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