THE LISBON TRAVIATA Will Have Benefit Reading in June
The performance will be held June 2, 2026.
Brief Cameo Productions will kick off Pride Month with a celebration of the work and legacy of LGBTQ+ trailblazer, playwright Terrane McNally. For one night only - June 2, 2026 at 7pm - the company will present a reading of McNally's The Lisbon Traviata, featuring a cast of BCP favorites.
The Lisbon Traviata centers on a revealing conversation between Stephen (Jacob Iglitzin, BCP's Master Class and The Drowsy Chaperone), a depressed literary editor and opera fanatic, and Mendy (Bryan Quinn, Sunday in the Park with George, and The Drowsy Chaperone), a flamboyant opera queen. The two dish late into the night, distracting Stephen from his failing relationship with hilarious riffs on opera records, Maria Callas, and more. But when Stephen returns home to confront his boyfriend Mike (Nathan Szymanski, Ragtime and Side Show) and his boyfriend's new - and considerably younger - lover Paul (Galen Donovan, The Drowsy Chaperone and Side Show), a tragedy begins to unfold on the scale of the grand opera he loves so much.
The Lisbon Traviata explores themes of obsession and jealousy, paralleling the very same grand passions of Verdi's La Traviata itself. This reading is directed by BCP Associate Producer Alan Piotrowicz, with stage directions read by Sydney Yargeau (Side Show).
"The Lisbon Traviata is a perfect script for Brief Cameo to do for a fundraising event," said Piotrowicz. "Our audiences loved our staged reading of McNally's Master Class in 2024 - also a play centering the figure of Maria Callas - and were equally delighted by Bryan Quinn's turn as the record-obsessed Man in Chair in last year's The Drowsy Chaperone. This play gives us a chance to combine the two." Quinn previously portrayed Mendy in a 2022 Milwaukee production of the play (also directed by Piotrowicz).
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