PSA: Milwaukee Repertory Theater Cancels Remaining Dates For “Dad’s Season Tickets” .

Yesterday the Milwaukee Repertory Theater announced that the remaining dates for “Dad’s Season Tickets” have been canceled. Here is the announcement from social media:

As a result of COVID-19 cases with vaccinated members of the “Dad’s Season Tickets” cast, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the remaining week of performances to safeguard the health of our artists, staff and audiences.

Our COVID health and safety protocols have been robust and our ongoing testing protocols with our cast and staff did exactly what they were designed to do – detect COVID-19 prior to it being able to spread.

Our Ticket Office will contact those who purchased tickets to one of these performances, all tickets will be refunded in full.

Although a sad circumstance for the Rep and those of you anticipating seeing this delightful play, I have to give the Rep credit for making the tough and correct decision. Best wishes for a healthy continuation of their theater season as new plays start to open after the first of the year.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 2021 Edition of A Christmas Carol.

Yes it’s been two years since the last time the Milwaukee Repertory Theater opened their annual holiday run of Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol. And even though it was a Tuesday school night the audience was ready for some theater magic! And once again the Mark Clements adaptation of this Dickens classic delivers!

But before we get to the actors, lets talk about the action a bit. The most amazing and under appreciated part of the Rep’s Christmas Carol is the stage! Again and again, the stage rotates and resets on turn tables or giant lazy Susans if you will to present us with Scrooge’s office, London Streets, the Cratchit home, Belle’s home, more London Streets, Mr. Fezziwig’s shop, and the myriad sites that our various ghosts take our beleagered Scrooge to! It seems so effortless and natural but I can’t imagine the effort to make it all work just so!

And of course this year we have the long awaited return of Lee Ernst as Scrooge. He was after all meant to fill the role last year but was pandemic diverted to play Marley in the Rep’s streaming presentation of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol instead.

Lee Ernst as Scrooge

And Mr. Ernst did not disappoint! So completely made up for the part, he delivered the cantankerous Scrooge on the streets of London and in his offices, easily delivering the fearful Scrooge with his encounters with Marley’s Ghost and the Ghost of Christmas Past, to the somewhat belligerent and fed up Scrooge with the Ghosts of Christmas Future and Present, to the transformed and very human Scrooge post re-awakening.

And I had heard that there was a new ghost and was concerned that my personal favorite, long time Rep member, Mark Corkins wasn’t returning. But I was relieved to see his name in the playbill and I relaxed when he made his appearance as Marley’s ghost! Probably his scariest Rep role (well except for maybe his appearance in Endgame) and he’s taken full ownership of the character!

But there is a NEW ghost of note! Kevin Kantor is the Ghost of Christmas Past! Scary? Yes scary but not in the usual ugly or menacing way of a ghost or monster. But instead, behind a costume of white and glitter and dreadfully black lipstick, they control and manipulate Scrooge through the events and visions that will eventually touch his soul. And in such a fluid and elegant manner that you wouldn’t find it at all threatening out of context. !!

Now in my little section of the audience, there was a wave of noticeable energy every time Tiny Tim appeared! When you purchase a single ticket you never know who you will find yourself seated next to…but Tuesday night I was seated amongst the Cratchit family! The Crachits? Well not really, but the parents, grandparents, and extended family of Lainey Techtmann, who plays Tiny Tim this season. I almost got invited to the family holiday party…almost…sigh! What a wonderful bunch of people!

Lainey Techtmann as Tiny Tim

If you go: A Christmas Carol runs through December 24, 2021 at the Pabst Theater! Give yourself some extra time before the show because you will need to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test at the door. And masks are required!!!

And I think I heard the Pabst Theater yield a short satisfied sigh when the snow started to fall on the audience once again.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Opens Their Main Stage with Steel Magnolias!

I have never seen this play before and I hadn’t seen either of the movies, so I only had a vague idea of what to expect. Of course there would be 1980s era Southern dialect and atmosphere and I expected the one liners and overall humor…but I wasn’t quite ready for the drama and heartbreak. And after doing a bit of background on this today, I also didn’t realize that this is actually based on a true story from playwright Robert Harling’s life and the death of his sister. Thankfully, he was able to make art and reach out to us in his sorrow.

While waiting for curtain, we get to peruse Collette Pollard’s incredible set of Truvy’s beauty salon. Thankfully the script lets us know where we are because I was wondering how someone could successfully run a salon out of doors in Louisiana…but we are looking into Truvy’s place uninhibited by the walls of the car port her husband enclosed so she could support them! And we can sit and wonder how the Rep found all of the correct hair dryers and stylist stations and such as well. But this set design makes perfect sense and utilizes the Rep’s thrust stage to perfection, giving the characters space to work and the audience the sense of time and place of the story.

Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater

One other thing that does not inhibit our enjoyment of the play is the male characters! They only live here through the stories and conversation of the six women who inhabit the salon. So the focus is more salient to our story…and even for those who know the movie and enjoyed it…the stage play will be a new experience to enjoy and savor.

Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater

We are quickly introduced to all of the characters and the initial focus is on Shelby, the bride to be, and the customer of the day. So there’s a lot of joy here and a lot of conversation that brings out the personalities of all six women pretty quickly and we get to know the salon’s dynamic! Little do we expect there are little clues here as to the drama that is about to unfold behind the humor and how the mood will change…but the relationships strengthen and hold the women together. But Shelby will come back into focus again…and given that focus, Phoebe Gonzalez plays our Shelby to perfection as she grows and becomes aware of her own wants and needs and the focus on her own life. A very poignant and skilled transition.

And don’t forget Rebecca Hirota as Truvy Jones, who runs the salon, takes a risk on a new stylist (Annelle played by Maeve Moynihan), and provides the common ground for the disparate characters who are her customers. Ms. Hirota has clearly taken to this role as if it were originally her own!

And M’Lynn is Shelby’s mother and in the early going you don’t really expect her to step out or step up from the initial impression we catch in the early going. But she does and as the situation takes its turns for the worse, she finds a new strength and resolve and oh my goodness, Janet Ulrich Brooks reaches for those peaks of emotion and helps us deal with our grief through her efforts to deal with hers!

Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater

And of course we have Ouiser played by Meg Thalken, who is the perfect curmudgeon and foil who has simply been in a bad mood for forty years! And Tami Workentin as Clairee, a recent widow who brings some ‘class’ and ‘refinement’ to the mix…and of course football! And the tentative Annelle, Maeve Moynihan, who develops into Truvy’s right hand and a forward and determined individual after being reborn in her religion. The perfect characters to round out our cast and crew in 1980s Louisiana.

So, even if you have seen the movie, seeing this play live in the Quadracci Theater will be a new and special treat that shouldn’t be missed! These women will tell you a funny and moving story live and in person!

Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater