It will be up to you to decide! But I laughed between bouts of holding my breath.
Murder Girl has been selling out its entire run and as a result has been extended through December 7, 2025. So hint, hint, don’t dawdle! But that fact just added to my anticipation in seeing it at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre!
And what do we have here? A murder mystery or a comedy? Yes! Playwright Heidi Armbruster has provided a magnificent bit of Wisconsinana. I don’t care if that’s not a word, that’s what Armbruster has written! And with a delightful cast of characters that will seem all so familiar to those of us who celebrate our time away from work in the Up North of Wisconsin and dine in nothing but the finest local supper clubs. The one here that is the center of attention is Marty’s Supper Club, but alas Marty is no longer with us…but fondly remembered…and her twins run the place. Well sorta!
Marty’s Supper Club. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Marty’s Scenic Designer Lisa Schlenker knows the Up North supper club by heart. That quaint combination of beer signs, mounted trophies (I mean deer heads and muskies) and the local bric-a-brac that a small town bar is known for. Until we get into the action, it is hard to place Marty’s in a time frame. Much of the decor is so last century as to feel antiquey. Worn wood floors and paneling, totally past their prime bar stools, and the Formica dining table in the corner tell us exactly where we are and maybe why we are here. But then the TV and electronics are fresh from Best Buy! So are we here for the Friday Night Fish Fry or the Saturday Prime Rib? We are here for the murder mystery…ssssh…listen…can you hear the theme music from Murder She Wrote?
L to R: Carrie Hitchcock, Colleen Madden, Matt Bowdren, Bree Beelow, and Joe Lino. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
And the suspense starts immediately as twins Eric and LeeAnn enter a darkened Marty’s separately each thinking that they are alone…and surprise each other with a certain fright. Matt Bowdren, returning the MCT after his appearance in A Doll’s House, is Eric. And Bowdren’s Eric, is sullen, un-trusting, depressed, and a bit jumpy. LeeAnn is portrayed by Bree Beelow as fluid, self-assured, and ready to take control whether Eric approves or not. Both of them are clearly still mourning their mother, Marty, who died in a car accident. Questions still remain about the accident and they are mourning in very different ways, but Bowdren and Beelow both present as people at wit’s end…just at different ends of their wits. Eric is coping by keeping Marty’s alive and just settling for the status quo. LeeAnn has escaped town and found another life, so to speak, but as Eric reminds her, she keeps coming back. So has she actually escaped at all? In her bio notes in the Playbill, Beelow says she hopes to KILL IT on stage as LeeAnn…and rest assured she has done just that.
Armbruster has drawn three more very intriguing and very strong characters here. All denizens of Marty’s but not blood relatives…but given the small town vibe and atmosphere around the supper club…and the way the treat each other, they might as well be.
L to R: Joe Lino, Carrie Hitchcock, Colleen Madden, and Matt Bowdren. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Director Brett Hazelton (also Executive Artistic Director fo MCT) has pulled together a cast that plays very believable as small town service employees. Let’s start with Ted. A gentleman with a bit of background issues himself, Joe Lino gives us the strong silent type, well until all heck breaks loose and then he seems to be the strong anchor in a sea of chaos…often just being the support that everyone else needs. Carrie Hitchcock assumes the ideal caricature of a small town waitress as Charlotte…with a quick imagination, willingness to blurt out her ideas and thoughts, and protective of Marty’s and the staff no matter what the daily chores of the job introduce. And her perfect foil is the Other Charlotte. A really delightful role played by American Player Theater’s Colleen Madden. What incredible fun to see Madden outside of her trusting environment and seeming to be completely enjoying herself in this dark murderous comedy. She shows that she can be very very funny,
The Charlottes! My favorite characters. Left to Right: Colleen Madden and Carrie Hitchcock. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Murder? Mayhem? Yes and there are suspicions, suppositions, conspiracy theories, secrets, and more secrets…but all will be revealed in the marvelous language woven together by Armbruster and the pliant and engaging ensemble put together by Hazelton. Murder? Well there is a missing young woman, Emily, who was a waitress at Marty’s. She may or may not have had a variety of non-supper club relationships or interactions with our other characters. And there is her distraught mother, Jen, also a Marty’s waitress, who only appears as a disembodied voice on the recurring news casts played on Marty’s TV. And there are clues and clues and plenty of opportunities to tumble down a rabbit hole (or two). But the answers to all of this are going to be left between you and Armbruster!
Bree Beelow and Matt Bowdren, Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Run time: approximately 90 minutes, no intermission
Can you bring your family? Well, you betcha! We’d be delighted to welcome your whole crew for this homegrown holiday whodunnit! MURDER GIRL does include some strong language, as well as references to drinking, violence, and death. If this were a movie, we’d call it PG-13.
L to R: Matt Bowdren, Bree Beelow, and Carrie Hitchcock. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
The Milwaukee 2024 – 2025 art season was simply remarkable. I was continually surprised and challenged by the art, music, dance, and theater events that I was fortunate to experience. And I hope that it also helped me to improve my understanding of the arts and increase my ability to see. I know that I was able to expand my coverage of theater as the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Next Act Theatre invited me to participate in their seasons. And I want to thank the artists, performers, directors, art admins, and university professors who encouraged and supported me in 2024 – 2025. It let me know that I was adding value and moving in the right direction with my efforts at An Intuitive Perspective.
So I felt a great deal of excitement and anticipation as the 2025 – 2026 season got underway. And I was off to a great start with Next Act’s Sanctuary City and Vanguard Milwaukee’s Presentation of Lungs. And then I was called away for a family emergency and missed a few other season openers and felt a profound sense of loss. And it just reinforced in me that art is important: to the individual and to the community. I am home now and intend to jump back into the season with both feet this weekend. So for those readers looking forward to a review of your favorite theater company, I am sorry. And to those organizations looking forward to my support, I am sorry. I may get called away again, so if I seem to be missing in action, please bear with me.
So this seems like a good place to add these thoughts. Milwaukee’s arts scene is incredibly vibrant and diverse and the level of professionalism is truly remarkable. But please don’t take it for granted. As Wisconsin has slipped to 50th place in public support of the arts, please support your favorite art groups by attending every event that interests you. And donate to them in any manner and any means that you can. It is important.
On June 15th, 2025, we’ll celebrate Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s 50th Birthday!
As we approach this milestone on the heels of our acclaimed 50th Anniversary Season, we’re taking stock, looking toward our next five decades, and laying the foundation for that future firmly on MCT’s vibrant past. We’re digging deep—and so are the characters in this season’s lineup of award-winning plays from unique voices, as they all take a hard look beneath the chaos on the surface to anchor more strongly in themselves, their families, and their worlds.
Without further ado, we are proud to announce our 25/26 subscription season:
Burnt-out American prodigy Stephen Hoffman arrives in 1986 Vienna desperate to reignite his concert pianist’s passion—and instead finds himself assigned to the irascible Josef Mashkan for beginner’s lessons in basic accompaniment and singing. As political ghosts escalate the tension of emerging personal secrets, the bond between student and teacher becomes a powerful reckoning with identity, memory, and the possibility of hope. Built around Robert Schumann’s masterpiece song cycle Dichterliebe played live by two of Milwaukee’s finest actor-pianists, Brett Ryback and Jack Forbes Wilson, OLD WICKED SONGS shows that even the most broken chords can resolve into something beautiful.
At Marty’s Supper Club, everybody knows two things: just how you like your Old Fashioned and all your secrets. Twins LeeAnn and Eric are trying to keep their family business alive after their mother’s sudden death, but when a waitress drops a chilling revelation on the local news their cozy Northwoods holiday plans tilt off their axis. A hilarious and heartfelt new mystery from Wisconsin favorite Heidi Armbruster, MURDER GIRL blends classic suspense with small-town soul, proving that sometimes the family you’d kill for are the same people you’d love to kill.
Based on a true story, this Pulitzer Prize-winning tour de force explores one of the most singular lives of the 20th Century: antiquities collector Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who not only survived two of the world’s most repressive regimes in the Nazis and East German Communists, but preserved countless rare Weimar and Jewish cultural artifacts in her East Berlin home all the while. But as the story goes deeper, what begins as a celebration of queer resilience shifts into a far more complicated portrait of survival, truth, and the cost of living authentically.
Air Force veteran and NSA translator Reality Leigh Winner thought she was doing the right thing; the government didn’t see it that way. Chronicling one of the most controversial acts of whistleblowing in American history, this acclaimed Broadway thriller (drawn entirely from an FBI transcript) stages an interrogation with every pause, cough, and contradiction intact—and leaves us to read between the lines. More than docudrama, IS THIS A ROOM is a razor-sharp examination of language, power, and the uneasy tension between truth and duty.
Lorraine Hansberry’s trailblazing classic—the first play produced on Broadway written by a Black woman and still one of the American theater’s most impactful—follows the Younger family as they wrestle with big dreams in the face of economic hardship and the harsh injustices of discrimination on Chicago’s South Side. With language as lyrical as it is unflinching, A RAISIN IN THE SUN remains a triumphant, deeply human portrait of the determination to build a better life than the one the world is willing to give you, and a powerful reminder that the right to dream belongs to everyone.
