'Clue: On Stage,' Japanese Girls’ Day, Ukraine relief: Shows to see in metro Detroit
This weekend offers arts events aimed at providing relief and support for Ukraine and Michigan State University, plus some good old-fashioned fun.
Here some shows to see across the region for the weekend of March 3:
Ukraine relief concert
First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Rochester will host “From Rochester with Love” on Saturday, March 4 at 7 p.m. A relief benefit effort for the ongoing war in Ukraine that recently passed the one-year mark, the event will offer a night of song and story. Musicians Benya Stewart and Andrij Birko will present traditional Ukrainian arrangements highlighting the guitar and traditional Ukrainian bandura as they lend their music and voice to support democracy in Europe. Having recently returned from delivering medical supplies and music in Ukraine, Benya will bring stories of survival and hope from Lviv, Kyiv and locations in between.
First Congregational Church, UCC 1315 North Pine St., Rochester Hills. 248-651-6225. www.eventbrite.com. Tickets are $10 and are available in advance via Eventbrite or at the door; children under 12 may attend for free.
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Tropical love
The Encore Musical Theatre Company, located in Dexter, is presenting “Once on This Island” through March 12. It opened Feb. 23 in acknowledgment of Black History Month, tapping into the award-winning piece to examine social issues of race and class and the effects they have on affairs of the heart. Based on Rosa Guy’s novel “My Love, My Love,” the story is set in a Caribbean village where a young peasant girl falls in love with a rich boy and the island’s ruling gods begin to interfere. With eight Tony Awards to its name including Best Revival of a Musical, “Once on This Island” features a vibrant score that blends calypso, soca and Latin American rhythms to bring the story to life.
The Encore Musical Theatre Company, 7714 Ann Arbor St., Dexter. 734-268-6200. www.theencoretheatre.org. Tickets start at $52, with $20 student rush tickets available at the door prior to performances.
Healing jazz
As the Michigan State University community continues to heal from the recent campus attack, the MSU BeBop Spartans will perform at Detroit’s Carr Center with rising jazz star Camille Thurman. A composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Thurman has made a strong impression within the genre over the past decade, and brings elegance and bubbly fun to every performance.
The Carr Center Performance Studio at The Park Shelton, 15 E. Kirby St., Detroit. 313-437-9244. www.thecarrcenter.org. Tickets start at $10.
Dead man’s party
Scarlet. Mustard. Green. Peacock. White. Plum. You know the names, and what’s in store. “Clue: On Stage,” a live adaptation of Jonathan Lynn’s brilliantly madcap 1985 screenplay for the movie based on the classic board game, runs through March 12 at Parcells Auditorium in Grosse Pointe Woods. A stormy night, a tense dinner party, and then… murder. It’s a cult favorite for good reason, and audiences can relive the film by visiting this production by Grosse Pointe Theatre.
Parcells Auditorium, 20600 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Woods. 313- 881-4004. www.gpt.org. Tickets are $30.
Japanese celebration for girls
Hinamatsuri, Japanese Girls’ Day, will be celebrated at the Detroit Institute of Arts for the first time after a two-year pause on Sunday, March 5. It’s an effort by the DIA, the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit, Japan Business Society of Detroit and Japan Cultural Development, a packed day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that includes a tea ceremony, hina doll display, koto performance, storytelling, origami workshops and much more. This year, the work of four Michigan-based, female, Japanese artists — calligrapher Kyoko Fujii, Mokuhanga paper artist Nobuko Yamasaki, mixed-media artist Hiroko Lancour and illustrator Mino Watanabe — will be featured. Visitors will also have the opportunity to try tea and participate in hands-on workshops.
Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit. 313-833-7900. www.dia.org. Participation is free with general museum admission.
The roaring twenties
A show within a show is the setup for the hilarious, free-wheeling, Tony-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone,” presented by the Nicely Theatre Group at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts through this weekend. A lonely recluse invites the audience into his small apartment to hear an LP of a forgotten 1920s musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” When the needle hits the record, the set opens up and the whole production unfolds before your eyes with almost nonstop laughs. Friday, March 3’s performance will be preceded by a happy hour with half-off cocktails and complimentary hors d’oeuvres beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets for this closing weekend are nearly sold out.
Nicely Theatre Group, inside the Berman Center for the Performing Arts, 6600 W. Maple Rd., West Bloomfield. 248-885-0822. www.nicelytheatregroup.org. Tickets are $35.
Technology and art
Detroit’s Library Street Collective will open “Spring,” an exhibition by Houston-based artist Paul Kremer, on Saturday from 6-8 p.m. The show will feature a new body of work borne from experiments in toolmaking. Kremer’s pieces appear very simple to the eye, but they undergo a complicated process often beginning with dozens of exploratory computer drawings. The works in this show take the process one step further using a consulting programmer and an artificial intelligence chatbot. Kremer used these to create a set of personal, digital tools that allow him to manipulate inputs of shapes and palettes into randomized compositions which can be selected, adjusted and manipulated into variations on a theme.
Library Street Collective, 1274 Library St., in The BELT. 313-600-7443. www.lscgallery.com. Admission is free.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Clue: On Stage,' Japanese Girls’ Day: Shows to see in metro Detroit
