The comic talent of Brian Townsend and the musical genius of Paul Bruce will pair up for a limited weekend benefit performance featuring music and comedy Aug. 13 and 14 at the Players Guild of Dearborn. The show — a private fundraiser — will feature original locally created comic sketches and works in the public domain. Tickets will be $10 each, with open seating.
By Sue Suchyta
The comic talent of Brian Townsend and the musical genius of Paul Bruce will pair up for a limited weekend benefit performance Aug. 13 and 14 at the Players Guild of Dearborn.
The show — a private fundraiser to help defer a member’s staggering medical bills — is open to the public. It will feature original locally created comic sketches and works in the public domain. The staging will be minimal and the laughs plentiful. Tickets will be $10 each, with open seating. Watch this column and the Guild Web site, www.playersguildofdearborn.org for future information.
The theater is at 21730 Madison south of the intersection of Monroe and Outer Drive in Dearborn.
The Guild also will perform at Dearborn Homecoming on the hill the first full weekend in August. Season ticket fliers for the Guild’s 84th season will be available.
ALLEN PARK YOUTH KNOCK ’EM DEAD
The Creative Characters Youth Theater will present the interactive murder mystery dinner theater “Café Murder” at 7 p.m. July 9 and 4 and 7 p.m. July 10 at the Allen Park Community Center, 15800 White St.
Audience participation will help determine the guilty party – who had the strongest motive and opportunity to murder. The $12 admission price includes both the dinner and the show. Seating is limited. Advanced ticket purchases are available at the community center.
For more details, go to www.creativecharacters.webs.com or call (313) 595-5972.
SOUTHGATE presents ‘ARSENIC AND OLD LACE’
The Southgate Community Players will stage, “Arsenic and Old Lace” at 8 p.m. July 16, 17, 23 and 24 at the Corner Playhouse, 12671 Dix-Toledo.
The charming yet eccentric elderly Brewster sisters, Martha and Abby of Brooklyn, N.Y., use elderberry wine to hasten the demise of lonely male boarders they determine to be incurably unhappy. They are aided by Teddy, who suffers under the delusion that he is Theodore Roosevelt. By getting him to dig the Panama Canal in the cellar of their homethey acquire convenient graves for their lonely victims.
However, when their nephew, Mortimer, discovers a body under the window seat of his aunts’ home, the women reluctantly tell him of their unnerving mission.
Tickets are $13. For more information, call (734) 282-4727 or go to www.scponstage.com.
‘WEST SIDE STORY’ coming to FISHER
The Broadway revival of “West Side Story,” will launch its North America tour in Detroit this fall at the Fisher Theatre Sept. 30 to Oct. 16. Tickets go on sale Saturday.
The new Broadway cast album of “West Side Story” won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in January. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway’s finest and features American musical theater favorites, “Tonight,” “America,” “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere.”
Directed by its two-time Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents, “West Side Story” features the original Jerome Robbins choreography restaged by Tony Award nominee Joey McKneely.
“West Side Story” is the brainchild of three theatrical legends: Laurents, who wrote the book, and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein for the music and Stephen Sondheim for the lyrics.
“West Side Story” will be at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd. Sept. 30 to Oct. 16. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. There will be no matinee Oct. 2. There will be a Monday evening performance at 8 p.m. Oct. 11, and a 1 p.m. Oct 13 Wednesday matinee.
Ticket prices range from $39 to $89 (includes parking and facility fees) and go on sale Saturday at the Fisher Theatre box office and all Ticketmaster locations. To buy tickets online, go to www.ticketmaster.com or www.BroadwayinDetroit.com, or call Ticketmaster at (800) 982-2787. For more information, call (313) 872-1000 or go to www.BroadwayinDetroit.com.