Al Pacino came back again and Jessica Chastain showed up for the first time. “Annie” returned and so did “Evita” and “Elf.” Katie Holmes made a second appearance and that old stalwart “The Lion King” celebrated its 15th anniversary. Yes, 2012 was a year of old and new, theatrically speaking.
It also was a year in which the theater community tried to keep the show going despite several disasters – a natural one in Superstorm Sandy and two man-made ones in misleading monologist Mike Daisey and the phantom investors of “Rebecca.” None of those, of course, made our Top 10 list of the best moments in 2012:
Lavish costumes, romance, familiar songs and a storyline about a young girl training to become a high-class prostitute – what better way to ring in the holidays?
Nothing, according to Dale Gutzman, whose Off the Wall Theatre celebrates the season with “Gigi.” The 1958 Lerner and Lowe musical about a Parisienne courtesan and her “vieux protecteur,” which opens Dec. 14, is designed to be an engaging theatrical holiday truffle, but one with complexities at its center, Gutzman says.
Don your gay apparel and get ready to “ho, ho, ho.” The holiday season is fast upon us – and with it comes a wealth of theatrical fare designed to make your yuletide gayer than ever. Local theatrical companies are doing their best to put you in the holiday spirit and, God bless them everyone, the entertainment is as rich as the holiday meals that you’ll vow to work off in January.
Wanda Sykes appears at 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 at The Riverside in Milwaukee. –Photo: Courtesy
Out actor, comedian and Emmy Award-winning writer Wanda Sykes was feeling “quite relieved” today, following President Barack Obama’s re-election last night.
Kyle Leland.
For every loss, there is equal gain, and for every gain equal loss, according to Kyle Leland. That life philosophy has helped the out dancer and choreographer through difficult times, but his current role as dance captain for the traveling production of “Memphis” is most definitely a time of gain and increased self-awareness.
Sarah Day as Ruth Steiner and Laura Frye as Lisa Morrison in “Collected Stories.” -PHOTO: Mark Frohn
One repays a teacher badly by remaining only a pupil, according to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. But if the pupil plucks a plum that the teacher unintentionally offers and then capitalizes on it for her own gain, has the teacher been honored or betrayed?
Lili Thomas, Zonya Love and Halle Morse in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s “Blues in the Night,” playing in the Stackner Cabaret. -PHOTO: Michael Brosilow.
Wild women don’t have the blues, or so composer Ida Cox wrote in 1924. But the Milwaukee Rep’s staging of Sheldon Epps’ “Blues in the Night,” now playing at the Stackner Cabaret, suggests otherwise.
The national touring company of “Rock of Ages.”
From an oversized elf to a creepy TV family from the 1960s, from ”hair bands” of the 1980s to doo-wop legends of the 1950s, from an English nanny who can fly to witches who wish they weren’t, Broadway hits are headed to at least three Wisconsin performing arts venues this season.
History tells us that librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan hated each other so much that they wouldn’t communicate for years at a time. When they finally did collaborate, many of their works were left unfinished because they were unsatisfactory to one or the other – or both of them.
Ricky Martin is saying goodbye to Broadway’s “Evita.” But don’t cry for him.
The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children’s book.
Chris Fechtelketter as Larry Foreman and Stuart Mott as Editor Daily in UW Madison University Theatre’s production of “The Cradle Will Rock,” running Nov. 16 through Dec. 8 in the Mitchell Theatre. -PHOTO: COURTESY UNIVERSITY THEATER
In January 1964, openly gay composer Marc Blitzstein was enjoying a much-needed vacation on Martinique when he made a decision that would cost him his life.
Emily Berman, Jonathan Gillard Daly, Larry Neumann Jr., J. Alexander Coe, Deborah Staples, Lee E. Ernst, Laura Gordon and Lauren Hirte in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” -PHOTO: Michael Brosilow
“The Diary of Anne Frank,” produced in 1955, only 10 years after the Holocaust won both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. Playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hacket based their work on the actual diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl living in Amsterdam who, at 13, went into hiding from the Nazis with her family.
