April 2025 – an intuitive perspective

April 29, 2025

Next Act Theatre’s Circle Mirror Transformation: “Are We Going To Do Any Real Acting In This Class?”

A mid-play plaint from Lauren. And then Theresa and Marty assure her they are acting.

The Next Act description of Circle Mirror Transformation doesn’t quite do the play justice. Although every word in the description is true, the play that you will see when you attend transcends your expectations. And although a comedy, there is enough angst, pathos, and confusion to bring us all into an awareness of human frailties as well.

Playwright Annie Baker hasn’t given us a straight forward comedy either. Her Circle Mirror Transformation tells its story through a series of vignettes or skits delimited by black outs that represent the passage of time and allow the cast to change costume and sometimes moods or personas. Our overall setting is a community center class in acting. The action occurs over six weeks and includes a number of games or exercises performed by the five class participants and then candid interactions between class members outside the parameters of the class. The nuts and bolts of this play will resonate with theater insiders and long time theater buffs as well.

The Cast of Circle Mirror Transformation. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Director Cody Estle has very carefully assembled a cast that could clearly represent a typical community center class roster. But it is more complex than that and transformation is part of the title and he has deftly brought about the transformations that each character exhibits as the play progresses…not all of them for the better it would seem…but maybe that’s not my call.

Marty is the class leader. Tami Workentin brings us a very confident and in control Marty who without a doubt leads her class through exercises that seem redundant and at times silly to those of us in the audience. I thought Baker was having a bit of fun with theater basics here but I was assured these are actual exercises. And who knew that it is so hard to count to ten as a group. But Workentin doesn’t remain the direct taskmaster throughout and brings on an incredible empathy as she gets to know her students and their issues…well except for Lauren’s late payment for the class. But the confidence that Workentin brings to the class does bring them all out of the shells and lets them feel themselves in a safe space.

left to right, Mark Ulrich, Tami Workentin, and Elyse Edelman. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Mark Ulrich is James, Marty’s husband. At first he is rather stiff and maybe a bit resistant and Ulrich gives us a sense that he has to be there…maybe to make sure there are enough students to hold the class? I have been in classes like that. But he does have a fun side that he feels free to exhibit at last, including taking a spin at the hula hoop. And Ulrich gets it. Later Ulrich shows us some tender moments as well, which weren’t quite expected.

Milwaukee favorite Elyse Edelman is Theresa, an actor who has recently relocated to this small community, Shirley, Vermont. We don’t immediately know that she is here because she is hurting after a break up with a boy friend. Edelman is free flowing and natural in this role and brings a sense of direction and purpose to Theresa. Everyone in the class admires her.

Chloe Attalla and Reese Madigan. Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Another Milwaukee favorite, Reese Madigan plays Schultz, a divorced local man who seems to be here to forget his troubles. Madigan’s Schultz takes an immediate shine to Theresa and Madigan gives us a very shy unsure man as he tries to open up conversation with Theresa. And they seem to hit if off well until Madigan shifts to a clingy lover and ends up pushing Theresa away. But as an actor wannabe, he throws himself into the class wholeheartedly except for the occasional groan when the counting to ten circle fails.

And Chloe Attalla is Lauren, a sixteen year old high school student who is interested in acting. At first Attalla gives us a perfect example of reticent sixteen year old, which is totally expected given she is the only high school aged student in the class. But Atalla also can be explosive when she asks the question in the title or when she shouts at Theresa: “You are a real actor, why aren’t you teaching the class?”. And she too apparently has a issue at home as she dodges Marty’s questions about payment. Attalla plays down to sixteen years old exquisitely. I hope we get to see more of her on Milwaukee stages.

The cast of Circle Mirror Transformation counting to ten! Photo courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Next Act Theatre is performing Circle Mirror Transformation from now until May 18, 2025. The play runs two hours without intermission in their shared theater building at 255 South Water Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

More information and tickets here!

April 28, 2025

MKE Chamber Theatre: Topdog/Underdog: Watch The Cards For The Winner

In this Pulitzer prize winner, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks has woven a tight two character play that talks about poverty, race, self-awareness, grief, family, mental health, alcoholism, and the humanity of life or the life of humanity. We have two black adult brothers sharing a single room tenement without running water and just one bed and a recliner. Lincoln, the eldest, is crashing at his brother’s place after being kicked out by his wife. Booth holds it over Lincoln that he has the apartment despite Lincoln being the only one of the pair with an income.

About midway through Topdog/Underdog, Lincoln relates to Booth that their father had told him at one time that he named them Lincoln and Booth as a joke. I think that Suzan-Lori Parks named them as such as an omen.

Dimonte Henning foreground and Anthony Fleming III. Photographer: Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Director Gavid Dillon Lawrence has done a marvelous job with a tough play to stage. Despite a single room set, the two characters roil through a number of moods and back. So finding the right actors, detecting the right attitudes for each act, and keeping the relationships feeling real is a major accomplishment. Lawrence’s choice in Anthony Fleming III as Lincoln and Dimonte Henning as Booth, I mean Three Card (later), is absolutely perfect. And there is never a doubt that these two are brothers with all of their feelings of family, brotherhood, competition, and legacy.

Anthony Fleming III. Photographer: Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Anthony Fleming III is an imposing Lincoln as Lincoln the character and as Lincoln the historical figure. So to catch you up, Lincoln the character was a street hustler famous for his three card monte game. But he gave it up to go straight. But the straight job he found was as an Abe Lincoln impersonator at a boardwalk arcade…where customers pay a small fee to use a cap gun to assassinate him. Depending on the moment, Fleming gives us a resigned man who is determined to stay off the street so accepts the irony and boredom in the job. But Fleming also can bring out the humor that the situation provides as well in a very easy entertaining motion. After all, chuckle, it is a sit down job. But then again, Fleming as easily displays some anger or disgust at where he finds himself today.

Dimonte Henning (left) and Anthony Fleming III. Photographer: Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Booth is the younger brother and a ne’er do well who looks up to his brother’s success at three card monte. He is forever practicing the moves and even renames himself, Three Card, to adopt his new role. Dimonte Henning brings a rabid energy to the role, with a sense of entitlement(?) but a lack of self-awareness. Henning also gives us a real sense of anger and disappointment when Lincoln refuses (initially) to help him master the game. Later Henning brings out Booth’s obsession with his ‘girlfriend’ Grace and his lack of sense around the relationship. Henning can easily swing the Grace mood from doubt to braggadocio in a moment…and he can’t help himself when he can dig under Lincoln’s skin about how his wife came to find solace in Booth’s bed.

This is not a healthy relationship and both Fleming and Henning exhibit tendencies of love and family and then flip instantly to bullying but they make it all work until: Lincoln loses his job to a wax dummy. And Fleming changes to a Lincoln giddy with success as he’s returned to three card monte cons and then adds on an incredibly persistent mean streak with Booth as the economic dynamic has shifted.

Fleming and Henning are the key here. They both have fully embodied their characters and have found a way to display all of the dynamics inherent in sibling relationships while also trying to deal with the pressures of living in the real world outside their door. And they bond over medicine (alcohol) but get separated by family history.

The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents Topdog/Underdog until May 11, 2025 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee.

For more information! For Tickets! Run time: approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.

Anthony Fleming III (left) and Dimonte Henning. Photographer: Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

April 26, 2025

Million Dollar Quartet : Great Balls Of Fire!

On December 4, 1956, Sam Phillips hosted a jam session in his Sun Records recording studios featuring four stars of the early rock and roll genre. All four had hits with Sun Records: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and of course, Elvis Presley. There are a number of recordings available that document the songs they performed that day including a bit of studio banter but they don’t tell the whole story.

The cast of *Million Dollar Quartet*. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Playwrights Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux further imagine events of the day in their musical, Million Dollar Quartet. And they weave a very dramatic story around twenty two hits from these four artists. And they go beyond just banter in a studio during a jam session to also flesh out a story that gives us the history of Sun Records and Sam Phillips and some of the dynamics of the burgeoning recording industry in post-war America.

Before I get further into the performances, I want to compliment Daniel Conway on the truly amazing set design he developed for the Sun recording studio. It seems to hit all of the notes that we see from period photos of recording studios while feeling open and friendly to the audience experience and certainly gives the performers the space needed to rock on!

And I have a question for director Laura Braza: how do you prepare to cast a play like this when the four main characters are well known and well loved personalities with clear and discernible traits and performing styles? I was a but dubious at first but once Million Dollar Quartet got underway, those doubts were erased. Braza has assembled an incredible ensemble here who get the story and the history and they music!

Seth K Hale and Aja Alcazar. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Although not an actual member of the quartet, Sun Records owner, Sam Phillips is a principle character here. Seth K Hale is a dynamic and enthusiastic Sam Phillips. Hale’s Phillips is not only fully invested in the music, he is fully committed to his boys and Sun Records, and Hale clearly plays to that role. But he also has to switch up a bit as Escott and Mutrux have given him a second role: Phillips also speaks directly to the audience at times, separate from the interactions on stage, giving us the history of Sun Records, his relationship to the artists, and his plans for the future…and a bit of back fill and back story so we too are in the know. He’s the glue that pulls the overall story together.

Blake Burgess. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Blake Burgess is Johnny Cash. Tall and somber at times as the man in black, he also knows how to have a good times with his friends. Burgess throws himself into the songs and hits some low notes that I am not sure even Cash managed on stage. But Burgess is a sure presence here!

Carl Perkins is played by Armando Gutierrez with a ton of vigor and exudes Perkins enthusiasm for his own music. And Gutierrez’s singing and guitar playing are so so suited to the genre. But Perkins can be a little direct and aggressive in protecting his own music, taking a dim view of Phillips introduction of Jerry Lee on piano for the sessions for a new Perkins single. And he clearly takes umbrage at both Phillips and particularly Elvis for recording Blue Suede Shoes, a song Perkins wrote, immediately after his own release of the song. Of course Elvis had a bigger hit with it (which should have put songwriter royalties in his pocket but maybe not given the era). But Gutierrez can bring that feisty to bear here too, befitting that subplot in the story.

JP Coletta. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

And Jerry Lee Lewis! The flamboyant, over the top, piano player and singer! How do you bring that to life? Well Braza found her man in JP Coletta…who can play any style from the gospel tunes to country licks to straight ahead rock and roll…standing up, sitting down, standing on the piano, reaching over the piano backward, and all without missing a beat or a lyric. But he’s always his own best front man and promoter and ends up being the subject of a few very funny and very clever jokes. But really, Coletta is a consummate piano player and feels Jerry Lee to his very core.

Patrick Morrow, Joe Hebel and Armando Gutierrez. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

And here’s Elvis! Elvis is probably a hard role given that the whole world saw him on television and movies throughout his career. But Joe Hebel gives us the young and rebellious and yet a bit unsure star performer here. Never missing a vocal hiccup or physical tic or any other familiar bits and pieces of the Presley swagger, almost to the point of parody, and I think in 2025 that is the point. But Hebel brings it all to life.

And then there’s Dyanne, a singer in her own right that tags along as Elvis’ girlfriend. Although not part of the quartet they all encourage her to join in and Aja Alcazar’s Dyanne does with a flawless voice and amazing range. Alcazar gives us a Dyanne that holds her own here with the boys and proves to be a star on her own. And she played off of Jerry Lee’s advances just right!

There are 22 songs here. Not the ones actually recorded that day which were often gospel or country standards that all of the artists knew. Instead Escott and Mutrux gave us a tapestry of hit songs from each artist and other hits of the period that they may have covered or admired at the time. So beyond the great solo personalities, the feeling of camaraderie and ensemble prevails for most of the songs. No small task to present a memorable performer set in everyone’s memory but then to stay in character while performing in ensemble is a real accomplishment. And this cast pulls that off in a resounding fashion.

This is a remarkable musical written around a number of dramatic events (some that happened but probably not as shown) with songs that live on in our culture and just when you think the play and drama has resolved and you prepare to clap…a rock concert breaks out. What a rousing toe tapping finale! This is the last new show of the season and the Rep left us with a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.

The Milwaukee Rep presents Million Dollar Quartet at the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center now through May 24, 2025. It runs about two hours without intermission…and you won’t miss that intermission with the music going down, trust me. And listen to the band!

Cast Change Note: Blake Burgess continues as Johnny Cash through May 11th, but Trevor Lindley Craft assumes the role after that.

More information and ticket info can be found here.

Extra Credit Reading: Program