, 555 W 42nd St.; (212) 244-7529. The Divine Sister, a comic parody about Hollywood films with nun themes writ- ten by and starring Charles Busch (The Allergist's Wife), tells the story of a mother superior determined to build a new school for her Pittsburgh convent. Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St.; (212) 691-1555. Other Desert Cities, starring Linda Lavin, Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach, brings a once promising novel- ist home for the holidays after a six-year absence as she announces that she's about to publish a memoir that includes a sensi- tive time in the family's history. Previews begin Dec. 16; show opens Jan. 13. Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, 150 W 65th St.; (212) 239-6200. The Whipping Man tells the story of a Jewish Confederate soldier in 1865 who returns home wounded to find his family house in ruins. He has been abandoned by everyone except two former slaves, who were raised as Jews in his home. The three men reunite to celebrate Passover. Previews begin Jan. 13; runs through March 13. At the MTC Stage 1 at NYC City Center, 131 W 55th St.; (212) 581-1212. ❑ e W S *a I Nate Bloom ealm 16. Special to the Jewish News ICI One Tough Jew fij The action-thriller The Tourist opens vim Friday, Dec.10. Ai It stars Johnny Depp as Frank, an 4 American tourist in Italy. Angelina Jolie plays Elise, a ‘11110 woman whose former lover is a con-man wanted by the police and by a big-time gangster from whom he has stolen a lot of money. Elise seduces Steven Berkoff Frank with the intent of making an inves- tigating police agent (Paul Bettany) and the gangster (Steven Berkoff, 73) think that Frank is actually the con- ‘111 Z 52 . Laura Lmney, Brian d'Arcy James, Eric Bogosian and December 9 • 2010 iN man (after plastic surgery). Berkoff is an acclaimed playwright, actor and stage director who says that he works in film to support his theater work. He has the look of a chic villain and memorably played the main bad guy in the James Bond movie Octopussy and in the first Beverly Hills Cop film. A British Jew, Berkoff has written Jewish-themed plays and directed plays in Israel. While not a support- er of the Israeli right wing, last year he said of the English: "There is an inbuilt dislike of Jews. Overt anti-Semitism goes against the British sense of fair play. It has to be covert and civilized. So certain playwrights and actors on the left wing make themselves out to be stricken with conscience. They say: 'We hate Israel; we hate Zionism; we don't hate Jews.' "But Zionism is the very essence of what a Jew is. Zionism is the act of seeking sanctuary after years and years of unspeakable outrages against Jews. As soon as Israel does anything over the top, it's always the same old faces who come out to dem- onstrate. I don't see hordes of people marching down the street against Mugabe when tens of thousands are dying every month in Zimbabwe." Fisher On HBO Wishful Drinking, an autobiographical one-woman play that actress-writer Carrie Fisher, 54, has toured for four years, premieres on HBO on Sunday, Dec.12, with multiple showings. The theater piece explores her life as the bipolar famous daughter of a famous Hollywood couple (actress Debbie Reynolds and the late singer Eddie Fisher). In 2008, Fisher spoke to San Francisco's Jewish paper in conjunction with his daughter's Carrie Fisher play opening there. Carrie Fisher said at the time that even though she wasn't raised Jewish, early memories of her father singing in synagogue had "a big effect on her" and that she and her then 16-year-old daughter (she's a single mother) often attend Friday night services and have Shabbat meals with Orthodox friends. ❑ Contact Nate Bloom at middleoftheroadl@aol.com .