Post Script

When you walk into Calvary Presbyterian Church for Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s latest musical event, “Utterance,” you feel immediately like you are coming into a sacred space. Yes, the spires of the big red church have been gracing Milwaukee’s downtown for almost 150 years and the building’s interior features breathtaking leaded glass windows, intricately carved buttresses of dark wood, and a barely visible labyrinth painted on the floor, modeled after 12th-century example in a French cathedral. But more than that, you feel like you’ve arrived for a holy rite — a gorgeous ceremony that is part ancient, part modern, part religious and part mystical. 

“Our goal is not perfection. It’s creativity.”

After seven years and 30 productions, Are We Delicious? founder and performer Tony Trout has his schtick down pat. With the “aw shucks” warmth of a small-town mayor, he introduces each show with an explanation of his theater company’s unique process, as he did last weekend for his crew’s current production, Patchwork Puppets, Parading on Mercury. 

Presented in collaboration with Mercury Players and running through Nov. 2 in the Evjue space at the Bartell Theatre, the show was created by eight theater artists who worked together for a scant seven days to bring a show to life, from page to stage. To shake things up, each production is built around a specific theme. In the past, the company has written episodic sketch comedies and dramas in the genres of murder mystery, political satire, fairy tales, musicals and even horror stories. This time around, the agile group of writers and actors was given an exceptional group of props to work with: a set of colorful, beautifully constructed puppets created by local designer Laurie Everitt. 

Earlier this summer, American Players Theatre’s audiences were stunned when Henrik Ibsen’s heroine, Nora Helmer (Kelsey Brennan) walked out of her house, leaving her husband Torvald (Nate Burger) and their three children behind. Now audiences have the opportunity to see what happened next, in the company’s astounding production of A Doll’s House, Part 2, by Lucas Hnath.

It turns out that in addition to shocking 19th century audiences, creating a completely new kind of female character and pioneering theatrical realism, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House also has one of the best cliffhangers in dramatic literature. Answering some of the story’s lingering questions, Hnath has created an intriguing, emotionally complex and compassionate conclusion. It stays true to the characters Ibsen created, while inserting modern language and contemporary discussions about love, marriage, morality and how difficult it is to be fully honest with another human being.

It’s finally here! The long anticipated tour of the phenomenon that is Hamilton opened at the Marcus Center this week. Settling into Milwaukee for an extended run, the show continues — eight shows per week, through November 17 — with all of the energy, electricity and artistry that became the hallmark of the original production and made it an international sensation.

The tight, extremely talented ensemble of 35 that makes up the “Phillip” cast performs all of the original, demanding choreography that dazzled audiences on Broadway in 2015, while navigating two rotating “revolves” built into the stage floor. A simple set of exposed brick, rough-hewn beams, staircases and a few dark wood desks and chairs, easily makes the trip from New York to fill the Uihlein Hall stage, leaving plenty of room for the now iconic gowns and uniforms, and vocal pyrotechnics showcased on the Grammy-winning cast album.

The stage really seems to come alive, bursting with vibrant color and the wings of hundreds of butterflies in First Stage’s “On the Wings of a Mariposa,” the company’s opening production for the 2019-2020 season. Based on the book “Ghost Wings” by Milwaukee author Barbara Joosse and adapted for the stage by Alvaro Saar Rios, it is a story of beauty and transformation, of knowledge passed down through generations, and of remembrance of family members who have passed on. Directed with obvious affection by Karen Estrada, the bilingual play with music mixes universal themes of transition and loss with specific Mexican traditions around La Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) for a unique look at the way different cultures deal with change.

When you get call from the Normandy Society for International Orphans, do not give the woman on the phone your birth date and credit card number. She is not French. She is not raising funds to buy hats for motherless children in Nigeria. She is a fifty-something housewife named Sharon, sitting in her kitchen in Iowa City trying to scam you. And really, she doesn’t want your money. She wants to say “yes” to things instead of being told “no.” She wants to take risks. To feel the rush of doing something wrong and getting away with it. She wants to be a literal partner-in-crime with her new friend Robyn, a black, vegan lesbian from the Bronx who fascinates and shocks her.

In many ways, Held: A Musical Fantasy has come full circle. Produced by Music Theatre of Madison and on stage now at The Threshold for a short run — through Oct. 19 — the three-person musical was written and composed by Madison musicians and theater-makers Kelly Maxwell and Meghan Rose. Created and premiered here, Held began its life as a ten-minute musical, a creative response to a challenge issued by the one week, page-to-stage company Are We Delicious? in 2014. From there the show was expanded to a full length evening and performed at Broom Street Theater in 2015 to enthusiastic audiences. Since then, it has had two successful forays on New York stages. Now it’s back home in Madison for an elegant production that has a new dance component added to its whimsical storytelling, created in collaboration with X-Tension Dance Company. 

Matilda is a smart little girl. Very, very smart. She reads Dostoyevsky in the original Russian, which she taught herself from a book. Her favorite place in the world is the library, where she keeps the librarian spellbound with her stories. And her classmates sometimes wonder if there are so many facts in her brain, that knowledge will come leaking out of her ears. 

Matilda is also the titular character in Children’s Theater of Madison’s season opener, the breathtaking musical version of the Roald Dahl book, which runs in the Playhouse through Oct. 27. This stunning show soars — musically, dramatically and visually — thanks to a stellar cast, gorgeous design and the brilliant direction of Brian Cowing.

“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.”

This famous quote, which has been attributed to a bunch of different writers, including Hemingway, is the best summation I’ve ever found for the writing process. And I’m sure all of the characters in Theresa Rebeck’s play Seminar would agree. In the Madison Theatre Guild’s production, which runs through Oct. 19, a quartet of struggling scribes have signed up for a private writing tutorial with a notoriously mercurial and condescending luminary of the publishing world. The feedback they receive week after week is soul-crushing, but it is also illuminating, ultimately revealing much more about the teacher than the students.

When you go see The Constructivists’ fall production, “The God of Hell,” you’ll have to wind your way down to the basement of the formerly grand Grand Avenue Mall, to their space on the lower level. Following the signage along hidden hallways, you’ll arrive in a pleasant, intimate space complete with a bar and a stage that’s so close, you feel like you’re sitting in someone’s living room. The proximity of the action in this absurd 2004 Sam Shepard play, directed skillfully by Constructivists’ founder and artistic director Jamielyn Gray, makes it that much more frightening.