Soulstice Theatre takes the gritty, sexy musical Chicago into a strange dimension of Victoria's Secret lingerie-lots of it. Ambitious director/choreographer Michael Endter floods the old school gymnasium with black lace, long legs, bare chests and plumped cleavages. He's done an amazing job keeping the action moving, drilling intricate Fosse-like moves into his cast of variably-skilled but uniformly game performers. Lighting designer David Carter has miraculously transformed the gym into a glitzy nightclub.

What could be more perfect than staging Moliere's comedy The Misanthrope during an election year? The Boulevard Theatre hits the target with a production that scores on almost every level. The play, written in 1666, tells the story of Alceste, who may be the most famous misanthrope of all time. From his opening lines until his final speech, Alceste shows his general dislike for humanity. He's unafraid to tell people exactly what he thinks of them. He only equivocates on the subject of love, "where reason doesn't rule." Alceste is a prime example of this, as he pines for a young coquette. More than a half-dozen other characters populate the play . . .

Using an ambitious play-within-a-play format, the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s season-opening comedy Well stars accomplished actress Angela Iannone as the play’s actual playwright, Lisa Kron. As Kron, Iannone tells a series of semi-autobiographical stories and even brings her mother on board to watch the . . .

Using an ambitious play-within-a-play format, in the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s season-opening comedy Well, accomplished actress Angela Iannone takes on the role of playwright Lisa Kron and tells a series of semi-autobiographical stories. She brings her mother on board to watch the performance and make . . .

To raise money for their national tour behind their latest production, Paint the Town, the Bay View troupe Insurgent Theatre is throwing an 8 p.m. fundraiser tonight at Art Bar, with the support of nearly two dozen bars and restaurants from around the city. They’ll be raffling off donated liquor and goodies . . .

Playwright Neil Haven doesn't recall when or why he imagined an agoraphobic live-in elevator operator, but he does know why he wrote it down. There's an inherently dramatic dynamic to an offbeat character like that. That kind of character dynamic fits rather nicely in the center of a plot structure. The plot in question is that of Haven's new play Stuck, which opens Aug. 14th at the 10th Street Theatre. The play debuted last month on the campus at UW-Whitewater, where the production was developed . .

The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's opens its 34th season with Well, a satisfyingly hilarious new play by performance artist and playwright Lisa Kron. Using a play within a play format with an original twist, the incomparably accomplished Angela Iannone plays the author herself in a series of supposedly non-autobiographical vignettes based on true experiences and designed to serve as a "theatrical exploration of socially significant issues of universal significance"-or so Lisa tells us. She brings her mother on board to watch the performance and make sure that these "non-autobiographical"

Boulevard Theatre Artistic Director Mark Bucher has long talked about featuring actor David Flores in the lead of a Boulevard production. So when Flores showed interest in the idea of starring as the title character in Moliere's classic 17th-century comedy The Misanthrope, Bucher nabbed him. As a result, Boulevard Theatre will open its season with a production of the play on Tuesday, Aug. 12 . . .

Ladies, please have mercy on your poor husbands and resist the urge to drag them to Menopause: The Musical, the popular touring production which continues its run at the Marcus Center tonight with a 7:30 p.m. performance. No man can endure so many concentrated jokes about hot flashes, mood swings and chocolate . . .

Milwaukee theatergoers can’t seem to get enough of John McGivern. The actor and monologist, who does several solo shows a year, has stumbled on another hit with his new Another Midsummer Night McGivern, a follow-up to his successful collection of comical summertime reminiscences about growing up . . .