� The name Neil Simon has become something of an automatic punch line in the younger crowd of Milwaukee theatre people. The playwright who was so popular .in the middle of last century continues to have appeal all over the country, but with so many contemporary comic playwrights providing such life to contemporary theatre, Simon seems a bit antiquated and out of touch. In spite of this, ther...

The standard American musical is a campy, stagy affair that makes almost anything seem completely absurd. Given the right treatment, waiting in line at the DMV, shopping for groceries or even doing one’s taxes could be transformed into a quite successful Broadway musical complete with huge sets and massive song and dance routines. If only Broadway could take a brief pause from its obsession with...

At 7:30 pm tonight, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan will pull into UW-Whitewater's Young Auditorium to present its production of A Christmas Carol. The show boasts a cast of 27. One of those actors will, of course, be playing Scrooge. Half an hour earlier in the heart of the theatre district, James Pickering will be taking the stage as Scrooge. The single most recognizable character in all of Charles...

Somewhere into last night, it occurred to me that I was in Elm Grove watching someone getting choked onstage for the third time in as many months . . .  and I’m certain there are one or two instances of stage choking  I can’t remember. I don’t know if that’s any kind of indicator of it being a particularly violent theatre season or not. And I’m not opposed to staged violence. If the...

The Sunset Playhouse has announced that it will be holding open auditions for its production of Inspecting Carol—a comedy inspired by Gogol’s The Government Inspector. The Daniel J. Sullivan comedy is set in a Midwestern theatre preparing to put on a production of A Christmas Carol in the midst of news that its government funding has been cut. The theatre’s only hopes of survival rest in a ...

After a July 9th – 13th extended weekend of five shows in as many days, it was a bit strange going to my one opening of the weekend. (Other obligations have pulled me away from this weekend’s Uprooted show. I'm disappointed to be missing it.) The trip out to Elm Grove by bus found me arriving in Elm Grove roughly a half hour prior to the Sunset Playhouse’s  opening night of FAME—The Mu...

When a movie gets adapted into a stage musical, which is then turned into a musical movie, (The Producers, Hairspray, etc.) it kind of feels like the entertainment industry is eating itself—like big money is playing it so safe with its ideas that they’ve become inbred. But when a movie gets turned into a long-running TV series, then a stage musical, then gets adapted into a short-lived reality...

The Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove is getting set to start its new season. The opening show is a production of the Jerome Lawrence/ Robert Lee adaptation of the classic Patrick Dennis novel Auntie Mame. It’s the story of a young man who finds himself in the custody of an iconoclastic individualist with no sympathy at all for conformity. It’s difficult to imagine any stage adaptation of the nov...

The end of the month is ahead and with it, the end of the traditional theatre season. It’s a strange time privy to a lot of odd traveling shows from out of state, at least one 24 hour play and a few other odds and ends. For those in the mode for something a little less offbeat—those interested in something a little more glossy and traditional who can’t wait for A Chorus Line to come to the M...

Auditions announcements flutter into my email occasionally. Here are three upcoming auditions that sound promising: FAME—YOU’RE GONNA LIVE FOREVER (MAYBE) The Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove is staging an upcoming summer production of the1988 David De Silva/ Jose Fernandez musical FAME. Based on the 1980 film and subsequent long-running TV series, the story follows a group of students at a New Y...