Category: Musical Theater

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PSA: FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE: FIRST STAGE PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF ESPERANZA RISING 

Experience the journey of a young girl’s strength and determination in a theatrical adaptation of a modern literary classic.

MILWAUKEE — First Stage — one of the nation’s leading theaters for young people and families — invites audiences to witness the world premiere of ESPERANZA RISING, a poetic tale of a young girl’s triumph over adversity based on the popular book by Pam Muñoz Ryan. 

Set in the turbulent 1930s, two young storytellers, with the help of an ensemble of actors, take the stage and begin to weave the tale of Esperanza — a wealthy Mexican girl whose privileged existence is shattered when tragedy strikes, and she and her mother must flee to California. Forced to work in a migrant labor camp, Esperanza must learn to rise above her difficult circumstances and discover what she’s truly made of.

“Our Todd Wehr season concludes with an exhilarating world premiere from our First Stage’s Amplify Reading Series,” said Jeff Frank, First Stage artistic director. “Playwright-in-residence Alvaro Saar Rios has crafted a nimble version of the story with two storytellers welcoming us into the world of the modern classic novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan magically lifted by the music of composer Dinorah Marquez. The importance of hope and the power of family resonate deeply as the storytellers guide us through Esperanza’s loss of her home and her journey to make a new life.” 

ESPERANZA RISING runs May 2 through 18, 2025, at the Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Todd Wehr Theater. Tickets are available now on FirstStage.org.

The show runs approximately 75 minutes, including a brief intermission. Recommended for families with young people ages 7-17 and theater lovers of all ages. This production’s Pay What You Choose Performance is on Friday, May 9 at 7:00 p.m., the Sensory Friendly Performance is on Saturday, May 17 at 3:30 p.m., and the Sign Language Interpreted Performance is on Sunday, May 18 at 3:30 p.m.

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Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years at the MKERep’s Stackner Cabaret

Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years is a story told by a tour de force of fourteen ballads sung by Cathy and Jamie, and no spoilers here since this comes from the Rep’s website: it is a story of falling in and then out of love…with Jamie telling their story in chronological order while Cathy starts at the finish and brings us to the glorious start.

Asher Muldoon and Grace Bobber. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep.

Brown is known for a number of full scale musicals including Parade and Bridges of Madison County and is in full love ballad mode here giving Cathy and Jamie a full range of emotions.

Grace Bobber is an enthusiastic and enthralling Cathy and throws herself into the character. And Brown has given her a number signature songs to use to work through her excitement and her dejection. On the other side of the piano shall we say, is Jamie as played by Asher Muldoon. Jamie is a bit more laid back most of the time and Muldoon covers all of the nuance between lover, creative writer, and practical businessman. A far more reserved character than we see in Cathy. In what would appear to be a love affair of substance, Brown has written around the edges and after a while I started to wonder why this couple was together and the inevitable became the inevitable. I just never felt that there was a real connection between them.

Grace Bobber and Asher Muldoon. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep.

Now, although we have an elaborate story here there is nearly no conversation. The entire story is told through Brown’s poetry and music, which presents an interesting problem for the director. How do you move the action and actor who is deep in story telling mode out front and center while keeping the play moving. Well, both Bobber and Muldoon are accomplished pianists, and director Kelley Faulkner deftly moves one or the other behind the keyboard as the principal story teller moves out front. And all of this is helped by the simple yet elegant stage setting with a central piano backed by an arc of stelae with abstract patterns. And of course, Faulkner also sets the changes in tone and time with some simple and quick costume ‘changes’ and instrumentation changes as Cathy and Jamie move from piano to guitars…and the music is stitched together by the efforts of Scott Cook, just off stage left, playing a subdued but key cello.

And this was an audience favorite…a very spontaneous standing ovation capped the evening!

Asher Muldoon and Grace Bobber. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep.

The Last Five Years runs in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret from now until May 18, 2025. More information and tickets can be found here! And make an evening of it and make reservations for dinner as well. You won’t be sorry.

Extra credit reading: The Program

Grace Bobber and Asher Muldoon. Photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of the Milwaukee Rep.

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PSA: Dames At Sea @UWM’s Peck School of the Arts

UWM Department of Theatre Presents : Dames At Sea
March 5-9, 2025 – Fine Arts Theatre Building – Mainstage Theatre
Book & Lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller   
Music by Jim Wise
Directed by Sheri Williams Pannell
Musical Direction by Donna Kummer
Choreography by Abigail McBee and Sophia Roth
The show that launched Bernadette Peters as a Broadway star, this delightful, funny, tongue-in-cheek love letter to Hollywood musicals of the 1930s tells the story of sweet Ruby’s journey from her small hometown to New York City to become a Broadway star. There, she meets Dick, a sailor with ambitions as a songwriter. In grand Hollywood fashion, they tap dance their way from the chorus to stardom on the deck of a passing battleship. Dames at Sea is a non-stop ride of romance, laughs, dance and musical delights.

For more information and to order tickets, click here!