Molly Rhode News

A 25th Anniversary landmark deserves a special celebration. The newly christened Northern Sky Theater with a permanent home in Door County's Peninsula State Park presented the World Premiere of When Butter Churns to Gold  to introduce their 2015 summe season.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) announces its 41st season, with the theme of 'Looking for Love (in all the wrong places).' The 2015-2016 Season will feature five exciting productions performed at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

Rock out with First Stage this March when BIG NATE: THE MUSICAL blasts through the Todd Wehr Theater. A dynamic young performer cast recreates Lincoln Peirce's popular cartoon characters set in Kristen Ellhert's magical stage design where lights flash, videos display Nate's drawings and sets swing from classroom to home in mere seconds.

Oh, the glories of being 11 and going to middle school! An age and time between childhood and young adulthood where the classroom represents an entire, eternal lifetime in one day. Cartoonist Lincoln Peirce invented a comic strip in 1991 around the adventures of 11-year-old Nate Wright, his father, family and friends that soared to popularity over the last 20 years. First Stage brings these comic book characters to Milwaukee's Todd Wehr Theatre when BIG NATE: THE MUSICAL opens on February 27.

It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Milwaukee, WI Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!

Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Milwaukee, WI Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Milwaukee, WI Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Milwaukee, WI Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 4th.

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Milwaukee, WI Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 25th.

Tyne Daly devotees united in Milwaukee on Wednesday, November 12 when the incomparable and irrepressible actress performed her 90 minute show titled Tyne Daly Does Anything She Wants. Close ties to the Midwestern city inspired the multiple Emmy and Tony Award winning actress to lend her incredible talent for funding Renaissance Theaterworks, a company supporting women's voices in every area of the theater for more than 20 years.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) celebrates the holiday season with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED]. Ray Jivoff directs this literary romp featuring Chris Klopatek, Rick Pendzich, Chase Stoeger and Marcus Truschinski. The cast of MCT favorites are also all alumni of the UW-Whitewater theatre program. Performances are tonight, November 19 - December 14, 2014 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) celebrates the holiday season with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED]. Ray Jivoff directs this literary romp featuring Chris Klopatek, Rick Pendzich, Chase Stoeger and Marcus Truschinski. The cast of MCT favorites are also all alumni of the UW-Whitewater theatre program. Performances are November 19 - December 14, 2014 at the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

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.

Fantastique! Magnifique! Milwaukee's First Stage garnered these praises from the audience after their World Premiere musical Anatole opened in the Todd Wehr Theater last weekend. Set in Paris, the City of Light, the classic children's stories written by Eve Titus with illustrations by Paul Galdone illuminate the themes of friendship, honor and integrity so one can be the person, or in this instance, the heroic mouse one was meant to be.

Milwaukee's First Stage produces another world premiere musical for young audiences with an adaptation from a classic children's book: Anatole. The Caldecott Medal winning picture authored by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone has captured the hearts of children for more than 50 years. First Stage transforms the story of the honorable French mouse who overcomes obstacles to become a first class cheese connoisseur while he sings and dances his way through 12 original songs.

Born in 1912, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was often better known as the hobo poet from Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. The musician named after an American president protested against capitalism, consumerism and commercialism, which portrays a witty irony in all that he did and the music he based his songwriting on. With this as the background, The Rep's Stackner Cabaret presents the captivating revue Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, a traveling show first produced at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe by the Melting Pot Theatre.

In a reprise of a beloved holiday classic children's story, First Stage features The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on the Todd Wehr Stage at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts to celebrate December. In this play for anyone who ever felt unloved, the horrible Herdman family returns with Imogene, Ralph, Ollie, Claude, Leroy and tiny Gladys Herdman. to enliven the First Stage production with their unconventioanl personalities. The charming retelling of the ancient Christmas story reminds audiences the wildest hearts can be reclaimed through the power of patience and understanding.

As 2013 draws to a close, is there a world the audience longs to see? A future world where dignity, harmony, freedom, love and peace can exist? Part of this future can be discovered when the Skylight Music Theatre presents their production of Les Miserables that runs through December 29 in the Cabot Theatre at Milwaukee's Broadway Theatre Center.