arts & entertainment >> editor's picks ... nov. 27-jan. 16
About
yla
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers,
This is my final Out & About. After 25 years
at the Detroit Jewish News — and 18 of those
years as the paper's Arts and Entertainment
editor — I will be retiring on Jan. 2.
It has been my privilege to plan, edit and
write stories on music, theater, dance, comedy,
film, TV, museum exhibits and fine art, family
events, books, food and more. I hope you
have enjoyed them, as well as this column.
I'll be sticking around Metro Detroit, and I
hope to see all of you out and about!
— Gail Zimmerman
CLASSICAL NOTES
At 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 28-30, at Orchestra Hall, in
a concert paying homage to three great
Jewish-American composers, the Detroit
Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of
Music Director Leonard Slatkin, performs
Leonard Bernstein's Three Dance Episodes
from On the Town; the DSO premiere of
Aaron Copland's Grohg, a ballet in one act;
and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: A
Symphonic Picture, arranged by Gershwin's
good friend Robert Russell Bennett. $15 and
up. (313) 576-5111; dso.org.
Chamber Music Society of Detroit
presents Metropolitan Opera soprano
Heidi Grant Murphy, joined by pianist
Menahem Pressler, for a recital at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 13, at Seligman Performing
Arts Center in Beverly Hills. Franklin
Cohen, principal clarinetist of the
Cleveland Orchestra, will join in for
Schubert's The Shepherd on the Rock. $30-
$60/$15-$30 students. (248) 855-6070;
chambermusicdetroit.org.
w s
4.11
•
For New Year's
ning at 8-11 p.m. Saturday, Dec.
i s
Eve with the Detroit
6, featuring specialty drinks,
Symphony Orchestra
hors d'oeuvres, dessert and
on Wednesday, Dec. 31,
performance (CSZ members:
the DSO, for the first
$25 advance/$30 at the door;
time in its 127-year his-
nonmembers: $30 advance/$36
Gail Zimmerman
tory, will ring in the New
at the door); and a family con-
Arts Editor
Year with a televised
cert, open to the community,
black-tie extravaganza in
at 11 a.m.-noon Sunday, Dec. 7
partnership with Detroit Public Television.
($10 adults/$5 ages 12 and under). (248) 357-
The orchestra will perform a combination of
5544; shaareyzedek.org.
jazz standards and light classical selections,
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Jeff Tyzik. Concert-only tickets
hosts Michael Feinstein's Swingin' in
start at $40; (313) 576-5111. For info and
the Holidays, a concert by the five-time
pricing on the 8 p.m. gala preceding the con-
Grammy-nominated vocalist and archivist
cert and the champagne midnight toast and
of the Great American Songbook, featuring
after-party, go to dso.org/nye.
classics, standards and surprises, at 3 p.m.
The William Davidson DSO
Sunday, Dec. 14, at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
Neighborhood Concert Series presents
Note: The DSO does not appear at this con-
Leonard Slatkin, conducting the DSO fea-
cert. $30-$65. (313) 576-5111; dso.org.
turing violinist Nicolas Dautricourt playing
Cirque de la Symphonie, a DSO Pops con-
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor,
cert conducted by Stuart Chafetz, features
with works by Mozart, Ravel and Ginastera,
aerial acrobats performing gravity-defying
at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Berman
feats set to the music of the DSO at 8 p.m.
Center in West Bloomfield; and Rossen
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10-11, at
Milanov, conducting the DSO in works by
Orchestra Hall. $19 and up. (313) 576-5111;
Mozart, Prokofiev and Beethoven, at 7:30
dso.org.
p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. Single tickets:
ON THE STAGE
$25/$10 students. Details on venues, concerts
and purchasing single or subscription series
Ken Ludwig's farce Leading Ladies, a
tickets: (313) 576-5111;
cross between the film Some Like It Hot and
dso.org/neighborhood.
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, focuses on strug-
gling Shakespearean actors Leo Clark and
Jack Gable, who wind up dressing as women
POP ROCK / JAZZ FOLK
to try and steal the fortune of a dying mil-
Jewish a cappella group the Maccabeats,
lionaire. The show comes to the Farmington
originally formed in 2007 as Yeshiva
Players Barn Theater in Farmington Hills
University's student vocal group, now
Nov. 28-Dec. 20, under the direction of Tony
tour worldwide and will make a stop at
Targan and starring Keith Firstenberg of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield
Livonia as Leo and Sarah Lovy of Berkley
with two appearances: an adults-only eve-
as Audrey. $14-$16. Show times and tickets:
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
Jews
w1:1 'New'
Here are some Jewish thespians not
a)
previously noted in this column. In all
cases, I recently found out they were
Jewish.
Still playing in theaters is the hit
sci-fi film Interstellar. Casey Affleck
co-stars as Tom, the son of Cooper,
the movie's main character, played by
Matthew McConaughey.
Playing Tom as a 15-year-old is
Timothee Chalamet,
18. He also played
Chalamet
Finn Walden in the
second season of
Homeland and may
co-star in an upcom-
ing X-Men movie.
Timothee was raised
in the U.S. His father
is French (I don't
78 November 27 • 2014
n
know if he is Jewish), and his mother
is an American Jew, the sister of
Rodman Flender, 52, a prominent TV
director.
Last year, Chalamet, 18, briefly
dated Madonna's 17-year-old daughter,
Lourdes Leon, currently a student at
the University of Michigan (Madonna
and her daughter were spotted dining
at Cafe Felix in Ann Arbor earlier this
fall).
I can imagine former Michigander
Madonna – who is "quasi-Jewish" as a
devoted Kabbalah follower – kvelling
about her daughter dating such a nice
Jewish boy (with a really cute punim!).
The new CW series Jane the Virgin,
airing at 9 p.m. Mondays, has an
implausible premise, but the charming
title character (played by the charm-
ing Gina Rodriguez) makes the series
work, and it's turned into a critical and
popular hit.
Here's the premise: Jane, a virgin,
accidentally gets impregnated at her
doctor's office with sperm that had
been stored for her boss Rafael's evil
wife, Petra, who married him for his
money, is serially unfaithful to him and
wanted to have his baby only when she
realized he might leave her. (Rafael had
stored the sperm before cancer treat-
ments made him infertile.)
Playing Petra is Israeli actress Yael
Grobglas, 26. Described often as a
"blonde bombshell,"
she starred in several
Israeli TV shows. She
told the New York
Times: "It's been a
blast playing such a
mischievous charac-
ter because she's so
unlike me."
Grobglas
If you're into binge-
watching, you might want to check
out HBO's Boardwalk Empire and
Showtime's Nurse Jackie.
(248) 553-2955; farmingtonplayers.org .
From Jan. 7-Feb. 1, Meadow Brook
Theatre presents Things My Mother
Taught Me, by Katherine DiSavino, a play
about a couple who move across country to
start a new life; complications ensue when
their parents show up to help (sound famil-
iar?). $26-$32. Show times and tickets:
(248) 377-3300; mbtheatre.com .
Stagecrafters mounts a production of Jekyll
and Hyde, based on the classic Robert Louis
Stevenson tale and set to a lush and romantic
score by Frank Wildhorn, Jan. 9-Feb. 1 at
the Baldwin Theatre in Royal Oak. $20-$22.
Show times and tickets: (248) 541-6430;
stagecrafters.org.
St. Dunstan's Theatre in Bloomfield Hills
stages Next to Normal, the award-winning
Tom Kitt/Brian Yorkey rock musical about a
mother struggling with bipolar disease and
the effects on her family, Jan. 16-31. $18-$20.
(248) 737-3587; stdunstanstheatre.org .
DANCE FEVER
Introduce your child to ballet and the beauty
of classical music.
Productions of Tchaikovsky's The
Nutcracker abound: BalletMet Columbus
at Detroit Opera House at 2:30 and 7:30
p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 28-30, $25-$83, (313) 237-
7464 or michiganopera.org; Macomb
Ballet Company at Macomb Center for
the Performing Arts in Clinton Township
at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and
7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12-13, $12-$15,
(586) 286-2222 or macombcenter.com ;
and the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian
Nutcracker at Detroit's Fox Theatre at 3
and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21, $31.50 and up,
(800) 745-3000; olympiaentertainment.com .
The next-to-last season of Boardwalk
featured Ben Rosenfield, 22, as Willie
Thompson, the smart but troubled
nephew of star
character Nucky
Thompson. Rosenfeld
has already filmed
a large supporting
role in a yet-untitled
Woody Allen movie
that will be released
in 2015.
Rosenfeld
Meanwhile, Nurse
Jackie, which will
begin its seventh and final season in
April, has featured the hunky Dominic
Fumusa, 45, as Jackie's husband,
Kevin, since the series began. Fumusa
has been married to stage actress
liana Levine, 50, since 2002, and con-
verted to Judaism. The couple have
two children, and they have been quite
active in supporting their local Jewish
federation.
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