The musical “The Last Five Years” is over before it really begins, much like an ill-fated relationship—particularly the five-year marriage at the center of this song cycle written and composed by Jason Robert Brown. 

We may have a tendency to forget many of the lessons of childhood having survived them, but it’s amazing how they can come up again and again. 

Do you remember the first show you ever saw in a theatre? How old were you, what was it like? Were the actors dressed in costume, wielding props like fencing swords or brass musical instruments? When they sang, did you feel like dancing along?

The Barn Theatre in Augusta is rightfully celebrated for their terrific productions of farces. The silliness and high hilarity that come from utterly absurd situations sprung to life with impeccable timing and brilliant ensemble work are a trademark for this long-standing summer stock theatre. 

Muskegon Museum of Art’s John Steuart Curry Weathering The Storm brings together the work of an important and accomplished American regional painter, one whose work was iconic enough to appear in a Hollywood film and honest enough that it led to a backlash so severe, it’s believed, as to have caused his early death.

With an exceptional symphony, opera company, ballet company and touring Broadway company, Grand Rapids is no stranger to the performing arts. 

In the world of musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim might as well be God.

The 2024 Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival, as grand as its name implies, is back again with two weeks of legendary performances. It will feature more or less everyone and will take place everywhere and all of the time: 200+ musicians, 100+ events, and 26 venues.

It’s 2024 and arts organizations in West Michigan are thriving, with incredible, jam-packed seasons of art, conversations, fun and community involvement. 

"She only wrote one good book. But if you write a book that good, you only need to do it once.” Neil Gaiman said that of Hope Mirrlees, author of Lud-in-the-Mist, but he could as easily have been talking about Harper Lee.