Photo Credit: Paul Ruffolo
Two people in 1987 engage in a one-night stand that might be something more in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s presentation of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune.
Marcella Kearns is beautifully, brutally open and engaging as Frankie; she’s an aspiring teacher somewhere in the vicinity of her 40s who has brought home a cook from the place where she works. Todd Denning has a fractured charm in the role of the cook—a guy somewhere in the vicinity of his 40s named Johnny who risks losing everything in hopes of having something. He’s passionately embracing his experience with her in a way that makes her uncomfortable. They fight. They hold each other. There’s injury and lovemaking. They’ll work it out. They might not be in one piece when it’s all over, but they’ll work it out.
Scenic designer Brandon Kirkham brings a very distinct ’87 look to the stage for the production. From the boom box and a few cassette cases on the far shelf to the missing kids on a milk carton, this show feels quite vividly like a couple of hours between two people getting an encore 30 years later. It’s a very intimate couple of hours, too. The two characters lounge around in very relaxed and honest postures. Very informal. (They even brush their teeth.)
This sort of thing can be maddeningly tricky to bring into a theater: that feeling that two people are alone onstage baring their souls to each other. Under the direction of Mary MacDonald Kerr, Kearns and Denning are so convincing that it’s easy to forget that there’s a whole audience watching them.
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Through Oct. 15 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, visit milwaukeechambertheatre.com.
