Curtain Call

Director Chad Badgero has more than just audience expectations to contend with with his latest show, “Ordinary Days” — he counts its writer/composer as a close friend.

Peppermint Creek premieres “Days,” written by Adam Gwon, Thursday.

“(Gwon’s) so realistic about how his musical fits into the musical theater canon of today,” said Badgero, founder of Peppermint Creek. “Any composer or playwright has to reach that point when their work is performed and is set.”

Badgero had a front row seat to his friend’s development of the play and jumped at the chance to produce it.

“I’ve kind of been able to see it grow,” he said. “I think for Adam there’s kind of a sense of ‘it’s all yours now.’”

Told almost entirely in song, "Days" is the story of four young New Yorkers whose paths cross as they search for love and fulfillment in the Big Apple. Joe Quick, Leah Gerstel, Rusty Broughton and Amanda Whitehead make up the cast.

This production marks a Michigan premiere for “Days,” which enjoyed a sold-out run Off-Broadway in late 2009 and was later staged at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Badgero calls it “modern and bouncy, honest and true.”

“It’s about that moment in our lives when we must make decisions about what we really want for our lives and who we want, and what we may have to let go in closing a certain path.”

’Ordinary Days’

Peppermint Creek Creole Gallery 1218 Turner St., Lansing 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays Jan.27-Feb. 5 $15 all seats (517) 927-3016 www.peppermintcreek.org

Turning back the rock clock

It may have been more than 40 years since the Beatles disbanded, but that shouldn’t prevent music fans from experiencing what the band was like in a concert setting.

Wharton Center offers just such a chance when “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles” makes a one-night-only return trip to town Sunday.

The “Rain” musicians have a repertoire of nearly 200 Beatles tracks, and the show features completely live, note-for-note performances of the songs, without any prerecorded music.

The tribute group has existed in some incarnation since the 1970s — far longer than the Beatles themselves stayed together.

Two years ago, “Rain” played Wharton Center and brought in sell-out crowds.

“They approach the Beatles music with the same reverence classical musicians approach their legends,” said Wharton Center public relations manager Bob Hoffman. “They’ve endured because the Beatles endure.”

’Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles’

Wharton Center 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30 $29.50-$49.50 ((800) WHARTON www.whartoncenter.com