In the era somewhere between the sexual revolution and the popular realization that indiscriminate sex can kill, a young David Mamet wrote a play about the sex lives of young, urban Midwesterners. Some 30 years later, the once controversial Sexual Perversity in Chicago is being staged at the Alchemist Theatre on South Kinnickinnic Avenue...

Last summer featured two major productions of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream staged in Wisconsin, each taking place in a remote corner of the state. First up was American Players Theatre with a cleverly crafted, contemporary outdoor production in Spring Green, complete with a beautiful set by an award-winning scenic designer from Chicago. Later in the season, Door Shakespeare staged a much more intimate...

Every June, the local theater scene switches gears from its regular schedule to the strange haze of the summer season. Standard shows vanish from Milwaukee stages, making way for touring productions and a mishmash of edgier, less tested endeavors. Leading the way into summer this year is a touring production of one of the most commercially successful musicals of all time. The current revival of Marvin Hamlisch's...

Carte Blanche Studios' staging of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret has been extended through the end of August. With the elaborate set for that show still in place, an independent group of actors performed a brand-new drama also set in the 1930s for two performances only this past weekend...

When Quasi-Productions announced it would be picking up the final part of the Henriad after the passing of Milwaukee Shakespeare, it was unclear exactly how Henry V would come together. Under the direction of Todd Denning, Quasi has assembled a cast that is an interesting mix of Milwaukee Shakespeare Equity actors, other professionals and Marquette University theater students. The finer points...

As the curtain falls on the standard theater season, Spring Green's American Players Theatre kicks off the summer season with a preview performance of The Comedy of Errors on Saturday, June 6. One of Shakespeare's lighter comedies, The Comedy of Errors could all too easily be done with a light shrug and the right comedic posture, but director Bill Brown isn't allowing that to happen. Brown opened the initia...

When Milwaukee Shakespeare closed its doors for good this past season, it left Milwaukee audiences one show shy of a complete Henriad. The theater outfit had been staging one part of Shakespeare's lengthy tetralogy each year for the past three years, but the company folded before it could stage the final part in the series, Henry V. Thanks to the efforts of other theaters in Wisconsin, audiences will have...

Off the Wall Theatre opted for a casual, lounge atmosphere for its spring fund-raising production of Broadway Gold. The show had all of the staging, costuming and choreography one might expect from a full production, but the cast kept things from getting too formal-a welcome relief at the end of a standard theater season...

Off the Wall Theatre opted for a casual, lounge atmosphere for its spring fund-raising production of Broadway Gold. The show had all of the staging, costuming and choreography one might expect from a full production, but the cast kept things from getting too formal-a welcome relief at the end of a standard theater season...

The Skylight closes its 49th season with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's swashbuckling musical comedy The Pirates of Penzance. This lighthearted show is one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular, having been performed on stages across the country almost continuously...

The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (703 S. Second St.) doubles quite nicely as the living room of a posh New York City apartment in RSVP's production of Regrets Only. The illusion isn't perfect, but the feel is distinct enough to make it a more intimate staging than a traditional theater would offer. Regrets Only, a comedy written by Paul Rudnick...

C.S. Lewis is best known for creating the fantasy world of Narnia. However, he also wrote another fantasy of sorts, The Great Divorce, which tells of a man's dream journey between Heaven and Hell (known as "the gray town"), as he observes his fellow travelers grappling with their faith-or lack thereof....

As the Republican Party tries to redefine itself in light of recent defeats, bans against gay marriage are beginning to look like less and less of an issue. With some states already legalizing gay marriage, an optimist can look to a point in the future when the Republicans' whole "defense of marriage" rhetoric will seem as universally absurd as it already does to a substantial segment of the population. In this respect, it's difficult...

Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre is fearless when it comes to pushing boundaries, thanks in large part to the creative vision of Artistic Director Mark Bucher. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's over the top, but it's always a wild, distinctive ride. Boulevard's season closer, Stations of the Cross, continues to move the company in yet another new direction in this original piece...

According to legend, the first-ever network radio adaptation of the Wizard of Oz was produced in Milwaukee in 1933, roughly six years prior to the release of the classic MGM musical. No recordings exist of this 1933 version, a kids' program sponsored by Jell-O, but the story goes that the WTMJ-produced NBC serial from the Wisconsin Hybrid Theatregolden age of radio was closer to Frank Baum's...

Over the course of two weeks this April, Marquette University presented its free Alternative Theatre Festival. The first week featured productions of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love and David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole. The second week saw a pair of entirely new projects by senior students, including a two-act feature-length dance piece by Amelia Figg-Franzoi and an autobiographical drama written and directed by...

Despite its title, Social Security is not just for the older crowd. But it does share some lessons about how a little nurturing can go a long way toward revitalizing the elderly. The comedy, presented at Sunset Playhouse, takes the pulse of an adult family in chaos. The play is set in the upscale New York apartment of Barbara and David, a middle-aged couple that owns a prosperous art gallery...

It should be pointed out that Ryan Schabach and Georgina McKee seem to be very happy with their love lives. He isn't a cave man, and she isn't a crazy woman he met on a blind date. He isn't dating outside his species, and she isn't trying to get him into bed by talking about junk food. Indeed, Schabach and McKee aren't even romantically involved. They are, however, both actors who will be all of the above...

"It's all the same. Nothing has changed," says Madame Ranyevskaya, lost in the past as she gazes upon her beloved cherry orchard in the Russian countryside. But to the contrary,everything has changed. She and the other characters that populate Anton's Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard refuse to accept the changing world around them as class structures redefine themselves amid growing political and financial instability. Sound familiar?

A comical group of dimwitted pirates takes a young boy named Jeremy on the ride of his life in How I Became a Pirate, a musical staged by First Stage Children's Theater. After hoisting the Jolly Roger, the pirates display their own jolly talents, which include singing, dancing and playing an impressive variety of musical instruments. The show goes full-throttle as the pirates teach Jeremy the basics of pirate life...

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's final show of the season is a wistful comedy about fame, success, acceptance and family. Brooklyn Boy begins with a traditional comic conversation between an ailing father and his son, a successful author named Eric Weiss. Robert Spencer plays the aging Brooklyn, N.Y., native and Jim DeVita is the son who wants to make him proud. The actors deliver the poetic simplicity of the dialogue in such...

According to a 2005 estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 2.2 million waiters and waitresses are currently working in the United States. Given the profession's high turnover rate, it's fair to say that a sizable number of Americans have waited tables over the years. With its universal struggles, it's a job that just about everyone can relate to-and now it's getting the holy treatment...

The forced perspective on Debra Booth's set subtly tilts to one side. It's a stylized look of a small shack in the Mississippi Delta where The Rep stages Stephen Jeffreys' drama I Just Stopped By to See the Man. Much like how the skew of the set isn't readily apparent until you examine it closely, the brilliance of the script doesn't sink in until you think about it...

It's wonderful to see veteran theater companies weathering our current economic woes, but this success is only part of the bigger picture for Milwaukee's theater scene. The prosperity of smaller, independent companies is absolutely essential for theater in Milwaukee to thrive. Without a board of directors or numerous other concerns facing established theater companies, independent productions can take chances...

It's safe to assume that the light shining on Angela Iannone on the stage of the Off-Broadway Theatre during The Pavilion is traveling close to 300 million meters per second, same as anywhere else in space. If the light hit the stage any faster, it'd be moving backward in time, which is exactly where the play is set-roughly nine years ago, during a high-school class' 20-year reunion. It's the story between a man (a witty Mark Ulrich) and...