Post Script

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is back at the Marcus Center this holiday season, along with all of this friends – Santa and Mrs. Claus, the elves who work in the toyshop, Sam the Snowman, the crusty prospector Yukon Cornelius, and even an abominable snow man. On stage in the Todd Wehr Theater, First Stage has remounted their delightful adaptation of the beloved, stop motion animation TV special that has been part of holiday celebrations since it was first broadcast in 1964. The festive musical, featuring 16 young performers, 8 adults and dozens of puppets runs through December 24, under the skillful direction of FSM Artistic Director Jeff Frank, who conceived of the adaptation and helped bring it to life.

How long can you hold your breath in fear. . . in anguish. . . in anticipation of what will happen next?

As I rushed out into the chilly November evening after a performance of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s current play Misery, gasping for air as my clenched body tried to relax and my lungs struggled to fully re-expand, I realized I can hold my breath 100 minutes – exactly the runtime of this show. And probably not a second more.

Playing at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre through December 18, Misery is a small cast, psychological thriller based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Through a series of (mostly) two-person scenes, it takes audiences on a taut, terrifying journey into the twisted psyche of a superfan who has saved the life of a romance author she idolizes – only to keep him captive until he writes the book that she most wants to read. For those who love Stephen King stories any time of year and in any medium, or those who graduated from Disney’s Haunted Mansion long ago, or audiences who want to be confronted with something more frightful than the Ghost of Christmas Future, this is the unorthodox programming choice you were looking for – done extraordinarily well. With a set by Lisa Schlenker that oozes eerieness; lots of thunder claps, creaks and ominous bumps in the night injected by sound designer Josh Schmidt; spell-binding performances from Milwaukee favorites Jonathan Wainwright and Kelly Doherty; and pitch perfect direction by MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton; this production grabs you in a vice-like hold from the first instant, straps you to your seat, and will not let you go until a ghost has the last word.

I was four years old when I saw my first Disney movie in the theater. After a stern talking-to from my mother about how one must be quiet while watching a cartoon on an enormous screen in a darkened movie theater with lots of other people around and how it was very different from watching the black-and-white reruns of the Mickey Mouse Club on our TV at home, we settled into our red upholstered, self-rising seats on an aisle and waited for the movie to begin. Quietly. Much to my mother’s chagrin, there were perhaps two other families in attendance that day at the matinee showing of Disney’s Robin Hood. After being very well behaved for what felt like a very long time, I politely asked if I could dance up and down the aisles during the musical numbers. And with a sigh, she said, “Of course.” And what can I say, except “oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day.” That was my first Disney memory – one of many, many instances that the stories, characters, songs, and artistry of Walt Disney and friends indelibly captured a moment in my childhood. And then in my children’s childhoods.

East coast playwright and performer Sandy Rustin is getting ready for a very exciting weekend. She is returning to her hometown of Chicago to see her massively popular theatrical adaptation of the movie Clue, which has had more than 3,000 productions to date. And a bit further north in Milwaukee, she’s attending the opening night of Skylight Music Theatre’s A Jolly Holiday: Celebrating Disney’s Broadway Hits, a seasonal musical revue that she also penned. It is literally a dream come true for a woman who knew as a young girl that she wanted a career in the theater, as both a writer and a performer, preferably making people laugh.

Postponed by the pandemic for almost two years, the national tour of the award-winning musical Come from Away finally opened at Overture Center this week, to the sounds of a bodhran, a fiddle, an “ugly stick” and a mighty islander “screech.” The exuberant, touching and beautifully executed show continues in Overture Hall through November 20, so audiences have only a few more chances to be personally “Welcomed to the Rock,” at the intersection of indomitable American and Canadian spirit in the aftermath of 9/11.

Remembering that Day

Buried in the horrifying details and images of the day that extremist hijackers crashed their airplanes into New York City’s Twin Towers, there were a few stories of courage and simple kindnesses that helped us all weather the tragedy. They included an obscure, human interest piece about a small town in Canada whose citizens unexpectedly hosted 7,000 air passengers from all over the world, after the US airspace was closed and dozens of planes were forced to land at the nearest airport — an outdated stopover in Gander, Newfoundland.

It was a dark and stormy night on Friday, November 4th when Forward Theater Company opened their fall production, Feeding Beatrice: A Gothic Tale in the Playhouse at Overture Center. Part mystery, part horror story, and part social commentary, the play didn’t need the raging thunderstorms outside to evoke a creepy, something’s-not-quite-right vibe. There is a sense of unease from the start, that eventually climaxes in disturbing reveals of two interrelated stories about trauma – one very disturbing family saga of physical and psychological abuse, and one more subtle, suffocating plotline of racist aggressions that is no less painful and no less damaging. Directed by Forward Theater’s Artistic Director Jennifer Uphoff Gray, the ambitious production continues through November 20.

In the wake of COVID-19, show cancellations due to illness, and lagging ticket sales, the theater world could use some good news. That is one of the primary reasons that a group of theater professionals created a new festival, World Premiere Wisconsin, which will take place across the state March 30 - June 1, 2023. Featuring productions, readings, and workshops of never-before-seen, new plays, WPW is a celebration of contemporary playwriting and a showcase for Wisconsin’s thriving and diverse theater scene.

Conceived in 2019, the festival encourages professional, semi-professional, educational and community theaters to embrace the challenges and of tackling new scripts (most by unknown playwrights) by providing marketing, fundraising, and dramaturgical support to participating companies. So far, more than 50 theaters have officially signed on, providing Wisconsin audiences with a plethora of opportunities to witness plays come to life onstage for the first time.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century it’s estimated that 4.5 million Irish immigrants left their homes on the “emerald isle” and settled in America. They came looking for better jobs, more opportunity, and an escape from the devastating Irish potato famine. Today that means 32 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, and heritage tourism — courting those long-lost sons and daughters of Hibernia to come back to the magical, shamrock-green land of poetry, pubs, céili dancing, and endearing accents — is one of Ireland’s major industries. As a nation we love the fantasy of the “auld sod,” which is used to sell everything from St. Patrick’s Day cards and whiskey, to cereal and soap. In short, keeping “Irish eyes smiling” is big business on both sides of the Atlantic.

This is the starting point for American Players Theatre’s final production of the 2022 season — Stones in His Pockets, by Marie Jones. The poignant play is a complex, artistically challenging, two-man show about an American film company that comes to Ireleand’s County Kerry to make an earnest, charming, completely fictional costume drama called “The Quiet Valley.” While the cameras capitalize on the country’s legendary natural beauty, the movie’s script makes a mockery of Ireland’s history and makes caricatures of its residents, who have been hired as extras to fill in the crowd scenes. Over the course of the shoot, the film’s cast and crew don’t just ignore the modern economic and social problems of the region, they actively make things worse. But layered on top of this plotline is a fascinating study in storytelling — how powerful it is, how dangerous it can be, who drives the narrative, and how necessary it is to separate fact from fantasy.

So. . .What IS a staged reading of an opera?

When writers type their last sentence, they are finished with their novels. When painters put the last dot of color on the canvas, they are finished with their portraits. But when the composers and librettists who create operas put the final flourishes on their book and score, it’s just the beginning. The next step – after the orchestrations and lyrics are committed to paper, but long before opening night – is a staged reading. This is a rudimentary performance so that the composition’s creators can actually hear the entire opera out loud – sung by a full cast and accompanied with at least the basic instrumentation; each voice distinct, each line spoken or sung, and each complicated crescendo lifted up by singers on a stage. If the opera writer and composer are very lucky, there is also an open-minded, supportive audience in the room, who is excited about hearing a brand-new work and willing to respond with questions, recommendations, and honest, real-time reactions.

Renaissance Theaterworks begins its 65th season with a pause. The first moments of the company’s production of The How and the Why, by Sarah Treem, are filled with silence and stillness as one character studies the other, on the brink of a life-changing meeting. Like the researcher she is, Rachel (Elyse Edelman) stops to observe the professor she has come to see, who is so busy flipping through the files and books on her desk she doesn’t hear anyone approach. Rachel takes a minute to study the woman and her office – classic academia dark wood, well furnished, filled with books neatly stacked on their shelves. (Fantastic, realistic set design by Madelyn Yee.) Like the audience, Rachel leans forward, deciding she has to know more.