arts & entertainment
Well-Noted
Flautist-pianist and music teacher Rebecca Biber
adds a flourishing new career as a music director.
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
Ann Arbor
R
ebecca Biber, music director for
the production of Little Me by
Ann Arbor's Penny Seats Theatre
Company, easily explains why she likes the
songs in the Tony Award-winning score.
The musical — Jewish members of the
1962 show's creative team include composer
Cy Coleman, lyricist Carolyn Leigh and book
writer Neil Simon — will be presented July
11-27 in Ann Arbor's West Park and feature
Biber conducting from the keyboard.
"Every song typifies what it's supposed
to be," says Biber, who taught the songs to
the cast, accompanied the rehearsals, hired
the orchestra and coordinated the singers
and musicians.
"With just a few chords and a few musi-
cal gestures, Cy Coleman can evoke what-
ever time period, mood or genre that's
called for in the scene.
"There's a cabaret number, 'Boom,
Boom, that actually sounds like a French
can-can. There's a hoedown piece, 'Deep
Down Inside: that sounds like a hoedown.
And there's a vaudeville number, 'Be a
Performer, that sounds like shtick."
Little Me tells the story of Belle, who
looks back on her rise into wealth as she
prepares her memoir. Jewish actress and
Penny Seats co-founder Lauren London
plays the younger Belle, and Sarah Faix
portrays the elder Belle. Also in the
cast, directed by Shannon McNutt, are
Roy Sexton (re-creating parts originally
played on Broadway by Sid Caesar), Kelly
,ews
+11 I Nate Bloom
• ml Special to the Jewish News
L
x i
Super-Jews
oi "nice Jewish girl" Jessie Kahnweiler,
up
Ci
24
A couple of years ago, self-described
28, was a struggling filmmaker. Then,
as she puts it, "I was blessed with a
fellowship endowing me with funds to
make a film about anything I wanted
- anything, of course, as long as it
was Jewish."
The fellow-
ship resulted in
Kahnweiler's Web
series, Dude, Where's
My Chutzpah? The
premise: Her late
bubbie has left
Kahnweiler quite a bit
Kahnweiler
of money under one
July 4 • 2013
Cameron, Matt Cameron, Zach London,
ter's degrees in
Barbara Bruno, Debbie Dolney, Angela
music educa-
Elowsky, Nigel Turtle and Selene Whalen.
tion from the
"Nearly everybody in the show plays mul-
University of
Rebecca Biber at the piano
tiple roles, and that makes it really hilarious," Michigan, worked
Biber says. "The actors have bonded with
as a band direc-
"I slowly stepped up my involvement,
each other and the staff so ifs like a real-life
tor and music teacher in Hartland before
and then this summer, the timing worked
version of what's happening in the show.
deciding to structure her career around
out well so that I was able to music-direct
We keep turning up in each other's lives as
independent instrumental lessons.
a full-scale show for them:'
friends and coworkers"
"I've been teaching privately for about 10
As Biber plans out the musical perfor-
Biber, whose professional commitments
years," she explains. "The music-directing
mances for Little Me, she particularly con-
include giving private piano and flute les-
came about through taking a fun workshop
nects to the song "Goodbye," sung by a char-
sons, began instrumental studies while living about musicals in grad school.
acter who appears to be dying but is saved.
in Huntington Woods.
"The professor leading
"The character has to have a thick,
"Early experience
the workshop directed in
ambiguous Russian or Polish accent," she
hearing people play
the area, and while he was explains. "In the course of teaching the
piano and flute attract-
working on Carousel with
song to the cast, I was reminded of my
ed me to the sounds,"
the Spotlight Players in
Polish grandfather, Henry Kupfer, who
recalls Biber, 34, single
Canton, I auditioned as a
recently passed away.
and now living in Ann
chorus member and got
"The song reminds me of him because
Arbor. "My parents
in. I learned how [stage
he had a thick Polish accent and a way
(Irene and Daniel
production] worked by
of changing English expressions to make
Biber) were able to
being in the show.
them his own. The song brings a smile to
enroll me in piano les-
my lips as I think of him.
"I was able to go to
sons when I was 7, and
other theaters where
"He also had a sense of humor, and I think
I had an instinctive
he worked, observing
he would have appreciated the parody inher-
Roy Sexton and Lauren London
drive to practice.
and learning the craft of
ent in the song, which takes something that
in
costume for Little Me
"I started flute in fifth
music-directing. As I was
sounds like it's going to be a klezmer tune
grade, when all the kids
starting to learn, there was and spins it into something absurd. I think
in the Berkley School
a big demand for music
he would have smiled and winked:'
District had the opportunity to join band
directors in the area. I was hired by Spotlight
or orchestra. I was drawn to the flute and
Players and then by Novi theaters:'
Little Me will be performed at 7 p.m.
picked it up as my second instrument."
Biber became involved with Penny Seats
Thursdays-Saturdays, July 11-27,
While attending religious classes at
through teaching the children of the found-
at the West Park Band Shell, 215
Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park,
ers and developing friendships with them.
Chapin, in Ann Arbor. $7-$10. (734)
Biber was invited to join the choir and
"When it became time for the company
276-2832; pennyseats.org . Dinner
performed at festivals and special events.
to do musical projects, I became their go-to
packages will be available at 5:30
She also played piano for ceremonies at
person," she says. "I have been their music
p.m. by catering partner A La Rouge
Workmen's Circle.
consultant since they founded the group, and
grilling in the park.
Biber, who earned bachelor's and mas-
I have helped with fundraisers.
❑
condition: She must "live Jewish" in LA
for a year. At first, she flounders in cul-
tural asides, like buying hummus. But
then she gets a mentor in the form of a
guy dressed in a "Super-Jew" costume
who teaches her the real tenets of
Judaism. There is a lot of humor in the
series - just google it to find it online.
Forbes Magazine's list of the world's
most powerful entertainers came out
last week. Here are the tribe mem-
bers on the list, with their ranking: (3)
Steven Spielberg; (40) Adam Sandler;
(50) producer (and Mumford High
School graduate) Jerry Bruckheimer;
(60) Jerry Seinfeld; (61) producer-
director Michael Bay; (71) Gwyneth
Paltrow; and (89) Mila Kunis.
the new Showtime series Ray Donovan
(its first episode debuted on Sunday,
June 30). Donovan is the best profes-
sional "fixer" in Los Angeles: When
a celebrity or business mogul gets
in trouble, he makes the trouble "go
away." Donovan's life is shaken when
his father, played by Jon Voight, is
unexpectedly released from prison.
The annual PBS special A Capitol
Fourth, airing 8 p.m. Thursday, July
4, features many performers, includ-
ing Barry Manilow,
70; the cast of the
hit Broadway show
Motown: the Musical;
and Neil Diamond, 72.
On The Tube
Liev Schreiber, 45, has the title role in
Diamond
Diamond will sing
"The Freedom Song
(They'll Never Take
Us Down)," a tune
he recently wrote and sang at Fenway
Park days after the April 15 Boston
Marathon bombing. The new song is
now available for download via Amazon
and iTunes. All proceeds will aid bomb-
ing victims and disabled veterans.
On Gandolfini
Like everyone else, I was shocked
when the very talented James
Gandolfini died on June 19 at age
51. He was born and raised in a New
Jersey Italian Catholic family, but he
had Jewish connections.
Here's one: Gandolfini was intro-
duced to acting when his college
friend, Tony-winning actor Roger
Bart, 50, finally convinced Gandolfini
(who was then running a bar) to
accompany him to a New York City
acting class. The rest is history.
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