32 May 9 • 2019
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On March 28, L!fe Leaders Founder
and President Amy Nederlander, along
with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Mayor
Mike Duggan and Lori Maher and
Hamilton Producer Jeffrey Seller, hosted
the inaugural gala for the Detroit-
based nonprofit L!fe Leaders Inc., a
leadership and career development
program for middle school and high
school students. Following the show,
gala attendees, including L!fe Leaders
students, enjoyed dessert during an
exclusive talkback with Hamilton
cast members and Hamilton director
Thomas Kail.
Hamilton producer, Oak Park native
and L!fe Leaders Gala honorary host
Jeffrey Seller moderated the post-
performance talk.
“I sat up there in the balcony
watching my first Broadway show,
”
Seller told the Fisher Theatre-goers.
“
And now, here tonight in this same
theater, watching Hamilton, the show I
produced, with you, I feel like I’
m 13 all
over again. What makes it so satisfying
is that there’
s no city like Detroit and
what can happen when we all work
together. The young people of Detroit,
they are our future.
”
Nederlander said the nonprofit
is halfway to its goal of raising
$500,000. ■
Andrew Rosenthal Bianchi of Royal Oak and
Joseph Hickey of Bloomfield Hills
Nederlander Detroit Executive Director Alan
Lichtenstein of Grosse Pointe and Jeffrey
Seller of NYC
Now both living in New York, Hamilton Producer
Jeffrey Seller grew up in Oak Park, and L!fe
Leaders founder and President Amy Nederlander
grew up in Franklin.
L!fe Leaders Gala honorary host Sen. Debbie
Stabenow, Central Michigan University senior
Stephan Wilson and Edred Utomi, who stars
as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton running
through April 21 at Detroit’
s Fisher Theatre
Following an elegant dinner and performance
of Hamilton, L!fe Leaders Gala donors enjoyed
a talkback hosted by Jeffrey Seller (right) with
Director Thomas Kail (left) and cast members.
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PHOTOS/TEXT BY JULIE SMITH YOLLES
PHOTOS BY MARISSA GAWEL
On March 28, several hundred guests attend-
ed a private screening at the DIA of Call Me
Bill: The William Davidson Story, a documen-
tary about the life of the local businessman,
philanthropist and longtime owner of the
NBA
’
s Detroit Pistons.
Ethan Davidson, the film’
s producer with
his wife Gretchen, introduced the film with
former Pistons’
star Isiah Thomas by his side.
On May 2, the film kicked off the Lenore
Marwil Detroit Jewish Film Festival and filled
the Berman Theater; a simulcast in the JCC’
s
Handleman Hall took care of the overflow.
Davidson told the DIA crowd his father
“would absolutely not have tolerated any of
this.
” The film features historic photos, film
footage and interviews with family members
and associates, and pays tribute to his strong
sense of family, his entrepreneurial spirit, his
generosity and his leadership skills. ■
Levi Davidson shows his Pistons’
spirit with some
of the Bad Boys in the background.
After the film:
Chuck Bennett,
Ethan Davidson,
Isiah Thomas, Lynne
Thomas, Cydney
Daly, Earl Cureton
and Gretchen
Davidson.
DIA director Salvador Salort-Pons, Ethan
Davidson, Isiah Thomas and film director Deb
Agolli of Push Media
Longtime Pistons photographer Allen
Einstein with Bad Boy Vinnie Johnson
Isiah Thomas with Josh Drouillard and Asher
Davidson
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell and Ethan Davidson
Erica Ward Gerson, Dorothy Gerson, Henrietta
Hermelin Weinberg and Doreen Hermelin