'Greater Tuna' Arrives at Sunset Playhouse

Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard's <em>Greater Tuna </em>seems like an unlikely success story. There is very little that is novel or original about the playessentially, it is a sketch comedy show featuring two guys in a variety of roles in the setting of Tuna, the fictional “third smallest town in Texas.”<br /><br />But what started as a small success in Austin, Texas, in 1981 promptly became a bigger movement off-Broadway in '82. According to the show's official website, by 1985 <em>Greater Tuna </em>had become the most produced play in the United States. The simple comedy (think of men dressing in drag and speaking with colorfully exaggerated Texas accents) of small-town residents has found a great deal of success all over the country, prompting three sequels since its debut.<br /><br />Locally, the play enjoyed a staging with the Milwaukee Rep, starring popular Rep actors Gerard Neugent and Lee Ernst. More recently, the emerging theater company World's Stage launched a run as well. The latest production of the hit comedy makes it to Elm Grove this month, at the <strong>Sunset Playhouse</strong>. Audiences should enjoy this comic juggernaut as it continues its long, slow march to theatrical immortality.<br /><br />The Sunset Playhouse's production of <em>Greater Tuna </em>runs<em> </em>Feb. 23-March 11. For ticket reservations, call 262-782-4430.<strong><br /><br />Theater Happenings</strong><br /><br /> <ul> <li>The touring Broadway version of the beloved musical <em>Mary Poppins </em>comes to town Feb. 28-March 4 for <strong>Broadway at the Marcus Center</strong> in Uihlein Hall. For ticket reservations, call 414-273-7206.</li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Project Empty Space </strong>and <strong>Bad Example Productions </strong>present an intimate production of <em>George Orwell's 1984<strong> </strong></em>March 1-17 at the Alchemist Theatre. The stage adaptation draws from a portion of the book in which a political prisoner watches as scenes from his diary are played out before him. For ticket reservations, visit <a href="http://alchemisttheatre.com" target="_blank">alchemisttheatre.com</a>.</li> </ul>