"It felt like catching the Holy Spirit in church,” Michael Jackson, the character created in “MJ” the musical, says describing the moment he felt he arrived, making music with his brothers and performing to huge applause at the Apollo Theatre. “It felt like love.”
It’s 2024 and arts organizations in West Michigan are thriving, with incredible, jam-packed seasons of art, conversations, fun and community involvement.
“If you’re going to have a story, have a big story or none at all,” wrote Joseph Campbell, the writer responsible for popularizing the hero’s journey as central to myth making and storytelling as we know it, and it’s advice taken to heart by Edward Bloom, the tall-tale teller central to the fantastical musical “Big Fish”, currently in production at Hope Repertory Theatre.
“Sometimes when life doesn’t go the way you want, you find something beautiful,” declares Katie Fay Francis as Carole King, singer and songwriter extraordinaire, from behind a piano at the start of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” at Saugatuck Center for the Arts.
“Fiddler on the Roof” made its stage debut in 1964, during the heyday of the American musical, and it’s both timeless and a product of its time.
“Ain’t Misbehavin’” is a joyous, riotous affair, a grand celebration of the innovative American jazz pianist and composer Fats Waller.
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.
