Katie Laban is BroadwayWorld's Detroit Senior Editor and a freelance writer and photographer in the Metro Detroit area. She is disabled and chronically ill but has a strong passion for books and all things creative, especially theatre, and loves to support Michigan arts. Connect with her on Instagram at @niftyreads to talk about books and the Detroit theatre scene, and Twitter at @niftyk13 to chat about both with the occasional Taylor Swift and Harry Styles lyric!
Flowers Up Her Attic, an unauthorized parody, will make its world premiere at The Ringwald Theatre in Ferndale. The show is parody of the well-known book Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Michigan playwrights Marke Sobolewski and Joe Bailey wrote the play and could not be more excited to debut it at the theatre.
When entering the Meadow Brook Theatre in Rochester, the first site to be seen is the curtain draped on the stage with a creepy house and ominous tress projected on it, which sets the tone perfectly for the production of the Michigan premiere of The Haunting of Hill House. This dramatic and scary play is done extremely well by the seven-person cast. It is a great show to open the theatre's season and get the audience in the mood for the eeriness of the Halloween season with all its creepy surprises.
University of Michigan's Basement Arts kicked off its latest season with a production of Proof. Basement Arts is an entirely student run organization that puts on shows through out the year. They are excited to have started their season with the well-known play by David Auburn and proud of how the production turned out.
This is a tale filled with blood, and lots of it, guts, and glory, but this is not the latest scary, slasher, horror film at the movies. This is Evil Dead The Musical. The Ringwald Theatre and Olympia entertainment bring back the musical, based on the cult classic movies, to the City Theatre in the Hockeytown Cafe in Detroit for the month of October. The show is a great way to get in the mood for the Halloween season, but remember that it includes "fountains of blood with a mind of its own."
St. Dunstan's Theatre will be the first community theatre to perform local Michigan playwright, Joseph Zettlemaier's, It Came From Mars! The six-person cast brings to life the comedic show about the threat of Martians taking over the world and how it affects a 1930s radio show. The theatre is excited to be doing the show as it is only the fourth production of it to be performed.
Sometimes there is a show that is impossible to give an adequate and deserving review about. Police Deaf Near Far, the Michigan premiere collaboration between TerpTheatre and Oakland University Theatre, is one of these shows. This production is amazing in all aspects and needs to be experienced by every theatre person, actually every human being, who exists, whether they are experienced with deaf culture or not. The extremely talented cast brings to life a show that is brutally honest with an emotional intensity that touches anyone who sees it while educating them about deaf culture at the same time.
The Glass Menagerie opens tonight at the Performance Network Theatre and Ann Arbor's only resident professional theatre company is ready to take on the classic play by Tennessee Williams. Carla Milarch returns to the stage after five-year hiatus to portray one of more iconic roles in theatre, Williams' Amanda Wingfield.
Evil Dead: The Musical, presented by The Ringwald Theatre and Olympia Entertainment, has return for a limited four-week engagement to the City Theatre inside of the Hockeytown Café in Detroit. The talent of the show could not be more excited to bring the terrifyingly hysterical musical back to life again that is so well loved by fans.
The critically acclaimed singer and songwriter, Burton Cummings, will be open up the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts new season. An original member of the The Guess Who, Cummings will perform a special solo concert on Saturday, October 6th, his first appearance in the Detroit area in over two years.
The Matrix Theatre Company opened their latest season with Ariel Dorfman's play, Death and the Maiden. The emotional play is uncomfortable to watch with intense subject matter of political torture, but worth the experience. The talented cast brings the dynamic characters to life and really makes the audience think about the moral dilemma of right and wrong.
Hamtown Races opened at the Planet Ant Theatre in Hamtramck this past weekend and is definitely a must-see for any local theatre lovers. The show is wonderfully put together in the tiny theatre by a great and talented cast, a simple, yet effective set, and a fantastically written script.
La Cage Aux Folles opened with a flourish of sparkles, dancing, and laughter tonight at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber led the entertaining cast in this funny, yet heartfelt show.
Dame Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is the longest, continuously running play of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Running since 1952 in London would make it an intimidating play to take on, but the Hilberry Theatre Company pulls it off wonderfully. The acting, the set, and costumes are captivating and well done.
La Cage Aux Folles, the three time Tony Award winning Broadway musical and starring George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber, is coming to the Fisher Theatre in Detroit and Lili Whiteass says "it's not to be missed." Why should Ms. Whiteass be listened to? Well, she knows what she is talking about; after all, she is the queen who opens the show. "I get you ready for a great night with some stand up comedy," she says, "and be prepared because I'm an equal opportunity offender."
Superior Donuts, by Tracy Letts, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County, opens the new season at The Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan. The play debuted in Chicago in 2008 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company then moved to Broadway in 2009 and now it will make its Michigan debut at the Purple Rose. The comedy-drama is set in a Chicago donut shop and is about the unlikely friendship of the owner, Arthur, and his new employee. The esteemed actor Randolph Mantooth plays Arthur.
Matrix Theatre Company opens their 22nd season with Death and the Maiden and the director and cast could not be more thrilled to start it off with this intense show. The show is political drama that addresses the issues of justice, revenge, and both war criminals and victims. The show is centered on Paulina Salas, a former political prisoner, who is brought to life by Michigan actress Karen Kron of Livonia.
Entering the Fries Auditorium of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, theatre patrons are greeted by an orchestra wearing cowboy hats, a stage full of cornstalks, and a sign with the letters made out of rope announcing where they are - Oklahoma! The Grosse Pointe Theatre starts their 65th season with the classic show and the company did the Rogers and Hammerstein musical justice.
Matrix Theatre Company opens their 22nd season with Death and the Maiden and the director and cast could not be more thrilled to start it off with this intense show. The show is political drama that addresses the issues of justice, revenge, and both war criminals and victims. The show is centered on Paulina Salas, a former political prisoner, who is brought to life by Michigan actress Karen Kron of Livonia.
Planet Ant Theatre opens their season this year with Hamtown Races, a play by local playwright Margaret Edwartowski of Harper Woods. This original production is about the changing demographics in Hamtramck, Michigan and takes places at a local diner owned by Lebanese immigrants that has many different patrons.
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