Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure raises important questions about justice and how some succeed as well as fail. “Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall,” is but one truism that speaks to political leadership today as much as it did in 1604, the year the play was first produced.
We rely on stories to connect us, to share human experiences that may or may not be our own, and to teach us, again and again, what it means to be human. But rare and perhaps most lasting are the stories that remind us of what we all too often forget: that above all, humans are kind.
In 1990, David Hockney turned down a knighthood. His reason? He doesn’t “care for a fuss.” Offered the opportunity to paint Queen Elizabeth II, he demurred, citing a busy schedule.
How dare they? This isn’t one of your regular bards we’re talking about. This is the bard, the immortal bard: the one and only William Shakespeare, The Greatest Writer In The English Language (™), the…the…the Shakespeare of his time. Well, dare they did.
Making your way through the world can be a frightening thing, which is one of many insights into the human heart driving Waitress, the 2015 musical based on Shelly’s final film. It’s small in scale but big in emotion, humor, and something far too rare in Broadway musicals: genuinely good songs (music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles). With strong direction by Allyson Paris and memorable singing and acting by, well, everyone onstage, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s production (June 6th-29th) traffics in both the sweet and savory, telling a story of people as flawed, and as good, as we ourselves are.
Summer in West Michigan wouldn’t be complete without the events, exhibitions, and shows put on by Saugatuck Center for the Arts. It’s a time for celebration, for community, and for sharing experiences, all of which the center offers in spades.
Lynne Brown-Tepper was 10 or 11 years old when she saw her first Circle Theatre show. It was Cabaret, the sex-drenched musical set during the rise of Nazism.
“It’s very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this,” says righteous Juror #8 in the stage production of 12 Angry Men that opened The Barn Theatre’s 79th season. “Wherever you find it, prejudice obscures the truth.”
It’s the hottest day of 1954 in New York City with no AC and a broken fan when a jury of 12 white men start peeling off their sport jackets and loosening their ties because one of them isn’t willing to send a 16-year-old to the electric chair so the jurors can quickly move on with their lives after the three-day trial and stop being inconvenienced.
Dead teenagers in a macabre amusement park limbo making a pitch for why they should get to return to their lives is far more amusing than might be expected in “Ride the Cyclone”, a wildly charming musical currently in production at Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo.
In the worldview of Dixie Longate, Alabama’s fast-talkingest, gum-smacking, snort-laughing, highest-grossing Tupperware Lady, you can be one of three things: a cherry bomb, a bottle rocket, or a dud.
Deos Contemporary Ballet’s 2024-2025 season finale, Awaken 25, reflected the mood of our times, offered a balm via movement, and showed the small but mighty company’s artistic and stylistic range in the wonderfully intimate space of Gezon Auditorium at Calvin University.
The next best thing to being a good person is appearing to be one, which is why four Broadway stars—well, two Broadway stars, one chorus member, and one actor-turned waiter—decide to find a cause to take on. Poverty’s too big, so they nix that idea. But reforming a small Indiana town that canceled prom rather than let a lesbian attend with her girlfriend? Easy as Hoosier pie. So they think, anyway, in The Prom, onstage at Circle Theatre, May 15-31. The musical takes a warm-hearted, funny look at the trouble we can get into when trying to do good, and the good that can result from it anyway.
As a haven for the arts, it’s no surprise West Michigan is home to a vibrant and diverse dance scene. We have a number of companies providing both classical ballet and contemporary dance at the highest level, constantly pushing dance to new spaces and new heights.
"I want the fairytale” reads a T-shirt for sale at DeVos during the run of Pretty Woman: The Musical. It echoes the iconic line from the 1990 film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. Much of the musical, in fact, is an echo of that celebrated rom-com and takes the fantasy of the film’s story to the next level by putting it to music.
