Is there any literary character more malevolent than Shakespeare's Richard III? Deformed of body, malignant of mind, Richard murders his way to the throne of England. The “poisonous bunch-backed toad” is eventually undone, but not before killing...

Next Act Theatre's production of Morris Panych's Vigil is a work of art. The darkly comic story of a man waiting for his aunt to die requires a precise balance that director Mary MacDonald Kerr and company execute quite well...

The Milwaukee Rep creates a powerful stage drama from a classic of American literature, as it presents Christopher Sergel's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. An ensemble provides vocal scoring to a brilliantly balanced cast, including...

The Sisters Rosensweig, much like its titular siblings, holds varying traits and attitudes, at times at odds with one another. Off the Wall Theatre's current production of the Wendy Wasserstein Broadway hit tries its best, and at times succeeds...

A live full-cast stage feature consists of a great number of smaller moments all delicately interconnected. When it goes wrong, there are any number of reasons why it did. When it doesn’t there are just as many reasons why it worked. Occasionally there is a genuine moment that hits that reaffirms the entire reason for going tot the theatre in the first place. Such a moment happened “opening ...

As the Milwaukee Rep’s Bomb-itty Of Errors brings a Shakesepare/old-school hip-hop fusion to the stage of the Stackner Cabaret, Renaissance Theaterworks presents another tribute to the playwright to a much smaller stage a few blocks further south. As much potential as a hip-hop fusion has for introducing new audiences to Shakespeare, James DeVita’s unique take on In Acting Shakespeare would...

As the summer begins, a reasonably large number of people begin to descend upon the tiny town of Spring Green Wisconsin for various reasons. A fair number of us will have gone there this summer for the American Players Theatre’s annual summer season. With some really great actors and impressive production design in a beautiful spacae outdoors, it’s a really great experience. The company�s re...

The American Players’ Theatre's second Shakespeare show to open this summer is one of ShakespeareÂ’s problem plays. Not only is it a rather unseemly mix of comedy and tragedy, itÂ’s also get kind of a strange ending that feels a bit less than resolved even as the mechanics of the plot seemed to be making a valiant effort to wrap everything up in the end. The only way this play can feel ...

First Stage Children’s Theatre continues its season with an accessibly complex show. The play opens with a chase. A pair of orphan brothers—Prosper and Bonafice are on the run from the police. Directed by Jeff Frank, the action takes the audience straight into the play, rushing through the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theatre—in and around a beautifully iconic set by designer Sarah Hunt-Frank. The overall feel of the opening action sets the stage for the rest of the play—it’s stylishly shadowy without actually developing the kind of darkness that would be frightening to children. Prosper and Bonafice are quickly taken-in from the chase by a group of orphan thieves led by the title character—a kid with more than a few secrets. As the play opens, we are introduced to a particularly well-realized wardrobe by costume designer Pamela Rehberg. The costume design is sharp and simple without looking stagy. The Thief Lord’s birdlike mask and flowing robe could’ve had more detail, but it would’ve taken away from the costume’s overall impact. His friends were all classily dressed as well—most notably the look Rehberg designed for the girl who calls herself Hornet. Adapted from a book by Cornelia Funke, The Thief Lord is a relatively fast-paced adventure adapted for the stage by actor/playwright James DeVita. The story follows the two orphan brothers as they get caught-up in potentially dangerous events with a group of kids who work for the thief lord. Funke’s plot allows for a refreshing amount of dramatic complexity in the show. The Thief Lord are only stealing for practical reasons. Prosper and Boniface are only working with them because it keeps them fed and protected. They are only on the run from the police because their mother has passed away and only one of them is being adopted. They have run away in the interest of staying together as a family. Every questionable, evidently immoral decision in the story is part of a larger, more complex situation. DeVtia’s script does a brilliant job of crystallizing this complexity for the stage in such a way that makes it ultimately quite accessible, even for the younger kids in the audience. The clever balance of this, developed by Funke and brilliantly framed for the stage by DeVita As a whole, the play is almost sophisticated enough to entertain adults as much as it does children, which is the real measure of classic children’s fare. The story is interesting enough for everyone and there are quite a few twists in the plot, but it all ultimately heads in a very predictable direction. The Thief Lord’s failure to completely entertain adult audiences isn’t a huge problem. Performances are, by and large, very entertaining. The production rotates between two different children’s casts. Opening night’s “Guardian Angel“ cast put in a really dynamic performance that interacted well with the professional adult actors in the cast. Joe Foust is charming as Victor Getz

Read More

German author Cornelia Funke isn’t nearly as well known internationally as more successful children’s authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. The author of the Inkheart trilogy is far better known in Europe than she is in the rest of the world. Far from being any kind of fantasy visionary, Funke has a love of storytelling not all that visible in the work of Meyer and a literate sense o...