Whether it be the first time or a special occasion, the symphony and the cinema both make for excellent dates. And you can have it both ways when vocalists Diane Penning and Paul Langford join West Michigan Symphony for Hollywood’s Greatest Melodies, the weekend before Valentine’s Day.

When Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park received a gift from contemporary sculptor Beverly Pepper — consisting of nearly 900 works — Chief Curator and Vice President Joseph Becherer immediately started thinking about a future exhibition.

There’s no excuse to hibernate at home this winter: Muskegon Museum of Art has a cure for cabin fever; and an outlet for creativity with a variety of activities, exhibitions, special programs and even a poetry competition. 

Did any among us who lived through the 1980s ever think we’d long for them again? Who knew, thirty years later, the Reagan era would, indeed, appear to be a sexier time?

In Waitress, most of the show’s action takes place in Joe’s Diner, where three of the musical’s main characters — Jenna (Desi Oakley), Dawn (Lenne Klingaman) and Becky (Charity Angel Dawson) — are waitresses. But the diner does much more than just serve Jenna’s infamous pies to its customers. It’s where love is found, discoveries about the characters are made, fights are had, and yes, a lot of pies are baked.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us,” is a bit of wisdom attributed to Alexander Graham Bell. “The Conviction of Lady Lorraine,” written and performed by Dwandra Nickole Lampkin, is evidence of what wonderful things can happen when a driven, curious and inventive artist, amid a dream project, gets told no.

Our attraction to the Victorian super sleuth Sherlock Holmes shows no signs of waning, though the character’s resurgence in the form of various American and British film and television adaptations has been underway for a good five years.

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s “All The Way” opens with the three dramatic gunshots that killed President John F. Kennedy, the mood was set somber as Vice President Lyndon Baine Johnson was sworn in as president.

“Everyone loves Tchaikovsky,” declared a man in the DeVos Performance Hall mezzanine on Friday evening. Whether this statement is true or not, Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS) Music Director Marcelo Lehninger knows his audience. Better yet, their tastes align with his own.

Julia is extraordinary, and, at 53, she should be tired of hiding. This is what the voices in her head tell her, anyway. They’ve kept her from sleeping for more than a week, and everyone she encounters lets her know how terrible she looks.