Les Misérables

Scaled-down 'Les Mis' a different kind of battle, reproduced with permission from EncoreMichigan.com.

Think "Les Miserables," and a word that springs immediately to mind is "enormity." Created by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, and numerous collaborators, the show is a huge vocal and technical undertaking, in two tremendous acts, that covers sprawling narrative, geographic and chronologic ground as it ambitiously reenacts the equally huge Victor Hugo novel on which it is based. Yet enormity is not the purview of The Encore Musical Theatre Company, a repurposed building in Downtown Dexter turned overgrown-black-box performance space; an industry-convention "Les Mis" would overload it. The current production, with direction by Daniel C. Cooney and staging by Barbara Cullen, pulls back the throttle on excesses to fill a smaller stage. And although the company faithfully replicates the epic tale, framed by a righteous historical skirmish between revolutionaries and the French government, this production's true showdown appears to be a more personal one: that between the live players and the pre-recorded score.

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Lend Me a Tenor

Bedlam and belly laughs at The Encore, reproduced with permission from EncoreMichigan.com.

From a mission-statement standpoint, The Encore Musical Theatre Company's leap from four seasons of wall-to-wall musicals to a "straight" stage play is a noteworthy development. From an artistic standpoint, however, the theater's production of "Lend Me a Tenor" (by Ken Ludwig) delivers unequivocal proof that there is no learning curve for director Tobin Hissong and his sharp ensemble. This zany behind-the-scenes farce is profusely funny on its own merits and reaches exceptional performative heights, no qualifier required.

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Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Bustling 'Joseph' a saturated spectrum, reproduced with permission from EncoreMichigan.com.

With decades of roaring success under its belt and name recognition aplenty, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Weber) is an instant draw. In the current production at The Encore Musical Theatre Company, director Barbara F. Cullen knows better than to mess with success, honoring the pizzazz of the show's broad, splashy rainbow of production numbers but in smaller-than-usual packaging.

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Plaid Tidings

Part 'Tidings,' but all 'Plaid', reproduced with permission from EncoreMichigan.com.

Ushering in the holiday season, The Encore Musical Theatre Company once again turns to the celestial sphere, following its 2011 production of "Forever Plaid" with the holiday-edition sequel, "Plaid Tidings" (by Stuart Ross; original "Forever Plaid" arrangements by James Raitt; current arrangements by Raitt, Brad Ellis, Raymond Berg, and David Snyder). Presented with a jumbled grab bag of a retread-revue, director/choreographer Barbara F. Cullen and company create a merrily comical excursion in which the show's glut of musical achievements far outstrips its moderate Christmas mirth.

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The Fantasticks

Part bedtime story, part comedy-adventure, part life lesson, The Fantasticks (book and lyrics by Tom Jones; music by Harvey Schmidt) has endured for decades on the strength of its memorable songs and sweeping musings on courtship, love, and growing up. In the current production at the Encore Musical Theatre Company, director Barton Bund works outside-in to present a musical equally concerned with story and with storytelling itself. The ensuing sweet and light production harmlessly toys with the form while still honoring the story and style that have made this show a classic.

Bund’s premise finds the players annexing a playing space intended for some other production, a notion cemented by the commedia feel of Leo Babcock’s ornate but nonspecific backdrop. A rack full of idiomatic costumes (by Sharon Larkey Urick) becomes part of the preparations and leads to a darling innovation that doubles down on the sense of using every available resource. In this pre-show state, Daniel Walker’s lighting scheme is as deliberately wrong as it is dazzlingly right once the show gets on track. It’s a framing device that informs without dictating the fable that follows, leaving room for discoveries without insisting on itself.

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