On Stage

Jon Peterson. – Photo: Courtesy

Jon Peterson felt the joy in entertainment slipping away, as talent gave way to contemporary, negative social expression. To remedy that, the English entertainer decided to bring back to life seven of the greatest entertainers who ever lived, to remind people of what they are in danger of losing.

“Billy Elliott” appears at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and the Overture Center for the Arts in 2012.

All the world may be a stage and all of us players, but when it comes to legitimate theater the options are better than ever in Wisconsin. Your ticket to Broadway’s hottest shows may be closer than you think.

Jaime Jastrab and Beth Mohollen in “Circle Mirror Transformation.” - Photo: Courtesy

The “play within a play” has been a popular conceit for playwrights dating all the way back to Shakespeare and before. But fewer authors have tackled the “preparing for a play within a play” scenario, an approach that requires a little more forethought in its development.

Off the Wall Theatre's stage production of ''Baby Jane'' stars Mark Hagen (aka ''Dear Ruthie'') and Jeremy Welter. It runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 6. – Photo: Off the Wall Theatre

With apologies to the late, great Bette Davis, fasten your seatbelts. Off the Wall Theatre's production of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" means we're in for some campy nights.

Graphic: Jim Lautenbach

Milwaukee has a wide-ranging and exciting theater scene, and the upcoming season finds local companies performing at the top of their games. The question is not what to see, but how to take it all in. Here’s a partial list and comprehensive links to help you decide.

The Milwaukee Rep’s production of Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Ten Chimneys” runs Aug. 30-Sept. 25 in the Quadracci Powerhouse. Go to www.milwaukeerep.com or call 414-224-9490.

How difficult would it be to mount a play about the greatest theatrical couple who ever lived? The Milwaukee Rep takes on the challenge later this month when it opens its 2011-12 season with “Ten Chimneys,” playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s comedy about Broadway giants Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at home in their Genesee Depot, Wis., estate.

''Million Dollar Quartet'' opens the Time Warner Cable Broadway series and runs Nov. 15 to 20 at Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. – Photo: Courtesy

On Dec. 4, 1956, Memphis record producer Sam Phillips hosted a spontaneous recording session with four artists at his Sun Studio that changed popular music history. That fateful meeting has been recreated as "Million Dollar Quartet," the show that opens the Time Warner Cable Broadway series and runs Nov. 15-20 at Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.

Renaissance Theater-works’ production of Don Nigro’s “Gorgons” runs Oct. 14 to Nov. 6 at 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. Call 414-291-7800 or go to www.r-t-w.com. – Photo: Renaissance Theaterworks

A servant is dismembered, a wheelchair occupant is tortured, and heads roll … literally. Can comedy get any blacker than that?

Picture yourself as Laurence Olivier, Noël Coward, Katherine Hepburn or any of many theatrical luminaries of the 1930s and 1940s. You’ve been invited to Ten Chimneys, the summer home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, then Broadway’s most powerful acting couple. The fact that you received an invitation makes you part of the theatrical elite.