Valentine Davies’ novel Miracle on 34th Street was made popular by George Seaton’s 1947 black-and-white film adaptation featuring Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and a young Natalie Wood. Sunset Playhouse will share in the magic of this holiday classic by performing Miracle on 34th Street: The Play, adapted by California’s nonprofit Mountain Community Theater. The tale is about Kris Kringle, a charming elderly gentleman who gets a job working as Santa for Macy’s. His warmth and compassion affect all of those around him, including a single mother and her young daughter, both of whom aren’t initially interested in dreams or imagination. By the end, we are all reminded that childlike wonder is a key to the Christmas season.
Director of Sunset’s show, Dustin J. Martin, describes the play as mostly modernized. “I made the decision to set the play in present day. Given the rampant commercialization of Christmas, I felt that it’s important to relate this wonderful story of the magic of Christmas to 2014,” says Martin. “That means you’re going to see cell phones and people taking selfies at various points, but that does not obscure the message of the show. While the film is very well known, I feel that our approach to the storytelling is unique enough to make it feel brand knew.”
Miracle on 34th Street: The Play runs Dec. 4-31 at Sunset Playhouse, 800 Elm Grove Road. For tickets, call 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
Theater Happenings
■ Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre presents Buboes: A Bouffon Medicine Show (“bouffon” being a more aggressive outbreak of clown performance), a grotesque examination of anatomy and contagion. Show runs Nov. 28-Dec. 14 at Studio G in the Shops of Grand Avenue. For tickets, call 717-347-8274 or visit thequasimondo.com.
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■ Racine Theatre Guild presents the timeless musical The Sound of Music Dec. 5-21. For tickets, call 262-633-4218 or visit racinetheatre.org.
■ Milwaukee Youth Theatre presents Mary Hall Surface’s One Hundred Dresses Dec. 3-5, which shares the story of a young Polish immigrant’s journey in small-town America in the 1930s. For tickets, call 414-390-3900 or visit milwaukeeyouththeatre.org.
Holiday Shows:
■ Nineteenth-century London comes to life in Charles Dickens’ classic masterpiece A Christmas Carol, playing at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater Dec. 2-24. For tickets, call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
■ UW-Milwaukee Theatre presents six enchanting fairy tales for adults that remind us that the sheer complexity of modern life makes every choice a significant one. Giants Have Us In Their Books runs Dec. 3-7. For tickets, call 414-229-4308 or visit uwm.edu/psoa.
■ Milwaukee’s treasured Michael Stebbins (a self-proclaimed “Sedaris-aholic”) will share readings of David Sedaris’ most beloved Christmas stories for Theatre Gigante’s first production in their Studio Series, Holidays on Ice, which runs Dec. 5-7. For tickets, call 414-961-6119.
■ One-man show The Santaland Diaries comes to Milwaukee’s LGBTQ-focused theater Theatrical Tendencies and features Jim Lautenbach taking a wry look at how the holiday season brings out the best and worst in us all. Show runs Dec. 5-14; for tickets, visit theatricaltendencies.com.
■ The feel-good holiday musical An L.M. Montgomery Christmas at Memories Dinner Theater will fill your heart with the Christmas spirit as you’re transported back in time to Christmas Eve, 1910. Show runs Dec. 5-20; for tickets, call 262-284-6850 or visit memoriesballroom.com.
■ Waukesha Civic Theatre’s Candy Cane Tales and Holiday Carols celebrates the season by featuring a cast of all ages singing and dancing classic Christmas characters to life. Show runs Nov. 30-Dec. 16; for tickets, call 262-547-0708 or visit waukeshacivictheatre.org.
■ Village Playhouse presents A Charlie Brown Christmas and Other Holiday Classics, featuring short, nostalgic holiday tales including the Wisconsin premiere of Charles Schultz’ A Charlie Brown Christmas and a live radio play of A Christmas Carol. Show runs Dec. 5-21; for tickets, call 414-207-4879 or visit villageplayhouse.org.
■ Milwaukee Entertainment Group brings to stage Liz Shipe’s Upon a Midnight Clear: A Tale of Jack Frost, a fresh retelling about the classic character who has to decide if he wants to remain human with the woman he loves or return to his impish roots. Show runs Dec. 5-21; for tickets, call 414-388-9104 or visit milwaukeeentertainmentgroup.com.
