By ANNE SIEGEL SPRING GREEN, Wis. – There’s no better time for out-of-state visitors to head towards Wisconsin than right now. Some people might stay at campgrounds, others may find a secret fishing spot, and some will be searching for the latest antique finds. Avid theatergoers, however, know that satisfaction awaits in the verdant landscape […]
By LOU HARRY There are expectations that come when a play explicitly centers on death – particularly a play with a doom-and-gloom title such as the one attached to Noah Diaz’s play You Will Get Sick, that played until recently in an extended run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The surprisingly funny play circumnavigates most […]
By ROY BERKO Like the old tale, my lord: “it is not so, nor `t was not so; but, indeed, God forbid it should be so.” The intimate Beck’s Studio Theatre is a perfect venue for meeting and greeting The Robber Bridegroom a bluegrass, farcical musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and […]
By LOU HARRY I caught the first performance of The Prom, produced by Summer Stock Stage, a unique company that fuses the talents of established performers with early career actors. It’s now a resident company of the Butler Arts & Events Center, with four productions this season at the Schrott Center. This was my fourth […]
By LOU HARRY I caught the opening night of Terry Guest’s play Oak at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center, the second of its three rolling world premiere productions. Some thoughts: – Oak concerns a playfully named family that consists of young mother Peaches (Psywrn Simone), her restless teen Pickle (Jadah Rowarn), younger son Big Man […]
By ROY BERKO Hispanic theatre is noted for its’ fictional-based literature that normally has six elements: character, plot, point of view, setting, style and theme. These are often encased in a melodramatic storyline with major family dysfunction. José Cruz González’s Under a Baseball Sky, now in production at Beck Center for the Arts, well fits […]
By ROY BERKO A juke box musical consists of pre-existing songs which are melded into a script to tell a story. The songs, in contrast to lyrics and music, which are specifically integrated into a traditional musical’s story, don’t always smoothly transition into the juke box tale. The songs can be by one specific artist or […]
By ANNE SIEGEL, Exclusive to Theatrecriticism.com MILWAUKEE – Okay, we’re not Iowa. But when the Broadway national tour of Shucked opened this week in Madison, WI – the Wisconsin state capitol – it attracted more theatergoers than the number of deer grazing in an acre of corn. When Shucked ended its respectable Broadway run in […]
By LOU HARRY Craig Lucas’ play Prelude to a Kiss reached Broadway in 1988, the same year that “Big,” “Vice Versa,” and “18 Again” were hitting movie theaters. Yes, all were body-switching stories, but Prelude was something different. Yes, it involved people’s personas suddenly inhabiting the bodies of others, but much of its focus was […]
By ROY BERKO “Neither Ruby Dee or Ossie Davis ever appeared in a Karamu House stage production but both had significant presence and impact in the organization and in the lives of Karamu artists. They often visited for speaking engagements, to instruct master classes, and to support Karamu’s mission.” The duo met at Karamu. Dee’s […]