Inevitably at some point in September, there’s some kind of huge rush to the stage. It manifests itself in different ways every September. This month there’s a big pile-up of openings between September 10th and the 14th. Here’s a quick look at the seven shows opening in the next seven days:
7:30pm September 8th
The week starts with a string of preview performances of the clever political farce The Government Inspector. The Milwaukee Rep presents contemporary playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s take on the play by Nikolai Gogol.
7:30 pm September 10th:
Two different musicals and a drama open at the same time on different sides of town. All at the same time.
At 7:30 pm on the 10th, Next Act Theatre presents the first preview performance of its season openerMary’s Wedding. The world war one-era Canadian romantic drama by Stephen Massicotte Georgina McKee and Braden Moran star in a play directed by Edward Morgan.
Just a few blocks north of the opening at Next Act, Dale Gutzman’s cozy downtown Off The Wall Theatre presents Stephen Sondheim’s Company. Ben George stars as a single guy in his thirties in New York who is drawn away from the idea of a serious relationship by how strange all his couple friends seem to be. A full preview will appear in this week’s issue of the Shepherd-Express.
Meanwhile across town in Bay View, Alchemist Theatre opens an entirely different kind of musical as it presents the world premiere of Invader? I Hardly Know Her!... a sci-fi musical written by Jason Powell.
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8:00 pm September 11th
The Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove presents its production of Auntie Mame. Mark Salentine directs a cast of 21 including Mary C. DeBattista in the title role of the fabulously exasperating aunt of a young Patrick Dennis, played here by Samuel Bauer.
Also at 8pm--The Milwaukee Rep opens its cabaret season with Kevin Ramsey’s Soultime At The Apolloa celebration of 75 years of the Apollo Theatre in New York. IT chronicals the memories of an old stagehand named Soultime. The show promises to be an interesting mix of the music that has graced the stage of the Apollo over the years including doo-wop, jazz, soul, gospel and R&B
7:30 pm September 13th
The week of openings ends with a one-night-only reading of These Shining Lives--Melanie Marnich’s play about the women who worked to paint watch dials with hazardous glow-in-the-dark paint.
Though I won’t be making everything listed here, I will try to . . . and about halfway in, I’ll probably be looking forward to the following week, where there are only a couple of openings. . .
