Tag: Musical Theater

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PSA: ANNOUNCING FIRST STAGE’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

ANNOUNCING FIRST STAGE’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
Explore Timeless Tales and New Adventures with
World Premiere Musical Winnie the Pooh: Forever Friends and more!

MILWAUKEE, Wis (March 26, 2026) – First Stage proudly announces its 2026–2027 Season, marking the organization’s 40th Anniversary with a vibrant lineup of beloved classics, imaginative adventures, and memorable family experiences.

“For 40 years, First Stage has been a place where friends and families come together to share stories that inspire conversation, imagination, wonder, and empathy,” shared Executive Artistic Director Jeff Frank. “This anniversary season celebrates timeless tales loved by all ages while inviting audiences to experience new adventures together. There’s never been a better time to make forever memories at First Stage.”

From whimsical tales to epic adventures, the 2026-2027 season offers something for every age.

GO DOG GO!  /  VE PERRO ¡VE!
October 3 – November 1, 2026  |  Ages 3+
Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
Ve Perro ¡Ve! comes to life on stage in a fast, funny, bilingual romp full of roller-skating, bicycle-riding, and car-driving dogs. P.D. Eastman’s classic is delightfully ridículo—and wonderfully fun for all ages!

DR. SEUSS’S HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!
November 21 – December 27, 2026  |  Ages 5+
Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Performing Arts Center
Experience the wit, wonder, and larger-than-life spirit audiences know and love, wrapped in toe-tapping songs and Seuss-ian spectacle. Bursting with humor, heart, and holiday magic, this musical celebration is a must-see event that invites audiences of all ages to rediscover the joy of the season.

EVERYBODY  |  Young Company Performance Project
December 4-13, 2026  |  Ages 13+
Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
Absurdly funny and deeply witty, this modern riff on the medieval morality play, Everyman, casts a different “Everybody” by lottery each performance, exploring life, death, and the meaning of it all.

WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS  |  World Premiere
January 29 – February 28, 2027  |  Ages 3+
Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Performing Arts Center
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood in this heartwarming world premiere musical filled with friendship, imagination, and a little bit of honey. When Christopher Robin returns with his granddaughter, Winnie-the-Pooh and friends remind us that the simplest moments together can mean the very most.

THE SNOW  |  Academy Production Lab
February 12 – 21, 2027  |  Ages 7+
Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
When an epic snowfall traps the villagers of tiny Kishka, young Theodore Sutton comes up with a daring solution. Whimsical, humorous, mysterious, and heartfelt, this play weaves a fantastical Grimmsian tale for the entire family.

TWELFTH NIGHT  |  Young Company Performance Project
March 12 – 21, 2027  |  Ages 12+
Goodman Mainstage Hall at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
A sparkling comedy of love, laughter, and chaos, this Shakespearean classic invites you into a world of witty wordplay, charming characters, and twists that keep you swooning until the very last scene. 

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE
April 2 – May 2, 2027  |  Ages 8+
Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center
Step through the wardrobe and discover the fantastical world of Narnia like never before! In this imaginative adaptation, Peter and Lucy return to the room where their adventure began — reminding us that even the smallest among us can change the world.

BROADWAY JUNIOR REVUE: PURE IMAGINATION  |  Theater Academy Production
May 14 – 23, 2027  |  All Ages
Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Performing Arts Center
Celebrate 40 years of First Stage with a brand new musical revue featuring our Theater Academy students performing songs from Broadway hits and Disney favorites, alongside stories that showcase the creativity and collaboration at the heart of First Stage since 1987.

Click here to learn more about the 2026-2027 season shows.

Families and friends can experience the magic with First Stage Family Packages, on sale now. These customizable packages allow families to choose the shows they love with maximum flexibility and savings, while unlocking exclusive perks:

  • Guaranteed lowest price all season — up to 50% savings!
  • Exclusive access and priority seat selection
  • Free and flexible ticket exchanges
  • $25 Coupon for 2026-2027 School Year Academy
  • Free Family Workshops: Pre-show education for the whole family
  • Exclusive Backstage Tours: Experience behind the scenes magic

Family Packages can purchased at firststage.org. Family Package families receive early access to seats, ensuring the best selection for the season’s most popular shows. Tickets start at $11. Single tickets go on sale May 1, when Family Package prices increase. First Stage also welcomes thousands of students and educators each season through its weekday matinee Field Trip Performances, giving young people the opportunity to experience live theater as part of their learning journey. First Stage offers affordable school matinee tickets along with classroom workshops that connect the productions to curriculum and social-emotional learning. These workshops help students explore storytelling, character, and themes before and after attending a performance, making theater an engaging extension of the classroom. Field Trips are on sale now.

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PSA: Next Act Theatre Announces Their 2026 – 2027 Season: Pure Entertainment!

Yes, I know, I am a bit behind on this one too. But better late than never and I bet you forgot what they are offering by now, SO, here’s a reminder:

Next Act Theatre Announces 2026-27 Season

Includes First-Ever New Play Commission, Two Wisconsin Premieres and a Modern Favorite

Milwaukee, WI – Next Act Theatre announced its 2026-27 season on Monday, February 9, 2026. With the overall season tagline “PURE ENTERTAINMENT,” this is the fourth Next Act Theatre season chosen and overseen by Artistic Director Cody Estle and Managing Director Libby Amato. The upcoming season boasts a World Premiere, Next Act’s first-ever commissioned new play, two Wisconsin Premieres never before seen on local stages and a modern favorite returning to Milwaukee for the first time in more than a decade. New season tickets alongside renewals of existing season tickets are now on sale. Single tickets will go on sale July 13, 2026. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Next Act Ticket Office at 414-278-0765 or through the Next Act website at www.nextact.org.

The lineup for the 2026-27 season includes:

  • TRAYF by Lindsay Joelle, September 16 – October 4, 2026
  • THE BOYS FROM BARABOO by Heidi Armbruster, December 2 – 20, 2026
  • IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, February 17 – March 7, 2027
  • AT THE WAKE OF A DEAD DRAG QUEEN by Terry Guest, April 21 – May 9, 2027

“This year’s season features a wonderful mix of new voices, Next Act veterans and theatrical powerhouses. Each of the four plays we have chosen leads with heart while engaging complex issues and thought-provoking themes … Together, these four productions create a season that is joyful, daring, entertaining and unmistakably Next Act,” said Artistic Director Cody Estle.

The 2026-27 season opens with the Wisconsin Premiere of TRAYF by Lindsay Joelle (September 16 – October 4, 2026). In 1990s New York City, Orthodox Jewish teens and lifelong best friends Zalmy and Shmuel are intent on saving the world from behind the wheel of their “Mitzvah Tank” van. But when a curious outsider deepens Zalmy’s interest in the secular world of rock and roll and roller skates, Shmuel will have to do everything in his power to keep his and Zalmy’s dreams intact. This road-trip bromance is a funny and heartwarming ode to the turbulence of youth, the universal suspicion that we don’t quite fit in and the faith and friends that see us through. Next Act Artistic Associate Elyse Edelman will make her Next Act directorial debut – her Next Act acting credits include CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, a staged reading of MRS. CHRISTIE and SWING STATE. She has directed at Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Third Avenue PlayWorks, and others. Rachael Zientek will return as an actor, having previously appeared in ALMOST, MAINE at Next Act, and A.J. Magoon, also seen at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks and Theatre Gigante,will make his Next Act debut.

Next Act will present its first-ever commissioned new play, the World Premiere of THE BOYS FROM BARABOO by Heidi Armbruster (December 2 – 20, 2026). Comedy! Songs! Entertainment! Step right up as Heidi Armbruster chronicles the rise and fall of the Ringling Brothers: five boys from Baraboo, Wisconsin. The story of their circus – the greatest show on Earth – is bookended by the brothers’ scrappy beginnings and difficult ends. THE BOYS FROM BARABOO tells the uniquely American story of a death-defying entertainment empire: music, storytelling, grit and charm create a tale that’s equal parts vaudeville revue and prestige drama. Next Act Artistic Director Cody Estle (previous direction: CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, THE TREASURER; SWING STATE) will direct. THE BOYS FROM BARABOO will be presented as part of World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals running throughout 2026.

After the new year, Next Act will stage IN THE NEXT ROOM or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl (February 17 – March 7, 2027). In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating “hysteria” in women (and occasionally men): the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor’s laboratory, his young wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter – and wonders what exactly is going on in the next room. From Sarah Ruhl, one of the most influential playwrights of this century, comes a smart, classy, and electrifying comedy about longing, intimacy,and what it truly means to love someone. Laura Rook will make her Next Act directorial debut – in addition to being a Core Company Actor at American Players Theatre, Rook directed ONCE UPON A BRIDGE at APT, co-directed SUMMER, 1976 at Forward Theater Company with Laura Gordon, and will direct AS YOU LIKE IT at APT in the 2026 summer season. Elyse Edelman will return after directing TRAYF earlier in the season to play Sabrina Daldry. Dee Dee Batteast, an actor, playwright and director who has appeared in three seasons at APT, including acting in PICNIC and THE WINTER’S TALE this past summer, five productions at the Goodman Theatre and her self-produced one-woman show NO AIDS, NO MAIDS, will make her Next Act debut as Elizabeth. Playwright Ruhl is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Pulitzer Prize nominee – IN THE NEXT ROOM is widely hailed as one of her seminal works. The play received three Tony Award nominations, including Best Play. Next Act’s production will be the first production in Milwaukee in more than a decade.

To close out the season, Next Act will produce the Wisconsin Premiere of AT THE WAKE OF A DEAD DRAG QUEEN by Terry Guest (April 21 – May 9, 2027). Courtney Berringers would like to welcome you to her wake! But—make no mistake—this ain’t your grandma’s funeral. From African Gods and Goddesses to Judy Garland and Whitney Houston, AT THE WAKE OF A DEAD DRAG QUEEN uses legends, icons, camp and drama to tell the story of a pair of drag queens living (and dying) in rural Georgia in 2004. Terry Guest’s whirlwind play explores identity and illness while unapologetically celebrating Black, queer life with all of its sorrows and joys. Come party at the wake – bring your own heels! Dee Dee Batteast will return to direct after acting in IN THE NEXT ROOM at Next Act in February and March.

More casting will be announced for all four shows at a later date.

Next Act will reduce the length of all four productions in the 2026-27 season from four weeks to three weeks. Current subscribers with tickets to performances in the fourth week will be contacted with options for their subscriptions.

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Celebrating Fats Waller With Ain’t Misbehavin’: And The Joint Is Jumpin’

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater is celebrating the music of Fats Waller with an ensemble presentation of over 30 of his songs in the Stackner Cabaret. And if you don’t have fun, it’s your own dang fault.

Pictured Amahri Edwards-Jones and Jarran V. Muse Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo Courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Yes, indeed, Director E. Faye Butler has put together a solid ensemble of performers and then given them the room to move: sing, vamp, tease, and perform like there is no tomorrow but like they’ve been doing this forever. And Choreographer Kenneth E. Ingram weighs in with on stage moves that delight and allow the cast to swing, jump, jitterbug, waltz, etc in any number of ways that enhance the stories in Waller’s songs.

And it is the stories in the songs that drive this play…so some numbers are full on ensemble pieces but many break down into duets or solo pieces, and Butler and Ingram make those changes and shifts fluid and essentially invisible to the audience, but Lighting Designer Maaz Ahmed, knows just where to light and whom to light and what lights are best for the mood of the piece being performed. That helps draw cleanly the audience along the story lines.

Pictured L to R: Brad Raymond, Rae Davenport, Amahri Edwards-Jones, Katherine Alexis Thomas, Jarran V. Muse. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

And on to the ensemble/cast: We have five outstanding performers, and again I have to give credit to Butler for pulling together these strong singers and strong personas and making it feel like family on stage. Our cast is Rae Davenport, Amahri Edwards-Jones, Jarran Muse, Brad Raymond, and Katherine Alexis Thomas. And in fact they do feel like family particularly when they are teasing or kidding around with each other. Now you will notice that there aren’t any roles assigned to our five here. That’s because their roles and relationships shift and mutate as they progress through the Waller songbook. So as the stories shift and as we transition from one song to the next, the roles they are playing shift as well. But all of them can move from shy to coy to flirty to sexy to sultry to seductive to suggestive to elegant and back again depending on what they are singing about. And where are they performing? Well, from speakeasy to fancy nightclub to downtown at the Waldorf to a radio station studio (WMKE is back on the air YKIYK) and back with just a bit of vaudeville thrown in.

Pictured L to R: Amahri Edwards-Jones, Rae Davenport, Katherine Alexis Thomas. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Our three women, Davenport, Edwards-Jones, and Thomas are fearless and willing to use their entire range. So at times they are in solid aria mode, full throated with vibrato in full display but when the mood calls for it, they aren’t afraid to go high to the point of break up and brittle to make a comedic point! And the men, Muse and Raymond, are willing to go that route too from fill the room to a bit up there from confidence and swagger to vocal eye-rolls and laughter. Raymond and Edward-Jones in particular are our comedic foils, just watching them move is a delight.

Pictured William Foster McDaniel. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

But none of this would work without the solid piano work of William Foster McDaniel. This 85 year old musical conductor and keyboard phenom is front and center on a grand (pun intended) sounding upright piano that so perfectly projects McDaniel’s playing . Piano is the only accompaniment and McDaniel is flawless and totally in tune with the music, working without sheet music. The Rep is lucky to have him…he’s been conducting or performing Ain’t Misbehavin’ for quite a while now, all across the country.

Spoiler alert: As we move into the finale, the cast gets to step out of character just a bit and instead of lyrics, gets to scat perform as different jazz musical instruments. It’s a lot of fun.

Pictured William Foster McDaniel. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Now, most of these songs are nearing 100 years old, so the lyrics may seem dated and at times the content is defined by its place and time in America’s musical history…but there is nothing but happy here.

And now for a personal sartorial decision: fedora or bowler. I think the bowler…

Ain’t Misbehavin’ will be presented in the Stackner Cabaret from now through April 26, 2026. Additional information and tickets can be found here.

Extra Credit Reading: The Program

Pictured Amahri Edwards-Jones and Jarran V. Muse Photo by Michael Brosilow. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.