Celebrity Grapevine

Fans of Orna Banai will be able to see her in the Gesher Theater production Romance at Work.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
orna banai imaleh 88 298 (photo credit: )
orna banai imaleh 88 298
(photo credit: )
MUSICAL ABILITY does not always run in the family. Sometimes only one member is talented, but there is increasing evidence of second-generation talent. Some examples include the late Benny Amdurski and his son Assaf; Shlomo Artzi and his son Ben; the late Suleiman the Great and most of his children - including Eurovision winner Izhar Cohen; the late Hanna Rovina and her daughter Ilana; the late Uzi Hitman and his son Ido; Shmulik Atzmon and his daughter Anat; Rami Kleinstein and Rita and their daughter Meshi; and more recently, Yigal Bashan and his son Ori. There's also 10-year-old Liron Giladi, the daughter of Osnat Vishinski and Moti Giladi, who has inherited the stage abilities of both her parents and is a talented singer and actress. She stars in the musical Dreams Sometimes Come True, which is available on DVD.
  • WITH REGARD to Uzi Hitman, who died suddenly in October 2004, a new album of his compositions with those of Shlomo Carlebach is to be released soon by Hed Artzi, with Hitman as the singer. Just before he died, Hitman was preparing an album of songs based on liturgical texts. Raised in a traditional household, he was familiar with religious songs and the melody that he composed to "Adon Olam" (Lord of the Universe) is among the most popular sung to these verses. He had been working on a new arrangement for "Adom Olam" at the time of his death.
  • ANOTHER NEW record soon to be released is a single by Etti Ankri, taken from an album that she is working on - her first in five years. After deciding to follow a religious path, Ankri changed her repertoire. There are no pop songs included in the album, which is based entirely on the writings of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi.
  • CHANNEL 10 news presenter Ya'acov Eilon was among the victims of a local Ponzi scheme in which he lost half a million shekels. Eilon was among those who testified in the Tel Aviv District Court against alleged perpetrator Guy Vaisman, who used to be the No. 2 man at Harel Investments.
  • PESSAH VACATIONERS at the Nirvana Golden Tulip Hotel on the Dead Sea will have the pleasure of hearing performances by Mordechai Ben David, the hassidic superstar who is the son of David Werdyger - a popular cantor and singer in his own right. Ben David's son Yeedle is also a popular singer with several recordings to his credit, but he has a way to go before he equals his father's fame. Nonetheless, he does his best to keep Jewish music on a high level to give it ever wider appeal. He was in Jerusalem recently to promote his new album, Lev Ehad (One Heart). Yeedle's father, "MBD," as he is popularly referred to, thoroughly checked out the kashrut of the hotel before accepting the offer. This will be his first Pessah in Israel since he was a yeshiva student here more than 30 years ago, although he has certainly been back to Israel many times since.
  • FANS OF Orna Banai will be able to see her at the end of May in the Gesher Theater production Romance at Work, a comedy about a veteran employee at a statistics institute who believes that he should be promoted, but finds it difficult to convince his hard-boiled female boss, played by Banai. A friend suggests that he might try to get past her tough exterior by pursuing her romantically… and that's where the story gets interesting.
  • CELEBRITIES GALORE, including Subliminal, showed up at the Planetarium for the launch of the new album by Sivan - which includes her famous song "Breaking the Silence." Aside from fellow entertainers, there were many runway people present, but not all of them heard Sivan sing. Model Esti Mamo and her famous agent Betty Rockaway apparently paid no heed to the fact that the invitation specified the event would take place at 8 p.m. and arrived more than an hour late - after the doors had closed. They had to wait outside in the cold until the performance was over. But Sivan was so glad to see them once the doors opened up again that she happily posed with them for photographer Eliran Avital.