Room Service: Jan. 18-Feb. 3, 2018 at Sunset Playhouse’s Furlan Auditorium
Renaissance Theaterwork’s production of Russian Transport leads this week’s opening shows. It’s a timely tale about immigration and human trafficking—as well as a fundraiser for three worthy Milwaukee nonprofits.
Room Service
For most people, I believe, the name Room Service conjures the beloved and zany Marx Brothers—Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo—and their comedy feature film of that name of 1938. Few would know that Room Service was, in fact, the only film the brothers made that wasn’t written specifically for them. In fact, it began as a play written by Allen Boretz and John Murray which made its stage debut in New York City on May 19, 1937, and ran for 500 performances. RKO Pictures bought the film rights (for a then-record-breaking $225,000) and from that came the legendary Marx Brothers film. It was also the basis for the 1944 RKO film musical Step Lively. There’s a record of success here worth making note of.
Room Service is one of those theater works about the theater profession, but in this case, things get really weird. It centers on a desperate producer looking for a decent script from which to produce enough money to keep himself afloat for a little bit longer. The hilarity ensues when he finally finds one—as well as a tidy sum of $15,000. (John Jahn)
Jan. 18-Feb. 3 at Sunset Playhouse’s Furlan Auditorium, 800 Elm Grove Road. For tickets, call 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
Black Pearl Sings
Taking place in Texas in 1933, this is a dramatic musical play based on real events. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater production will be directed by Leda Hoffmann and given music direction by Abdul Hamid Royal—both of whom fulfilled those same obligations winningly in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Lynette Dupree, an actress who appeared in the 2005 feature film Their Eyes Were Watching God, plays Pearl, a woman with a soulful, expressive voice and strong spirit who has a passed-down knowledge of African American song.
Black Pearl Sings’ story centers on Pearl’s encounter with an ambitious song collector for the Library of Congress, Susannah Mulally (played by long-time American Players Theatre member Colleen Madden). The play “features more than a dozen beautiful a capella renditions of spirituals and American folk songs,” says The Rep’s Brianna Cullen, and “explores what it means to be a woman in a man’s world, being black in a white world and fighting for one’s soul in a world where anyone can be a commodity.” (John Jahn)
Jan. 19-March 18 in the Stackner Cabaret, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
Russian Transport
With an ominous-sounding title like Russian Transport, you might think this story is about the infamous communist-era gulags or the terror of the unlamented regime of Josef Stalin. But instead, the play is set in the Russian emigrant enclave of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, N.Y. It’s the story of an immigrant family—parents and their fairly well-assimilated teenage children—and a visit from “Uncle Boris,” who is the most recent arrival from the old country.
But look a little deeper; this is no cozy, warm and fuzzy family story. It may not be Stalinist Russia, but a terrible past haunts this drama. According to Renaissance Theaterworks, the show is “part family drama, part heart-pounding thriller … It captures the complex and conflicting layers of one immigrant experience, centered on human trafficking.” Renaissance Theaterwork’s Izetta Rees explains, “Now, more than ever, it is important to educate our community of this increasing issue and the ways it can be prevented,” and to that end, Renaissance is partnering with three Milwaukee-based nonprofits—Exploit No More, The Benedict Center and LOTUS Legal Clinic—to fundraise and help provide awareness through Russian Transport of the ongoing scourge of human trafficking. (John Jahn)
Jan. 19-Feb. 11 in the Studio Theatre of the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit r-t-w.com.
MORE UPCOMING THEATER:
Volume Control: national festival of new plays by female playwrights
“The plays we’ve selected highlight many aspects of modern-day womanhood, including family life, sexuality, harassment, workplace discrimination, relationships and more,” announces Heidi Salter, Imagination Theatre’s artistic director. This free-to-the-public event, featuring local actors reading short plays by women from across the country, will also be collecting donations for the Milwaukee Women’s Center. Sunday, Jan. 21 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For more information, visit imaginationtheatrewi.org.
Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat
“It’s just a joy to watch this iconic book come to life on stage, and to see what we can accomplish together by embracing Dr. Seuss’ unbridled imagination,” says Jill Anna Ponasik, director of First Stage’s production. In fact, First Stage’s cast and crew have gone to great lengths to imaginatively recreate many of the wonderful illustrations from the Dr. Seuss classic for their upcoming production of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. Jan. 21-Feb. 25 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit firststage.org.
