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Broom Street Theater's McBeth brings Shakespeare's king to the corporate world
on 11/14/09 at 9:21 am | Broom Street Theater brings its 40th anniversary season to an end with an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, which artistic director Callen Harty has twisted and turned into McBeth, an allegory of corporate greed. |
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Taut storytelling in Mercury Players Theatre's smart Vin
on 10/10/09 at 10:42 am | Often when teens are portrayed in film or on stage, the writing can seem stilted and false. This is not the case with the new Mercury Players Theatre production Vin. |
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Marxism for wee folks in Revolt of the Beavers by University Theatre
on 10/03/09 at 10:19 am | What do you get when you take a 1937 Federal Theatre Project production for children about oppressed beavers, then toss in some rubber teeth, galoshes falling from the sky, a tinsel-bedazzled robot, a Black Eyed Peas song and messages of social justice and environmentalism? |
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Four Seasons Theatre presents a good-looking and -sounding Evita
on 08/22/09 at 10:06 am | It's been 30 years since Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical Evita opened on Broadway. In that time, like it or not, the iconic image of Argentine first lady Eva Perón, arms outstretched on the balcony of the Casa Rosada, has permeated our consciousness, along with the accompanying song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." |
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American Players Theatre's Henry V is rousing, well-crafted
on 08/16/09 at 11:27 am | Last summer American Players Theatre presented an adaption of Henry IV parts 1 and 2. This summer the saga continues with the strong production of Henry V that opened Saturday night. |
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Uneven tone mars Broom Street Theater's folk musical Minglewood Blues
on 08/08/09 at 10:36 am | Folk music usually sits well with me. When I read the press release for Broom Street Theater's new show Minglewood Blues, based on the seminal Anthology of American Folk Music, I thought, What a clever concept! |
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Sassy songs, snappy dancing in Dames at Sea by University Theatre
on 07/11/09 at 12:00 pm | Because this show often ends up in high school repertories, I was a little apprehensive about seeing the University Theatre production of Dames at Sea, but happily it turned out to be a fun evening. Dames is a tongue in cheek look at the clichés of lavish musicals and gets its inspiration from The Gold Digger films of the 1930's. |
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Jealousy, harmony in The Winter's Tale at American Players Theatre
on 06/26/09 at 10:17 am | APT artistic director David Frank directs The Winter's Tale, and while this is not my favorite Shakespeare, the production is still strong and compelling. |
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American Players Theatre gets big laughs with The Comedy of Errors
on 06/15/09 at 1:00 pm | The opening night of The Comedy of Errors suggests why American Players Theatre is successful even in this challenging economy. Audience members are willing to drive out to Spring Green and trudge up the hill because they are guaranteed a quality performance and will often be treated to something special. |
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Resonant family dynamic in Mercury Players' production of Well
on 05/16/09 at 12:47 pm | I should confess that I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to see Mercury Players Theatre's production of Well at their MercLab space on Fair Oaks, because the press release description sounded like more than I wanted to deal with on a Friday night. But I'm so glad I accepted the assignment. |
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Quieter moments are better in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Madison Theatre Guild
on 05/11/09 at 2:00 pm | At performances of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by the Madison Theatre Guild, I imagine most audience members are ready to compare the efforts of the lead actors to those in the 1976 Milos Forman film, which garnered Academy Awards for Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. It's a little tough to push those iconic performances aside. |
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Children's Theater of Madison creates lovely moments in Degas' Little Dancer
on 03/23/09 at 1:00 pm | What strikes me about Children's Theater of Madison's production of Degas' Little Dancer, which I saw Saturday afternoon at Overture Center's Playhouse, is exactly what I've come to appreciate about the company's productions in general: the wonderful interplay between the adult and child actors and director Roseann Sheridan's ability to elicit natural performances from her young cast members. |
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The frank, funny Lost Track by Encore Studio
on 02/23/09 at 12:00 pm | At a time when productions and seasons are getting cancelled, I'm glad that Encore Studio for the Performing Arts, Wisconsin's only theater company for individuals with disabilities, is presenting Lost Track at the Bartell Theater. |
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Go ask Alice
on 10/17/08 at 9:00 am | James DeVita, of American Players Theatre fame, has taken Lewis Carroll's already trippy tale Through the Looking Glass and made it even kookier. Children's Theater of Madison's production of DeVita's Looking Glass Land (in Overture Center's Playhouse) is a bit messy, but it is also spirited entertainment, and director Rosann Sheridan has coaxed good performances out of the cast of adults and children. |
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Intricate machinations in The Belle's Stratagem at American Players Theatre
on 08/29/08 at 9:00 am | I took a break from my obsessive Olympics viewing to see American Players Theatre's production of The Belle's Stratagem. First performed in 1780, the play is the best-known work of Hannah Cowley, the successful female playwright. There is probably a performance studies graduate student at NYU who is working on a dissertation about the impact of Cowley and other female dramatists, so I won't go into that. |
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Ah, Wilderness!: O'Neill in love
on 06/27/08 at 9:00 am | I hope that by describing the opening-night performance of American Players Theatre's Ah, Wilderness! as pleasant I don't sound too much like Kevin Costner telling Madonna that her concert was "neat." |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream works its magic
on 06/20/08 at 9:00 am | Something magical happened in the woods at American Players Theatre's opening-night performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream. It wasn't just that torrential rains paused, nor was it that the cloud of hovering mosquitoes didn't seem to be biting. It was that William Brown's deftly directed production was as inspired and beautiful as it was funny. |
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The Miss Firecracker Contest won't win any prizes
on 05/23/08 at 9:00 am | I'd like to say the embattled Strollers Theatre have returned to the Bartell Theatre in fine form, but their production of The Miss Firecracker Contest doesn't put them in phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes territory. |
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Madison Theatre Guild finds heartbreak and hope in The Laramie Project
on 04/12/08 at 11:17 am | It's heartening to see the beleaguered Madison Theatre Guild returning to the Bartell Theatre in impressive form with The Laramie Project. The stirring play explores the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, the openly gay University of Wyoming student who was kidnapped, robbed, severely beaten and left for dead tied to a fence post by Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, two men he met in a local bar. |
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Leprechaun: Road to nowhere
on 04/04/08 at 9:00 am | Playwright and director Callen Harty throws a lot at us in Broom Street Theater's Leprechaun, which follows an American couple touring Ireland in celebration of their first anniversary. Some of it is crazy fun, but some of it is crazy annoying. At points during the performance I had to shut my eyes for a few seconds to steal a little peace and quiet. |
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Pulp: Hot lesbian action
on 03/28/08 at 10:00 am | Crushes, skeet shooting, drag performances, lesbian comedy and music abound in StageQ's production of Pulp. This musical satire of 1950s lesbian novels shows what happens when Terry Logan (Sue Carnell), a former pilot in the WACs, hotfoots it to Chicago in 1956 to work at a lesbian bar called the Well. The production is most fun when director Tara Ayres' cast surrenders to the play's arch campiness, making lifted eyebrows, double entendres and puns work. But it gets a little dull during long stretches where it's played (pardon the expression) straight. |
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Broom Street Theater goes over the top in Leprechaun
on 03/20/08 at 1:08 pm | Playwright and director Callen Harty throws a lot at us in Broom Street Theater's Leprechaun, which follows an American couple touring Ireland in celebration of their first anniversary. Some of it is crazy fun, but some of it is crazy annoying. At points during the performance I had to shut my eyes for a few seconds to steal a little peace and quiet. |
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Hot lesbian action in StageQ's Pulp
on 03/10/08 at 4:07 pm | Crushes, skeet shooting, drag performances, lesbian comedy and music abound in the StageQ production of Pulp. This musical satire of 1950s lesbian novels shows what happens when Terry Logan (Sue Carnell), a former pilot in the WACs, hotfoots it to Chicago in 1956 to work at a lesbian bar called the Well. |
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The Maple Bluff Mystery: Fare play
on 02/01/08 at 10:00 am | Broom Street Theater opens its 2008 season with much anticipated (and appreciated) new seating and The Maple Bluff Mystery, a comedy/mystery hybrid that is not so much a whodunit as a whosawit. |
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A Christmas Carol: Ghost with the most
on 12/21/07 at 10:00 am | Don't be surprised to see misty-eyed theatergoers at A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens' classic is all about redemption and transformation, and Children's Theatre of Madison delivers an affecting experience that had me dabbing away a few tears. |
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Rug rats
on 12/06/07 at 2:32 pm | I took my 7-year-old daughter with me to opening night of Madeline's Christmas, MadCAP Theatre's holiday offering at the Bartell Theatre, secretly hoping that she would write the review for me. But she wasn't very forthcoming with her critique. |
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Machine dreams
on 10/05/07 at 10:30 am | David Mamet's The Water Engine was written in the late '70s as a radio play. Set in Chicago in 1934, it's about an ill-fated young inventor who creates a revolutionary engine that operates using water as its fuel. |
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Willy Loman up close
on 09/27/07 at 10:21 am |
Death of a Salesman's Willy Loman, the traveling salesman who loses his grip on reality, is a common sight on stages around the world. But Arthur Miller's celebrated 1949 play hasn't been performed in Madison for over 20 years. Director Richard Corley's decision to present Madison Repertory Theatre's version on a stark stage, allowing the language and performances to dominate, is a good one.
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Rep's spare Death of a Salesman is an intimate, personal production
on 09/23/07 at 10:43 am | Arthur Miller's most celebrated play, Death of a Salesman, hasn't been performed in Madison for over 20 years. Director Richard Corley's decision to present Madison Repertory Theatre's version on a stark stage and allow the language and performances to dominate is a good one. |
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When paintings attack
on 09/14/07 at 10:00 am | The thought-provoking Art by Yasmina Reza won a Tony for best original play in 1998. The show examines the effect that an expensive piece of monochromatic contemporary art has on the tenuous bonds among a trio of friends. |
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