48 August 18  2016

arts & life

LET THE 
SUNSHINE IN
The Detroit 
Actor
s Theatre 
Company, under 
artistic director 
Eric Swanson, 
presents the 
groundbreaking 
musical story of 
the 1960s hippie 
counterculture 
and sexual revo-
lution, Hair: The 
American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. 
7:30 p.m. Aug. 18-20, at the New Center 
Park. No charge. Mature audiences rec-
ommended. Thedatc.org.

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER
Garden City students and residents 
have been working hard all summer 
on rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof 
 which will be the inaugural perfor-
mance of Garden City High School
s 
new summer theater program, Garden 
City Summer Community Theatre, that 
its founder, director Greg Wiklanski, 
hopes will become an annual tradition. 
Based on Sholem Aleichem
s stories, 

the musical will be performed 
7 p.m. Aug. 18-20 and 2 p.m. Aug. 21, 
at the O
Leary Performing Arts Center 
inside Garden City High School. $10. 
(734) 762-8350; gardencityschools.com.

THAT
S ENTERTAINMENT!
Join Broadway
s tallest tapper and win-
ner of 10 Tony Awards, Tommy Tune, as 
he takes to the stage for an autobio-
graphical stroll through more than 50 
years of singing, dancing and tale tell-
ing at Tommy Tune Tonite! Featuring 

Editor
s Picks

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

AT THE MOVIES
Opening Friday, Aug. 20: The new film 
version of Ben-Hur is the third major 
movie based on the famous 19th-centu-
ry novel of the same name. Judah Ben-
Hur is an aristocratic Judean/Jew during 
the period of the Roman occupation. His 
best friend is Messala, a Roman officer. 
An innocent accident gets Judah falsely 
charged with sedition, and he is sent 
to die rowing a Roman ship while his 
mother and sister are clapped in a dun-
geon (where they contract leprosy). At 
sea, Judah rescues an important Roman 
and is given his freedom. He returns to 
Judea and confronts Messala, who did 
nothing to aid him or his family. Judah 
gets his revenge against Messala in the 
chariot arena. Then Jesus appears, and 
not long before he is crucified, he takes 
the hate out of Judah
s heart and cures 
his sister and mother. 
Most of the novel
s characters were 
Jewish, but there haven
t been many 
Jewish actors in the films. Carmel 
Myers, a rabbi
s daughter, was the only 
Jew in the 1925 silent version, and she 
played an Egyptian vamp out to seduce 
poor Judah (this role did make Myers 

a silent movie star). The 1959 version, 
starring Charlton Heston as Judah, is 
the gold standard: It won 11 Oscars, 
including best picture and best director 
(William Wyler). The chariot race scene 
was then state-of-the art and is still 
exciting. A lovely Israeli actress, Haya 
Hareet, now 84, played Esther, Judah
s 
love interest. The late Sam Jaffe played 
Esther
s father. The new version has 
Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer, 47, play-
ing Judah
s mother and Judah
s sister 
is played by American actress Sophia 
Black D
Elia, 24 (D
Elia
s mother is 
Jewish, and she identifies as Jewish). 
The first two films were easy on 
Jewish filmgoers because Jesus and 
Christian beliefs weren
t mentioned 
until almost the end. Jesus was virtually 

Celebrity Jews

Lynne Konstantin
Arts & Life Editor

D
Elia

Hair

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