Theatre

51福利社 Theatre 2023 2024 design with bright colors.

Department of Theatre
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5360 USA
(269) 387-3220

2023-24 Season

Intimate Apparel

By Lynn Nottage

October 6 - October 15

Image
Intimate Apparel follows the story of Esther, a Black seamstress who lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy White patrons to prostitutes. She remains, lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Her plan is to find the right man and use the money she's saved to open a beauty parlor where black women will be treated as royally as the white women she sews for. She begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man named George, who convinces Esther to get married, sight unseen. When George arrives in New York, however, he turns out not to be the man his letters painted him to be. Deeply wounded by the betrayal, but somehow unbroken, Esther returns to the boarding house determined to use her gifted hands and her sewing machine to refashion her dreams.
Get Details

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

By Dave Malloy

Adapted from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

October 27 - November 5

Image
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, is an electropop opera that follows the story of young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova. Who arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fianc茅 from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. This award-winning musical expands the possibilities for the genre with its daring score and bold storytelling.
Get Details

Clue

Clue is adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn

Written by Sandy Rustin

Additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price

Original music composed by Michael Holland

Based on the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture based on the Hasbro board game CLUE

November 10 - November 19

Image
The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth鈥搕he butler, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. Clue is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out鈥HO did it, WHERE, and with WHAT!
Get Details

Next Stop, Broadway!

Starring LAUREN WORSHAM!

November 30 - December 2

Image
Western Michigan University's annual cabaret showcases our senior musical theatre majors while they perform alongside this year's guest star, Lauren Worsham! Lauren Worsham is a Tony-nominated actress and singer. She was nominated for a Tony and won Drama Desk and Theatre World awards for the role of 鈥楶hoebe' in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (2014 Tony winner for Best Musical).
Get Details

More Fun Than Bowling

By Steven Dietz

February 2 - February 18

Image
Jake owns a bowling alley in a small Midwestern town. He is sitting on a hilltop where two of his three wives are buried. In his younger days, he was a promising concert musician but a foul-tip baseball broke his fingers which subsequently healed into a perfect bowler's grip. Jake replays the key frames of his life and, from time to time, is visited by his daughter Molly who has become adept at talking women into marrying her father for love and free lane time. But who is that nattily dressed man with dark glasses and a revolver lurking nearby?
Get Details

Argonautika

Written by Mary Zimmerman

Adapted from THE VOYAGE OF JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS

Gaius Valerius Flaccus Translated by David R. Slavin

Apollonius Rhodius Translated by Peter Green

March 15 - March 24

Image
Jason and the Argonauts encounter an array of daunting challenges in their 鈥渇irst voyage of the world.鈥 Jason and his crew illus颅trate the essence of all such journeys to follow鈥攖heir un颅predictability, their inspiring and overwhelming breadth of emotion, and their lessons in the inevitability of failure and loss. Bursts of humor and fantastical creatures enrich a story whose characters reveal remarkable complexity. Medea is profoundly sympathetic even as the seeds are sown for the monstrous life ahead of her, and the brute strength of Hercules leaves him no less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of love.
Get Details

The SpongeBob Musical

Based on the series by Stephen Hillenburg

Book by Kyle Jarrow

Original Songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's, They Might Be Giants, T.I.

And Songs by David Bowie, Tom Kenny & Andy Paley

Additional Lyrics by Jonathan Coulton

Additional Music by Tom Kitt

Musical Production Conceived by Tina Landau

Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc. 

April 5 - April 14

Image
Plunge into this stunning all-singing, all-dancing, dynamic stage show! When the citizens of Bikini Bottom discover that a volcano will soon erupt and destroy their humble home, SpongeBob and his friends must come together to save the fate of their undersea world. With lives hanging in the balance and all hope lost, a most unexpected hero rises up. The power of optimism really can save the world!
Get Details

Julius Caesar

By William Shakespeare

May 17 - May 26

Image
Shakespeare's political thriller tells the story of the conspiracy against Caesar, his assassination, and the defeat of his conspirators. Jealous conspirators convince Caesar's friend Brutus to join their assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle. Brutus and his friend Cassius lose and kill themselves, leaving Antony to rule Rome.
Get Details