Join us for 12 world-class productions, three of which will take will take place off-site while the new Associated Bank Theater Center is under construction.
For our 2024/25 Season we are excited to offer 12 productions that are sure to entertain and inspire. Discover remarkable performances, soul-shaking rhythms, fresh takes on classics and bold world premieres. This season includes:
* A World Premiere musical based off the Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony-nominated play by Craig Lucas, Prelude to a Kiss: The Musical.
* Two World Premiere musicals created by Artistic Director Mark Clements in the Stackner Cabaret – Women of Rock and The Craic.
* A Studio Season with the regional premiere of The Coast Starlight direct from Lincoln Center and a bilingual play, Espejos: Clean.
* The acclaimed London West End production of The Woman in Black with its stellar British cast
Don’t miss Milwaukee’s favorite holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol celebrating its 49th Anniversary in the historic Pabst Theater with Rep favorite Matt Daniels returning as Ebenezer Scrooge.
and extra credit reading: information on the rebuilding of the Rep spaces and their capital campaign can be found here.
This past arctic week aside, the current state of winter in Wisconsin has seen unusually warm temperatures and local lakes that have remained unfrozen later into the season than normal. So ice fisher folk have been restrained in celebrating their seasonal sport. If you are one of these…or more likely someone like me who grew up in a rural area that crowded around a prominent lake and watched in awe and wonder as shanties blossomed across the ice…well, get your mojo back with some tickets to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Guys On Ice, order a Leinies and settle in for fun, merriment, and amazement in the Stackner Cabaret!
How ’bout dem Packers?
Guys On Ice is a rollicking comedy and musical about everything that is good…and bad…about ice fishing culture in the upper Midwest, with an abundant dash of Packer mania thrown in. If you have ever lived in Wisconsin or environs, you will find plenty to love here and may see something of yourself or your community here as well.
Steve M Koehler as Lloyd and Doug Mancheski as Marvin. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Marvin and Lloyd are long time friends, fishing buddies, and Door County denizens who are off for a day of ice fishing in Marvin’s shanty somewhere out in Green Bay. Marvin is played by Doug Mancheski who represents a north woods ice fisherman to a T and may have actually had hands on experience from what he brings to his portrayal of Marvin. But then his over the top mimicry of the Las Vegas Elvis, his ‘fluid’ dance moves, and his impeccable singing voice are highlights here.
Lloyd is the calmer cool head although as the story unfolds that should come as something of a surprise. Lloyd is played by Steve M Koehler, a tall impressive actor with a voice to match. But he humors Marvin’s dreams and plans and shares his own incredible voice to the songs at hand. His beer can tossing skills are to be admired as well.
Lloyd, Ernie (Dan Klarer) and Marvin. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Where else are you going to find a musical paean to snow mobile suits?
Surprisingly, Guys On Ice isn’t all fun and games. There is a fair amount of angst and reflection on life, love, and human existence. Both men have problems around their personal lives and love interests that eventually find tentative resolutions.
And then there’s the irrepressible Dan Klarer as Ernie, Ernie the moocher, as Lloyd and Marvin describe him on a number of occasions. And Ernie lives up to the name…but he also contributes to the hijinks and humor that Guys On Ice is noted for.
Ernie, Lloyd, and Marvin Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
And it is suggested that when you die and go to ice fishing heaven, that maybe you have to spend a few days in Algoma first. And all apologies to Algoma.
Guys On Ice is written by Fred Alley and has amused audiences for years hither and yon. At the Rep, James Kaplan does the music and Jeffrey Herbst is the director and choreographer.
And Godot? Spoiler alert! Marvin has been in contact with a TV fishing show host who Marvin is expecting to visit Lloyd and himself at the shanty. One of the reasons he invited Lloyd along on this particular day. Great songs and great humor results in the anticipation…but it never happens.
The Milwaukee Repertory Theater opened their main stage season in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater with their World Premiere of their Rock Musical: Run Bambi Run. For many of you, this will ring a bell. And yes, it is a musical developed around the dramatic events in the life of Milwaukee’s Lawrencia Bembenek, particularly her conviction in the murder of her husband’s ex-wife, the turmoil around the case, the facts and fictions, the various men in her life, and her eventual escape from prison and capture in Canada.
This all started back in 2012 when the Rep’s Artistic Director, Mark Clements, engaged playwright, Eric Simonson, to write the book for a new original musical for the Milwaukee Rep. Simonson suggested the Bembenek story and he and Clements dug into the story. But they needed some help along the way and enlisted Gordon Gano, singer/songwriter from Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes, to write the lyrics and songs for the musical. So, under the direction of Mark Clements…we now have…the World Premiere of Run Bambi Run.
Erika Olson and cast. Photographer Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
The cast and ensemble are quite an active bunch. Everyone seems to play two or more instruments…guitars, bass guitars, accordions, drums, flutes, clarinet, cornet, trombone, violin, viola, string bass, and I am missing something here…oh yes three different types of ukulele. Plus keyboards and drums on the risers at the back of the state! So all of this provides ALL of the music during the performance. And all of this happens while dancing like dervishes and singing rock songs at 11. So, hats off to Dan Kazemi for his musical direction, Jenn Rose, Choreographer, and Stage Manager Kimberly Carolus for making sense of all of this and keeping the flow moving!!
Ripped from the headlines! And it looks like the headlines are the wallpaper each side of the proscenium and back stage wall! And it is a key part of the real star of the show…the set! Anchored in a period bar with appropriately aged red and yellowed linoleum covering the entire stage including the thrust out to the audience, Scenic Designer Scott Davis gets it real. Now the bar, ostensibly the Tracks, is represented with an old time wooden bar, high back bar stools, the aforementioned linoleum and newspapers, and stage left and stage right, a pile of musical gear cases and TVs that are used as props, exposition (on TVs), and podiums for the actors, and add flexibility to the action. Of course the linoleum floor provides the ensemble plenty of space to work their magic though out the evening.
But why is the set the star? Well Davis has to present different aspects of the Bembenek story without having to remove the bar accoutrements. So one of the hardest working ensemble casts also earn their stage hand cards by the constant trading off of instruments…but also pulling on, pushing off, assembling, discarding…from back stage, down the ramps, from corners unseen…the huge variety of tables, chairs, cells, wall, beds, etc…to move the action from bar to apartment to park to police station to jail cell to apartment to home to courtroom and back…over and over and over again. Wow!
left to right: John Carlin, Tommy Hahn, Erika Olson, Matt Daniels, Douglas Goodhart. Photographer Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
But where would Run Bambi Run be without Bambi. I think the Rep found the ideal actor of the role in Erika Olson. Once we were past the big opening number and Olson could settle into the character, we got a focused and determined woman who set out to achieve a number of lofty goals…some as an idealistic young woman…and others later thrust upon her. But Olson gave us a sense of person hood and energy and intention…even when Bambi sometimes made poor choices. And Olson certainly has the voice and vocal range needed to convey the message exhibited in Gano’s music and lyrics. As I said, we have the ideal actor for the role…and Olson left us no doubt about who Lawrencia is in this musical…we get the sense of a whole real person. Olson’s achievement left many of the other characters seem like caricatures.
In the last scene, Bembenek states rather sadly: ” it’s not right, it’s just not right”. To which a narrator from the ensemble adds, so is this a comedy? or is this a tragedy? or just a travesty?
My solid vote is : Travesty
ensemble cast. Photographer Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
