Photo credit: Mark Frohna
This week, Zombies from the Beyond arrive in Milwaukee courtesy of Skylight Music Theatre, William Shakespeare engages in some Equivocation at Next Act Theatre, and The Constructivists present us with some Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Underground Collaborative.
Zombies from the Beyond
No, this isn’t an old Ed Wood movie but a musical comedy sendup of the era in which the late director of z-class sci-fi films worked—the 1950s and all its schlocky and inadvertently comical invaders-from-space films. As Skylight Music Theatre’s artistic director Ray Jivoff explains, “Zombies from the Beyond is a hilarious spoof of sci-fi flicks [that] takes a funny, affectionate and nostalgic look at 1950s pop culture and the Eisenhower era. The show is playful and clever; even the title is funny because there are actually no ‘zombies’ in the show!”
As the production’s director, Pam Kriger, says: “I am happy to be back in the company of these endearing, likeable and funny characters. James Valcq has written a phenomenally clever and charming show… It’s such a fun ride.” Intriguingly, Valcq says he was inspired to write Zombies due to his sister’s “unique, high lyric soprano voice… Her ‘stratospheric soprano’ led [me] to the idea of a flying saucer-driving alien whose voice is a secret weapon that zombifies all male hearers.”
Feb. 2-18 at the Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
Equivocation
Many of us are at least passingly familiar with some of William Shakespeare’s considerable output of plays and sonnets, but there aren’t too many plays written about Shakespeare, much less that present him as one of its characters. But, both of these are the case with Bill Cain’s political thriller Equivocation, which will be directed by Michael Cotey and star David Cecsarini, Jonathan Smoots and Mark Ulrich. “Cain has done a remarkable job of bringing the spectator into Shakespeare’s world, as if we’re a fly on the Globe Theater’s wall,” remarks Cecsarini. “The language—when not Shakespeare’s lines—is smooth and rather contemporary, very direct and precise for the mind and ear.”
In conjunction with its run of Equivocation, Next Act Theatre will host a “ShakesFest Bonus Reading Series.” Monday, Feb. 12 features a reading of Angela Iannone’s The Seeds of Banquo; the following day sees a reading of Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will. The Seeds of Banquo concerns famous actor Edwin Booth rehearsing The Bard’s immortal Macbeth; The Book of Will, meanwhile, is a funny and fascinating story of how Shakespeare’s friends managed to save his plays for posterity.
Equivocation runs Feb. 1-25 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, call 414-278-0765 or visit nextact.org.
Gruesome Playground Injuries
Its title sounds like a particularly morbid search on YouTube, but, according to artistic director Jaimelyn Gray, it’s “a timely show for how I see the world right now. Humans with so much feeling but unable to communicate this to the outside world, or to our fellow humans, and how that manifests.” She also says Rajiv Joseph’s play will be “a great way to introduce The Constructivists to the Milwaukee community as a small sample of the work we hope to produce: funny, quirky, sad [and] with a mess of emotions.” The Constructivists is a new Milwaukee-based professional theater company who state their mission is “to create viscerally driven live theatre, exposing and exploring the complexity of human nature and the perils it creates.”
Feb. 1-4 at The Underground Collaborative, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, call 414-858-6874 or visit theconstructivists.org.
THEATRE MORE-TO-DO
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
The Bard of Avon wrote many plays, though most people today can only, perhaps, name a couple of them off-hand. Waukesha Civic Theatre pulls tomes from the Shakespeare shelf, blows the dust off their covers, and presents, in comedic form, snippets of every one on them in Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Friends! Romans! Milwaukeeans! Lend WCT your ears (and eyes) for a crash course in Bard 101. Feb. 2-18 at the Margaret Brate Bryant Civic Theatre Building, 264 W. Main St., Waukesha. For tickets, call 262-547-0708 or visit waukeshacivictheatre.org.
The Diary of Anne Frank
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s stage dramatization of the actual diary of a young German-born Jewish girl whose life came to a tragic end during World War II debuted in 1955. It garnered a Tony Award for Best Play and has been a staple of theater companies worldwide ever since. The Falls Patio Players present this touching and poignant play. Feb. 2-11 at North Middle School Auditorium, N88 W16750 Garfield Drive, Menomonee Falls. For tickets, call 262-255-8372 or visit fallspatioplayers.com.
The Clockwork Man’s Body
“Our story this time is the third adventure of agents Pelonius and Sinfan as they try to decipher the mystery of a necklace that holds the soul of an ancient Babylonian witch,” announces Cabaret Milwaukee. Complete with a host, house band, singer, period comedy and radio play, this latest installment of The Clockwork Man saga will be performed Feb. 14-18 in the Blue Ribbon Hall at Best Place of the Historic Pabst Brewery, 901 N. Juneau Ave. For tickets, visit brownpapertickets.com and search “3231211.”
