The Crier

The Michigan Theater (of the Absurd)

Chann Weill · Cultured · Feb 05, 2007

A week of homoerotic cops, Almódovar and broken Mandarin prove that you can find culture in this increasingly corporately encultured town.

It’s difficult to be young and disillusioned in the Midwest — but Christ, does Ann Arbor have a complex.

She’s a sweet, liberal enclave in a state whose only Oval Office product was a Republican accident named Gerald Ford. She boasts one of the best $13 Reuben sandwiches in the country. The New York Times datelines stories in the area as simply “Ann Arbor,” assuming readers won’t need the additional “MI” for aid in setting identification.

And the saying “Only in Ann Arbor”? — honey, Ann Arbor is all over that.

But her denizens wear uniforms of multiple layers (faded t-shirts, tight legwear, ironic facial hair optional), carefully chosen at Urban Outfitters but meant to look as if bought at the vintage store next door, or the Salvation Army. They champion how “unique” she is as Pita Pits and ill-monikered coffee franchises take over the vacant shells of old-guard State Street eateries.

Her mythic glory days of student protests and Rose Bowl-winning fooball teams may be a little faded (gone with the increasingly faint smell of decent, cheap pot), but Ann Arbor does still have a few of the gems that makes it stand out from your average commercialized college town.

My favorite (especially as of this week)? The Michigan Theater.

Last weekend, the historic theater opened Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, “Volver” (with Penelope Cruz’s Oscar-nominated performance), the same night George Carlin performed. The 9:30 screening for “Volver” sold out, and the line of baby-boomers (and college kids who find it ironic that pottymouthed Carlin was the conductor on “Shining Time Station”) trailed out the door in the January cold.

Two days later, Ann Arborites found more reason to pretend like they were in New York. (Jokes, guys, jokes.) The Metropolitan Opera House announced earlier this season that it was planning on rebroadcasting several of its performances to theaters nationwide, the stately Michigan being one of them. For a mere $18 ($15 for a student), you could have seen an exclusive rebroadcast of The Met’s Jan. 13’s performance of “The First Emperor.” Hotly anticipated and promised to be the “most elaborate Met production since ‘War and Peace,’ the opera had award winners coming out of its perfectly pitched ears. Zhang Yimou (“To Live,” the only film on the cultural revolution you’ll ever need to see) directed, Academy Award winner Emi Wada (Kurosawa’s “Ran”) designed the costumes, and National Book Award winner Ha Jin wrote the English language lyrics. Tan Dun (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) composed the three-hour plus epic about Qin Shi Huangdi, the emperor of China who commissioned the Great Wall; according to the Dun storyline, the man also had major beef with the court composer who seduces the emperor’s crippled daughter. Did I mention that Qin shi Huangdi is played by none other than Placido Domingo? The Michigan presentation of the opera wasn’t ideal, to put it mildly (it was shown in wide-screen when it should have been in full, for one), but seeing Domingo belt “Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiina!” over and over again in Mandarin as an excuse for libretto was well worth the money.

If you missed “The First Emperor,” there will be several other opportunities to catch the Met at the Michigan. Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” is the next broadcast on schedule, and the theater has done a fair amount of advertising for this groundbreaking performance series.

But something you may not have heard of — and that truly reveals the wonderful absurdity of the Michigan’s offerings — was a special appearance by Deputy Travis Junior (Robert Ben Garant), Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) and the hot-pants-wearing Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) of “Reno 911!” University film and theater concentrators were the only invitees.

Jim Burnstein, director of screen arts and cultures at the University, arranged the question-and-answer session (with the trio both in character and out), which coincided with the “Reno” cast’s promotional tour for their new film “Reno 911!: Miami.” (Best Junior/Garant line in regards to the paradoxical title: “It’s like ‘Philadelphia Story: Chicago.’ ”)

In the past, the department has hosted Spike Lee, Paul Schrader and Lawrence Kasdan, according to Burnstein. University alum Kasdan came last year to celebrate the anniversary of “The Big Chill.” Many of the events are open to the general public, but are geared toward the students.

While the offbeat cops provided a barrage of one-liners — as well as a chokehold demonstration gone awry — the actors themselves also talked about how to break into entertainment business and what it was like doing sketch comedy as undergrads at New York University.

And all of this took place in the same week.

If you live close enough on campus that you manage to drag your ass to class by feet each day (well, most days), an extra hundred yards to the Michigan Theater at least once a month will be worth it for what you find there. (And if you live in that CMB building above Buffalo Wild Wings — or Bdubs, as its frattier tenants say — you have no excuse not to go).

I’m not saying that going to see a manic Penelope Cruz bury her husband onscreen in a crowded, historic theater is going to save our fair city from further commercialization, or change others’ perceptions of it. Or that the State Street-to-Main Street area won’t eventually turn into something more similar to an Arborland-style supermarket strip mall, with only the tobacconist in Nickels Arcade holding on for dear life. But head over to the Michigan once in a while, and you might find a reason not to give up on Tree Town just yet.