10 Openings And A Festival

This is only my third weekend all year without an shows to go to. As such, I would feel a bit out of place were it not for my wife’s birthday and the whole independence day thing. July may start off slow in local theatre, but there’s actually a lot going on. Here’s a look:

July 8^thBad Example Productions Debuts with the opening of a play be Ray Bradbury based on his novel Fahrenheit 451, which runs through the 24^th at the Alchemist Theatre.

July 9^thSparkling Orange Soda Productions debuts with the premiere of The Wolf, The Princess and the Revolvera dark comedy by Dominic Michael Lentz and Jackie Benka at the Carte Blanche Studio Theatre on 1024 South 5^th Street.

July 14^th-- A popular show from the East Coast hits the Marcus Center. It runs through August 8^th.

July 15^th--Nicholas Cialdini’s generational satire Boomtown: The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Squandering a Century opens for the first of two performances at the Alchemist Theatre. It closes July 22nd.

July 16^th--The Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove presents a production of the counter-cultural musical Hair directed by talented Milwaukee stage talent Ray Jivoff, who has appeared in countless productions with the Skylight Opera Theatre. Hair closes August 8th. 

July 22^ndHairspray and Arson come to Milwaukee County on the same day. Both close on the 31st. An intimate journey into the woods with Stephen Sondheim also begins on the 22nd. .  .

HairsprayThe Greendale Community Theatre presents its production of the contemporary musical based on a film by John Waters. 

Drive Me To Arson--That same night, the campus of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee plays host to the latest drama by Benjamin James Wilson as Youngblood Theatre presents the debut of a promising new story.

Into The Woods--The third staged exploration into the inner complexity of fairy tales to open in July comes courtesy of Off The Wall Theatre as the ten year-old company presents Stephen Sondheim's Award-Winning 1986 musical. The cozy space across the street from the Pabst plays host to another fully-staged musical.  

July 28^thThe Boulevard Theatre presents Fourplayfour short comedies for the final weeks of summer to effectively open its Silver Anniversary Season. The four shorts included on the program are: The Red Coat by John Patrick Shanley (most popular for writing the acclaimed drama Doubt.) Dead Righta marital comedy by Elaine Jaarvik, Sure Thing looks particularly funny. Two people met at a café and begin to talk. Bells offstage alert them of mistakes they make on the way to falling in love, allowing them a chance to avoid faux pas. It’s a script by David Ives who wrote the many brilliant shorts of All In The Timing and Polish Joke. The biggest name on the program has to be Harold Pinter. His comic indictment of marriage The Lover is also featured on the program. The program runs through August 29^th.

July 29^th You’ll find a god in every golden cloister. And if you’re lucky, then the god’s a she. And with any luck at all, Soulstice Theatre’s production of the Tim Rice musical Chess should be a great deal of fun. One of Rice’s first works after a string of shows with Andrew Lloyd Weber, Chess probably has quite a lot going on stylistically, but I will always associate it with a kind of haunting Murray Head song that was rather successful on the pop charts in 1984. The song appears at the top of the second act . . .Soustice’s production of Chess runs through August 14^th.

July 30^thThe month ends with what I assume to be the final series of performances at the Off-Broadway Theatre as The 2010 Milwaukee Comedy Festival takes the stage a bit earlier than it has in previous years. Sketch comedy from groups all over the Midwest also regularly features appearances by Milwaukee area sketch comedy groups. The Milwaukee Comedy Fest continues through August 1^st.