NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN to Begin Performances at Milwaukee Rep This Month

The final production of Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 70th Anniversary Season is Nina Simone: Four Women, running April 16 – May 12, 2024, in the Quadracci Powerhouse. Written by Christina Ham and directed by Milwaukee native Malkia Stampley, Nina Simone: Four Women is a play with music.

The creator of some of our nation’s most powerful Civil Rights anthems, Nina Simone shook the world with her music. After the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Simone's tribute song "Four Women" transformed her from gifted pianist to trailblazing activist, charting a new course as an agent of change and healing. Nina Simone: Four Women is a play with music that shines a light on how she found her true calling and gave voice to a movement through impactful and inspirational songs like “Everything Must Change," "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" and “His Eye is on the Sparrow."

Nina Simone: Four Women will be the last play to be performed on the Quadracci Powerhouse stage before Milwaukee Rep breaks ground on the new Associated Bank Theater Center. To honor the historic moment, playwright Christina Ham will attend opening night to celebrate the bright future of the American theater. Her play was programmed as the 2023/24 Season finale because it speaks to the present moment and honors the past, while broadening the horizons of Milwaukee’s richly diverse community.

Nina Simone: Four Women cast features Alexis J Roston (First Lady of Song, Milwaukee Rep) as Nina Simone, Matthew Harris (Dreamgirls, New Theatre) as Sam, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers (Spitfire Grill, American Blues Theater) as Sarah, Brittney Mack (SIX, Original Broadway Cast) as Sweet Thing, and Milwaukee native Toni Martin, who first performed at Milwaukee Rep as a child in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone in the 1993/94 Season followed by joining the theater as an Emerging Professional Resident in 2012, as Sephronia.

Nina Simone: Four Women is directed and co-music directed by Malkia Stampley (Nunsense, Milwaukee Rep) with co-music direction and arrangements by Pamela Baskin-Watson, set design by Shaun L. Motley (Fences, American Players Theatre), costume design by Yvonne L. Miranda (Seven Guitars, Milwaukee Rep), lighting design by Jason Lynch (Choir Boy, Steppenwolf Theatre), sound design by Sartje Pickett(Love’s Labour’s Lost, American Players Theatre), wig design by David Zimmerman, choreography by Marc Wayne, with casting by Jonathan Hetler, Kansas City Casting by Andi Meyer and stage managed by Jordan-Canon Kruis. 

Nina Simone: Four Women is presented by Ellen and Joe Checota with corporate sponsor We Energies Foundation, Executive ProducersSusan and Thomas Quadracci, Judy Van Till and Associate Producers Rania and Pat Dempsey. It is a co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre. 

Nina Simone: Four Women tickets are available for purchase online at www.MilwaukeeRep.com, by calling the Ticket Office at 414-224-9490 or in-person at 108 E. Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee. 

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