Riverwalk's 'Fabulation' takes viewers to NYC; Peppermint Creek tackles Sondheim

Act I: Comedy explores the upending of successful woman’s life

Rose Jangmi Cooper knew she’d found a good script when she first encountered “Fabulation, or The Re- Education of Undine.”

It helped that she’d already performed in one of the playwright’s other works — Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat.”

“As soon as I realized it was a Lynn Nottage joint, I was all-in,” Cooper said.

Cooper is directing “Fabulation’s” cast of 10 actors at Riverwalk from Oct. 20-23 and Oct. 27-30.

Central to the story is Undine, a haughty and ambitious publicist living in Manhattan. That is, until life turns upside down for her. Herve, her husband, leaves her and takes all of her money with him. This leaves the pregnant Undine in a precarious position on the verge of social and financial ruin. She returns to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, moving in with working-class relatives.

She’s forced to make some major changes, and Nottage tells her story with a commitment to humor and laughter.

Cooper, who has directed and performed often with Ixion Theater Ensemble and other local theaters, is thrilled with her leading lady, Vanessa Mazhangara, whom she refers to as a hidden treasure.

“As breathtakingly beautiful as she is deeply talented, I feel blessed to have been there at auditions to watch her begin her magic in this role,” Cooper said.

All cast members besides Mazhangara play multiple roles in this ensemble piece. They include Ny’Kieria Blocker, Janell Hall, Julian Van Dyke, Lorenzo Lopez, Norrlyn-Michael Allen, Wulf Hogan, Timetra Horton, Jillian Tosolt, Teriah Fleming and Jordan Taylor.

It’s a show with mature themes, depictions of drug use and strong language. Show times are 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Masks are required. Tickets can be purchased at riverwalktheatre.com.

Act II: Sax players bring their modern music to MSU

For 10 days, music will sound from the Michigan State University campus as innovative guest artists, student music groups and faculty members team up for a series of public concerts.

From Oct. 26 to Nov. 6, musicians will perform as part of the MSU College of Music’s Entrepreneurial Musical Artist in Residence Program, which focuses on entrepreneurship in the musical arts. The series spotlights guest artists Nois, a saxophone quartet known for their contemporary classical music and improv.

Events include:

• 8 p.m., Oct. 28, Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center: MSU Wind Symphony and Symphony Band featuring Nois. They’ll perform music by Samuel Barber, MSU’s David Biedenbender, Vincent Persichetti, Walter Piston and William Schuman.

• 7:30 p.m., Oct. 31, Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium: Musique 21, an MSU new music ensemble, and Nois will perform “I Tell You Me” by Annika Socolofsky.

• 3 p.m. Oct. 30, Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center: MSU Symphony Orchestra will present “Hymns of Free, Pure, and Noble Spirits” by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

• 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3, Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium: A percussion ensemble will perform a range of contemporary works.

• 7 p.m. Nov. 6, Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium: The State Singers and University Chorale will present choral works by Undine Smith Moore, Claudio Monteverdi, Georg Friedrich Handel, Johannes Brahms and MSU alumnus Brandon Ulrich.

Nois will host two workshops that are free and open to the public. The first one is 7:30 p.m., Oct. 26 at Cook Recital Hall. It’s a workshop in composition reading and Nois will perform works MSU student composers have written. The second will take place at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in the Newsroom of the Communication Arts and Sciences Building. Titled “Unreal Music,” the workshop is a visual arts collaboration in which the quartet will perform improvised vignettes in response to conceptual student art.

Act III: Peppermint Creek rolls along with Sondheim classic

Peppermint Creek opens its latest season with a Stephen Sondheim musical.

“Merrily We Roll Along” is a musical that moves backward in time from 1976 to 1957, telling the story of three friends, including a once-talented composer of musicals, Franklin Shepard, who abandons his friends and songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood movies.

The musical, which will run for two weeks from Oct. 20-23 and Oct. 27-Oct. 30 (with no show on Oct. 21), is the first fully staged live musical that Peppermint Creek has produced since 2019.

Directed by Ben Cassidy, the show will be performed at the Lansing Media Center, 2500 S. Washington Ave. in Lansing.

“The way the story is told is the first thing that drew me to this show,” Cassidy said. “This is one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest scores. The music in this show is just phenomenal. But the show is also relatable. The themes are really universal and they are applicable to any time and anybody. Anyone can reflect on something they expected to happen that didn’t turn out that way for better or worse.”

Tickets can be ordered online at www.peppermintcreek.org. They are $20 general admission and $15 for students, seniors and military.

Encore!

• Audio Air Force will be performing a radio version of “Arsenic and Old Lace” on at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at Hannah Community Center in East Lansing. They will also perform two original shorter scripts that two local playwrights, Patti Spinner and Jon Ritz, wrote specifically for Audio Air Force.

• Due to an illness in the cast, Ixion has canceled its production of “The Year of Magical Thinking.”

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Riverwalk Theatre presents 'Fabulation' Peppermint Creek does Sondheim