From this morning’s email,: the Milwaukee Repertory Theater announces their one day sale for their 2023 presentation of their classic, A Christmas Carol, at the historic Pabst Theater.
The One Day Sale is this coming Monday, September 25th. Tickets can be purchased at up to 25% OFF if you use the code FALL when ordering. There is a limit of 8 tickets per order, so plan accordingly!
The Rep’s Box Office can be accessed online starting at 7 AM, here …or by calling the box office after 9 AM: 414-224-9490!
“Crazy, For thinking that my love could hold you, I’m crazy for trying, And crazy for crying, And I’m crazy for loving you“
Now when you read that, if you heard Patsy Cline singing it in the back of your head…this show is absolutely for you! And if you didn’t, this show is absolutely for you because you have a lot of catching up to do!
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater is on a run with special tributes to musical stars presented in their Stackner Cabaret. And they have extended it one more time with their opening offering for the 2023/2024 season. And it’s a long overdue tribute to “The Legendary Ladies of Nashville” starring Katie Deal!
Now Katie Deal is the real thing…for sure. Georgia born and bred and a stalwart of America’s country scene. And here in Country Sunshine, she brings us the back stories and hit songs of all of our favorite women in Country Music. So she has the twang and the swing and the charm that exemplifies all of the singers that she pays tribute to. And her enthusiasm and energy had many of us in the audience tapping our feet and singing along and there was a little chair dancing going on. And Deal recognized the fans who were most engaged with a smile, a nod, and when she could, just a little wave in their direction.
photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Now, I am not going to be able to remember all of the wonderful performers whose songs Deal recreated for us. But she nailed them and brought a lot of memories back for me since my first exposure to many of these songs came from my dad’s table radio back in the 1950s and 60s. But of course, Patsy Cline, as I mentioned in the opening, got a medley of her biggest tunes, ending with Crazy of course. But she also covered Dottie Wells, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, and a lot more! If you don’t hear a favorite song during this show, you aren’t paying attention!
And Deal is backed by a tight quartet of musicians, hitting all of the right notes and keeping the sounds alive! The band? : Jeff Hamann on bass, Johnny Rodgers on piano, Bob Monagle on guitars, and Terry Smirl on drums…AND Kristin Doty on supporting vocals. This show wouldn’t happen without them! Too bad they were covering so many songs and didn’t have the time to stretch out a bit and show us all of their chops!
The only thing I wanted from this show that I didn’t get…more music! LOL! Yeah, I would have loved more Dottie or Emmylou or Linda or Patsy! But I loved what I got. And yes, as I suggested in the opening, this show is for everybody!
Country Sunshine just opened so there is plenty of time to catch it, although don’t wait too long, because I expect that it will be a popular ticket.
Friday night, I attended The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s opening of Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage. And sadly, in his opening remarks, Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements reminded us that this is the last play in the Rep’s 2022/2023 season. A season that has seemed to end far too hastily.
I think I remembered this right, but mid-play or so, Veronica says: “I don’t have a sense of humor. And I have no intention of acquiring one”! And that is about how I felt as I was walking down the stairs from the Quadracci Theater.
left to right: Adam Poss. Heidi Armbruster, Makha Mthembu, and Elan Zafir. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
This is a dark, dark, dark, dark comedy. There are four characters here. Two sets of parents who meet to discuss a playground altercation between their sons. What starts as a conversation in an obvious upper middle class home…as strangers begin to get to know each other…and begin to discuss the situation, we get to meet Veronica (Heidi Armbruster) and Michael (Adam Poss) as the parents of the ‘victim’, although that term may be up for review, and Annette (Makha Mthembu) and Alan (Elan Zafir) as the parents of the ‘attacker’, also open to reinterpretation or redefinition during the play.
left to right: Makha Mthembu, Elan Zafir, Heidi Armbruster (in rear) and Adam Poss. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
But everything quickly leaves the tracks and we clearly witness the destruction and abandonment of civility and maybe even the demise of civilization…well certainly at least, social and cultural mores, marriage, personal space, and the shattering of the facade of personal identity. Director Ryan Quinn pushes and pushes the characters until the play lives up to its title, God Of Carnage, yet there are no gods here.
And then it ends. I wasn’t expecting the end when it occurred…but it ends. How could this be the end?
left to right: Adam Poss and Elan Zafir. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
I am not sure what the cast does to unwind each evening after their performances but I can’t imagine the intensity of emotions that they are called upon to present can simply be shrugged off at curtain close. And there is no intermission in which to catch their breath…or ours for that matter.
This play feels particularly contemporary, and I guess that it is. And it feels particularly American of the moment…but it isn’t. God Of Carnage was originally written in French by Yasmina Reza. So we are seeing it in translation…the English translation by playwright Christopher Hampton.
