Post Script

Rebecca Gilman’s new play Twilight Bowl, onstage in the Hemsley Theatre at UW-Madison through April 28, is probably going to look familiar to area audiences. That’s because the play is about us.

Set in the fictional small town of Reynolds, Wisconsin, somewhere in Green County, it feels like many communities of less than 5,000 in the state. Bars, schools, churches and bowling alleys separate “town” from the surrounding farmland. There are struggling, family-owned businesses here, as well as families trying to cope with the changing economy and a lack of job opportunities. There are also “big city problems” — alcoholism, poverty, drug abuse, domestic violence and homelessness — that need to be addressed, even in this rural hamlet.

Like other literary classics, J.M. Barrie’s creation “Peter Pan” has been revisited by a lot of contemporary authors, spinning new stories inspired by the original. “Lost Girl,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” and “Finding Neverland” have all graced Milwaukee stages in the past few years, examining the tale of “the boy who wouldn’t grow up” in new and illuminating ways. And now, after staging the OG “Peter Pan” and “Peter Pan and Wendy,” First Stage is venturing into the world of alternate interpretations again with “Tinker Bell,” a play for young audiences, adapted by Patrick Flynn and directed by First Stage Artistic Director Jeff Frank. Focusing on the glowing sprite that befriends Peter in Neverland, “Tinker Bell” includes most of the audience’s favorite characters and memorable moments from the original story, while examining the relationship between Tink and Peter and exploring the meaning of friendship.

Shortly after announcing that In Tandem Theatre would move out of their space in the lower level of the Calvary Church and discontinue offering full seasons, the company opened its final show of the 2018-19 year, and the last piece they will produce in the foreseeable future. Fortunately, the production of “The Fabulous Lipitones,” running through May 19, ensures that the company will go out on a high note.

What if the true path to inner calm and enlightenment was through silence? This is the question that faces six troubled souls who have signed up for an intense meditation and healing session in a rural retreat in Bess Wohl’s play Small Mouth Sounds, running through May 4th on the Drury Stage. At this New nAge seminar in the woods, the participants will hear lectures from a slightly unbalanced self-actualizing guru. There will be question and answer periods. And there will be swimming in the nearby lake. But there will be no talking. How will they cope for five days without saying a word?

An aesthetically and musically beautiful production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, “The King and I” opened at the Marcus Center on April 9, to an appreciative audience that delighted in the King’s first use of his signature phrase “etcetera, etcetera” and gasped in awe as the King and his English governess-turned-confidant Anna twirled across the stage to the familiar “one two three and” rhythm of “Shall We Dance?” The tour is based on director Bartlett Sher’s highly acclaimed revival, which opened at Lincoln Center in 2015 and garnered four Tony Awards. Filled with grand scenes from the King’s court in 19th century Siam; opulent, richly detailed costumes in jewel tones and gold; and a gorgeous ballet sequence illustrating “The Small House of Uncle Thomas,” the show is part fairy tale, part spectacle and part resurrection of a true chestnut of musical theater.  

There are quite a few playwrights I’d like to meet. Shakespeare is definitely invited to my “amazing authors throughout the ages” dinner party, but I’m actually taking Bill Cain off the list. Not because I don’t think his work is smart, funny and intriguing, but because I already met him, through his transparently autobiographical work, “How to Write a New Book of the Bible,” on stage at Next Act Theatre through April 28th.

As patrons made their way to Overture Center for the opening night of Miss Saigon on April 2, several dozen people on the sidewalk handed out orange photocopies of an essay criticizing the production for its depiction of  Vietnamese people. “What’s Wrong with Miss Saigon?” was written by UW-Madison Asian American Studies professor Timothy Yu, who provided it, originally expecting it would be included in the program book of the blockbuster musical.

In the auditorium, many audience members were reading the piece, as other patrons took their seats and awaited the opening number of the award-winning musical, created by the French team of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the same creative pair that took the world by storm in 1980 with their musical adaptation of Les Miserables.

When the lights went down and the orchestra began to play, longtime fans of the show settled in for an evening of soaring music, epic tragedy, impressive stagecraft, and some good, old-fashioned Broadway production numbers. Newcomers to the Miss Saigon leaned forward in their seats, anticipating a theatrical experience that has made the show one of the longest-running musicals in history. And others held their breath, wondering if the story would really hold up in an era where cultural representation has become a hot-button issue.

The internet is full of short, funny subtitles for classic books. Moby Dick is summed up with “Man versus whale. Whale wins.” Don Quixote is labeled “Guy fights windmills. Also, he’s crazy.” For The Grapes of Wrath there’s the pithy title, “Farming sucks. Road trip! Road trip also sucks.”

But don’t bother looking up an on-the-nose assessment of Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya. Award-winning playwright Aaron Posner has already beaten you to it. Life Sucks, his homage to the classic Russian work, riffs on its characters and themes while bringing them decidedly, and sometimes irreverently, onto the modern stage. Forward Theater’s excellent production of Life Sucks, running in the Playhouse at Overture Center through April 14, is a funny, contemplative, tragic, ridiculous and insightful take on the sad-sack antihero Uncle Vanya (William Bolz) and his loosely related family group, most of whom live on the edge of despair.

What if our first encounter with extra-terrestrial intelligent life doesn’t go at all like we’ve imagined? Instead of E.T., or Jabba the Hutt, or Alf, what if evidence that we’re not alone in the universe came in the form of a hologram named Althea (Rachael Zientek), a somewhat obnoxious teenage girl who’s obesessed with her hair and nails? Sure, she knows everything that can possibly be known in universe and she’s here to recruit future rock star scientists who will contribute to a vault of itnergalactic knowlege known as the “library of heaven,” but can you really take an alien seriously when she’s wearing in a super frilly summer dress, a pink dotted jean jacket and OMG, the absolute cutest pair of sandals that totally bring that outfit together?

Overture shelves panel to discuss racial stereotypes in Miss Saigon

“This is not how I thought today was going to go,” said Timothy Yu at the “teach-in” he helped organize on the sidewalk outside Overture Center on March 27. With the poster for the blockbuster musical Miss Saigon in the background, Yu, a UW-Madison professor of English and Asian American Studies, looked slightly chagrined as he surveyed the crowd that was gathering to hear concerns about Asian representation in the touring show, which is scheduled for eight performances, April 2-7 in Overture Hall. “As of yesterday morning I thought this was going to be a sleepy little panel,” he said, originally predicting that 15 or 20 people would be in attendance. Instead, after officials at Overture Center abruptly cancelled the joint panel discussion just hours before it was scheduled, the group of interested onlookers swelled, taking over the corner of State and North Dayton Streets.