WEST BLOOMFIELD - Theater professionals from across Michigan gathered Aug. 31 for The 2015 Wilde Awards ceremony at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts. Presented by EncoreMichigan.com, the most comprehensive resource for news and [...]

"Jersey Boys" Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13-18 Location: Wharton Center, Cobb Great Hall, East Lansing Tickets: From $35 Ticket Office: [...]

ROYAL OAK - The 18th annual Ford Arts, Beats & Eats presented by Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort will once again offer unparalleled healthy and delicious edible options. Healthy food choices return while many new [...]

"Urinetown: The Musical!," the Tony-award-winning hit from 2001, will have its last performances by Ann Arbor's Penny Seats Theatre Company this weekend. Set in an admittedly absurd dystopian future where one must pay to pee, [...]

LANSING - Rodgers + Hammerstein's "Cinderella," the 2013 Tony Award winning Broadway musical from the creators of "South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music," is the first MSU Federal Credit Union Broadway at Wharton Center [...]

The Purple Rose Theatre Company is proud to announce its fourth annual Backyard BBQ Fundraiser beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 2. The BBQ will feature a farm-to-table dinner created by Zingerman's Roadhouse with [...]

After a critically acclaimed and intensely bloody run of "Hamlet," Slipstream Theatre Initiative says "goodbye" to death and "hello" to marriage in the most wickedly funny way! "The Importance of Being Earnest," by Oscar Wilde, [...]

By John Quinn SHOW DETAILS: South Pacific Encore Musical Theatre 3126 Broad St., Dexter June 4-July 3; check website for performance times $32-$28 734-268-6200 http://www.TheEncoreTheatre.org The "book musical" is as thoroughly American as baseball and [...]

SAUGATUCK, Michigan -- Mason Street Warehouse (400 Culver St.) has received two Wilde Award nominations for the 2014 Mason Street Warehouse (MSW) production of "Beehive." The first nomination is for "Best Musical" and the second [...]

By Shelby Clark Petkus Years before American shows would dare to "go there," the "Kids in the Hall" were skewering homophobia, dressing in drag and lampooning the stereotypes of gay men, feminist women and more. [...]

By John Quinn So what do we know about "The Bikinis, a new musical beach party!" other than its title is in need of judicious editing? If we know it's in production at Meadow Brook [...]

by John Quinn 10 Naked Men The Ringwald Theatre 22742 Woodward Ave., Ferndale May 15-June 8; Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. http://www.TheRingwald.com If LGBT playwright Ronnie Larsen [...]

By BTL Staff Five15 and Stagecrafters are presenting Elton John & Tim Rice's "Aida" this month and into June, with Between the Lines and GOAL (Get OUT And Live) as media sponsors. Based on Verdi's [...]

FERNDALE - The Ringwald Theatre is sounding a call for local troupes to be a part of their Sixth Annual Gay Play Series (GPS). The Detroit-area's only GLBT short play festival is striving to provide [...]

Michigan Theater is partnering with Wine Enthusiast Magazine to offer a special film series focused on the world of wine on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., April 29-May 27. Both wine and film are full sensory [...]

ROYAL OAK - Set to a thrilling pop-rock score, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Next to Normal" offers an intimate portrait of a family dealing with bipolar disorder that is at once devastating, honest, heartbreaking - and unexpectedly [...]

The Ann Arbor Film Festival will present two nights of its Cinema and Music Performance series at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26 and Saturday, March 28 at the Performance Network Theatre. Performances on March 26 [...]

ANN ARBOR -- Award-winning Wild Swan Theater continues its 35th season of bringing the finest professional theater to families with "The Ugly Duckling." Resident playwright Jeff Duncan puts his spin on Hans Christian Andersen's tale [...]

By BTL Staff East Lansing's Wharton Center will host the inaugural "imaGen project" production this month: "Chess - A Staged Concert." Jen Werner, the associate director of "The Book of Mormon," has been hired to [...]

ROYAL OAK -- Water Works Theatre Company announces that auditions for its 15th season of Shakespeare Royal Oak in Starr Jaycee Park will take place March 23 and 24. This season, Water Works will present [...]

"A Doll's House" opens March 8 at the Michigan Actors Studio in Ferndale. Slipstream Theatre Initiative will present their third show, Henrik Ibsen's classic "A Doll's House," March 8 through April 2. Reimagined from [...]

By BTL Staff "Spring Awakening," the edgy, pop/rock musical that took Broadway by storm and captured the 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical, sizzles with immediacy today thanks to the raw and electrifying pop score. [...]

By Bridgette Redman A lot can happen in 65 years - both in the life of a couple and in the world at large. Lansing's Peppermint Creek Theatre Company launches the U.S. premiere of a [...]

By Shelby Clark Petkus In protest of the ever-bitter Michigan cold, The Magic Bag hosts the "Anti-Freeze Blues Festival" this month in Ferndale. The two-day long festival features a variety of local and national blues [...]

Jenaya Jones-Reynolds and Aaron Kottke in "Sweet Pea's Mama." Photo: Lance Luce. "Sweet Pea's Mama" by Robert Lawrence Nelson, a timely story about racial dignity, will have its world premiere at 8:30 p.m. Jan. [...]

Retiring editor Donald V. Calamia celebrating his recent 60th birthday. Photo: J. Williams Back in the summer of 2001 when co-publishers Jan Stevenson and Susan Horowitz placed a small ad in the newspaper seeking [...]

By Jenn McKee "Wicked" continues at the Detroit Opera House through Jan. 4. Photo: Joan Marcus "Wicked" has long been typecast as "a girl thing," but while watching the newest touring production of the [...]

By Bridgette M. Redman "Anne of Green Gables" continues at What A Do Theatre through Dec. 20. Photo: WAD When you have a strong asset, you're going to use it. Especially when that asset [...]

By Carolyn Hayes Harmer PuppetART's "Snow Queen" continues through Jan. 31, 2015. Photo: Detroit Puppet Theatre Winter doesn't officially begin until late December, but Michigan weather usually arrives early to that particular party. So [...]

By John Quinn Slipstream Theatre Initiative's inaugural production, "The Winter's Tale," continues through Dec. 31 at Michigan Actors Studio. Photo: STI "A sad tale's best for winter." So says young Mamillius, heir to the [...]

By Bridgette M. Redman Celebrate the holidays at Great Escape Stage Company with the classic "It's a Wonderful Life." Photo: Debbie Culver When it comes to heartwarming and uplifting, few stories can compete with [...]

By Bridgette M. Redman Beverly (Wendy Hedstrom), Jimmy (Tony Sump) and Clara (Ruth Crawford) await Ruth's (Emily Sutton-Smith) big announcement in "Miracle on South Division Street" by Tom Dudzick at the Williamston Theatre. Photo: Chris [...]

By John Quinn Pat Caporuscio, Aaron Smith and Kathy Vertin in "Mame" at the new Riverbank Theatre in Marine City. Photo: Riverbank Theatre My Auntie Mary Clare took me to see the film "Auntie [...]

By John Quinn Ken (Richard Payton) and Rothko (Dennis Kleinsmith) contemplate red in the second production of Open Book Theatre Company's inaugural season. Photo: Krista Schafer Ewbank "What do you see?" "Red." So goes [...]

By Bridgette M. Redman "And the World Goes 'Round" continues at Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo through Dec. 28. Photo: Farmers Alley For Broadway divas Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, the song-writing duo of [...]

By John Quinn John Lepard in "This Wonderful Life" at Performance Network Theatre. Photo: Chris Purchis To what can we attribute the enduring popularity of "It's a Wonderful Life"? It was the only movie [...]

By Jenn McKee Anne Bauman and Jim Moll in Home for the Holidays at The Dio. Photo: The Dio The Christmas season may just be officially getting underway, but it's already bustin' out all [...]

By Amy J. Parrent Thomas D. Mahard returns as Scrooge in Meadow Brook Theatre's annual holiday treat, "A Christmas Carol." Photo: Rick Smith Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where "A [...]

By Martin F. Kohn "Old Jews Telling Jokes" continues at The Jewish Ensemble Theatre through Dec. 21. Photo: JET It's a little confusing, so bear with me. "Old Jews Telling Jokes" is a play [...]

By John Quinn "Invasion!" features (L-R) Artun Kircali, Linnae Caurdy, Samer Aljuni and Emilio Rodriguez. Photo: Michael Hovitch Review enough theater and you develop a sense of deja vu. Ok, this show is "Invasion!" [...]

By Carolyn Hayes Harmer Jess Alexander is among the highlights of "Christmas Caroled!" Photo: The Encore Musical Theatre Company Gather 'round, children, for a bit of Christmas candor. In short, the parallels are scant [...]

By John Quinn Go Comedy! Improv Theatre presents its sixth annual original holiday show, "Hashtag The Holidays" through Dec. 20. The holiday-themed comedy revue is written by and features (L-R) RJ Cach, Suzie Jacokes, Dez [...]

By Amy J. Parrent "All in the Timing" continues in repertory at the Hilberry Theatre through Jan. 31. Photo: Hilberry Theatre So, Hilberry, it's pretty smart putting a sketch about a notorious contemporary composer [...]

By Amy J. Parrent Inna Los stars in Michigan Opera Theatre's "Madame Butterfly." Photo: John Grigaitis In the Michigan Opera Theatre program handed out at "Madame Butterfly," there is an interview with 93-year-old John [...]

By Martin F. Kohn Danielle Nader and Adam Joseph Lopez in "The Motherfucker With the Hat." Photo: 4TheatrSake There's an old folk song that begins, "The other night when I got home as drunk [...]

By John Quinn Tricia Turek as Gwen, Emily Rogers as Catherine, and Kelly Rose Voigt as Avery in Matrix Theatre Company's "Rapture, Blister, Burn" by Gina Gionfriddo. Photo: Megan Buckley-Ball Matrix Theatre has invested [...]

By Amy J. Parrent Jake's daughter Molly at 21 (played by Egla Kishta), Jake (Bob Hotchkiss) and Jake's daughter Molly at 12 (Charlotte Weisserman). Photo: Melissa Tremblay My late aunt Joyce, who'd raised four [...]

By John Quinn Con (Jonathan Davidson) makes an offering to Nina (Katie Terpstra) in Aaron Posner's Stupid Fucking Bird at Ferndale's Ringwald Theatre. Photo: Brandy Joe Plambeck. "Stupid Fucking Bird" is a play by [...]

By Carolyn Hayes Harmer James R. Kuhl & Dani Cochrane in "The Rainmaker." Photo: N. Richard Nash Once upon a time, on an arid stretch of the American West, there was a girl who wasn't [...]

By John Quinn Dan Johnson and Wayne David Parker are hysterically funny in the world premiere of "Buzz" at the Detroit Repertory Theatre. Photo: Bruce Millan For good luck at a wedding, the bride [...]