Grand Awards 2009: Local Stars Galore

2009 Grand Awards

The 2009 Grand Awards get underway at 7:00 pm sharp tonight and local stars and community theater volunteers are sure to get a great time.

As always, each of the community theaters and college theater programs will present a scene from one of last season’s shows. Civic Theater will open with a number from Willy Wonka with star Scott Mellema and a chorus of Oompa Loompas. Closing the show will be a rousing number from the smash hit Circle Theater production (and multiple Grand Award nominee) Altar Boyz. Audiences can also expect numbers from Jewish Theater’s Esther The Musical, Aquinas College’s Forbidden Broadway with Grand Award nominee Rob Karel, Cornerstone University’s Seussical: The Musical, and Actor’s Theater’s The Wild Party.

Tickets are still available. You can purchase at the door for $45 or $25 if you have a valid student ID. The show starts at 7:00 pm at the Aquinas College Performing Arts Center with a reception to follow.

2009 Grand Award Nominations Announced

The 2009 Grand Award nominations have been officially announced and Circle Theater leads the pack of community theaters with 19 overall nominations. Aquinas College leads the pack of college and university theater programs with 10 overall nominations.

Circle’s Closer a Smoke-ing Good Time

The cast of Smokey Joe’s Café performs through September 26.

Circle Theater closes it’s stellar 2009 season with the Leiber and Stoller musical revue Smokey Joe’s Café. With exuberant choreography and phenomenal songs from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, everyone is sure to have a good time no matter your musical tastes.

For those unfamiliar with their work, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller are responsible for some of the most recognizable songs of that past 50 years, from Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock”  to familiar favorites like “Yakety Yak” and “Love Potion #9″.

I attended the Saturday, September 12, performance that featured a packed house of highly receptive music lovers. The crowd consisted mostly of the over-50 set,  but that didn’t diminish their immense enthusiasm for these crowd-pleasing songs. At the end of the performance, a lone man in the audience stood up when the whole cast joined in on the song “Stand By Me”. This prompted performer David Robinson, singing lead, to encourage the whole audience to stand, which they obligingly did. The whole audience clapped and sang along–even the spot op and the sound crew clapped.

The only piece of advice I would give to prospective audience members, is to avoid section 5 of the auditorium if possible. Anyone who knows the layout of Circle Theater knows that the auditorium isn’t quite a Circle-in-the-Round theater. It comes close, but it’s more of a semicircle. Section 5 is on stage right and the audience, at best, only gets a right profile of the actors. Unfortunately, much of Smokey Joe’s Café was played stage left leaving the audience in section 5 to see the backs of the performer’s heads. The only reason I point this out is because on a few songs, this contributed to keeping me disconnected from a couple of the performances.

This was only a minor quibble that did not disrupt my enjoyment of this truly joyous show that never let up. Unlike other musical revues, there was no dialog in between songs to set up a story or to give feedback about the history of the music. Song after song after song contributed to a brisk 2-hour show with intermission.

Smokey Joe’s Café runs Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 5:00 pm through September 26, which is an extension of an extra week due to overwhelming audience response. Tickets are $25 for the general public. Call (616) 456-6656 for tickets or go to the Circle Theater box office at 1607 Robinson Rd.