Time to Squirm: "Nate — A One Man Show" is a filthy, goofy production with an intellectually provocative foundation

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

Nate sitting on a mini motorcycle and letting out a yell.

Photo courtesy of UMS.

When you’re a theater critic, you sometimes drive home from a show and think, “Huh. Not exactly sure what I’ll say about this one.”

Nate — A One Man Show, presented by the University Musical Society at the Arthur Miller Theatre, is one of those shows.

Because by its very nature, Nate will be a little different at every performance with its extensive audience participation and thus, some improv. The brainchild of creator/performer Natalie Palamides, the hour-long production focuses on a man who blasts toxic masculinity out into the world while nursing a broken heart.

The show fittingly starts with what feels like a punch to the face: the blisteringly loud opening chords of George Thoroughgood’s “Bad to the Bone” playing as helmeted, shades-wearing Nate rides around the stage on a mini-motorcycle. Absurdly silly, messy, performative demonstrations of masculinity (the consumption of a raw egg, meat, and whey powder) followed, in case there remained any lingering questions regarding the kind of guy we were dealing with.

U-M student designers display their processes and projects at the "BFA Theatre & Drama Design & Production Portfolio Exhibition"

THEATER & DANCE PREVIEW INTERVIEW

A model box designed and constructed by Lauren/Streng of her concept for Jitney.

A model box designed and constructed by Lauren Streng of her concept for Jitney. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Every winter, sophomores, juniors, and seniors studying design and production at the University of Michigan’s Department of Theatre & Drama at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance showcase their work. The BFA Theatre & Drama Design & Production Portfolio Exhibition is a free event at the Duderstadt Center Gallery on North Campus that runs January 28 to February 7.

“The goal of the portfolio review,” says Christianne Myers, who teaches costume design and is head of design and production, “is to get students thinking about how they talk about their work and to contextualize their growth.” They also think about what they might want to study next, to fill in gaps or expand on an interest. “It’s helpful to hear their thoughts in the context of the work they’ve done so far.”

To this end, faculty members meet with students before the review is open to others, ask questions, and look over the work they did during their time at the university; this includes summer projects at other venues between school years but not work they might have done before enrolling. 

Students talk about their process and their goals to the whole faculty, even those who haven’t had them in class. Chip Miller, the associate artistic director of Portland Center Stage, will come from Oregon to serve as a guest respondent so students can get an outsider’s take on their presentations.  

“In the end, it’s an occasion, a chance for students to celebrate their work." 

Monday Mix: Michigan Creates, Music Un-Tuxed, A2AC Murals & Planters, Blue LLama live streams, Ann Arbor 200 documentaries

Image created by MondayHopes showing a record player, vinyl, and vase on a cabinet with a portrait painting hanging above it all.

Image created by MondayHopes.

The Monday Mix is an occasional roundup of compilations, live recordings, videos, podcasts, and more by Washtenaw County-associated artists, DJs, radio stations, and record labels.

This edition features an interview with Kerrytown Concert House's Artistic & Executive Director Monica Swartout-Bebow on Michigan Creates; a chat with Ann Arbor cellist Thor Sigurdson on Music Un-Tuxed; two short promo videos for Ann Arbor Art Center's 2024 public art projects; Blue LLama concert live streams; and the numerous arts documentaries created for the Ann Arbor 200 birthday celebration.

The Sun Will Come Out: Encore Theatre's "Annie" is a perfect Christmas show for our troubled times

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

Ellen Gruber as Annie with George the dog as Sandy.

Ellen Gruber as Annie with George the dog as Sandy. Photo by Michael Bessom.

It’s been a nerve-wracking year.

The country is divided. Americans say they’re pessimistic about the future, even those who voted for a change in the White House.

Could a little girl be just what we need to make us more optimistic about our future and see that we always have tomorrow?

The Encore Theatre seems to think so and is offering the perfect Christmas musical that just might provide a little lift in our spirits, Annie.  Director Daniel Cooney draws together an excellent cast, combining seasoned stage veterans to young performers giving seasoned performances.

AADL 2024 STAFF PICKS: HOMEPAGE

AADL Staff Picks 2024

If you're an Ann Arbor District Library cardholder, you receive a weekly email newsletter listing news, upcoming events, and a slew of recommendations from the catalog. Those recs are also available at aadl.org/reviews, and we're always happy to make suggestions for books, audiobooks, streamable content in the catalog, DVDs, board games, tools, etc. if you visit us at the branches.

But our 2024 Staff Picks allow the AADL crew to go beyond the library catalog—and the calendar year.

We don't limit our year in review to things that came out in 2024 or that can be checked out from AADL; the staff comments on whatever favorite media and events they experienced this year, no matter when or where they originated. Maybe a favorite album of 2024 came out in 1973, or the best book someone read this year is so old that it's out of copyright. It's all good, and it all counts.

Here are the categories of AADL's 2024 Staff Picks:

Going Nuclear: A new play, "Last Summer," imagines a tense conversation between two physics giants in Ann Arbor

THEATER & DANCE PREVIEW INTERVIEW

Chris Grimm as Fermi, Greg Kovas as Weisenberg

Meeting of the brilliant minds: Chris Grimm as Enrico Fermi and Greg Kovas as Werner Heisenberg in Last Summer. Photo courtesy of Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.

Jim Ottaviani has spent much of his career putting words into the mouths of physics geniuses. Sure, he also used the scientists' own words when penning scripts for graphic novels about Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and Richard Feynman since Ottaviani's books are always deeply researched.

But for Last Summer, a new play by Ottaviani, he had to imagine the words exchanged during a summer 1939 private gathering at U-M physics professor Samuel Goudsmit's home following a physics symposium in Ann Arbor.

The Summer Symposia had been happening in Ann Arbor since the late 1920s, bringing together the greatest physicists to share ideas. Nobel laureates and nuclear pioneers Enrico Fermi and Werner Heisenberg were at Goudsmit's place that summer 1939 evening, with the former trying to convince the latter not to go back to his native Germany and help the Nazis with their nuclear program. It didn't work: Fermi went on to work for the Allies and Heisenberg returned to his homeland.

Their discussion is the basis for the 20-minute Last Summer, which will be staged by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre (A2CT) on December 7 and 11 at the Downtown location of the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL).

Brothers Up in Arms: Penny Seats' world premiere of Joseph Zettelmaier's "The Men of Sherwood"

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

Joel Mitchell as Little John and Will Myers as Friar Tuck

Joel Mitchell as Little John and Will Myers as Friar Tuck in Joe Zettelmaier's The Men of Sherwood. Photo courtesy of Penny Seats.

Sequels aren’t exactly rare or novel. As a creative enterprise, they’re safer than a wholly original property because they thread a narrative needle, providing readers/viewers with something both familiar and unknown—a new story featuring characters and a world we already “get,” no exposition necessary.

More recently, of course, we’ve witnessed the rise of the prequel (Wicked, anyone? The Joker? Cruella?), which offers the same artistic advantages but projects backward in time rather than forward.

With all this in mind, allow me pause to sing the praises of prolific, Michigan-native playwright Joseph Zettelmaier (now based in Florida) for breathing new air into an old form with his latest play, The Men of Sherwood, now having its world premiere via Penny Seats Theatre Company through December 8.

While most sequels lean in hard on a story’s central character, depending on their allure to draw fans back, Zettelmaier instead kills off a beloved, charismatic hero and asks: What happens to a story’s minor characters, the followers, when the nucleus that long held them together perishes? Can a body, without its beating heart, function? (And even if it can, should it?)

Seasonal Fighting Disorder: It's the Grinch vs. Rudolph in Jeff Daniels' new play, "Office Christmas Party"

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

Franklin_Carlson_Berry_Stroili_Crawford

Henri Franklin, Ryan Carlson, Juji Berry, Paul Stroili, and Ruth Crawford in Jeff Daniels' Office Christmas Party at The Purple Rose. Photo by Sean Carter Photography.

"Ripped from the headlines!" is a dramatic tagline frequently used for gritty police procedurals. But it can, perhaps increasingly, also be applied to broad slapstick comedies.

Inspired by real events in a small town Up North, Jeff Daniels' Office Christmas Party Grinch in Fight with Rudolph Police Called (styled without punctuation) imagines the chain of events leading to the title bout between Whoville's most notorious thief and the most famous reindeer of all. Directed by Daniels and starring Ryan Carlson, Paul Strolli, Henri Franklin, Juji Berry, and Ruth Crawford, it is playing at The Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea through December 22.  

Office Christmas Party Grinch in Fight with Rudolph Police Called, which writer, director, and Purple Rose founder Jeff Daniels describes as "the longest title of anything I've ever written," takes place in the aftermath of the titular skirmish. Wally Wilkins Jr., the third-generation head of Middletown Fudge Company, berates employees Jerry Cornicelli, a.k.a The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and Lamar Johnson, wearing a homemade Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer costume, about the mayhem that ensued after a disagreement about the tempo of "Silent Night." Wilkins' daughter Bernice is thrilled that their company is part of a viral moment, but Wilkins himself fears the negative attention may sink his already struggling business. The gang is offered a holiday miracle, of sorts, from a sleazy media company offering big money for a Grinch/Rudolph rematch—now the challenge for Wilkins is convincing the would-be pugilists to get back in the ring for the "Fight Before Christmas."

Sped-Up Fever Dream: Elevator Repair Service’s stage adaptation of James Joyce's "Ulysses" condenses the epic novel into an epic play

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

A previous ERS production of Ulysses. Photo courtesy of UMS.

A previous ERS production of Ulysses. Photo courtesy of UMS.

I don’t have a ton of specific fears, but if pressed to name a few, I’d go with snakes, climate change, overdrafting, mass shootings, and the epically baffling big novels of James Joyce.

 

So kudos to the University Musical Society (UMS) for helping me confront that last fear this past Sunday, via the Elevator Repair Service’s stage adaptation of Ulysses, which was at the Power Center in Ann Arbor on October 19-20.

 

The much-studied, fever-dream doorstop of a novel—clocking in at nearly 800 pages—unfolds almost entirely within the confines of June 16th, 1904 (reportedly the date of Joyce’s first sexual encounter with future wife, Nora). Since the book debuted in 1922, Joyce’s life and work have been celebrated annually on June 16th, a day called Bloomsday, named for the character at the center of Ulysses, ad man Leopold Bloom.

Tabloid Tunes: U-M's production of "Bat Boy" is a tragicomedy musical with a high body count

THEATER & DANCE REVIEW

Aaron Syi as the titular character carries a heavy load in U-M's production of Bat Boy.

Aaron Syi as the titular character carries a heavy load in U-M's production of Bat Boy. Photo by Peter Smith.

When a stage musical’s inspired by a campy, 1990s tabloid story about a half-human, half-bat boy who’s discovered in a West Virginia cave—I mean, you just go in expecting a weird show, right?

 

But nothing can truly prepare you for the level of weird achieved by Bat Boy, staged October 10-20 by U-M’s musical theatre department at the Encore Theatre in Dexter.

 

With music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, and a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, Bat Boy follows the titular character as he’s housed, and socialized by, a local veterinarian’s family. Buttoned-up wife and mother Meredith Parker (Aquila Sol) is the first to emotionally connect with Bat Boy (Aaron Syi), naming him Edgar and teaching him to speak. Teen daughter Shelley Parker (Stephanie Reuning-Scherer) is initially disgusted by Edgar but comes to love him, too, while her father, Dr. Parker (Jamie Martin Mann), jealously watches his emotionally distant wife lavish maternal love upon Edgar. 

 

The show, particularly the first act, has been somewhat streamlined (a good thing) since I first saw it many years ago, but its high body count, black tragicomedy core—think Heathers crossed with a bewildering nature documentary—remains intact.