Monday, August 24, 2015

Wilbo Squanders the Summer of 2015 by Attending Summer Stock from Whitehall Down to Holland, Michigan

It's been an astonishingly good summer for theater. It began with Shakespeare by Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company at the Rose Theater. That's on the grounds of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. I can't even remember. Was it "As You Like It" or "All's Well That Ends Well"? Then, I witnessed as Hope Repertory Theater threw everything it had at a revival of Les Miserable that the community totally embraced by selling it out to the rafters. I pretty much had to beg to get in. Now I am hardly being condescending when I say, "Threw everything it had". Hope Repertory had immense resources and yet has not the resources of Broadway. And then, tonight, the little old Howmet on the border of the Manistee National Forest offered a gem of a musical, Harry Chapin's swan song, the Cotton Patch Gospel. I balance Hope and Howmet in my hands and think, "How did you do that"? Two more shows remain of Cotton Patch and it's sad that everyone at Unity Christian Festival can't leave Heritage Landing easily to see it.

The season is high and full of expectation up at the Howmet Theater. Outside Mullingar is going to give me dyspepsia, in the best possible way. And Love, Loss and What I Wore is certain to surprise, judging by the cast.

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