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. ❑