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.

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.