Don Calamia
Decker and ensemble shine at Stormfield Theatre
Yes, the rumors of her retirement were greatly exaggerated! Lansing legend Carmen Decker has returned to the stage in Stormfield Theatre's "Kimberly Akimbo," and it's a perfect showcase for the award-winning actress's formidable skills. But more [...]
Haunting musical opens new series at The Encore
There's one indisputable fact when it comes to Edgar Allan Poe: The 19th century American author was a literary genius whose works are still popular more than 170 years after his death. Ironically, however, it's his death that may be his most [...]
Sister' rises to the occasion yet again!
Nonie Breen is delightful in "Sister's Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go To Heaven?" at Detroit's Gem Theatre. Photo: The Gem Theatre In hockey, three goals scored by an individual player during the course of a game is called a hat trick. I haven't [...]
Curtain Calls
No group escapes unscathed in Mel Brooks' spectacular musical comedy Ah, that Mel Brooks! Who else in this politically correct world would conceive a show – a musical yet! – with sieg-heiling pigeons, a booty-shaking Adolph Hitler, 16 tap dancing [...]
Potentialities realized at Planet Ant
The cast of "Hylomorph" is open to the potentialities at Planet Ant Theatre. Photo: Planet Ant While science and math nerds might not always be the most exciting people to hang out and have a beer with, they do make for some fascinating plays. In [...]
Boy bands get spoofed at Go Comedy!
"Menllennium" stars Michael Caldwell, Tommy Simon, Clint Lohman and Andrew Seiler. Photo: Heather Sejnowski Back in the early 1990s, four jocks singing in the shower after a football game were thrust into the limelight as the boy band Menllenium. [...]
A musical of epic proportions at Meadow Brook
"Reunion: A Musical Epic in Miniature" continues at Meadow Brook Theatre through March 6. Photo: Rick Smith History, as the saying goes, is written by the victors. But even so, as the decades and centuries pass, debates rage on – so much so, that [...]
A bloody-good time at The Purple Rose
Romulus Linney's stage adaptation of "A Lesson Before Dying" is now playing at the Detroit Repertory Theatre. Photo: Bruce Millan That pretty much summarizes the predicament facing a Detroit hit man in the world premiere of "Corktown" at The Purple [...]
A marriage fails; but a theater succeeds
Bronwen Hupp and Christopher Dybash star in "The Last 5 Years." Photo: The Box Theatre CC2_1904.jpg: Bronwen Hupp and Christopher Dybash star in "The Last 5 Years." Photo: The Box Theatre It's a story that's all-too familiar: Two people meet, they [...]
Actresses win the 'war' at Performance Network
Henrietta Hermelin and Leah Smith in "The War Since Eve." Photo: Jude Walton CCX_1904.jpg: Henrietta Hermelin and Leah Smith in "The War Since Eve." Photo: Jude Walton Some time ago I attended a staged reading of a new play by local author Kim [...]
Here's 'the situation' at Go Comedy!
While it's true that certain politicians, pundits and factions among the citizenry decry and bemoan the current state of television programming – it's terrible, they claim – there's also this: MTV recently announced its highest ratings ever for the [...]
There's a situation goin' on at Go Comedy!
The highest-rated series in MTV's history gets spoofed when Ferndale's Go Comedy! Improv Theater launches its weekly original comedy "Jersey Show Season 1 (Abridged)" beginning Jan. 6. While poking fun at the phenomenally successful "Jersey Shore" [...]