Stephen Sondheim, the mind behind Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, is unquestionably talented. His work makes it easy for programmers of musical theater. After all, Sondheim sells tickets—and so his work often...

The best children's fare of any kind is a delicate balance. It should be fun and entertaining for kids and those accompanying them, it should be educational without being too obvious and, if it's really good, it should instill a few moral lessons without getting...

Chance, circumstance and more than a bit of genius have made Thornton Wilder's Our Town one of the most influential American plays of all time. Nearly 75 years after its debut, the drama remains as popular as ever...

The Waukesha Civic Theatre has ambitiously set out to recreate the Broadway classic Miss Saigon—scene by scene, song for song. It's no small feat. Miss Saigon is one of Broadway's longest-running musicals ever—and for good reason. The epic Vietnam War...

In Tandem Theatre brilliantly executes Veronica's Position, a comedy about politics and principles set on the precipice of the final decade of the 20th century. The play is set in motion when a drama-queen actress (an Elizabeth Taylor-like character) is due...

Windfall Theatre raised the bar on itself last weekend. And, for the most part, it succeeded. Windfall took on Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins. Just like its title states, Assassins focuses on some of history's most notorious...

As the presidential election picks up speed, In Tandem Theatre closes its season with a comedy set in Washington, D.C. The Rich Orloff comedy Veronica's Position is a contemporary farce involving a famous pair of middle-aged actors who...

From high above the stage, a couple of rows of cymbal-banging monkey toys stand guard over the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre. The stage itself is filled with an eye-popping variety of instruments that make noise when struck. This is the...

Night in and night out, the Improvised Shakespeare Company churns out completely original works. The “Improvised” bit is key. “This is the debut performance—in the history of...

Carte Blanche Studios' recent revival of the campy rock musical Little Shop of Horrors reminds us of just how fun a night at the theater can be, regardless of some of this production's challenges. It's been 30 years since the original off-Broadway production...

Shakespearean wit meets the 1960s in Marquette University Theatre's production of The Comedy of Errors. The clean lines of Adriana Saia's cleverly simple set make Ephesus feel very much like the '60s. In places the set can make the show look more...

A madcap, screwball comedy with Broadway credentials arrives at the Sunset Playhouse in the guise of an opera gone haywire in Lend Me a Tenor. Ken Ludwig's comedy is highlighted by an energetic and engaging cast. The production runs through...

They got married onstage—more than a dozen times in the course of 41 years of studying, living and acting together. There first assignment for an acting class as graduate students at Penn State had them in bed together—and they had just met...

Set in the 1930s, Ken Ludwig's popular farce Lend Me a Tenor feels like it's been around since the '30s. In reality, though, the smash comedy debuted a little more than 25 years ago. Since then, it has become a staple of regional and community theaters...

William Inge's classic Bus Stop is a fun ensemble piece. It's light enough that one doesn't have to over-think it, but also deep enough to offer complexity for those interested in a bit more. The challenge for any production is to juggle the ensemble...

The stage of the Todd Wehr Theater becomes larger than life so as to direct attention to the very small as First Stage presents Diary of a Worm, a Spider and a Fly. Based on the popular children's books by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss, Joan Cushing's musical...

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre continues its commitment to working with area university theater programs as it opens William Inge's Bus Stop in collaboration with UW-Parkside. Bus Stop is a mid-'50s comedy perhaps best known...

The complexities of human interaction are explored with wit and charm in Richard Lyons Conlon's One Time. The production at Next Act Theatre stars Jonathan Gillard Daly and Linda Stephens as two people getting to know each other again after...

The tragedy Othello is the most urgently humanistic of Shakespeare's great plays—more tightly constructed than Hamlet, more carefully motivated than Macbeth, more urgent if less spaciously tragic than King Lear, but with a resistance...

Strange and compelling stories have sprung from the basic setup of two actors and a park bench on a stage. Richard Lyons Conlon takes this premise in an interesting direction in the drama One Time. In a world premiere developed in part...

Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade offers up a clever concept, but it takes true talent to pull it all off. The premise features a 4-year-old girl with an adult imaginary friend who has a long list of unusually adult personality defects. One might not expect this comedy...

Off the Wall Theatre has conjured up a perfect storm of a production with its season finale, Shakespeare's The Tempest. The bard's classic tale of revenge and redemption marks a high point for director Dale Gutzman's company, due in large part...

The story of Shakespeare's Othello has taken many forms over the past 400 years. The Milwaukee Rep tackles the Moor of Venice this month in a decidedly modern production that mixes the ancient text with present-day iconography...

Honour tells an oft-told tale, the subject of countless other plays, TV movies and soap operas: An older man dumps his loyal wife for a younger version. But this story by Joanna Murray-Smith takes on more than a few unexpected twists in the play...

The early-'70s album, children's book and TV special Free to Be… You and Me was an ambitious project. The idea was to promote gender neutrality and individuality in the next generation. Years later, the songs and sketches still resonate. In a show titled...