The very best theatre hits you on many levels. Great performances of excellent material that make you laugh, make you feel, make you think, and maybe even make you change are what theatre enthusiasts know is possible—and hope for every time we sit down to see a show.

There’s a moment, near the end of the first act of Frozen, that’s as magical as anything I’ve seen on stage. Audience members gasped aloud, me included. 

When Lauren Gunderson, the most often-produced playwright in the United States (save for Shakespeare), wrote “Natural Shocks” , currently in production at Hope Repertory Theatre, in 2018, gun violence, inexplicably, wasn’t anywhere near the crisis it is just five years later in this country. 

The wonderfully stylish, effervescent romp “Anything Goes” is light-hearted fare to say the least, and exactly the kind of summer musical experience one hopes for from The Barn Theatre in Director Patrick Hunter’s capable hands. 

If ever there were the perfect show at the perfect time in the perfect place, it’s Kinky Boots at Mason Street Warehouse in Saugatuck this summer.

One fateful day in December 1956, four budding musicians came together by chance in Memphis for an impromptu jam session. It turned out to be a historic event because those up-and-coming rock and rollers were Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.

What if you could live forever? This is the idea around which the whimsical musical “Tuck Everlasting”, currently in production at Hope Repertory Theatre under direction from new Artistic Director Marcus Denard Johnson, dances.

This summer, Mason Street Warehouse at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts (SCA) will stage two musicals famous from Broadway: Kinky Boots and Jersey Boys. 

There must be far fewer than six degrees of separation between The Barn Theatre in Augusta and just about any musical you can imagine. The only summer stock theatre in Michigan has trained hundreds of dazzling performers who have continued professional careers beyond their stage, and right now The Barn is kicking off their 77th season by celebrating the “Barnies” who’ve performed on Broadway in a delightful “Great Big Bar Show.”

This month, you can visit the summer theaters for big and fun shows, the symphony for their last remaining shows of the season, and museums for a variety of incredible art. Check it out.