arts & entertainment >> editor's picks
CLASSICAL NOTES
Friends of the Opera of Michigan pres-
ents The Most Happy Fella, with book,
music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, at 8
p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 30-31,
at the Ford Community & Performing
Arts Center. Loesser (Guys and Dolls,
How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying) was born into an educated
German-Jewish family that prized classi-
cal music (his father was a piano teacher,
and his brother was a keyboard prodigy
and professor at the Cleveland Institute
of Music). The 1956 near-operatic Fella,
about a romance between an older man
and younger woman, is based on the 1925
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama They Knew
What They Wanted. 15801 Michigan Ave.,
Dearborn. $24-$29. (313) 943-2354;
www.dearbornfordcenter.corn
Chamber Music Society of Detroit
hosts French pianist Pierre-Laurent
Aimard, making a rare Metro Detroit
appearance at 8 p.m. Saturday, March
24, at the Seligman Performing Arts
Center, 22305 W. 13 Mile Road, Beverly
Hills. He'll perform works by Schumann,
Debussy, Liszt and Selections from Jatekok
("Games") by contemporary Jewish
Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag.
$43-$75; $25 students. (248) 855-6070;
www.comehearcmsd.org.
POP / ROCK / JAZZ / FOLK
Palmer Woods Music in Homes, a series
of jazz, classical and world music concerts
held in homes in Detroit's Palmer Woods
neighborhood, presents a musical jour-
ney to the Middle East and beyond with
the Lansing-based ensemble Wisaal at
8 p.m. Saturday, March 24. Wisaal — an
Arabic word meaning links, connections
or unity — fuses elements of Arabic
musical heritage with the klezmer music
of Eastern European Jewish musicians
Jews
4 I Nate Bloom
at Special to the Jewish News
Strange Relations
Actor Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden
State), 36, who is Jewish, and
Michigan native former Gov. Mitt
Romney, 65, a devout Mormon, seem
worlds apart. Nonetheless, Braff and
Romney really are (very distant) blood
cousins. They are both direct descen-
dants of Rebecca
Nurse (1621-1692),
a devout Puritan
Protestant woman
who was falsely
accused of practic-
ing witchcraft at
the infamous Salem,
Mass., witchcraft tri-
Braff
44
March 22 = 2012
Abou
(courtesy of clarinetist
sic of the high seas will be
Will Cicola), Indian and
performed entirely by the
American influences,
chorus, which includes more
while respecting the
than 40 young performers
spirit of these traditions.
from ages 10-16. The oper-
A Middle Eastern feast
etta is a popular parody of
will be served during
class in Victorian England,
all Zimmerman
intermission. The loca-
accompanied by Gilbert
Arts Editor
tion of the home is pro-
and Sullivan's playful and
vided to ticket holders.
witty music. 1526 Broadway,
Tickets: $35/$30 each for groups of 10 or
Detroit. $30 adults ages 16 and up; $15
more. (313) 891-2514; www.palmerwoods.
ages 15 and under. (313) 237-SING; www.
org.
michiganopera.org .
ON THE STAGE
The 2010 Tony Award Winner for Best
Musical, Memphis takes place in the
smoky halls and underground clubs of
the segregated '50s, where a young white
DJ falls in love with rock 'n roll and an
electrifying black singer. The show, making
its Michigan premiere, takes the stage at
Wharton Center's Cobb Great Hall in East
Lansing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday,
8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and
1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 27-April
1 (Memphis also is part of the Fisher
Theatre's 2012-13 season). With music by
Bon Jovi's founding member and keyboard-
ist David Bryan and lyrics by Bryan and
Joe DiPietro, the show also took home Tony
Awards for Best Original Score and Best
Orchestrations. Tickets from $30. (517)
432-2000; www.whartoncenter.com .
FAMILY FUN
The Michigan Opera Theatre Children's
Chorus, a permanent ensemble of
Michigan Opera Theatre that appears with
the company in mainstage productions
as well as its own performances, presents
its annual fully staged children's produc-
tion with H.M.S. Pinafore at 2:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 24, at the Detroit Opera
House. The Gilbert and Sullivan clas-
als. She was hanged. Nurse is a cen-
tral character in the famous play, The
Crucible by Arthur Miller.
My genealogist friend Michael found
an interview in which Braff said his
mother, who was born into an old
New England Protestant family, con-
verted to Judaism before marrying
his Jewish father. On a hunch, Michael
looked far back in Braff's mother's
family tree and Romney's family tree
and found Rebecca
Nurse in both.
I reported Braff
and Romney's cousin-
hood last month in a
column item I wrote
for the New Jersey
Jewish Standard.
Romney
Braff is originally
WHATNOT
iceberg, claiming more than 1,500 lives. To
commemorate this anniversary, the Henry
Ford will host the largest touring exhibition
of materials associated with the disaster,
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, March
31-Sept. 30 in the Henry Ford Museum.
The 10,000-square-foot, newly redesigned
and expanded exhibition features more than
300 artifacts — 250 of which have never
been displayed in Michigan. In addition,
visitors will walk through extensive room
re-creations, be able to have their photos
taken near the full-scale replica of the Grand
Staircase, as well as learn about passengers
on board who had local ties to Michigan.
During the exhibition, there will be a
variety of related programming. On April
14, at 7 p.m., 100 years to the day of the
sinking, the Henry Ford will host Titanic
Remembered: 100th Anniversary Event,
where guests will commemorate the his-
toric occurrence with hors d'oeuvres, a
champagne welcome, dinner, dessert and
exclusive access to the exhibition. Titanic
Tuesdays, on the second Tuesday of each
month, will host an array of speakers.
Among the considerable number of Jews
on the Titanic (kosher meals were available)
were famous names like Isidor and Ida
Straus, both of whom perished. One of the
most haunting scenes in the 1997 Titanic
movie, soon to be released in 3-D, shows the
Strauses lying together in their bed while
the water rises around them. She would not
leave him, and he would not take a space in a
lifeboat from a woman or a child.
Special timed tickets for the exhibition
are $10 for members; nonmember ticket
prices include admission to the museum
and are $27 for adults (13-61), $22.50 for
youth (5-12), $25 for seniors (62+), chil-
dren 4 and under free. For more informa-
tion and tickets, call (313) 982-6001 or visit
www.thehenryford.org/titanic.
One hundred years ago, Titanic, the world's
largest ship, sank after colliding with an
gzimmerman®thejewishnews.com .
THE BIG SCREEN
In Crazy Horse, famed American docu-
mentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman
utilizes his signature observational style to
chronicle Paris' Crazy Horse Cabaret, now
in its 60th year of continuous operation,
as it assembles a new review. The Detroit
Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts
screens the film 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday,
March 23-24; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 25; 9:30
p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 30-31; and
4:30 p.m. Sunday April 1. $6.50-$7.50. (313)
833-4005; tickets@dia.org .
THE ART SCENE
Suzanne Hilberry Gallery hosts the exhibi-
tion Richard Artschwager March-24-May
12. The artist, born the son of immigrant
parents — a German Protestant father
and a Jewish Ukrainian mother — in 1923
in Washington , D.C., is a painter, illustra-
tor and sculptor influenced by Pop art,
Conceptual art and Minimalism. Opening
reception: 6-8 p.m. Saturday, March 24.
700 Livernois, Ferndale. (248) 541-4700;
www.suzannehilberrygallery.corn.
from South Orange, N.J., and appar-
ently some hometown friend sent Braff
the Standard newspaper page with the
column item about him and Romney.
On Feb. 29, Braff posted a scan of
the page on the new social network
site Reditt under the following title: "So
I guess I am related to Mitt Romney
through a witch. Family reunions just
got a little crazier." Later he added,
"Mitt Romney and I have nothing
in common." And then Braff joked,
"Incidentally ... buying a broom later."
Film Notes
Opening on Friday, March 23, is The
Hunger Games, a big-budget fantasy
based on the best-selling young adult
novel of the same name by Suzanne
Collins. Collins and director Gary
Email items for Out & About to
Ross, 55, co-wrote the screenplay.
The plot: It is a post-apocalyptic
world, and the countries of North
America have been replaced by a new
country, Panem, which is divided into
12 districts and ruled with an iron fist
from the capital city. Each year, one
teenage boy and one teenage girl
from each district is chosen by lottery
to go to the capital and fight on TV
until only one survivor remains.
Jennifer Lawrence
stars as Katniss, a
teen from District
12, who volunteers
to fight. Elizabeth
Banks, 38, has a
large supporting role
as Katniss' chaper-
one.
Banks
❑