Kelsey Lawler - Page 8

The Milwaukee Rep boasts the second-longest-running professional production of the Charles Dickens classic in the country, and given the magnificent caliber of its set and costume design, stage direction, original score, veteran actors, and touch of Panto-style (interactive) theater, this is one 'Carol' that will undoubtedly continue to be sung for decades to come.

At the Next Act Theatre, there's something subtle, raw, and real now on stage. These are the kind of fine performances that stick with you, and if you're an avid theatergoer, that's one of the best gifts you could receive this season.

Waiting for the show to begin, dozens of families trickled into the Skylight's Cabot Theatre, toting little girls in their Sunday best. Eyes gleaming, some of them were lucky enough to snag a booster seat, while others hung over the orchestra railing to sneak a peek at the conductor during Annie's overture. I remember being that little girl myself. Cue the fond nostalgia.

Suspense, plot twists, believability, a dash of humor, a satisfying finale that's what successful murder-mysteries are made of. When a play possesses all of these hallmarks and even boasts the company of everyone's favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, a surefire hit seems elementary, my dear Watson.

Confession: They had to resuscitate me before I could write this post because I had died from laughter. Murder for Two, running now through January 14th, is a mix of music, murder, and mayhem - or as Joe Kinosian, the show's co-author and Milwaukee High School of the Arts alumnus, calls it: 'a love letter to musical theater, screwball comedy, and partnership.'

As a sometimes-self-identifying Millennial, it may come as little surprise that opera is relatively new territory for me. I've grown up as a lover of musical theater, but classic opera is a whole other ball o' wax. Mainstream media doesn't exactly drop Verdi, Mozart, Leh r, or even Gilbert & Sullivan into one's lap. I've had to seek out the experience of opera, going into it knowing that there's a risk involved. A risk of disappointment and of the experience affirming what current trends seem to have decided for me: that opera's rightful place is in the past.

With Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky, the Next Act Theatre invites us, for a couple of hours, to orient ourselves in a place and time before the 1990 Hubble telescope, before the 1969 moon landing, before the first rocket launch in 1926, and before Edwin Hubble proved the vastness of galaxies far beyond our own in 1923. It's here that we meet mathematician and aspiring astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, played by the always-brilliant Deb Staples.

Though GUYS & DOLLS might not offer deep self reflection, it continues to be a staple of the American musical tradition for accomplishing the one thing musical theater set out to offer in the first place: An escape. A sense of sheer joy. A break from the monotony of reality and our own personal problems. A chance to be part of a fantasy world of song and dance for a few hours where the laughs are rehearsed and the guy gets the girl and leave with a smile.

It's said that lovers of good music had to stuff their handkerchiefs in their mouths to keep from bursting out laughing at the operatic recitals of eccentric Manhattan socialite, Florence Foster Jenkins. Madame Flo once declared, 'People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing.' She wasn't wrong people did say she couldn't sing, but sing she did.