Don Calamia
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" [...]
A few minutes with Syesha Mercado of 'Dreamgirls'
From second-runner up in the seventh season of "American Idol" to the lead role in the national tour of "Dreamgirls," 23-year-old Syesha Mercado is, herself, living a dream. Yet the down-to-earth actress and singer doesn't take her meteoric success [...]