Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Color Purple” begins as a series of letters written by its main character to God. She is repeatedly raped, beaten, emotionally abused, forced into domestic slavery, and her children and sister ripped from her. She has nowhere else to turn but to God.

As the summer season brings Michiganders beautiful, warm weather, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming concert series is making its triumphant return to the stage. 

Holland is the home of a celebration of live theater this summer, as the Hope Summer Repertory Theater (HSRT) celebrates its 50th year with a nine-show season that occupies four different venues all summer long. 

The opening night audience of The Barn Theatre’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was alive with children and their parents as well as those of us always eager to see the latest show.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Some might assume the musical “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” remains a show of its time, based as it is on the Academy Award winning 1954 MGM film. And in many ways, this classic musical romantic comedy is just that, with its melodic score, grand dance numbers, family friendliness, and a story that riffs on a stock battle-of-the-sexes theme.

“Omigod, omigod, you guys!” may not be the musical phrase you think you want running through your head when you walk out of a feel-good musical and into the next day. But it very much is, when the show you’ve walked out of is “Legally Blonde: The Musical” at Mason Street Warehouse in Saugatuck, the extravagant, joyful kickoff of their 20th anniversary season this summer.

Director Kathy Mulay wanted to bring the homespun bluegrass musical “Bright Star” to Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo since she saw it debut on Broadway six years ago. Its premiere at the regional theater was slotted for the 2019-2020 season, but was thwarted by the pandemic.

For more than three decades, local nonprofit organization Broadway Grand Rapids has been host to some of the best that New York City’s “great white way” has to offer. Regularly, year after year, musical theater superfans from around West Michigan will venture downtown to head inside the DeVos Performance Hall for some high-production, high-energy entertainment. 

Mean Girls was released 18 years ago, in 2004. Children born at the time graduated high school this year, having survived the gauntlet that the film depicts: a gauntlet of pettiness, deception, and casual cruelty.