Two hundred years after the premiere of Puccini’s La Bohéme, Rent debuted. A loose adaptation of the former, Rent centered its action in the East Village neighborhood of Alphabet City. It’s startling to realize that the musical, with its Doc Marten-clad women and answering machine messages, has itself become a period piece; these days, no one can afford to starve in Manhattan.
For those of us who love music, we often forget what terrific athleticism it takes to create, especially when we’re most often exposed aurally to recorded sound. But to bear witness to live performance is a different experience altogether, one that puts us in the presence of the bodies as they’re creating those sounds that move us.
Evan Hansen might not sound like the traditional lead of a musical, but he's certainly been embraced as one.
In Kinky Boots, on stage at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre through May 22nd, the answer is never really in doubt: this is a comedy, after all. And it’s a bold, brash, celebratory comedy, as sparking as the red boots of its title.
From the moment Alexis J Roston opens her mouth to sing her first note as Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” at Farmers Alley Theatre, you can’t help but feel as if you’re in the presence of Lady Day herself, a lucky audience member at one of her last performances.
The final offering in Grand Rapids Ballet’s 50th anniversary season has been a long time coming.
Are you a fan of the arts? Do you crave entertainment? Are you the type of person who wants to be out of the house experiencing things—beautiful, amazing, soul-satisfying things? Of course, you are! Perfect, with that in mind, we made this show for YOU! Serendipity Media presents Let’s REVUE: The Entertainment Podcast of West Michigan. We’ll talk with Artists, Performers, Musicians, Entertainers, Food Junkies, veritable Movers and Shakers … the people who know what’s happening on the west side! We’ll dive into events big and small, food you need to try like ASAP, locally brewed beer and spirits, local & national music, dancing, acting, artistry, creativity, travel around Michigan, leisure, and all of the little, happy slices of life in between. Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Holland, Grand Haven, and every other nook and cranny that makes up West Michigan, listen up! This is Let’s REVUE!
Episode 1: Amazed and Amused with Trino
Episode 2: The Show Must Go On with the Avery's
Episode 3: DJ, Dance and Design with AB (Adrian Butler)
Episode 4: State of the Arts with Hannah Berry
Episode 5: Behind the Curtain with the Grand Rapids Ballet
Episode 6: Crime, Comedy and Games Shows with Eirann Betka-Pope
Held biennially, the 2022 Gilmore International Piano Festival spans several weeks in April through mid-May and showcases the diversity of the piano, as well as the talent of renowned pianists from across the globe.
Art for the people, by the people – that’s what The 49507 Project is all about. Lead by Black, Brown and queer artists and youth, this public art initiative seeks to shift power dynamics in under-resourced areas, specifically in Southeast Grand Rapid’s 49507 zip code.
What is the role of art and artists amid times of violent political upheaval? And how might women play a part in writing history, thus changing the ways it’s told, and in turn, how they are remembered?
For the Farmers Alley Theatre of Kalamazoo, their new production of The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson hits in all the right places; Heart, mind and soul.
I have never heard a live performance of pop composer Sara Bareilles’s “She Used to Be Mine” without being moved to tears.
During my brief stint as a fact checker for Mother Jones Magazine, I was told by an editor that if I didn’t wake up at night sick with panic over inaccuracies I may have overlooked, then I wasn’t doing my job.
Christian McBride, bassist, arranger, and composer, prides himself on making jazz you can feel.
