Alexander Sherwin as Man in Chair in U-M’s winning production of “The Drowsy Chaperone.” (Peter Smith Photography)

If you, like “The Drowsy Chaperone”‘s narrator (billed as Man in Chair), are suffering from “non-specific sadness” – or even if you’re not, frankly – the U-M musical theater department’s production of “Chaperone” achieves precisely what he argues musicals are supposed to do: “It takes you to another world – for a little while, at least. It helps you escape from the dreary horrors of the real world.”

And during this particularly ugly election season – well, let’s just say “The Drowsy Chaperone” provides a charmingly joyous evening’s respite for us all.

A show that both affectionately mocks and celebrates musical theater, the Tony Award-winning “Chaperone” – with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, and book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar – evolved from its initial incarnation as a stag party musical comedy sketch, which a group of friends hatched to celebrate the nuptials of Canadian actors Martin and Janet Van de Graaff. Continue reading →

Writer/journalist Kevin Smokler grew up watching ‘80s teen movies in Ann Arbor, and he’ll be doing that again in the coming weeks, since the release of his new book, Brat Pack America: Visiting Cult Movies of the ‘80s, inspired the Michigan Theater’s fall film series, “Kids in America: ’80s Teen Classics” which kicks off on Monday, October 10 with a double feature: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at 7 pm and The Breakfast Club at 9:30. Smokler will be in attendance, as will director John Hughes’ son, James Hughes, and both will offer their insights about the films.

“I knew I wanted to write about the movies I grew up with, but I knew I had to find something else to say about them,” said Smokler, a Greenhills School grad who now lives in San Francisco.

As Smokler started revisiting beloved movies from his youth, he noticed that they were consistently set in places that weren’t Los Angeles or New York City, but rather fictional towns like Shermer, Illinois, or the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, or the Midwestern city of Chicago. Locations played a key role in these films, so in addition to talking to actors, writers, and directors, Smokler went on ‘80s teen movie pilgrimages to Goonies Day in Astoria, Oregon, aLost Boys Tour in Santa Cruz, California and more. READ THE REST HERE

Matthew Webb as the characters in “Mr. Joy”

While watching Daniel Beaty’s play Mr. Joy at Theatre Nova, I immediately thought of Yong Kim, the owner of Mary’s Fabulous Chicken and Fish in Ann Arbor, who was robbed and brutally beaten with a plastic milk crate while walking to his car from the restaurant in 2014. Kim was 74 at the time of his attack, and the assailants turned out to be two teenage boys.

According to press reports, Kim managed to do something many of us would struggle mightily to do: he forgave his attackers.

Mr. Joy tells a similar story, through the prism of one actor playing several characters. In the play, longtime Harlem shoe repair shop owner Mr. Kim is robbed and beaten one night, but he won’t tell the police who his attacker was. And while Mr. Joy is the play’s nucleus, we never actually see him. Instead, we hear perspectives from those whose lives he’s touched: a homeless former painter; an 11 year old girl from the projects with AIDS, Clarissa, who considers herself his apprentice; Clarissa’s feisty grandmother; Clarissa’s schoolyard boyfriend, Peter; a young poet, DeShawn, who finds hope at church; Mr. Joy’s Ivy League-educated, real estate dealer son; the son’s rich, black Republican boss; the boss’ white girlfriend, who yearns for a child; and the boss’ transgender, flight attendant daughter, Ashes. READ THE REST HERE

One unforgiving truth of fame is that when you become larger-than-life, you’re also conversely diminished, so as to seem elusively inhuman.

Brooklyn-based The TEAM’s experimental theater production RoosevElvis, now playing in Ann Arbor by way of University Musical Society, begins with a scene that illustrates this very point. Theodore Roosevelt (Kristen Sieh) and Elvis Presley (Libby King) sit next to one another in director’s chairs, sharing a microphone between them as they take turns voicing odd autobiographical facts and anecdotes.

Significantly, the back-and-forth doesn’t feel like two competitors trying to one-up each other – yes, Roosevelt stridently brags, but Elvis isn’t intimidated, blithely contributing his more modest memories with a laid back slouch. In this way, the exchange illustrates key differences between the two icons of American masculinity. READ THE REST HERE

This month, on WEMU’s Art & Soul segment, Lisa and I talked with Matthew Brennan, director/choreographer of Encore Theatre’s new production of “The Full Monty” – fully clothed, I assure you – and chatted about upcoming shows at Chelsea’s The Purple Rose Theatre and U-M, and UMS events (like Kamasi Washington and Dorrance Dance), and how locals will have to choose, on October 21, between celebrity appearances by bestselling author Margaret Atwood and “Parks and Rec” star Nick Offerman. Click the link to listen to the 8 minute segment!

Cara AnnMarie and Jaclene Wilk in “Liberty’s Secret,” left; the film’s producer/writer/director, U-M prof Andy Kirshner, at Thursday night’s premiere screening at the Michigan Theater. (Right photo by Jenn McKee)

“This is like the bar mitzvah I never had,” U-M art and music professor Andy Kirshner joked while standing on the Michigan Theater’s stage on Thursday evening, hosting the premiere screening of his locally made, original feature film musical, Liberty’s Secret.

Indeed, the quip aptly described the event’s affectionate, enthusiastic, communal atmosphere. (Kirshner’s last words at the mic were, “Could my wife please raise her hand, so I can find my seat?”) Approximately a thousand people turned out to see Kirshner’s film about an unlikely romance that blooms between a jaded, Jewish Presidential campaign communications manager (Nikki, played by Chelsea native and U-M grad Cara AnnMarie) and a sheltered, small-town pastor’s daughter (Liberty, played by Oakland University grad Jaclene Wilk) whose angelic singing voice makes her not just America’s viral sweetheart, but the picture of “family values” wholesomeness that Nikki’s moderate Republican candidate, Kenny Weston (Williamston Theatre co-founder John Lepard), needs to win.

READ THE REST HERE

Tom Dugan wrote and stars in “Wiesenthal,” which played at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts.

A pivotal moment in the 1993 film “Schindler’s List” happens near its end, when Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), who saved 1,200 Jews during the holocaust, collapses with regret and says, “I could have done more.”

A similar (though more emotionally muted) scene happens in the final minutes ofWiesenthal, now being staged at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts. Simon Wiesenthal, a holocaust survivor who famously hunted down and identified 1,100 Nazi criminals, sifts through the pile of medals and commendations and awards that he’s received, noting that because 1,100 only equated to about five percent of the Nazis that should face punishment, he considers himself only a five percent hero.

Wiesenthal – written and starring Tom Dugan, who performed the show Off-Broadway before taking it on tour – is a 90 minute, intermission-less one-man show that allows Simon to tell his own story. With the audience standing in as the last tourist group to visit Wiesenthal’s base of operations, Vienna’s Jewish Documentation Center, before the famous Nazi hunter retires at day’s end (and the space is converted into a museum) in 2003, he offers clear-eyed, unflinching accounts of his mother being captured; his wife attempting an escape to Warsaw, and their unlikely reunion; Simon bouncing around between concentration camps; the cost of keeping his family in Austria after the war; and hunting down Nazis both famous and unknown. We even get to see the latter in action, as he makes and receives phone calls about a Nazi hiding in Syria. READ THE REST HERE

Before “The Voice,” Laith Al-Saadi was a beloved local guitarist. Now he is nationally known for his love of classic rock and soulful blues.

Last Spring, fans across the country discovered the rock, blues, and soul music of Laith Al-Saadi, ’03, the fourth-place winner of NBC’s hit reality talent show “The Voice.” But in Ann Arbor, the powerful sounds of the 38-year-old guitarist have been reverberating for decades. Al-Saadi, a native Ann Arborite, performed in local theater productions as a child and has played music professionally in the area since he was a teenager, sometimes as many as 300 shows a year when he hits the road. Michigan Alumnus was fortunate to catch up with the newly minted star, who is now in even greater demand, upon his return home from Los Angeles. What follows are some little-known facts and insights he shared shortly after performing a sold-out show at the Michigan Theater in July. READ THE REST HERE

As many of you know, I’m a mere, humble free-lancer these days; but because I’ve been working on a story for Michigan Alumnus magazine about the Ann Arbor-based building/development company Maven – run by 3 former U-M athletes – that oversaw the HGTV “Urban Oasis” house renovation this year, I got to take a peek today inside the Ann Arbor home that will be given away via sweepstakes.

The “Urban Oasis” episode that will chronicle the transformation of 730 Spring St. will first air on Wednesday, October 5 at 11 p.m., with encore showings on Friday, October 7 at 8 a.m.; Monday, October 17 at 11 a.m.; Wednesday, October 26 at 1 p.m.; Tuesday, November 1 at 8 a.m.; and Friday, November 18 at 11 a.m. The sweepstakes entry period will be October 4-November 22, and entrants may apply up to twice a day online at hgtv.com/urbanoasis. The grand prize winner will receive the remodeled and furnished home, plus $50,000 from Quicken Loans.

How many people already living in Ann Arbor will enter regularly? I’d bet a high number – and I’ll be entering multiple times myself. But in the meantime, let’s dream together and take a look at this gorgeously resurrected house. (Keep in mind I’m no photographer – I’m just a blogger schmuck with an iPhone – but I thought it would be fun to share these nonetheless.)

Upstairs master bedroom. The original house had no “upstairs” – this is an addition. (Photo by Jenn McKee)

Continue reading →

Jeffrey Seller at Detroit Homecoming 2016. (Photo by Jenn McKee)

Tony Award-winning “Hamilton” producer and Oak Park native Jeffrey Seller returned to Michigan this week to receive the 2016 Creative Many Governor’s Arts Award “for bringing to life compelling theater the world embraces and making Michigan proud of its native son.”

The award ceremony, scheduled for Thursday evening at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, is part of the third annual Detroit Homecoming event,  for which Crain’s Detroit Business gathers nearly 200 “expats” back to Detroit for three days in order to showcase the city’s contributions to technology, music, art, entertainment, fashion and architecture.

Seller may struggle to find room on his mantel for his new Guvvy, though, because the celebrated producer has also won best musical Tony Awards for “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” and “In the Heights.” Plus, the University of Michigan grad is credited with inventing Broadway’s first rush ticket and lottery ticket policies.

Seller, who was also scheduled to speak on Thursday to Detroit’s University Prep Academy High School, talked to the Free Press Wednesday during a break in a Detroit Homecoming event. READ THE REST HERE