Musical Theater
In "Disney's Descendants: The Musical," youth choose their own path
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 03-04-2024 under OPINION
In fifteenth century France, a seventeen-year-old girl was sent by the king to a battle—the outcome of which was very much in doubt. She arrived wearing armor and raising her banner high. The king's faith was justified. Rallied by the...
Grand Rapids Civic Theatre Stages Disney's Beauty and the Beast
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 11-27-2023 under OPINION
Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête, released in 1946, was some kind of miracle. It expanded on the 1757 fairy tale of the same name, telling a story both enchanting and, at times, a little scary. In one typically surreal touch, real arms,...
In Funny Girl, Katerina McCrimmon Blazes
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 09-21-2023 under OPINION
Funny Girl (onstage until Sept. 24 via Broadway Grand Rapids) rises or falls on Fanny Brice. Even more so than most musicals, its star is its star — the body around which everything else orbits. If she doesn...
Sweeney Todd Cuts As Sharply As Ever
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 09-13-2023 under OPINION
At first, you don’t see him. You see others, though: the citizens of long-ago London. Horror-struck, they sing operatically of Sweeney Todd, a man they call “the demon barber of Fleet Street.” Todd shaved his customers, yes, shaved...
Hadestown Sings It Again
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 05-10-2023 under OPINION
"It's an old song, but we're gonna sing it again." That's the promise of Hadestown, the Tony Award-winning musical that retells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. By moving the action from ancient Greece to a lightly...
My Fair Lady, Lightly Updated, Graces The Stage
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 04-13-2023 under OPINION
Ovid writes of a sculptor who, "offended by the failings that nature gave the female heart," shunned the company of women until, having carved a beautiful statue, he found himself in love. A statue isn't a woman, of course. Still, he...
STOMP Brings Imagination and Noise to DeVos Performance Hall
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 03-21-2023 under OPINION
As a toddler, one of my greatest joys was to take a pot or pan, lift it, and let it crash to the floor. What could be better than that? Imagine this: your grandfather is stretched out on the couch, face hidden behind a newspaper. Carefully, with...
Broadway Grand Rapids Announces 35th Anniversary Season
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 03-01-2023 under NEWS
On Monday, February 27th, Broadway Grand Rapids announced its 35th anniversary season, which will run from September of this year through June of 2024. Featuring seven shows, it's the organization's biggest season yet. The shows' broad...
SIX: The Musical Brings The Tudors To The TikTok Era
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 01-13-2023 under OPINION
“Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived”: the centuries-old nursery rhyme capturing the fates of Henry VIII’s wives is memorable, but flattening. It tells us nothing of the women themselves, nothing of what they...
The Music Man Charms Old And Young Alike
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 07-15-2022 under OPINION
The Music Man premiered sixty-five years ago (1957) and was set forty-five years before that (1912). Math-oriented readers have already deduced that 110 years separate us from the events of the play. That's a long time, longer than most of...