MADISON THEATER REVIEWS

Opening to the punk sound of The Flying Lizards 'Money, That's What I Want' Forward Theater begins its biennial monologue festival....

Did you know that there was an African Theater Company in 1821? We learn during American Players Theater production of 'THE AFRICAN THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III, that 6 years before New York abolished slavery and 20 years before the beginning of the Civil War, this company existed....

Willy Loman (Wonderfully portrayed by Brian Mani) is a phony, a faker. He may very well be aware of this fact, and yet...he may not. Who among us has not a time or two filled in the blank spaces of our memory?...

Disney's The Lion King has dominated the stage for almost 20 years and audiences still flock to the theatre whenever the show migrates into a new city -- or even an old city as the show makes its return to Overture Center....

Frank's loved ones don't know where he is, but Frank's destination wasn't exactly a "where". It was the aversion of the "were". Frank thinks he is a werecoyote -- yes, you read that correctly. Not a werewolf -- a werecoyote....

If baseball is America's pastime, then gossip has to be a close second. That's precisely what playwright (and director) Doug Reed's Sweet William hits right on the head in his play filled with the sport and the sport of rumor. Gossip as juicy as a ballpark frank is what drives Broom Street Theatre's...

George Bernard Shaw must have been a talker. A man of many talents, Shaw's plays are known for driving home his opinions on the world around him and doing so at length -- hence why he's said to have perfected the concept of 'discussion' plays. Strollers Theatre took the challenging playwright to tas...

On a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Fireside Theatre, just hours before the new work week was set to begin, adults in the audience for Peter Pan smiled along to the repeated utterance of "I won't grow up." Indeed, in a world like ours who would want to abandon their childish dreams?...

Stamp collecting isn't considered a dangerous hobby.Unless, of course, you're a young woman named Jackie who finds herself in a tight spot when a family stamp collection becomes the target of a pointed buyer....

Motown the Musical rocked into Overture Center in Madison on Tuesday night with an abundance of talent and energy delivering the memorable Hitsville, USA classics. This Berry Gordy biopic covers his life as a young boy striving for more, to a man borrowing money from his family to build a recording ...

Monster Boogie, curated and directed by Matsushita, is a culmination of audio recordings, righteous dance moves, and the sharp wit of Jessica Jane Witham as the narrator....

Something wonderfully odd is going on over at that Bartell place. The Rocky Horror Show, in all of its whacky glory, is electrifying audiences - even though ritual participation is not included. ...

Psycho Beach Party is a lot like United States of Tara - if Tara included beach babes, surfing, and nods to Joan Crawford. In StageQ's latest production, written by Charles Busch, reality is turned on its head for a group of fun-loving beach bums in a happy-go-lucky 1960's throwback....

When Jean Poiret's French play of the same name came out in 1973, and when Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein premiered their Tony Award winning musical in 1983, society was fundamentally different....

KRASS presents a show about three sisters and their struggle to come back together to honor their mother's final wishes....

The musical warhorse penned by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II - the last musical written by the duo -- will turn 57 this year, but thanks to invigorated direction by Jack O'Brien, the musical hasn't aged a day....

Belle, in her bookish ways and reserved manner, was always a stand out princess of Disney's canon. Disinterested in being one of the aptly named "Silly Girls" who spend their idle time fawning over local hunk Gaston, she is a much different kind of Disney heroine....

At a traditional Catholic baptism, the child is wrapped in a white garment as a symbol of their purity in the eyes of God. As the child grows older, the garment becomes metaphorically stained by acts of sin, but the waters of baptism from infancy are said to wash those stains away. So, when the chil...

Scrooge, the elves, Santa, and the mistletoe have been done. Christmas shows have been done. Some would argue they've been done to death. But, there is a type of yuletide entertainment that we are sorely missing on our side of the pond - the British panto....

With just a week of preparation time - just 'winging it' is a mantra for the members of the Are We Delicious family. This holiday season they're presenting a series of eight holiday shorts to lighten and enlighten the audiences at Broom Street Theater....

“How do I live? I live!” Exclaimed Mackenzie Whitney as Rodolfo in Madison Opera's fifth incarnation of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohéme. Among the stunning lyrics speaking of love, poverty, and poetry, it was this simple exclamation that stood out on its own....

Christmas in my childhood home involved several traditions: adorning the tree with my mother's crystal ornaments, meticulously setting up the Christmas town figurines, and watching Frank Capra's 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life....

In the early 20th century, women were barred from many fields of study - even pondering the wonders of the night sky. But that did not stop Leavitt from making discoveries that lead to establishing a measurement standard for astronomers all over the world. She left behind the familiar world of her f...

Will you look back on your life fondly or regretfully? For Stoogie Lucotch or "Stuart Lucas" it's a dilemma for the ages. Combining personal reflections with Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Ray Olderman's Big Expectations (first performed in 1983) at Broom Street Theater examines the corr...

This isn't Madison's first Wicked rodeo. The show has come to town three times since 2010, yet, Overture Hall was still filled to the brim with eager audience members last night. Why? Because Wicked is visually spectacular, musically varied, and has relevant lessons to be learned....