James Kaplan News

With only a few performances remaining of Northern Sky Theater's (NST) 2015 season, their fall selection Lumberjacks in Love draws to a close. Douglas Mancheski retires the Dirty Bob shanty lumberjack he has played on and off since meeting Fred Alley in 1997. An event when Alley first discovered the actor and asked Mancheski to collaborate on the 'Little Dress' song that was immediately added to the popular NST musical. The solo song and dance continually brings smiles to audiences when Mancheski twirls in a ruffled white skirt on stage. Although Mancheski's burly lumberjack days are numbered this year, until NST's next production, he will still be a shanty boy through the holidays in Milwaukee.

Nineteen years have passed since Fish Creek's Northern Sky Theater (NST and formerly AFT) premiered Lumberjacks in Love. As part of the company's 25 anniversary season, this box office hit returns for the fall season at the Door Community Auditorium. And after almost two decades, these burly Hayward, Wisconsin boys celebrate this ode to romance in the deep woods where Kathleen Rock's beautiful stage design adds an ethereal three-dimesnional backdrop to the indoor setting.

Tribute shows to iconic entertainers celebrating a centennial birthday in 2015 seem to be all the rage this year. But nobody has been celebrated more in cabaret variety shows than Frank Sinatra—and rightly so. Wall Street Journal entertainment columnist Will Friedwald, also a producer and author who wrote the 1997 book Sinatra! The Song Is You—A Singer's Art, this past Saturday presented the biggest (and longest) tribute to “Ol' Blue Eyes” so far this year with Sinatra-Thon at The Cutting Room (co-curated with performer Cary Hoffman), a potpourri of events running from 10 am to an after-midnight jam, and which included varied live entertainment, rare film clips, and panel discussions.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater announces directors, creative teams, and initial casting for 2015/16, a season featuring a Tony Award-winning musical, a play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Milwaukee playwright Ayad Akthar, and three world premieres.

Artistic Director Mark Clements announced Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 2015/16 Season last night to an enthusiastic group of Rep Subscribers and Donors.

Artistic Director Mark Clements announced Milwaukee Repertory Theater's 2015/16 Season this evening to an enthusiastic group of Rep Subscribers and Donors.

American Folklore Theatre (AFT) moves indoors to Fish Creek's Door Community Auditorium when producing the 2014's fall season, The Bachelors. Another inspired musical romp by the writing team of the late AFT co-founder Fred Alley (book and lyrics) and James Kaplan (composer), the plot expounds on how "true love" rarely dies, merely becomes reincarnated over 100 years.

After attending American Folklore Theater's Packer Fans From Outer Space twice in one week, the smiles and laughter can still be remembered, a Door County memory to revisit regularly, even when the company's name changes next year to Northern Sky Theater. Lee Becker, Frederick Heide and James Kaplan collaborated as composers, lyricists, and writers of professional theater that brings to the Peninsula Park Stage this cadre of unforgettable characters in an unimaginable story. A story set in 1953 where one Juddville apple farmer, Harvey Keister, saves the intergalactic Packers from extinction by the intergalactic Bears, and in the battle, saves the earthly Green Bay Packers from their demise as Wisconsin's football team.

The Aurora Fox welcomes Marvin and Lloyd back for a limited engagement of GUYS ON ICE - The World's Greatest Ice Fishing Musical Comedy: June 13 and 14 at 7:30pm.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's our annual Regional Summer Musical Theater Guide, featuring the best summer theaters in Illinois, Wisconsin, western Michigan and northern Indiana, plus the Muny in St. Louis! Timber Lake, American Folklore, Mason Street, Wagon Wheel, Little Theatre On The Square and more!

Penobscot Theatre Company, the nation's most Northeastern year-round, professional theatre, proudly announces its 41st Season. The company, which owns and operates the historic Bangor Opera House, will release subscriptions to the general public on May 2.

“Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction” will feature mid-20th century artists who were reinventing portraiture at a time when most agreed that figuration was dead as a progressive art form.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. It's the 2013 Regional Summer Musical Theater Guide! Listings for summer theaters in Illinois, Wisconsin, Western Michigan and Northern Indiana, plus The Muny in St. Louis. If you can drive there, there's theater there! But come to our Tony Awards Viewing Party first! Sunday night, June 9th at The Call in Andersonville....

The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts previously announced that it would produce Packer Fans from Outer Space this summer, beginning tonight, June 7 through July 22, in Vogel Hall as part of its Off Broadway Series. It is the world's very first (and only) Science Fiction Football Musical Comedy.

The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts today announced that it will produce Packer Fans from Outer Space this summer as part of its Off Broadway Series.