arts, culture, and the pursuit of happiness
Last week the Renaissance Theaterworks announced their 2025/26 season. Stolen from their website!
Renaissance Theaterworks: Theater by Women For Everyone! Ticket info is here!
And if you’d prefer a short video, here’s your thing:
Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a story told by a tour de force of fourteen ballads sung by Cathy and Jamie, and no spoilers here since this comes from the Rep’s website: it is a story of falling in and then out of love…with Jamie telling their story in chronological order while Cathy starts at the finish and brings us to the glorious start.
Brown is known for a number of full scale musicals including Parade and Bridges of Madison County and is in full love ballad mode here giving Cathy and Jamie a full range of emotions.
Grace Bobber is an enthusiastic and enthralling Cathy and throws herself into the character. And Brown has given her a number signature songs to use to work through her excitement and her dejection. On the other side of the piano shall we say, is Jamie as played by Asher Muldoon. Jamie is a bit more laid back most of the time and Muldoon covers all of the nuance between lover, creative writer, and practical businessman. A far more reserved character than we see in Cathy. In what would appear to be a love affair of substance, Brown has written around the edges and after a while I started to wonder why this couple was together and the inevitable became the inevitable. I just never felt that there was a real connection between them.
Now, although we have an elaborate story here there is nearly no conversation. The entire story is told through Brown’s poetry and music, which presents an interesting problem for the director. How do you move the action and actor who is deep in story telling mode out front and center while keeping the play moving. Well, both Bobber and Muldoon are accomplished pianists, and director Kelley Faulkner deftly moves one or the other behind the keyboard as the principal story teller moves out front. And all of this is helped by the simple yet elegant stage setting with a central piano backed by an arc of stelae with abstract patterns. And of course, Faulkner also sets the changes in tone and time with some simple and quick costume ‘changes’ and instrumentation changes as Cathy and Jamie move from piano to guitars…and the music is stitched together by the efforts of Scott Cook, just off stage left, playing a subdued but key cello.
And this was an audience favorite…a very spontaneous standing ovation capped the evening!
The Last Five Years runs in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret from now until May 18, 2025. More information and tickets can be found here! And make an evening of it and make reservations for dinner as well. You won’t be sorry.
Extra credit reading: The Program
Hartland, WI – February 27, 2025 – Lake Country Playhouse & Academy (LCPA) is proud to present Jekyll & Hyde, The Musical. Featuring a thrilling score by multi-Grammy and Tony-nominated composer Frank Wildhorn and double-Oscar and Grammy-winning lyricist Leslie Bricusse, this musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel has captivated audiences worldwide.
The epic struggle between good and evil comes to life on stage in this musical phenomenon. An evocative tale of two men – one, a doctor, passionate and romantic; the other, a terrifying madman – and two women – one, beautiful and trusting; the other, beautiful and trusting only herself – both women in love with the same man and both unaware of his dark secret. A devoted man of science, Dr. Henry Jekyll is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve some of mankind’s most challenging medical dilemmas. Rebuffed by the powers that be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons along with the man that the world would come to know as Mr. Hyde.
“The creative elements will draw audiences into a world of unchecked ambition, duality, and the desperate quest for identity,” say directors Sandra Renick & Breanne Brennan. “This riveting and vocally stunning production will leave audiences breathless as they witness one man’s tragic descent into madness.”
Adrian Ford takes on the dual lead role, portraying both the passionate and ambitious Dr. Jekyll and the sinister Mr. Hyde. Alyssa Booton plays his devoted fiancée, Emma Carew, and Jaime Nyland is Lucy Harris, the fiery and independent main attraction at London’s seedy Red Rat Club. Another 21 local actors, many making their LCPA debut, complete the ensemble.
Co-directed by Renick and Brennan, Jekyll & Hyde continues their long-standing creative partnership, which dates back to 2013. Known for their bold, emotionally-rich storytelling, past collaborations include Sweeney Todd, Parade, The Bridges of Madison County, Assassins, and The Secret Garden. Their vision for Jekyll & Hyde emphasizes the gripping psychological intensity of the story, while delivering stunning visuals.
Rounding out the production team are vocal director Tracy Garon, who returns to LCPA after her acclaimed work on The Clockmaker’s Daughter in April 2024, along with pit director Jim Van Deusen, who leads the live five-person orchestra featuring Garon and Anne Van Deusen (keys), Tony Fenner (percussion), Cheryl Miracle (French horn), and Glen Quarrie (woodwinds). Choreography and fight direction is by Thom Cauley.
Set designer Chris Celestin and master carpenter Robert Perugini, in his LCP debut, will bring Victorian London to life with a simple yet compelling multi-purpose set, with props designer Lindsay Strean Hagood and scenic artist Anjl Rodee adding period detail. Award-winning costume designer Sarah Jo Martens highlights the upper and lower classes of London with rich textures and fabrics. Brennan, also serving as lighting and sound designer, creates an environment of light and dark, as well as haunting soundscapes, while intimacy director Jenn Dobby of Carroll University ensures the show’s most vulnerable moments are handled with authenticity and respect.
Jekyll & Hyde will run from March 28-April 13, 2025 at Lake Country Playhouse & Academy, 221 E. Capitol Drive, Hartland, WI 53029. Performances will be held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $27. Group pricing is also available. Tickets can be purchased online at www.lakecountryplayhousewi.org.