Tag: Musical Theater

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Music and Mystery Produce Magic In The MKE Rep’s ‘Prelude To A Kiss a musical’

Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

At the end of last season I was about musical’d out so I cautiously approached the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s opening musical. But not any longer, I am sold on Prelude To A Kiss!! This is a world premiere directed by Kenneth Ferrone. Prelude To A Kiss was developed in partnership with the South Coast Repertory and after being performed there is now being presented at the Rep.

With music by Daniel Messe and lyrics by Messe and Sean Hartley, writer Craig Lucas has adapted his play to a musical. And they have given us a bit of a gem in contemporary musicals. My favorite Rep musical since In The Heights. The story, briefly, features Peter who is searching for something, not quite sure what, and is ready to leave for environs unknown, until his best friend Taylor introduces him to a neighbor, Rita. And then all bets are off and we are transfixed by their whirlwind romance and easy assimilation into each others lives…until they get married…and the mystery begins.

And then comes the story telling. Lucas, Messe, and Hartley present a pretty straightforward attempt at documenting young and older love, its ins and outs and ups and downs, and the models we have for partnership and aging. The characters are clearly defined and fully rounded and we are drawn to each and everyone of them!! And the music follows suit. I really appreciated that few of the songs here are big production numbers where story gets lost or the lyrics are unclear or we seem to be going on a tangent that is good for spectacle while short on actual story. It really works as wonderful theater when you can watch and listen to couples or friends or other pairings as they converse directly in song and we were are able to savor every moment.

And the cast is simply marvelous and obviously are having fun working together. But of course the principals need some particular mention.

Rita and Peter, Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

Caitlin Houlahan is amazing as Rita. Flirty and precocious (yes) and sexy and then later moody and withdrawn. But Houlahan has this confident stage presence that just draws you to her and then she sings with a voice you just want to hear in every song in the performance. I hope that she has the opportunity to return to the Rep in future productions. She was a favorite of mine and very obviously a favorite of the entire audience as well.

Peter is wonderfully worked out by Chris McCarrell. Peter moves through a number of conundrums, first so eagerly giving himself over to Rita just as he was set out to leave town and then trying to figure out her complete change in persona after they are married. Others try to convince him that marriage changes people but he has the fortitude to buck that trend and discover the truth…and then fix it! And McCarrell holds his own in song and brings out the best in Peter and the best in Houlahan as well.

Peter, Rita, Rita’s mom and dad, and a certain banjo. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

And other favorites are James Moye as Rita’s dad and Karen Ziemba as her mother. They are professionals in their careers but free spirits in their personal lives…and you can feel where Rita gets her own independence. There is a banjo involved (but in Milwaukee an accordion might have been a reasonable substitute). And Keirsten Hodgens’ sarcastic but loving Angie, Rita’s best friend and co-worker is also a stand out performance here.

Julius, Rita, and Peter at the wedding. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.

And a Milwaukee favorite, Jonathan Gillard Daly, makes a first act appearance as a strange unknown man at Rita’s and Peter’s wedding and sets the whole mystery plot in motion…and we later learn that he is Julius and will become an integral part of the happy ending that we all are hoping for.

And we mustn’t forget the orchestra. They are in residence on the second floor of the stage/apartment building and it is wonderful to have live accompaniment here. And the stage set at nearly three stories tall gives us some insight into why the downtown complex is being remodeled. I don’t think this set would have worked there as built.

Because of the extensive remodel of the Rep’s downtown theater complex, Prelude is being performed at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, WI. It runs through October 19, 2024 and additional information and tickets can be found here. There is plenty of free parking at the center and it is warm and inviting and very comfortable!

Angie, Rita, Taylor, and Peter. Photos courtesy of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Michael Brosilow photographer.
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Post #501, Four Years, and I Find Out I Am A Theater Critic!

WOW! Jane Eyre, The Musical, At The Lake Country Playhouse was my 500th Post here on An Intuitive Perspective. WOW! Yeah, I know not all of them are scintillating and insightful commentary on the arts but the Monday Music feature instead…but I hope you are enjoying all of it! And I apparently lost count and missed our 4th Anniversary on March 20, 2024…you do lose track of time when you are having fun. And now, I am a theater critic as well!

So, how did I get here? I retired from my career as a computer programmer in 2018. And back in 2010 I was invited to contribute to someone else’s blog and I enjoyed the writing and comments and such. It was on another topic, not the arts.

And then I had an opportunity to work with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater as part of their Social Media Club. A little social group who were invited by the Rep to attend their performances and then comment on our experiences across social media. And to share and re-share the Rep’s various social media posts. I really took that to heart and wrote some pretty extensive and detailed reports on Facebook that I referred to as a ‘response’. That was a lot of fun and I started doing similar posts around other events.

And then I started to tire of my participation in that other blog but knew that I didn’t necessarily want to stop writing so I started An Intuitive Perspective. And the first thing I did was republish all of my older items from Facebook and then proceed with my new content. And once published, I share the link around a variety of social media including of course Facebook. That’s the bare facts…but how did I become a theater critic?

Well I was writing ‘responses’ to the shows that I was seeing at the Rep and as a long time subscriber at the American Player’s Theatre in Spring Green. And then a dear friend from the Social Media Club, Kimberly Laberge, Artistic Director at Kith & Kin Theatre Collective, invited me out to Hartland to experience the presentation of Cabaret that she was directing at the Lake Country Playhouse. It was an amazing play and an amazing cast and a cozy jewel box theater and I have been invited back again and again and I am in awe of the quality of the plays that they take on and the high level quality of each and every presentations.

And then somehow, I wish I remembered the history here, I also became involved with First Stage, which is a children’s theater in Milwaukee, that presents full blown musicals in the Todd Wehr Theater in the Marcus Performing Arts Center and smaller more serious fare in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. The PAC shows blend a cast of adults and young people in shows that will appeal to all ages…and I love them…and I love to watch the reactions of the youngsters in the audience as they experience real theater featuring their peers and their stories. And the other venue generally features the First Stage’s Young Company, high school age actors presenting more complex stories in an in the round black box theater…things like an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People or Shakespeare’s Henry IV (part 1). I hope that we see many of these young actors playing at our local adult theaters eventually.

And I have been invited to see any number of other small theater groups put on amazing theater in small theater settings that I didn’t even know existed before now. And I am so grateful for the experience.

Now one thing that I regret. I had started an idea to present posts about smaller art museums around the state and mid-west under the title A Place For A Muse. I have only written two so far. I need to do better.

And what is this bit about being a theater critic? Well, as I said I have always labeled my articles and posts about theater as responses because I hadn’t studied theater or criticism directly. So I didn’t feel confident using the term review. But after attending the Lake Country Player’s presentation of A Rock Sails By, and talking with director James Baker Jr and lead actor in Rock (and Artistic Director of LCP ) Sandra Baker-Renick, I was convinced that what I write is in fact a review…and that is what they will be from now on! So I am a theater critic now, I guess!

So thank you to all who visit here and read my scribblings. And thank you to all of the theater people who have adopted me and allowed me to see your marvelous shows and write about them with abandon. It has been a very rewarding four years…and I hope we can continue!!!

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Jane Eyre, The Musical, At The Lake Country Playhouse

I read Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre in eighth grade. I know that I enjoyed it. But that was just over sixty years ago. So at a stratospheric level I have some memory of the story line…but the details have been lost in the mist. So I was eager to see how much of the story would return to me while watching the Lake Country Players present Jane Eyre, The Musical. Or even more in question was, how can a musical present the whole story? Well, my friends, the hardest working stage in the lake country delivered and delivered…and Jane Eyre fans won’t miss out on any of their favorite characters or any of their cherished plot lines!

Paige Lombardi as Young Jane, Emily Keiner as Jane Eyre, and Jaela Landowski as a schoolgirl. Photo courtesy of Lake Country Players, Photographer: Breanne Brennan

Playwrights John Caird (book and lyrics) and Paul Gordon (music and lyrics) have indeed provided us with the complete story of Jane Eyre (yes,yes, I know some small events had to be glossed over or skipped to fit the story into a musical) but they also very wisely maintained the first person feel of the presentation in the grand atmosphere created by Charlotte Bronte in the novel. So many of Jane’s recitations or asides to the audience are spoken by members of the ensemble in rapid succession as we watch Jane assimilate the situation she finds herself in at that particular moment. And yes it is a large and very skilled ensemble playing multiple roles, as 28 actors present the story through 2 acts and 39 songs! And as I mentioned, LCP’s hardest working stage? The actors also completed dozens of set changes that keep our heads spinning and well as Jane’s. Director Breanne Brennan, choreographer Thom Cauley, and stage manager Ashley Williams have created a mystery of fluidity on stage as the story and music proceed apace! At one point I think I saw 25 people on the stage for one of the late play ensemble numbers.

And we have two Jane Eyre’s! Paige Lombardi exhibits the youthful exuberance of a young girl but already has the drive and moxy that the adult Jane is going to need. Particularly moving is her interaction with cousin John Reed and her aunt Mrs. Reed that results in her exile to Lowood Institution. And there are a number of transitional pieces in the musical where she appears with Emily Keiner as our adult Jane that illustrate the bridge from youthful Jane to her full adult self. Keiner owns Jane Eyre here as she makes her own decisions to determine her own life path and she perfectly and demonstrably shifts from love and happiness to the crestfallen woman whose hopes are dashed as the secrets of Thornfield Hall and Mr. Rochester come to light. How Keiner so easily makes these transitions is a talent that I hope we see more of at LCP in coming seasons.

left to right, Erin Sura as Mrs. Fairfax, Emily Keiner as Jane Eyre, and Ezekial N. Drews as Edward Rochester. Photo courtesy of Lake Country Players, Photographer: Breanne Brennan

Ezekial N. Drews is similarly gifted as he portrays Edward Rochester. Drews has a character who runs from intimidating and surly patrician, to a stately and mannered gentleman, to a seductive wooing suitor, and finally a contrite and mild, defeated man…Drews missed nary a step in these various miens and certainly portrayed the Rochester that readers will remember from the novel.

A pure delightful character and lighter space in the musical is Reagan Renner as Adele, the student who Jane is responsible for while governess at Thornfield Hall. Her exuberance and sassy caricature present just the right bit humor at just the right time. Particularly as she mimics Mrs. Fairfax’s animated scolding just out of sight of the other characters on stage.

Erin Sura as Mrs. Fairfax and Emily Keiner as Jane Eyre. Photo courtesy of Lake Country Players, Photographer: Breanne Brennan

And some of the tenderest albeit sad scenes feature Gabriella George as Jane’s best friend, Helen Burns, at Lowood. Her interplay with Lombardi as the young Jane is very very touching and then her death during the Typhus outbreak and Jane’s grieving are particularly touching moments…far more so than some of the adult heartbreak…and George is a major player in the success of these scenes! Another actor who I hope finds a place in future LCP seasons.

And one last bit about the set: LCP often uses visuals projected on the back wall of the stage to set the feeling and locale for each change of scene. Director Brennan certainly put a lot of thought into what was selected here. She created a number of slides that resemble watercolors and drawings that not only tell us we are in an attic or school room or garden…but they are also depicted in a gray and just out of focus manner that clearly tells us that we are in a 19th C. Gothic story.

Paige Lombardi as young Jane and Gabriella George as Helen Burns and in the background, Emily Keiner as Jane Eyre. Photo courtesy of Lake Country Players. Photographer Breanne Brennan.

Jane Eyre, The Musical continues through July 21, 2024 at the Lake Country Playhouse in Hartland WI. Ticket and other information available here. It was sold out at the performance that I attended. RUNTIME: 2 hours, 30 minutes. 15 Minute Intermission.