Photo by Michael Brosilow
Milwaukee Chamber Theater - Liberace!
Brett Ryback as Liberace
He’s back onstage. Władziu Valentino Liberace has returned to the stage once more. He was always known for wearing such marvelous things. This year he’s wearing Brett Ryback. Ryback plays host to one of the most legendary stage performers of the 20th century in writer/director Brent Hazelton’s Liberace!The retrospective on the Milwaukee native has Ryback appearing as the talented pianist in an impressively nuanced portrayal that comes alive in an intimate space decorated with an over-the-top charm befitting Mr. Showmanship.
Hazelton’s script is cozy and intimate. Liberace has descended from heaven. He’s kept up with everything that’s going on down here on Earth, but that’s not what he’s appeared before the audience to talk about. He’s there with a piano talking about his whole life more or less in chronological order. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to try to appear onstage in the role of a guy who was such an individual who made numerous high-profile appearances on television over the course of many, many years. To his credit, Ryback doesn’t go for an easy, superficial impression.
It’s a deep portrayal that edges in around the corners of Liberace’s psyche courtesy of some rather deft script work by Hazelton. Alex Tecoma’s costume design is suitably impressive. Most of it adorns mannequins around the edges of the stage, but they serve as gorgeously expressive punctuation to the chandeliers and other flourishes around the periphery of Scott Davis’ scenic design. The overall design between Tecoma and Davis is a clever balance between the big, flamboyant energy of Liberace and his more humble personal side. That balance is a perfect echo of a very well-balanced script by Hazelton which manages to bring a tremendously intricate biography of a very complicated man to the stage with style and poise.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Liberace! continues through Dec. 10 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre ,on 158 N. Broadway. For ticket reservations and more, visit https://www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/
