Associated Bank Theater Center – an intuitive perspective

May 4, 2026

Milwaukee Rep: George & Gracie: A Love Story

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater is presenting George & Gracie: A Love Story in their Stackner Cabaret. Written by local actor and playwright, Tami Workentin, who plays Gracie Allen here, it is part of World Premiere Wisconsin and is A John (Jack) D. Lewis New Play Development Program production.

George & Gracie: A Love Story starts with a framing tale of George Burns restarting his solo career after Gracie Allen’s passing. While waiting in the theater for his cue to go on, his mind starts to race through memories of the key points in his/their career and his life with Gracie. Workentin has merged portions of Burns & Allen routines with pivotal points in their private lives to bring us their love story.

Pictured L to R: James Pickering, Tami Workentin, Jonathan Riker. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Beyond the nostalgia of ‘experiencing’ the magic of George & Gracie, there is also the excitement around seeing James Pickering in the lead on the small Stackner stage again, playing opposite his wife, Workentin. And their obvious affection for each other certainly contributes to their depictions of George & Gracie. And this is a love story for the ages.

The humor here has aged a bit. And it was apparent in the audience response a few times on opening night this past Sunday. Some things that I thought were funny got mild laughter or a few polite chuckles instead of the noisier response I would have expected. That’s not on Workentin. She pulled together a great group of jokes and gags that express Burns & Allen to a tee. I think it’s more to the difference in humor and sensibilities inherent in 2026 compared to the middle 20th Century. Remember, they retired their TV show in 1958.

L to R:Tami Workentin, James Pickering. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Tami Workentin is marvelous as Gracie. She has every tic, twist, and turn down pat and her inflection and timing certainly resemble Gracie and exemplify the era. Jame Pickering plays George Burns. When in contemporary Burns mode he is the loving mindful husband mourning the loss of his wife and partner. But when in the memory events, he seemed a little bit off. He certainly got the timing right and the jokes right but he didn’t quite have the joy and presence of George Burns. Sometimes its a curse to play a person still in the audience’s mind.

The third actor is one to really keep an eye on. Jonathan Riker plays the elevator guy. That doesn’t sound particularly significant, but trust me, he’s an integral part of the story. And at about 5 minutes before curtain, pay close attention to the stage. Similar to his first appearance in I Am My Own Wife at Milwaukee Chamber earlier this season, Riker is walking around the stage carefully positioning props, giving the stage one more sweep up, and picking up litter and a few scraps of torn newspaper. Just as the play begins, a bit of sleight of hand, and voila, magic! Watch, you won’t want to miss it. But after that Riker is in fact the elevator guy, train porter, bell hop, stage manager, radio announcer, and guide who keeps George on track. Riker helps sell this show!

L to R: Tami Workentin, Jonathan Riker, James Pickering. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

And the costumes are amazing for all three characters. And there are many costume changes in just this two hour show. But Jason Orlenko really went all out for the dresses and gowns that Workentin wore as Gracie. The colors and textures and fit is truly high couture.

And this is another Laura Braza direction…she has provided the Rep and Milwaukee theater any number of outstanding memorable experiences. This is another one!! Any time you see her directing, run out and see the play.

George & Grace: A Love Story runs in the Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret from now through June 14, 2026. Running Time: Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. Recommended Age: 14 and up.

Additional information and tickets here.

Extra credit reading: Program here.

April 18, 2026

Mrs. Christie. Where Were You…

Wisconsin playwright Heidi Armbruster leans into her strength and writes in a seemingly serious drama format but then wraps it all up in a hilarious comedy. This time Armbruster dabbles in a parallel universe around an unexplained disappearance by Agatha Christie in 1926 and a super-fan tries to solve the case from clues ‘discovered’ at a 2026 Christie festival on Christie’s estate.

Pictured L to R: Alex Keiper and Betsy Hogg. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

We first meet Agatha Christie in her home totally upset because she believes her dog has died. Alex Keiper’s Agatha is distraught, distracted, and clearly mentally elsewhere. And in many ways this sets the tone for her character deeper into the play. Armbruster’s and Keiper’s Agatha Christie isn’t the smart focused British writer that we would have anticipated. The very next instant it appears the dog is still with us but Agatha is also confronted with the open infidelity of her husband, Archibald Christie. And Matt Bowdren’s Archie is precisely the imperious and stuffy aristocrat that you might expect. Agatha clearly still loves him and he clearly wants to go and they are at an impasse. She won’t give him a divorce so he wants to prevent her from writing. Archie does everything in his power to hurt Agatha including parading his paramour around in their home.

Pictured L to R: Zoë Sophia Garcia, Alex Keiper, Dale Hodges, Blake Hamilton Currie. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And then it is 2026 and there is an Agatha Christie festival going on on the grounds of the Christie estate. On the grounds is an important factor because we find ourselves in the same library work place as in the earlier 1926 scene. The home is now a museum and the library is off limits during the festival yet people keep wandering in. First is Lucy, a fan of Christie, who is attending the festival, and I guess is something of an ‘ugly American’? Zoe Sophia Garcia presents Lucy at seemingly loose ends and a little free with her hands. Touching everything, a few ‘relics’ make their way to her purse before she is confronted by the caretaker. She talks her way into staying a few more minutes when she encounters William, a Christie scholar and assistant to a Christie scholar. Blake Hamilton Currie is a smooth sexy lothario as William. And he has a few photocopied pages of a ‘lost’ Christie notebook that he uses as bait to seduce incredulous Christie fan girls. Garcia’s Lucy plays along but might be the better player and somehow manages to take possession of the lost papers. And then Dale Hodges as Jane wanders in. An elderly lady seeming just a bit confused, she sits down and starts knitting. But, she too is more than she seems and ends up partnering with Lucy to solve the mystery suggested in the purloined pages. Tally HO!

Pictured L to R: William Sturdivant and Alex Keiper. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

To avoid spoiling too much fun, I will simply say that we follow Christie to a seaside resort where she seems to exist in a drug induced haze…and Monsieur Hercule Poirot makes an appearance. Their conversations poke a lot of fun at detective story traditions and William Sturdivant nails the Poirot stereotype right on the head. And our intrepid Jane and Lucy turn their search for a solution into a scavenger hunt of sorts.

Pictured the cast of Mrs. Christie. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

But never fear, there is a traditional resolution. As a book end to a dinner gathering in Act I, all of the characters are again gathered together in the dining room of the Christie home. And everything is pretty formal and cold until Archie’s arm candy, Nancy, played by Amira Danan, falls to the floor after drinking her glass of wine. Everyone in the room has a motive and Poirot steps to the forefront. Every detective story ox is gored, all is revealed, and a solution to the case is found. This scene generated the greatest amount of laughter of the evening…as it should! It is smartly overwritten, overwrought, and overacted with hilarious results.

And laughter: kudos for Director Joanie Schultz for pulling out all of the wonderful humor built into this play. I didn’t expect to have quite this much fun with Mrs. Christie.

Character that you will hate: Charlotte, Mrs. Christie’s secretary. She is played by Betsy Hogg and shows up later as the 2026 as the gate keeper in the library, and at the beach resort. Hogg performs as exactly the same character in all three instances.

Pictured L to R: Dale Hodges and Zoë Sophia Garcia. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Character that you will love: Dale Hodges, Jane. She is maybe the smartest cookie in the box and draws in our empathy as we watch her move through the real world. Generally she likes to travel alone but is willing to humor Lucy!

At one point, Lucy declares that they are just going around in circles. And at that point she and Jane literally are as the Rep has again pulled out a rotating stage. Initially used to change room locales, during their travels, our intrepid searchers are walking around the edge of the stage as it rotates. Marvelous scenic work by Se Hyun Oh.

Now, fair warning. This play requires all of your concentration. There are moments of sleight of hand that need to be seen that are important to the story. And with the English accents and Poirot’s Belgian French, you want to pay attention so you don’t miss a good joke!

Mrs. Christie runs about two hours and 15 minutes including an intermission. It is being presented on the main stage of the Checota Powerhouse Theater. It runs from now through May 10, 2026. Additional information and tickets can be found HERE

Extra credit reading: The Playbill

. Pictured L to R: Alex Keiper, Blake Hamilton Currie, Matt Bowdren, Amira Danan. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

All photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

April 16, 2026

Milwaukee Rep’s Frida…A Self Portrait…In One Actor

In the first half of the 20th Century, male artists dominated the art scene just as they have done for centuries. Fortunately two woman artists of the Americas were able to break out of the patriarchy, Wisconsin’s own Georgia O’Keefe and Mexico’s Frida Kahlo. Certainly a major reason for their visibility is the remarkable artwork that they created which clearly still speaks to us today. But Kahlo is also intriguing not only because she was a landmark artist but because of the difficulties that she endured in her personal life.

And it is that endurance plus a personal spiritual connection to Kahlo that brought Vanessa Severo to write and perform Frida…A Self Portrait. Frida is directed by Joanie Schultz.

Vanessa Severo. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Fittingly for a play subtitled, an autobiography, there is only one actor, Vanessa Severo. So in essence, Frida gets to tell her own story. But don’t be fooled into thinking that with only one actor, that there is only one character on stage. The first one is prominent. It is Severo the playwright who in at least three different moments speaks to the audience directly and has Severo the actor explain the various whys and hows that brought this play about. There is enough drama in these interludes for an actual play on its own…but we really want to see and hear Frida.

And hear Frida, we do. She narrates her life story with all of its drama in a very engaging manner often telling us how she feels, how she perceived the events around her, and why she decided to do some of the things she did. All of the major events in her life are examined. Many of them in Frida’s own words but often with Frida ( or is it Severo, the lines are at times blurred), impersonating another character in costume or just in narration. It depends. Many many different people make an appearance but most importantly, there are major moments with her father Guillermo Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera. These re-tellings and impersonations are fraught with drama and edged with humor, both in word and the visuals. Severo moves from one focus point to another in an uninhibited fluid dance that just dares you to look away for even a moment. Intriguing story telling at its finest.

Severo is intensely Frida Kahlo and you will suspend disbelief readily and accept that you are witnessing a private story from Frida.

The framing story is Frida entertaining a guest who is visiting to view the architecture of her home, La Casa Azul. But instead of concentrating on the history of the house, Frida wanders off in her mind and recounts the key memory points in her life. The simple set aids the flow and ebb in the story telling. Overhead and to the rear, the general set is a four poster bed that is key to the backstory as Frida spent many days in bed recuperating from one injury to another. And after Severo finishes her prologue to the audience, the stage is festooned by three clotheslines of clothing and bedding that have been questioningly lying on the stage until Severo begins as Frida. These clothes provide the costuming and decor needed for different characters and environments as the story proceeds and Severo discards them stage left or right as their utility vanishes. And there are some stories that remain unspoken…but are told via Severo’s interactions with individual items, lighting, and sound. Some of these moments are particularly sad and should remain unspoken.

Besides the settings, the story is subtly enhanced but the background sounds including insects chirping, city street noises, and such. Very nice, thank you Thomas Dixon. And with just one actor on stage, lighting is very important to help tell the story and to lead the audiences focus and to set the mood and timbre of a scene. Hats off to Rachel Cady.

Frida…A Self Portrait runs about 80 minutes without an intermission.

Frida is being presented in the Herro-Franke Studio Theater at the Milwaukee Rep from now through May 17, 2026. More details and ticket information here.

Extra Credit Reading: Program