Broadway Grand Rapids
'Mamma Mia!' returns to Grand Rapids
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 11-27-2024 under OPINION
Early into "Mamma Mia!," you realize that the show will not be resisted. Not that many will try. But if anyone does (arms crossed, one imagines, perhaps a beret tilted at a disapproving angle), the show will twirl, mug and sing into a...
MJ dramatizes King of Pop's preparations for his 1992 tour
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 07-10-2024 under OPINION
For those too young to remember, it's difficult to imagine how omnipresent Michael Jackson was at the height of his career. Walk into a convenience store, and you'd hear "Billie Jean" playing. "Rock With You" would be...
Twenty years on, Wicked still soars
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 05-23-2024 under OPINION
Having grossed over $1.6 billion in revenue, Wicked is the most popular musical of the century and the second-most popular of all time (The Lion King, which is nearing $2 billion, is the only show to have surpassed it). How does a show get to...
To Kill A Mockingbird remains shattering and tragic
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 04-24-2024 under OPINION
When the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) lost a reservation clerk, America gained a masterpiece. Harper Lee, an Alabama native turned New York City transplant, had taken the position at the airline as her day job, but her real dream was...
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...
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...
Come From Away Tells Heartfelt, Life-Affirming Stories In The Wake Of 9/11
by (John Kissane)
Submitted 11-10-2022 under OPINION
It's a sobering thought: that there are people born after September 11th who are now old enough to drink. The tragedy defined a generation, and not only in the United States. On September 12th, 2001, the main headline of France's Le...