Performing Arts Week spotlights artistic events September-October, including the Skylight’s Hot Mikado, Next Act’s Silent Sky and Theatre Gigante’s I Am My Own Wife.
Hot Mikado
This is not your great-grandfather’s The Mikado by the superb operetta-producing team of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. As adorably funny and tuneful as their original work is, its over-the-top characters and send-up of not only grand opera but Japanese culture are fodder for revamping and reimagining. Skylight Music Theatre has just done so with Hot Mikado.
“Skylight has done the original The Mikado 10 times in its history—including the year the Skylight opened, 1959,” says Artistic Director Ray Jivoff. “This is the first time we have ever presented Hot Mikado,” which he describes as “a fun and non-traditional homage to Skylight’s past.” One thing totally new about it is Austene Van, who will be making her company debut herein as the production’s stage director. “I think Skylight audiences will be thrilled by this updated version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic masterpiece,” remarks Van. In her vision, all things late-19th century Japanese are transformed into all things African American in the 1940s. “[Hot Mikado] takes a fresh approach to address some of the outdated dialog and stereotyping that makes audiences wince,” she says, while retaining the original’s hidden “political and cultural messages.”
Sept. 29-Oct. 15 at the Cabot Theatre of the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
Silent Sky
“I think the author has written a play about science that romances its audience; not an easy thing to pull off,” says Next Act Theatre Producing Artistic Director David Cecsarini of Lauren Gunderson, Silent Sky’s creator. “Gunderson has taken a fascinating time in astronomy, combined it with real people and events, and developed an evocative fable about an actual sky-shattering discovery made by Miss Leavitt,” Cecsarini says of this play.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) was a pioneering American astronomer and would undoubtedly be better known today were it not for the fact that she labored behind the scenes—this being somewhat de rigueur given the times in which she lived and the utterly male-dominated profession in which she worked. That said, she made a crucial discovery that, after her death, Edwin Hubble would use to work out his theory of the expanding universe (“Hubble’s Law”).
“Silent Sky is a celebration of scientific curiosity, the search for truth and the triumph of a woman’s vision in the achievement of Man,” explains Cecsarini. “We’ve billed it as a romance due to the passion with which Henrietta Leavitt pursues her ambitions in the realm of astronomy, and most anyone who looks up at a dark night countryside’s starlit sky can’t help but be taken by the wonder, the splendor and mystery of those billions-plus points of light. Romantic.”
Sept. 28-Oct. 22 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
I Am My Own Wife
This Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play is an examination of the life and times of German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (1928-2002), who was born Lothar Berfelde in Berlin-Mahlsdorf. She had the terrible misfortune to be growing up as a young boy who felt much more like a girl in Hitler’s Germany. Through an unfortunate quarrel, she killed her father and was sent to prison, emerging early therefrom owing to the fall of the Third Reich. However, she then faced an uncertain future in communist East Germany as a transgender woman.
Theatre Gigante, now in its 30th season, presents Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife, a “saucy, sagacious and entirely fascinating solo play,” as The Village Voice once remarked. With direction by Isabelle Kralj and Mark Anderson and lighting design by Leroy Stoner, this one-man show features Theatre Gigante regular Michael Stebbins. Stebbins not only embodies Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, but also takes on 34 other characters as well. Wright’s play, based upon interviews conducted with Mahlsdorf over her long life, is, as Kralj says, “a surprising and provocative weave of history, sex and politics.”
Sept. 28-Oct. 7 at Kenilworth 508 Theatre, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place. For tickets, call 414-961-6119 or visit gigantewife.brownpapertickets.com.
More to Do:
Cooke and Hathaway: A Soulful CelebrationSam Cooke (1931-1964) acquired the moniker “The King of Soul.” Donny Hathaway (1945-1979) was labeled as “a major force in soul music” by Rolling Stone magazine. Both had multi-music-genre appeal; both died much too young; both remain legends. Milwaukee’s Chris Crain and a full cast of musicians pay tribute to Cooke and Hathaway in this show. Sept. 29-30 in Vogel Hall at the Wilson Theater. Call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org for tickets.
Haydn, Mozart, IvesThe Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra welcomes its former music director, Edo de Waart, back to conduct Joseph Haydn’s bright and beautiful Sinfonia Concertante in B-Flat Major (1792); Wolfgang Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major (1788); and Charles Ives’ instrumental conversation, The Unanswered Question (1906). Sept. 29-30 at Uihlein Hall of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Call 414-291-7605 or visit mso.org for tickets.
WittenbergWindfall Theatre presents the first of two shows billed as a “Reformation Double Play.” This is Wittenberg by David Davalos, in which we find Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, attending classes at Wittenberg U. His philosophy professor is Dr. John Faustus, and his theology professor is Martin Luther. As you can tell, we’re clearly dealing with alternative facts! Sept. 29-Oct. 14 at Village Church. Call 414-332-3963 or visit windfalltheatre.com for tickets.
Spookley the Square Pumpkin“Spookley is an adorable tale that reminds us that it doesn’t matter what you look like; we are all special and meaningful to each other,” says the director of this First Stage production, Jeff Schaetzke. Obviously, this is a story worth telling and a lesson worth learning—especially for the young ones in your life. This play is based upon a film of the same name and a book titled The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Oct. 1-29 at Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. For tickets, call 414-267-2961 or visit firststage.org.
WorkingMarquette University Theatre presents Working, a musical play that pays tribute to the hard-working average American through a series of vignettes that explore the lives of 26 people. In fact, part of the play consists of the very actors and technical people behind the scenes functioning—and being seen as—working people, themselves. Working’s musical score features songs by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia and James Taylor. Sept. 28-Oct. 8 at the Helfaer Theatre. For tickets, call 414-288-7504 or visit showclix.com (search “working”).
