ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Curtain call for dancer and cast of Skeleton Crew. PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Special Skeleton Crew show
Detroit Night on Broadway celebrates Motor City pride and playwright
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
When playwright Dominique
Morisseau recently
called for a
Detroit Night at the Samuel
Friedman Theatre for her play
Skeleton Crew, fans, friends,
and family did not disappoint.
Detroit ex-pats including many
actors fl ocked to the show.
Tee-shirts for sale there read:
Detroit vs Everybody.
Fans from the metro area and
theatre lovers—prompted by
press coverage fi lled the theater.
One hundred Detroiters including
Mayor Mike Duggan got on
planes to attend the Broadway
production. Before the play began,
Detroit’s mayor offered remarks
about the abundance of
hometown talent that fl ows from
that city and presented Morisseau
with a print of a painting.
Skeleton Crew is the third
of her Detroit-trilogy. Taking
place in the break room of a
small automotive factory about
to be shutdown, the cast of four,
three workers and their supervisor,
navigate work and their
relationships as the wheels of
downsizing grind on. Phylicia
Rashad plays the worker with
seniority—29 years, the union
rep. Ruben Santiago-Hudson
directed the play. Its limited run
ends February 20.
Morisseau has written nine
plays. Detroit 67, the fi rst of
The Detroit Projects, received
Columbia University’s Edward
Kennedy Prize for Drama—with
a $100,000 award, in 2014. She
is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation
recipient.
This Detroit-infl uenced playwright
wrote the book for Ain’t
Too Proud (about the Temptations)—
its run affected by COVID,
closed in mid-January.
Her next play is just around the
corner. Dominique Morisseau’s
Confederates New York premiere
directed by Stori Ayers traces the
identities of two Black American
women throughout time. It will
run March 8 – April 10 at the Signature
Theatre.
Michael Urie stars in new Off -Broadway comedy ‘Jane Anger’
BY ESTHER WICKHAM
Actor Michael Urie will
star in the Off-Broadway
comedy “Jane Anger”
directed by Jess Chayes
and produced by Jennifer
Campos Productions with
Play-Preview Theatrical from
Feb. 21 to Mar. 13.
The play is set in 1606, where
the infamous William Shakespeare
is stuck in quarantine
with his apprentice, Francis. As
he struggles with writer’s block,
“Jane Anger” abruptly bursts
through the window with a brilliant
idea that will change history
forever. Watch the show to
fi nd out what it is!
“‘Jane Anger’ is a comedy that
has a little bit of something for
everyone — Shakespeare, a bit
of feminist history and a bunch
of Monty Python-esque jokes.
What more could you want?”
said Jennifer Campos, producer
of “Jane Anger.”
Talene Monahon, the play’s
Brooklyn-based writer, has
been ranked #3 on Theater-
Mania’s list of the ten best Off-
Broadway productions for her
play, “How to Load a Musket.”
This production will feature
talented members of the show
business such as Joey Mendoza
doing sets, costumes by Andrea
Hood, Tony Award nominee
Lindsey Jones doing sound design
and more!
For over 15 years, Jennifer
Campos Productions has been
founded to create diversity within
the theatrical industry. Campos
has worked with several off-
Broadway companies, including
the New Groups Off Stage production
of Ethan Hawke and
Wallace Shawn, to name a few.
The performance will
run on Monday, Wednesday
through Friday at 7:30 p.m.,
Saturday and Sunday from 2
to 8 p.m. At New Ohio Theatre,
154 Christopher Street.
Tickets are $25 to 45. To
buy your tickets and fi nd more
information about the event,
visit, newohiotheatre.org.
ANDREW KELLY
Actor Michael Urie attends the International Emmy Awards
in Manhattan, New York November 23, 2015.
20 February 17, 2022 Schneps Media
/newohiotheatre.org
