30 June 27 • 2019
jn
AT THE MOVIES
The documentary Echo Canyon opens at
the Landmark Theater in Royal Oak on
June 28. It celebrates the
50th anniversary of the explo-
sion of new rock music creat-
ed by musicians living in Los
Angeles’
Laurel Canyon. Rock
musician Jakob Dylan, 48,
(son of Bob Dylan, 78) inter-
views many of the still-living
Laurel Canyon musicians.
One of his first is with Roger
McGuinn, leader of the Byrds,
one of the first big Laurel
Canyon bands. McGuinn
helped invent what came to
be called folk rock when he
took Bob Dylan’
s acoustic
song “Mr. Tambourine Man”
and re-orchestrated it as a hit
rock song (1965) played with
electric guitars. The sound he
helped create was echoed
in the musical style of many
others, including documentary
interviewees Michelle Phillips
of the Mamas and Papas
(which included the late
Cass Elliot), John Sebastian,
Stephen Stills, Jackson
Browne and Brian Wilson of
the Beach Boys. Interspersed
with the interviews are
iconic Laurel Canyon songs
performed by more recent
music stars, including Regina
Spektor, 39, and Jakob
Dylan. The film’
s director
is Andrew Slater, 50ish, a
decades-long friend of Jakob
Dylan and a former president
of Capitol Records.
Kinky Boots, co-written by
Harvey Fierstein, 65, won
the Tony for best musical in
2013. The London production
won several British awards
in 2016. On June 29 (only),
there will be a screening of a
filmed London stage perfor-
mance of the musical (Maple Theater in
Bloomfield). Based on true events, Kinky
Boots is about a British shoe company
struggling to stay afloat until it starts sell-
ing “fetish” footwear for men.
Harvey Keitel, 80, will play Meyer
Lansky (1902-1982) in a bio-pic about
the famous Jewish gangster that begins
filming in August. Lansky is a familiar
screen character. The gangster character
Hyman Roth in The Godfather, Part II was
based on Lansky and he was a prominent
character in the film Bugsy about gangster
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel,
a close friend of Lansky. The
new film will cover the latter
part of Lansky’
s life and is
based, in part, on interviews
he gave in 1973 to native
Detroiter Robert Rockaway,
now 80. Rockaway, with
degrees from Wayne State
University and the University
of Michigan, is profes-
sor emeritus at Tel Aviv
University. His The Jews of
Detroit (1762-1914) was
published in 1986 by Wayne
State University Press;
his But He Was Good to
His Mother: The Lives and
Crimes of Jewish Gangsters
came out in 2000. The new
film is directed by Robert’
s
son, Eytan Rockaway,
30ish. He was born in New
York, grew up in Israel and.
after his IDF service, went to
New York University, where
he got a degree in filmmak-
ing.
BAD BOYS ON SHOWTIME
The Loudest Voice is a
limited (seven-episode)
Showtime series that pre-
mieres on June 30. It stars
Russell Crowe as the late
Roger Ailes, the creator
and head of the Fox News
Network. He was ousted
from Fox in 2016 (a year
before his death) amid a
cascade of accusations that
he had sexually harassed
many Fox female employ-
ees, including former anchor
Gretchen Carlson (played
by Naomi Watts). Josh
Charles, 47, plays Bill Shine,
Ailes’
longtime top aide at
Fox. He took over Ailes’
job only to be
ousted in 2017 when several lawsuits
claimed he abetted Ailes’
sexual harass-
ment. Shine became the White House
communications director in June 2018,
but only lasted 10 months in that job. ■
NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST
Jakob Dylan
Regina Spektor
Harvey Keitel
Eytan Rockaway
celebrity jews
arts&life
PHOTOS VIA SPEKTOR’
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PHOTOS VIA DYLAN’
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