Leslie Odom Jr. originated the part of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton.” (supplied)
Tickets for the revolutionary musical about the American Revolution — “Hamilton” — will go on sale to the public Thursday, Oct. 14.
Tickets will be available at 10 a.m. online at BrodwayGrandRapids.com or Ticketmaster.com or by calling Broadway Grand Rapids at 1-616-235-6285 or Ticketmaster at 1-800-982-2782. Tickets will be for performances Feb. 8 — 20, 2022.
There is a maximum purchase limit of eight tickets per account for the engagement. When tickets go on sale prices will range from $49 to $189 with a select number of premium seats available from $249 for all performances. There will be a lottery for 40 $10 seats for all performances. Details will be announced closer to the engagement.
“It’s tempting to get tickets any way you can,” said “Hamilton” producer Jeffery Seller. “There are many sites and people who are selling overpriced, and in some cases, fraudulent tickets. For the best seats, the best prices and to eliminate the risk of counterfeit tickets, all purchase for the Grand Rapids engagement should be made through Broadway Grand Rapids.”
With book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton” blends an array of music styles, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, to tell the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton. The music has received Tony, Grammy, and Oliviers Awards, the pUlitzer Prize for Drama and a special citation form the Kennedy Center Honors.
For more information about the “Hamilton” Grand Rapids performance, visit BroadwayGrandRapids.com.
Tibbits Summer Theatre will open its 58th consecutive season of professional performances on June 16 with a fun and elegant musical theatre revue, The Best of Broadway, at The Ponds of Coldwater.
Last summer while the historic opera house remained shut down due to the pandemic, Tibbits became one of the few theatres in the country to produce a summer theatre season. This year, amid continued uncertainty, presenting outdoors at The Ponds became a certainty from which the theatre could guarantee the best possible season.
In this opening show, professional actors will showcase the greatest hits from Broadway—melodies that are guaranteed to have audiences humming and tapping their toes to the most memorable moments in musicals throughout the ages! With a variety of solos, duets, and ensemble pieces, the performance will showcase selections from classic favorites like Showboat, Hair, and Phantom of the Opera, along with new pieces from Hamilton, Waitress, and Dear Evan Hansen.
This original show is conceived by Tibbits Artistic Director Peter Riopelle and written and compiled by director Charles Burr and musical director Matthew Everingham. Burr and Everingham also collaborated last year to create Sing Happy, A Popped Potpourri, and When Radio Was King.
While Burr has a long list of revues and collaboration on his resume, the process for The Best of Broadway was his first long distance creation. Burr explained, “It began in March with weekly phone meetings to Matthew in New York to create a balanced show that flows seamlessly in (mostly) chronological order. The difference in our ages [40 years] helps create a more comprehensive show. The songs we’ve chosen are great for the performers we have as well as for honoring the best of Broadway.”
Tibbits Summer Theatre will feature a core group of professional company members from across the United States. The Best of Broadway will include veteran Tibbits actors Stephanie Burdick, Liz Davis, Max Gonzalez, Brooke Jackson, and Michael Motkowski along with newcomer Nile Birch. The production will be directed by Charles Burr with music direction and music arrangement by Matthew Everingham. It will feature lighting design by Catie Bencowe, set design by Stephanie Burdick and Peter Riopelle, costume design by Dusti Donbrock, and sound design by Henry Sendek. Lexa Walker leads the technicians as technical director with Rachel Marengere as stage manager, and Josh Rockwell, Scott Pauley, and Leon Kriser rounding out the technical staff.
The Best of Broadway, along with the rest of the 2021 TST Season, is presented through the generous sponsorship support of Coldwater Board of Public Utilities, Vandervoort, Christ & Fisher, P.C.; Parrish Excavating, Inc.; and Frederick Family Dental. Additional sponsors include Coldwater Orthodontics & Aligner Center; Dr. Jon & Seibra Herbener; The Bushouse Family; ASAMA Coldwater Manufacturing; Coldwater Exchange Club; Matthew C. Christopher, DDS; Great Lakes Chiropractic; Honor Credit Union; and Vested Risk Strategies. Additional funding is provided by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tickets for The Best of Broadway are $28 (including fees) for all seats, with discounts available to Tibbits members. Performances will run June 16, 18, 22, 24 and 25 at 7:30pm and June 17 and 23 at 2pm. Tickets are available online at Tibbits.org, at the Tibbits admin office at 93 W. Chicago St. in Coldwater 9 am to 5 pm weekdays or by calling 517-278-6029.
All summer theatre performances will be held at the beautiful outdoor event pavilion nestled among 30 acres of lush landscaping at The Ponds of Coldwater, just minutes from the historic Tibbits Opera House in downtown Coldwater. Golf carts are provided to transport guests who need assistance from the parking lot to the pavilion. Please note that Tibbits will follow COVID guidelines at the time performances take place. This may still include universal masking while entering and moving throughout the venue as well as social distancing. For more information call or visit Tibbits.org.
Ask anyone to name their favorite Broadway musical, and you’ll almost certainly get a list of several, if not many. And there’s only one way to hear music from many of your favorite musicals in one night.
The Grand Rapids Pops presents Blockbuster Broadway, with music from some of Broadway’s biggest and best-loved shows such as ThePhantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Chicago, and many more.
Hear songs from Wicked, The Lion King, and Jersey Boys at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. Enjoy old favorites from The Sound of Music and Annie in DeVos Performance Hall, 303 Monroe Ave. NW.
Part of the Fox Motors Pops series, John Varineau will conduct the Grand Rapids Symphony as the orchestra performs an eclectic mix of songs in the show created, produced, and directed by the acclaimed cabaret artist Scott Coulter.
Guests include Jessica Hendy, who previously sang at Grand Rapids Symphony’s “Celebrate America” concert at Cannonsburg Ski Area for the D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops in July 2009. Hendy previously appeared on Broadway as Grizabella in Cats as well as in Grand Rapids on its national tour.
Scott Coulter, one of New York’s top award-winning vocalists returns to West Michigan to sing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” with the Grand Rapids Symphony among other songs.
Not long ago, Scott starred in An Evening with Scott Coulter: Broadway and Beyond at Kalamazoo’s Farmer’s Alley Theatre, a theater founded by a friend from music school.
“I think of my [singing] style as musical storytelling,” Scott said to Farmer’s Alley Theatre. “I do pretty familiar material but people often tell me that they felt like they heard the song for the first time – or in a new light.”
It’s not only theater and concert goers who enjoy Scott’s musical interpretation. The Oscar and Grammy award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz, whose work includes Godspell, Wicked, and Enchanted, has described Coulter’s musical talents like this: “One of the best things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”
Coulter has worked frequently with Schwartz, as have guest soloists Jessica Hendy, Kelli Rabke and John Boswell.
Called a “vocal powerhouse” with great range by critics, Jessica Hendy most recently worked with Schwartz on his cabaret-style show, The Wizard and I. Hendy, whose voice sometime seem to defy gravity, will sing some of the most electric songs of the program including “Circle of Life” from The Lion King, “Memory” from Cats, and, of course, “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
Kelli Rabke
Kelli Rabke, best known for her role of Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Eponine in Les Misérables, also worked with Schwartz in The Wizard and I. As a frequent musical partner with Coulter, she will join him again in the upcoming show, Music of the Knights, which features songs composed by three British musical legends, all knighted by the Queen of England: Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paul McCartney.
Along with other songs, Rabke will perform, “I Dreamed a Dream,” the song that serves as an emotional lynchpin in Les Misérables, one of the best-known musicals of all-time.
Music Director, pianist, and vocalist John Boswell co-arranged the music for Blockbuster Broadway with Scott Coulter. In addition to writing music for television, John has crafted numerous piano-driven albums, called “accessible, impressionistic tone-poems” by critics. For Blockbuster Broadway, he sings “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
With the warmth and energy of the Grand Rapids Symphony, Broadway returns to Grand Rapids. Performed with a live symphony, it’s a rare opportunity to hear some of Broadway’s best songs by stellar vocalists.
Tickets
Tickets start at $18 and are available at the GRS ticket office, weekdays 9 am-5 pm at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across from the Calder Plaza), or by calling 616.454.9451 x 4. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum.)
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place box office, weekdays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
Full-time students of any age are able to purchase tickets for only $5 on the night of the concert by enrolling in the GRS Student Ticketsprogram, sponsored by Comerica and Calvin College. This is a MySymphony360 eligible concert.
It’s like “Modern Family” meets wedding party drama when Saugatuck Center for the Arts’ Mason Street Warehouse (MSW) theatre company presents “It Shoulda Been You,” a musical comedy about an unforgettable wedding day with a game-changing plot twist. The final production of MSW’s 15th season runs from Aug. 18 – Sept. 3. Tickets are available online at sc4a.org, by phone at 269-857-2399, or at the box office.
“It Shoulda Been You” invites you to a wedding day you’ll never forget, where anything that can go wrong does, and love pops up in mysterious places. The bride is Jewish. The groom is Catholic. Her mother is a force of nature; his mother is a tempest in a cocktail shaker. And when the bride’s ex-boyfriend shows up, the perfect wedding starts to unravel faster than you can whistle “Here Comes the Bride.” Plots are hatched, pacts are made, secrets are exposed – and the sister of the bride is left to turn a tangled mess into happily ever after.
“This new musical, this Broadway season’s freshest and funniest to date, defies skepticism, both in its wacky humor and its big, buoyant heart,” said USA Today of ‘It Shoulda Been You.’ The Dallas News called the musical comedy a “frothy escape into a world of unexpected happy endings.”
Directed and choreographed by Saugatuck Center for the Arts (SCA) Artistic Director Kurt Stamm, “It Shoulda Been You” welcomes back several MSW alumni actors, including David R. Gordon who starred as Huey Calhoun in the SCA’s first production of the summer, “Memphis: the Musical.”
“I’m very excited about our upcoming production of ‘It Shoulda Been You’ because we have so many MSW alumni coming back to work with us,” said Stamm. “Of the 13 cast members, seven of them have worked at Mason Street before, so it will be like a family reunion… a good family reunion! I also really love this show. It’s incredibly charming and funny, and has one of the best plot twists you’ll find in a musical.”
In addition to his lead role as Huey Calhoun in “Memphis: the Musical,” David R. Gordon has also performed in the international tour of Grease and the first national tour of “Flashdance the Musical.” “It Shoulda Been You” also features Beth Glover, who performed in MSW’s very first season in “Dirty Blonde,” and most recently in “Death Trap,” as well as the Broadway national tour of “Cinderella,” as the Wicked Step Mother and in the film “The Awakening.”
Also returning from “Memphis: the Musical” is David Spencer, who won a Wilde Award for Best Supporting Actor in MSW’s 2011 production of The 39 Steps. “It Shoulda Been You” also features Michael Iannucci, who last appeared at MSW in “Chicago the Musical” and has performed in the national tours of “Annie” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Returning actress Ellie Francis performed in last summer’s production of “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” and before that in “Evita.” Also returning is Natalie Renee who was last seen at MSW in “Avenue Q.” Casey Prins, who was originally a backstage intern for “Xanadu” in 2013 and has since gone on to perform in the national tour of “Annie” and the regional tour of “Mary Poppins,” will be playing the role of Rebecca.
“It Shoulda Been You” also features Broadway talent Susan Cella, who has performed in “The Babylon Line” at Lincoln Center and in the national tours of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Hairspray.” Cella has been featured on “The Sopranos” and “All My Children.” “It Shoulda Been You” also features Mark Epperson, whose theatre credits include the international tour of “Mamma Mia!” and “Chicago the Musical,” as well as the national tour of “Elf the Musical.”
Rounding out the rest of the cast are Katie Finan, David Duiven, Michael Glavan, and Jeff Meyer. Get ready to make a toast to the funniest wedding you’ve ever attended!
