Don Calamia
TIDBITS: Thoughts about the new season
With theaters throughout the state throwing open their doors on the 2008/09 season beginning this week, there are plenty of entertainment choices ahead for patrons of all ages and backgrounds. So here are a few things you might want to consider as [...]
No lie: Big summer laughs at the Network
Summers at Performance Network in recent years have brought area theatergoers a tasty serving of critically-acclaimed hits fresh from Broadway. The fact that each featured storylines and characters that challenged some patrons' comfort zones only [...]
Purple Rose rustles up a goodtime comedy
Stop me if you've heard this story before: A notorious murderer and bank robber is gut shot, hogtied and left for dead under the blazing Oklahoma sun, when along comes a guitar-carrying singing cowboy to save the day. Or, at the very least, to [...]
Brokeback' meets 'Prada' at the Network
There will be more than just a little dog laughing at Ann Arbor's Performance Network Theatre this summer, thanks to Douglas Carter Beane's 2007 Tony Award-nominated comedy that opened in previews June 19. "It's a very literate script," explained [...]
Timely political satire at The Abreact
Mike McGettigan's second chapter of his "Desperate Losers" series couldn't have come at a more opportune time for the playwright. Because I suspect he has the recent foibles of Detroit's text-messaging and Messianic mayor to thank for some of its [...]
Happy trails lead to Chelsea this summer
From male flight attendants ("The Vast Difference"), action heroes ("Thy Kingdom's Coming") and lovers ("Apartment 3A"), to Yoopers ("Escanaba in da Moonlight"), thespians ("Guest Artist") and sisters ("Norma & Wanda"), Jeff Daniels has [...]
Curtain's up at Mason Street Warehouse
As vacationers head to Southwest Michigan and seasonal residents open their summer homes, Kurt Stamm is busy readying the Mason Street Warehouse for its sixth season of uptown theater in downtown Saugatuck. "It's a little amazing," Stamm said after [...]
Jazzy new supper club in Ferndale celebrates food, entertainment and people
FERNDALE – A touch of class is coming to fabulous downtown Ferndale June 14 when Chef Stef (Stephanie Y. Penn) offers a sneak peek of her Asiatic Acoustics Jazz Rhythm & Blues Supper Club that opens July 5 at Affirmations. The goal of the [...]
Vaudeville - with a 21st century twist
Hidden away on a non-descript block near Detroit's Fox Theatre sits one of Detroit's premier jazz clubs. But one Sunday each month an "old-timey" vaudeville show takes over the art deco splendor of Cliff Bell's, and as creator and emcee Grace [...]
Band Fags!' explores growing up gay in '80s Hazel Park
Growing up as a gay teenager in the 1980s wasn't easy – especially when you lived in a working-class suburb commonly referred to as Hazeltucky. Yet not only did Frank Anthony Polito survive those angst-filled years; the actor, playwright and now [...]
Theater: alive, well and sizzling in June
Summer has unofficially arrived, and most theaters are currently enjoying some well-earned rest and relaxation. Theater lovers shouldn't despair, however, as several producers are keeping their stages and central air systems sizzling for the next [...]
Teen tale touches fellow 'Band Fag'
I loved "Band Fags!" Yes, Frank Anthony Polito's first novel, a semi-autobiographical tale about a teenage boy growing up in Hazel Park and struggling with his sexual identity, touched me in a way few books ever have. And I think I know why. That [...]