Jeff Daniels To Perform at Grand Hotel
By Leslie Rott

Jeff Daniels (Photograph courtesy of Julie Black)

Actor Jeff Daniels is also a talented singer, and the Michigan native will be performing Thursday, August 10, at Grand Hotel. The show, "Jeff Daniels Live and Unplugged," and its companion CD, released in 2005, raises money for his Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea and is performed throughout the country.

Mr. Daniels has been performing his one man show for the past five years, and this will be his second appearance with it on Mackinac Island.

With songs like "The Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues" and "State Trooper," those from Michigan will feel right at home.

The show is "a lot of fun," he said, interactive and entertaining, and he promises not to act self-important or pretentious.

"The last thing we need," he said, "is another actor thinking he's Bob Dylan."

Mr. Daniels has been playing music for more than 30 years and said his live performances are similar to being on Broadway.

"Every time you do a show, it's a challenge to reach the audience," he said, but "once they loosen their ties, anything can happen."

During what he calls a "great return to the Island, Mr. Daniels said he hopes to take in a round of golf, his first golfing experience on Mackinac.

The Grand Hotel show is part of a two-week tour around the Midwest.

"Jeff represents Michigan so well in the film industry, it is our pleasure to have him perform at Grand Hotel," said Ken Hayward, the hotel vicepresident for sales and marketing. "People will be surprised to see how talented he is as a singer and guitar player."

Mr. Daniels is best known for his roles in the films "Gettysburg," "Dumb and Dumber," "Fly Away Home," "Pleasantville," "The Hours," "Good Night & Good Luck," and "The Squid and the Whale."

He attended Central Michigan University, where he majored in English and minored in theater, and established the Purple Rose Theatre Company in 1991 as a notfor profit professional theater featuring Midwestern actors, directors, playwrights, and designers.

Mr. Daniels also writes plays, and his most popular is "Escanaba In Da Moonlight," a comedy set in an Upper Peninsula deer camp. Opening at Detroit's Gem Theatre in September 1999, it ran for 16 straight months and set a record for the longest-running show in Detroit. A prequel, "Escanaba In Love," will premiere at the Purple Rose in September 2007.

The film version, which Mr. Daniels wrote, directed, and starred in, is one of the highest grossing independent films in the country, at $2.3 million.

He has been recognized with honorary doctorates from Albion College and Central Michigan University, the 1991 Detroit News Michiganian of the Year Award and the Governor's Michigan Artist Award, and a Michigan House and Senate resolution proclaiming October 4, 2000, as Jeff Daniels Day.

Mr. Daniels will perform in the Grand Hotel Theatre at 9 p.m. Tickets are $40 for nonhotel guests.

The show is open seating and proper hotel attire (ties and coats for men) is required for the event.

Tickets can be purchased at the door the evening of the show or in advance by calling Grand Hotel's reservation department.