The Marcus Center's Full-on Broadway Embrace

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“Our city embraces Broadway, and we are honored to serve our community through the arts,” says Marcus Center for the Performing Arts President and CEO Paul Mathews. “We hope patrons will join us throughout the year for one or more of these amazing shows.” Indeed, the Marcus Center’s Broadway Series offers a wide selection of musicals, “diverse, engaging and something for everyone,” adds the Marcus Center’s Heidi Lofy, “including four shows making their Milwaukee debuts.”

The Broadway Series brings national and international touring companies to Uihlein Hall each season, including some of the newest shows as well as revivals of musical theater classics. The series offers seven different productions, an additional show described as a “season option” (meaning it’s a Broadway show but outside the company’s subscription package). Season subscribers will also have first access to a production of the international sensation, Hamilton, which comes to Milwaukee as part of the Marcus Center’s 2019-2020 season.

“This year, we have several returning shows, including hits such as The Book of Mormon and beloved classics like The Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I,” says Lofy. “The new productions of these classic shows will give Milwaukee fans the show they love a fresh look.” The Marcus Center last produced Phantom four years ago, Fiddler seven years ago, and The King and I was last performed some 18 years ago.

In addition to returning classics, the Marcus Center’s Broadway Series brings such new shows as the critically acclaimed Come From Away, a heartfelt, true story about airplane travelers grounded (and, for some time, stranded) in Newfoundland in the wake of the mass clearing of the skies after 911. “We also have the first national tour of Anastasia making its way to our city this season,” Lofy says. “This classic story comes to life with songs from the animated film, along with additional songs composed by the award-winning duo of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.”

Diverse, Engaging, Something for Everyone

Set in 1595, Something Rotten! (Oct.16-21) is a musical comedy that tells the story of Nick and Nigel Bottom—brothers who are desperate to come up with a hit play. When a soothsayer foretells that the future of theater involves singing, dancing and acting all in the same work, the brothers take the advice to heart and set about trying to create the world’s first bona fide musical. In doing so, they are set against their principle rival—William Shakespeare. With a book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, Something Rotten! premiered on Broadway in 2015 where it enjoyed a 742-performance run.

The Broadway Series’ contribution to the holiday season is Mel Marvin and Timothy Mason’s Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (Nov. 20-25). The classic children’s book-cum-animated television show comes to vivid life in a musical adaptation featuring songs planted firmly in many of our brains since childhood, like “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” and “Welcome Christmas.” How the Grinch Stole Christmas premiered in Minneapolis in 1994 and made its way to Broadway in 2006. The latter engagement is notable because Grinch became the first musical to be performed 12 times a week in Broadway history.

Mismatched Mormon missionaries sent halfway around the world to sell their religious wares comprise the central characters of The Book of Mormon (Jan. 2-6), which The Washington Post called “the kind of show that restores your faith in musicals.” The team of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone conjured this musical wonder, which premiered on Broadway in 2011 and has gone on to become one of the most successful musicals of all time.

Director Bartlett Sher brings a fresh, authentic vision to Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s masterpiece, Fiddler on the Roof (Feb. 12-17). With beloved songs like “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset,” Fiddler’s original Broadway run (opening in 1964) was the first in musical theater history to surpass 3,000 performances. It won nine Tony Awards and, in 1971, spawned a hugely popular major motion picture.

Cameron Mackintosh’s remarkable new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (March 6-12) comes to Milwaukee as part of a brand new North American tour. It boasts a production that includes new special effects—including, of course, the musical’s legendary chandelier. Phantom includes stand-out numbers like “Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You” and “Masquerade” and will be performed by a formidable 52-member cast and orchestra.

Two dissimilar worlds collide in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s 1951 classic The King and I (April 9-14). The Marcus Center’s production is centered on the musical’s recent, reworked Broadway reiteration, which won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Revival. The King and I, the great team’s fifth collaboration, ran on Broadway for nearly three years, making it the fourth longest-running musical there at the time.

Come From Away (May 7-12) with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, is set in the week following 9/11 and tells the true story of what happened as 38 planes were forced to land in tiny Gander, Newfoundland. The Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning musical presents a cathartic reminder of the capacity for human kindness to triumph over hatred.

Anastasia (July 23-28) transports audiences to the waning days of imperial Russia as well as the exhilaration of 1920s Paris. Darko Tresnjak directs the book by celebrated playwright Terrence McNally set to a lush score. According to the director, Anastasia retains “six songs from the movie [upon which it’s based] and adds 16 new numbers. We’ve kept the best parts of the animated movie, but it really is a new musical.”

All shows take place in Uihlein Hall of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org.