Newsday from New York, New York • 79

the Man B3 -j -i AA 'VjAw 1-9 Robert Ehrlich holds his American snack foods some of which contain ginkgo mmo Do snacks promise more than they deliver? What was the reality of the situation?" During the 39 lashes Carter continued he could have played the beating in a as if he were absorbing the blows without suffering but he wanted it to appear "physical to he This production of "Jesus Christ directed by Gale Edwards is returning to Broadway for the first time since its premier in 1971 For Carter no sense in a revival if the show relevant But Jesus the dissident the espous-er of freedom who is persecuted for his beliefs strikes the actor as eminently relevant in a world where totalitarian governments repress free speech "Even he said "we violate people who disagree with the party The societal dysfunction most striking in "Superstar" is surely the herd mentality evinced by followers At the beginning of the show they are foiling over his every word but by the second act they are urging Pilate the Roman governor of Judea to crucify him show plays with our attraction to celebrity and said Carter He recalled that the West End production was produced around the time Princess Diana died "She had crashed was dying While a doctor was trying to help Carter remembered hearing on the news "a photographer was pushing his camera into the car In the image of the heaving bloodied Christ on the cross is terrifying repellent yet we cannot look away The company and by extension the audience said Carter "get seduced by the idea of the The seduced audience is doubly taken aback when Jesus appears moments later to take his bow How does Carter get cleaned up so fast? got wet towels backstage The blood comes off pretty easy though not the he said I wear a really big "Jaws Christ is at the Ford Center tor tha Performing Arts 213 43rd St Manhattan For ticket information call 212-307-4100 of Molting years earlier she secretly got his wife Kristine Nielsen with the nonplussed timing of Anne Meara buried alive under the palace plumbing Only the kind heart of Pantalone Andrew Weems with a tiring thatsa-spicy-meat-a-ball Italian accent managed to save their twin babies by replacing them with puppies They are saved by the sausage maker Ned Eisenberg with a delivery out of Ed Norton and Didi Conn a veritable Mother Courage of clowns The kids Katie MacNichol and Sebastian Rochd have grown to be aristocratic ingrates who dabble in a philosophy that justifies selfishness They get greedy for among other no-nos singing apple-women suspended from the ceiling in long chartreuse gowns and are saved by the cursed Green Bird who starts as a Noh puppet and ends up a prince (Bruce Turk) If all that sounds utterly charming try stretching it out with silly jokes massive vaudevilnan overacting and related hijinks With songs by Elliot Goldenthaf her composer and partner Taymorhas found some joints that connect her play-with-music to commedia arte bits of shtick from sitcoms Tina Turner "The Blanche DuBois and Italian film A program note reminds us that Gozzi created his fables as protest against the popular realistic dramas of Carlo Goldoni The item scolds "Do we go to the theater to see ourselves reflected or to be transported Even willing travelers on the road away from Broadway realism however may question where being taken a ci By Charles Zehren STAFT WRITER IRST COMES THE DESIRE then satisfaction and finally regret love affair with snack foods is as complex as the ingredients label on a bag of fat-free munchies Now Robert Ehrlich a gastronomic entrepreneur from Sea Cliff is compounding the confusion by fortifying beloved members of the four basic junk-food groups popcorn pretzels chips and puffs with St Johns wort bladder wrack kava kava and other reputedly health-enhancing and mood-elevating herbs and spices There are 30000 products on the grocery store said Ehrlich standing before boxes of inventory piled inside the headquarters of American Gourmet in downtown Roslyn To be successful you have to cut through the After 15 years in the business Ehrlich is seeking to chisel a wider niche into the instant-gratification market by expanding internationally and introducing wwwrobscapecom a fanciful e-commerce Web site built around upbeat music and quirky cartoon characters Ehrlich hopes to tattoo American brand on the consciousness by helping people everywhere resolve one of the most basic contradictions lurking deep within the human psyche: obsession with his health and emotional well-being vs his immediate longing for all things crispy crunchy greasy and salty the good-bad yin-yang Ehrlich said "As the population ages everyone seems to be looking for ways to enhance their lives be it greater memory or longevity We are simply giving the market what it It's also a natural fact: Sales of "functional that are said to offer health benefits beyond basic nutrition are on the rise hitting $196 billion annually representing a 70 percent rise over the past five years according to the San Diego-based Nutrition Business Journal Today shoppers are tossing everything from echinacea-laced chicken soup to cereal containing cholesterol-lowering psyllium into their grocery carts Phrases such as "good "sustained "life and yes even are embla zoned on bags of products which include the likes of Personality Puffs Low Fat FVuity Booty Wisdom and Secret Tale In retail marketing brochures Ehrlich promises that products will serve up a identity which makes people look and feel "create ana help consumers "gain wisdom and fight offered the "first snack food in history that promotes psychological benefits from its the company claimed in its rollout of Personality Puffs fortified with such "positive personality generating as ginkgo biloba and St wort Yet medical experts nutritionists and the Food and Drug Administration are concerned that functional foods companies are promising more than they can deliver The FDA says the manufacturers must provide scientific backing for their claims while critics say loopholes make it too easy for companies to skirt the law Dr John Renner says functional food products could actually harm health "Adding something healthy like iron or calcium makes a lot of sense but adding this other stuff is nothing but a marketing gimmick that will backfire on these said Renner a family physician and president of the National Council for Reliable Health and Information based in Independence Mo Robert's itself has not been immune to the criticism In January the FDA sent the company a "warning stating that its review showed some of the labels were violating the law "Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action" the agency wrote Among its complaints the FDA said a Robert's label falsely indicated that a product was intended for use as a drug by stating facilitates the healing process and is used as a blood and can be an effective Answering the question of how much of the herbs you're actually ingesting by eating snacks seems to be more of an art than a science Ehrlich says his manufacturers typically spray on 100 to 150 milligrams of an herb per ounce of product His corn chip product though which the label states contains about 75 milligrams See SNACKS on B8 I Tl a JO.