Category: The Arts

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The Milwaukee Rep’s 50th Anniversary Production of A Christmas Carol!

Fifty years is quite a noteworthy accomplishment that The Milwaukee Rep should certainly be proud of. But, you the audience, should be proud of this anniversary too, because without your love and support of A Christmas Carrol, it couldn’t have run all of these years. It has certainly become a family tradition with grandparents and parents sharing it with their grands and children…and I imagine that will continue for years to come.

Pictured: The Cast of A Christmas Carol. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Over those fifty years, the Rep has presented a number of different adaptations and all of their popular actors have played the important roles at one time or another. I don’t remember how many versions I have attended. It certainly hasn’t been fifty, but I could have if I had If I had been so inclined (yes I am that old). The story is certainly known to us all and the characters remain the same, but no matter how many times you have seen A Christmas Carol, there is always something new to discover or a something that you forgot about to re-excite you or a new bit of action that further illustrates the story. Sit back and take it all in and reach out to your seven year old self as the interlocutors suggest when they are introducing the play and Mr. Charles Dickens, himself!

But this season’s presentation was somewhat in doubt for more than a few moments. In the wake of the Great Flood of 2025, the set for A Christmas Carol and most of the Rep’s off site workshops were destroyed in the flood. Amazingly, the set was rebuilt and re-imagined on the stage of the venerable Pabst Theater. So as in several previous years, we are again graced with Director and Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements’ adaptation and the streets of London appear and disappear as we watch, the spirits broadcast dread and awe as they vex and re-educate Scrooge and we again feel the timeless and timely joy in this story well told. So this season is more that a celebration of the salvation of Scrooge but the resurrection of a cherished season tradition in Milwaukee.

This year feels a little different. There seems to be more joy on stage. The cast seems to be feeling the story more, they seem more invested in their characters than in the past. And I just had more fun this year than I remember from recent seasons. Is that a result of the close call via the floods and the cast realizing what an opportunity they have to bring joy and solace to their audience one more time? I think that might be it…and I mentioned that to Mr. Clements on the way out on Friday night and he seemed to think so as well.

Pictured: Matt Daniels and Mark Corkins. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And who is this marvelous cast? Well Matt Daniels is once again Scrooge. And he easily portrays the cranky irascible old miser in the early going…he clearly identifies as that Scrooge. And Daniels just as easily becomes the fearful timid old man in the face of the spirits and the ghost of Marley mid-play. But then he also amazingly transforms into the dancing giddy happy human being the story brings about in Scrooge. Daniels is certainly the Scrooge for this adaptation of Dickens’ story.

Pictured: Matt Daniels and Kevin Kantor. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And our ghost and spirits? Mark Corkins returns as the Ghost of Marley. Corkins presence and movements certainly can fill the audience with as much dread as the fearful Scrooge who he is lecturing. His sonorous voice is uniquely adept at conveying that very sense of dread and seriousness. Audience favorite Kevin Kantor is also a returning veteran, again portraying the Ghost of Christmas Past. Kantor presents an eerie as well as ethereal spirit who easily manipulates Scrooge and initiates the breakdown of Scrooge’s resistance to the transition he is about to take on. Kantor can bring on the sinister with an amazing sense of grace and righteousness. And the Ghost of Christmas Present is once again Todd Denning. Again dressed in an elaborate green satin Santa suit, Denning is imposing, a bit dominating on stage. Denning’s Ghost is more a matter of fact than the others but he has no time for a Scrooge who is still teetering on the edge of disbelief…but Denning finally pushes him over the edge!

Pictured: Todd Denning and Matt Daniels. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

And there can not be A Christmas Carol without Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. Cratchit is again played by Reese Madigan who is comfortable in his professional world as the lackey in the firm of Scrooge and Marley, knowing that the true meaning of life is family. Madigan’s movement from subservient wage laborer to loving doting family man is truly moving. And a highlight of each season’s performance is who is playing Tiny Tim. This year we are blessed by Harold Wagner, whose smile, energy, and enthusiasm fill the stage and gives us a delightful Tiny Tim.

Pictured: The Cast of A Christmas Carol: The Crachit Family. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

I do have one unanswered question that someone from the Rep needs to go on record about. How do they work the Ghost of Christmas Future?

Bring your best singing voices…there will be a sing a long with the lyrics and a bouncing ball of Joy To The World to end the production. And the Ghosts will ask you a question or two as they torment Mr. Scrooge!

This last bit I am stealing (?) from my review from 2024. It is no less true in 2025 and given the trials and tribulations to rebuild the set, an appropriate homage to previous presentations:

Clements’ version of Dickens’ London is aswirl with constant movement, song, and dance. From the many carolers, townspeople, the staff at Fezziwig’s, to the alms collectors, there is always activity as befits a major city street. All the more events to keep us focused on the story being told.

The Milwaukee Rep will be presenting A Christmas Carol in the Pabst Theater from now until December 24, 2025. For more information and ticket ordering, click here.

Extra Credit Reading: The Playbill!

And yes, it still snows inside the Pabst Theater on ‘Christmas’!

Pictured: Jordan Anthony Arredondo and Matt Daniels. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
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Next Act Theatre’s Boswell: A Tale Of Two Stories

or maybe three. And once again director Laura Gordon has proven herself to be a consummate story teller and oh my goodness, did Marie Kohler hand her a compelling story, but not necessarily an easy path. So you might expect that a play about the biographer of Samuel Johnson and his subject, to lean somewhat toward the academic…but it is surprisingly natural and human throughout and expands the meaning of friendship, ambition, and self-awareness across two centuries. Two centuries? Yes, Kohler has drawn us into parallel universes in 1950s Chicago and Scotland and London of the 1760s and Scotland of the 1770s. And here might be the motto for this play (my paraphrase):

Samuel Johnson: Boswell? Boswell?!? Where are you? James Boswell: I am here. Johnson: Where’s here? Boswell: Well here! Johnson: No, I am here, you are there!

And that is exactly how I felt and maybe how you will feel too, I am here, and you are there (as I write this, heard that last bit in my head in a perfect Walter Cronkite voice). And here is why…we will experience action in two centuries and they aren’t always mutually exclusive. Many times our 1950s protagonist will be much like us experiencing and watching Johnson and Boswell in the 1700s and there are enough parallels in culture and societal norms to feel related.

Left to Right: Josh Krause, Madeline Calais-King, and Brian Mani. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Joan is an academic from 1950s Chicago, the University of Chicago to be exact. And she has been lured to Scotland to research a trove of papers related to Samuel Johnson. She is working with her professor, who stays in Chicago, on her dissertation and a book on Johnson. Madeline Calais-King plays Joan initially as a determined, studious, and ambitious scholar looking to make a name for herself through this research. Calais-King is delightful here as she is full of life and curiosity and eagerness to begin but is a bit put off by her host’s various offers of Scottish hospitality. So Calais-King throttles down a bit when the personal one on one relationships are in play. But once alone with the source materials, she comes alive again.

Madeline Calais-King and Josh Krause. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

But not all is well with the materials, a trove of letters, drafts, and journals. Joan expected the writings of Johnson, instead these are the writings of Boswell…and that is a problem. Calais-King gives us a Joan who gets directly into the face of her Scottish host for deceiving her about the source of the documents and thinking she was mislead simply for the money. Then she has a problem letting go when she tries to discuss the issue with the professor, partly due to his preconceived notions, her own ambition, and technical difficulties around 1950s technology. Her host pushes back, being a distant relative of Boswell, she somehow spurs Joan into further consideration…and Joan through Calais-King starts to pace and quote from the journals and visualizes them (Boswell and Johnson) across the room just as they were in 1770. Eventually she starts to come around …she might be the last or maybe only the latest Boswell seduction. And Calais-King gives us a triumphant successful Joan in the end. By the way, listen for the term side kick…it seems to change targets during the play.

Left to Right: Heidi Armbruster, Madeline Calais-King, Sarah Zapiain, David Cecsarini, Josh Krause, and Brian Mani. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Brian Mani plays the great man, Samuel Johnson. He presents a Johnson full of ego and self-importance and as curmudgeonly as they come. Mani perfectly handles Johnson’s disclaiming in public, shout outs of word definitions or histories, with an assuredness that he is always right. But Mani can bring it down a notch once Johnson is outside the salons of the time and once he becomes friends with Boswell. Mani exhibits a friendship here that feels quite genuine. From blustering pomposity to gentile friend and traveling companion, Mani feels it all.

And James Boswell is played by Josh Krause. Krause starts out as an excitable boy in London and on to fan boy when he realizes that he is about to meet Johnson. Despite Johnson’s bias against Scots, the Scottish Boswell endears himself to Johnson and Krause easily moves his mood from fan boy to confidante to biographer. And during their joint tour of the Hebrides, Krause brings back that earlier excitement as he gets to share his love and knowledge and the beauty of his homeland.

Left to Right: Madeline Calais-King, Josh Krause, and Brian Mani. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of Next Act Theatre.

Early in the play, just before Boswell meets Johnson, we get to meet several other intellectuals of London. Sarah Zapiain plays portrait painter Joshua Reynolds, who has his own bit of ego and pomposity on display. Zapiain then goes on to play any number of ladies who fancy Boswell including his wife Margaret. At the same time we meet Oliver Goldsmith, also a writer of poetry, novels, and sundry, played skillfully by David Cecsarini. Cecsarini plays a number of other characters, but maybe his best role is of David Hume. Here is able to get into a heated philosophical debate with Johnson about death and religion. I don’t think that there was a winner here…but it gave us another look at culture and society of the time. And Heidi Armbruster also appears in a number of roles (and in case you missed it, she is the playwright of Murder Girl currently at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre). Armbruster also appears as a noted personage in the role of David Garrick, the most famous actor of the time. Here Armbruster gets to emote and preen and prance about as Garrick. Quite a bit of fun!

Boswell runs through December 14, 2025 at Next Act Theatre at 255 S. Water St. Milwaukee. More information and tickets here.

BOSWELL is 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission.

Extra credit reading: The Playbill and the Audience Guide.

Madeline Calais-King, Brian Mani. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of Next Act Theatre.
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APT’s The 39 Steps Owes More To Charlie Chaplin Than To Alfred Hitchcock

In less than a month’s time, I have been privileged to see two plays based on iconic 20th Century movies. First was the Milwaukee Rep’s It’s A Wonderful Life Radio Play and now the American Players Theater, The 39 Steps. Of course, the anticipation before both of these plays was intensified by my curiosity around how these wonderful theater companies were going to translate such memorable movies to the stage.

The underlying premise for Hitchcock’s film of the common man getting caught up in a web of deceit and intrigue and coming out the hero is absurd. Absurd! Keep that word in front of mind because Patrick Barlow’s adaptation is going to plunge us into the absurd! Barlow’s adaptation is loosely based on the film. Loosely! The basic story line remains intact: it’s a spy thriller and our hero gets caught up with a femme fatale German spy, runs across Europe trying to solve the puzzle, is falsely accused of murder, is chased by henchmen and police, is tempted by a number of captivating women, and triumphs in the end. Now, after that, take all of your preconceived notions on how that happens and what is said and throw them out the rear window (sorry, there should have been a spoiler alert there since I just twisted a joke from the play to my own devices. warning: I may do it again).

Marcus Truschinski & Laura Rook, The 39 Steps, 2025. Photo by Dan Norman Photography. Photo courtesy of APT.

Just what do we have here? Well as director John Taylor Phillips mentions in his note in the playbill, “If Alfred Hitchcock and Monty Python had a theatrical baby, it might look something like Patrick Barlow’s adaptation…”. Yes indeed, there is certainly a resemblance to Python humor…but I also sense a great deal of Charlie Chaplin…and the interactions between Nate Burger and Casey Hoekstra, probably owe something to Stan Laurel and Oliver Harvey as well. And although I have to credit Phillips with a cinematic vision across this small stage…there is no way this would have happened without the ensemble being wholly committed and inwolved (sic !!). And Phillips takes great care, great care indeed, to poke fun at any number of cinematic and theatrical norms and structures throughout. Half the fun is finding them and recognizing them as they occur. And Barlow has baked in a few references to other things Hitchcock. like my reference to Rear Window above. Every Hitchcock fan will delight in those. And I believe the trunks scattered and moved around the set to act as beds, chairs, tables, rail car seating, car seats, and the roofs (why isn’t that rooves?) of train cars, actually seem to resemble the one in Rope. Keep your eyes and ears open for Hitch references. Is this Barlow’s means of providing a Hitchcock cameo?

There are four actors in the show. Three of them play multiple roles…a couple of them dozens of characters. It gets very complicated and confusing…it’s a miracle that it all works so well.

Laura Rook, Marcus Truschinski, Casey Hoektra & Nate Burger, The 39 Steps, 2025. Photo by Dan Norman. Photo courtesy of APT.

Marcus Truschinski plays our protagonist, Richard Hannay (or Hammond or Highsmith or Hwhatever). He plays the role for all that it is worth, rising to the occasion as attractive females fawn over him, pretend to fawn over him, or actually fall over him in their death throe. Truschinski keeps his cool and pursues the solution to the mystery presented him. He proves himself to be the consummate comic actor as he gets himself out of any number of tight spots. Besides acting the quick witted and glib tongued Hannay, Truschinski also simulates the varying ‘death defying’ stunts that always enable his last minute escapes! Some of his implied escapades, to me, are reminiscent of Chaplin movie stunts.

Laura Rook gets to play three entrancing but completely different female roles. We first meet her as Annabella Schmidt, our femme fatale German spy, as she reveals the plot to Hannay just before she breathes her last in his apartment. Rook’s German accent is an ear stretching exercise in its own wit. And then she moves on to the woman who meets Hannay on the train as he dashes into her compartment and embraces her to avoid the police in pursuit…but she turns him in. And again later she turns him in but eventually comes around to understand he is telling the truth. Rook is wonderful in her transition from insulted to enamored. And finally she shows her coquettish side as she plays the young wife of a farmer who agrees to put Hannay up for the night (wink wink) Three visions of beauty, three accents, three very different characters…and Rook smoothly moves from one to the other.

Marcus Truschinski, Casey Hoekstra, Laura Rook & Nate Burger, The 39 Steps, 2025. Photo by Dan Norman. Photo courtesy of APT!

And then we come to the Clowns. Now, no actual clowns were harmed in the making of this production and no actual clowns take part. Instead clowns here is the descriptive term that lets us know what activities Nate Burger and Casey Hoekstra are going to embark in. They are about to play multiple roles, many of them slapstick, many as a pair or duo, and here’s where I feel the Laurel and Hardy influences come into play. They play spies, policemen, salesmen on a train, a Scottish couple running a hotel, and the aforementioned young wife and older farmer. Sometimes in quick unison and sometimes back and forth and back and forth. And each time with change in costume and accent and age…and sometimes gender. In through the out door and wig on wig off or give me the other wig. And there is a moment on the train as they squeeze around the compartment that does seem like a clown car skit at the circus. These gentlemen are completely fluid and nonplussed through it all, and absolutely hilarious. One paean to Hitchcock, and I got lost in transition, but I think this bit belongs to Hoekstra, but as he plays a police officer on the rail platform talking with someone on the train. He speaks in a voice oddly reminiscent of a certain James Stewart! Bravo.

Besides director John Taylor Phillips who kept this all straight and moving in a jagged line, there are two other heroes here who don’t appear on stage. Scenic designer, Nathan Stubar, who made a city, railway, manor, hotel, moors, car, and biplane out of nothing right here on stage in the Touchstone Theater. A couple of step ladders and a cross ladder become a very effective and believable bi-plane! And costume designer, Holly Payne, who managed to keep the costumes in place at the exact moment they were needed and looking precisely right for the character…and if someone else besides Payne was responsible for the wigs on the clowns, give them a gold star for this season ender.

Laura Rook, Marcus Truschinski, Casey Hoekstra & Nate Burger, The 39 Steps, 2025. Photo by Dan Norman Photography. Photo courtesy of APT.

And one more thing: we don’t need no stinking sound effects when the director allows the cast to channel their inner eight year old selves and make the appropriate noises! And those of you sitting front row? You may end up being inwolved for a moment or two.

And as promised, Spoiler Alert (dad joke): When is a picture frame, not a picture frame? When it’s a rear window!

The 39 Steps runs in the American Players Theatre’s Touchstone Theater through November 30, 2025 but most shows are sold out so call the box office, just in case: More info here!

Extra Credit reading: the Playbill!

Recommended reading: ^^John Taylor Phillips Director’s Note! ^^

Casey Hoekstra & Nate Burger, The 39 Steps, 2025. Photo by Dan Norman. Photo courtesy of APT!