During a thirty minute streaming event last evening, Milwaukee Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements announced the Rep’s 2023/2024 season. Here is the recording of Mr. Clements presentation and listed just below are the full descriptions from their press release:
To celebrate our 70th Anniversary Season, an extraordinary milestone, we’ve hand-picked a season of exceptional plays including our first World Premiere musical on the mainstage, beloved literary adaptions, the return of Milwaukee Rep favorites and exciting new works.
Energizing moments, empowering stories, passionate performances – with bold theatrical experiences to captivate the heart and stir the soul. Our 2023/24 Season has something for everyone!
The Quadracci Powerhouse season will open with Run Bambi Run, a new musical about America’s most infamous woman turned American folk hero Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek, written by Oscar-winner Eric Simonson (Lombardi) with music by Grammy-nominee Gordon Gano of theViolent Femmes. Following will be the celebrated mystery Dial M for Murder, which inspired Hitchcock’s masterpiece. The new year brings two celebrated adaptations – Louisa May Alcott’s endearing Little Women and Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. Closing the season will be Nina Simone: Four Women, a play with music recalling events that shifted Simone’s career from artist to activist.
The Stackner Cabaret features four blockbuster shows starting with Country Sunshine: The Legendary Ladies of Nashville With Katie Deal, featuring songs from the Queens of country music and Nuncrackers our favorite nuns return to film their first TV special filled with songs and hijinks. Last seen eight years ago, Guys on Ice returns for a special anniversary production as one of our most popular shows ever, followed by Piano Men 2, a smash hit with audiences, in which no two performances are the same as our dueling pianists take requests live!
The Stiemke Studio features two ground-breaking new works – the World Premiere of Parental Advisory: a breakbeat play from award-winning storyteller Idris Goodwin (HBO’s Def Poetry Jam) and direct from a sold-out Broadway run What the Constitution Means to Me, called “the best and most important new play” by The New York Times.
Like its topic, Lloyd Suh’s Chinese Lady created quite a sensation when it was presented by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater during their 2018/2019 season (my response is here if you care to see it). So expectations were high for The Heart Sellers. Mr. Suh did not disappoint!
House lights go down and we hear a key in the lock and a whirlwind of color and talk bursts into a mid-century modern apartment. Meet Luna as she sheds her parka and makes an attempt to tidy up a bit while an enigmatic figure hovers in the hall just outside the door. Luna eventually coaxes the reticent Jane into her apartment and our story begins.
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Nicole Javier and Narea Kang
The Heart Sellers is a phonetic take on the Hart-Celler Act on immigration that allowed Luna and Jane to accompany their husbands to the United States in 1973…as their husbands pursued their medical careers. But Heart Sellers takes on another turn as our play progresses. Luna is from the Philippines and Jane is from South Korea.
Jane isn’t exactly sure how she should react to the boisterous Luna, who finally convinces Jane to relinquish her scarf and parka and get ‘comfortable’ in the apartment. The ladies were aware of each other in the community but hadn’t actually ‘met’ until they each found themselves alone in a supermarket admiring frozen turkeys on Thanksgiving. And at that point Luna invites Jane over!
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Narea Kang and Nicole Javier
But they start to find common ground and shared interests and quickly start to feel at ease around each other although certainly some of that is fueled by a generous helping of Lancer’s Rose’. But there is a lot of humor here and it starts of course with getting Jane into the apartment and out of her protective parka…but soon moves to how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey…and there are a hundred quips and gags here plus a just hilarious scene where Jane channels her best Julia Child!
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Nicole Javier and Narea Kang
And just as most of us would be curious on first meeting either of these ladies, they are curious about what the other’s ‘real name’ is. And of course each of them have names that were chosen because they would be easy for their new acquaintances in there new communities to pronounce…but they aren’t random…but derived from their given names or nicknames and influenced, in one case, by a favorite celebrity. And here is one of the first instances we have of the sense of loss that immigrants have when moving to a new country and culture…giving up our name. And as the ladies compare notes, we find that there are far more other senses of loss that we can’t even begin to imagine unless we would embark on a similar journey.
And it is very interesting to see ourselves and our culture in the eyes of an outsider. That sense of freshness and curiosity is very telling. And some of it is a lot of fun and some of it is a bit disturbing…but it is all enlightening and Mr. Suh has enveloped it all in a great sense of humor.
As they open up to each other and start to find their comfort levels, it is a bit surprising that Jane, the reticent guest, becomes the more hopeful or comfortable of the pair. Luna, the outgoing vocal character, who appears the positive young woman, can find some pretty dark places to plumb. And it is interesting to experience these differences and it isn’t always clear if these are personal differences or more an indication of their cultural differences. From out point of view, it is difficult to tell, and seems at times to be a bit fluid.
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Narea Kang and Nicole Javier
There are a number of metaphors for America throughout the play…Disneyland and K-mart being two. And although we aren’t actually given a location, the parkas and suggesting a visit to the beach was a good idea except it was too cold, we know they aren’t in a warm weather spot. But the radio announcer kinda gives it away…but I am not sure if that is actually scripted or not…so I am not going to continue down this path (btw: Tally Sessions who is playing Dean Martin upstairs in the Stackner Cabaret makes a recorded cameo as the radio announcer).
Director Jennifer Chang did a masterful job of setting the scene, placing the characters, and fueling the interactions between Jane and Luna that certainly puts us in the story…elicits the built in humor…and brings out the quieter introspective moments. Narea Kang finds just the right gestures and postures to introduce us to the shy and stoic Jane and then cleverly evolves into the generous and thoughtful version at play’s end. And I have no idea how Nicole Javier can keep up the pace from whirlwind to introspective observer of life to the deep philosopher that she clearly encompasses.
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Nicole Javier and Narea Kang
The set and environment here cleverly duplicate the feel and aura around 1973 America. But I wonder how many non-Boomers will understand all of the nuance from the aforementioned Lancer’s to the gravitational pull of Disco in the post-psychedelica era to the time of Nixon and Marcos or that at one time the only Disney property was Disneyland. Those touchstones help make the play for me as well as the text itself (I recommend reading the play guide linked below)
The play runs 95 minutes without intermission and I was sadly surprised when it came to its end. So to Narea Kang, Nicole Javier, Jennifer Chang, and Lloyd Suh; hands together: THANKS. Hands extended: GIVING!
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s current Stackner Cabaret offering Dino! An Evening With Dean Martin is built off a clever conceit that a January blizzard finds Dean Martin on his own after his band can’t make it to Milwaukee for the show. It’s a great premise to work from but last night the real humor came from the real world January 2023 where Milwaukee is experiencing one of the driest winters in my memory…and we have NO snow and even the temperatures aren’t typical January. So actor Tally Sessions, who is portraying Dino here, got a few extra unexpected laughs! And we all enjoyed it.
photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
But the show must go on and we get an ‘improvised’ show from Dean Martin as PJ Ju accompanies Dino on piano and guitar. Besides being an accompanist, PJ serves as Martin’s sidekick or foil, all without speaking a word! Just a nod or a smile or starting in on the next musical number is all he needs to provide…and Dean rolls on with his song or his tale after carrying on the conversation from his point of view!
Tally Sessions provides a sincere and thoughtful Dean Martin while also nailing every song and gag as the night progresses. And woven in between the songs is the story…immigrant’s son to onstage star in a popular duo to rat packer to movie star to Vegas standard. We learn how he came to work with Jerry Lewis, his marriages and families, and how his persona as a drunk came about. All described with the poise and smooth that earned Dean Martin the King of Cool.
courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater: photo by Michael Brosilow
And we hear the songs…the great Dean Martin songbook from the pop music culture of the 1950s and 60s…perfectly rendered without missing a beat by Tally Sessions and PJ Ju! And there are a number of points where the audience is encouraged to sing along…take advantage of those moments…it will feel really good!
courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater: photo by Michael Brosilow
And the stage is great…scenic designer, Sydney Lynne has given us a neon lit, curtain shrouded proscenium to highlight our performers from behind…and placing them in a stage space that serves from one time to another as a piano bar, Vegas style stage, or talk show seating area. And kudos to director Jonathan Heller for the smooth flow and Dino style skits, dance features, ‘extemporaneous’ disclosures, and song segments while keeping us engaged by moving both actors around the entire set. Truly an enchanting experience.
courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater: photo by Michael Brosilow
One thing that I would like to see in the Playbill is a list of the songs that are performed and their composers. The Rep provided such a list for their previous Stackner presentation, Beehive. I think that should become a standard feature!
And this is a minor quibble, but I think PJ’s guitar should be upgraded just a bit. To my ear it could use a little more bite and bottom to compete with and complement Tally’s voice! Although it may inhibit his walking around a bit, I guess.
And if you haven’t eaten in about a week, and you’re so hungry when you walk you squeak, make reservations for dinner at the Stackner before your show as well. But don’t dawdle, dinner reservations often sell out. (and I apologize for the teasing: but they don’t do Houston)
