arts & life

Let It Be

Never got to

see the Beatles

perform? Here's

second best.

Members of Let It Be

Let It Be: A Celebration
of the Music of the Beatles
starts at 7:30 p.m. Sunday,
Feb. 22, at the Sound
Board at the MotorCity
Casino Hotel, Detroit. $24-
$35. (866) STAY-MCC;
SoundBoardDetroit.com .

Celebrity Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

TV TAKES
I recently watched the first two
episodes of the new late-night
TLC talk show, All About Sex
– not bad; not great (new epi-
sodes air Saturdays at 11 p.m.).
The panel is certainly diverse:
It includes Korean-American
comedian Margaret Cho, whose
grandfather was a Protestant
minister and who is open about
her bisexual past but is long-
married to a man; comedian
Heather McDonald (Chelsea
Lately), a practicing Catholic
and mother of three; Marissa

42

February 19 • 2015

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

R

euven Gershon was born
after the Beatles became
international stars. But as
a child interested in singing and
music, he loved and learned their
songs.
When Gershon achieved his own
level of fame portraying Buddy
Holly in the Buddy Holly Story, a
musical-theater pro-
duction, he once got to
meet briefly with Paul
McCartney.
Now, years later, he
portrays John Lennon
in an international
tour that brings him
to Sound Board at the
MotorCity Casino Hotel
in Detroit on Sunday,
Feb. 22.
In Let It Be: A

Celebration of the Music of the
Beatles, more than 40 hits —
including "She Loves You," "Here
Comes the Sun" and "Hey Jude"
— from every stage of the groups
constantly evolving career will be
performed against the backdrop of
historic video footage.
"Playing Beatles' music onstage
and traveling all over the world to
play John Lennon is a dream job
for me Gershon says.
"Without realizing it, I was
preparing [my whole life] for the
job I got. I read so much about
the Beatles. I listened to their
music constantly since the age of

Jaret Winokur, 42, who is the
shyest about talking about sex;
and an African-American thera-
pist, Dr. Tiffanie Davis Henry.
They take video calls from
regular folks and sometimes
bring in their personal lives.
Winokur is best known for
winning a 2003 Tony for the
lead role in the stage musi-
cal version of Hairspray. Since
then, she has kept in the pub-
lic eye via TV guest shots, a
short stint on The Talk and on
Dancing with the Stars. She and
her Jewish husband are syna-
gogue members and they have
a son. By the way, Cho wrote
the best, funniest and most
moving account of Joan Rivers'

10. I watched as much footage as
is available just for fun because I
enjoyed it:'
Gershon, raised in England and
still based in London, appeared in
the show in his home city before
bringing it to Broadway and taking
it on tour.
"There are five of us — the four
[band members] plus an additional
musician covering all the parts that
the Beatles couldn't do as a live
foursome says Gershon, near 30
and single.
"The Beatles started off as a live
band, but they added orchestras
and all kinds of special effects.
Sometimes, George Martin played
piano on their tracks. We needed
an extra musician for that:'
Gershon had his first taste of
performing on stage with parts in
small religious presentations at the
Jewish day school that he attended,
including playing a guard in a play
about Esther. And at home, his
father sang and often imperson-
ated Al Jolson, possibly influencing
Gershon's interest in taking on roles
of actual entertainers.
"I had a book and a cheap, sec-
ond-hand guitar from an aunt who
didn't want it:' says Gershon, who
is self-taught. "My mom said she
wasn't buying me a guitar because
she thought I would pick it up and
lose interest
"I had a little bit of help from
my older brother. He showed me
the chords. After I got the chords
together, someone brought me a
Beatles book, and I started to play
Beatles' songs:'

funeral I've read (visit
margaretcho.com and click
"blog"). Among other things,
she notes that one of the big-
gest criers at Rivers' funeral
was John Waters, the irreverent
creator of Hairspray.
Sarah Jessica Parker, 49, is
filming an HBO pilot, Divorce,
a comedy about a woman
involved in
a drawn-
out divorce.
Thomas Haden
Church plays
her husband,
with Talia

Balsam,

Parker

55, playing
a friend of

Gershon, who studied drama at
Middlesex University in London,
describes bonding with the touring
performers.
"We love the music, and ifs
exciting to play together as a band:'
he says. "We've formed friendships
with that:'
Also longtime fans of the music
are Canadians Jeff Parry and Rubin
Fogel, who have been on the pro-
duction team in different locations.
Parry, who notes that fans keep on
buying Beatles' recordings, feels a
responsibility to replicate perfor-
mances for audiences who likely
never got to see the four stars in
person.
Fogel, partial to Lennon, takes
note of today's sound and lighting
technology that would not have
been available when the Beatles
were at their peak. He also points
out that the later songs were never

performed live.
Gershon says that there are
many Beatles songs that remain
personal to him, but "Help"
stands out.
"I used to enjoy singing 'Help'
when I was a kid:' he recalls. "The
lyrics are about someone crying
out for help, and anyone can relate
to that during certain times in
life:'
Gershon, who loves rock 'II'
roll, points out that Let It Be offers
some different challenges from the
Buddy Holly production. While Let
It Be is nonstop music, the Holly
theater piece presented a life story.
"Buddy Holly was a geeky
young kid with glasses and made
[kids] across the world think that
maybe they also could be rock
stars," he says. "John Lennon
probably was one of the kids who
thought that:' ❑

Parker's. (She's the daugh-
ter of the late actor Martin
Balsam as well as the first
Mrs. George Clooney.) It's like-
ly, but not certain, that HBO
will turn the pilot into a series.

jock (Robbie
Amell) to help
reinvent her-
self. The direc-
tor, Ari Sandel,
40, won a
2007 Oscar
.",
for his short
Sandel
musical film,
West Bank
Story, about a Jewish man and
a Palestinian woman who run
adjoining food stands and fall
in love despite their families'
opposition. It's a Hollywood
tradition to give directors of
Oscar-winning shorts a shot at
helming a light feature film. If
it's a hit, they often go on to
big things. ❑

AT THE MOVIES
Opening this week: The teen
comedy, The Duff, opens on
Friday, Feb. 20. Basic plot:
Bianca (Mae Whitman), a
happy high-school senior, is
destroyed when she learns
her whole class has labeled
her "The Duff" – Designated
Ugly Fat Friend to her prettier,
more popular friends (Skyler
Samuels and Bianca Santos).
She enlists a slick but charming