'Sweeney Todd,' 'Rent' Set Up Shop in Milwaukee Area

It's been a busy month for theater in Milwaukee County, especially for popular musicals. About a third of the dozen or so shows set to open this month are local productions of Broadway musicals, and two of them open this week.

At 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 23, Off the Wall Theatre presents the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd. It sounds like an ambitious production. Technical director David Roper has packed the tiny little space at Off the Wall Theatre with a multilevel set, smoking ovens and trapdoors. Amid all of the action will be a live band with piano, percussion, trumpet and violin.

Robert Hirschi plays the title character, a homicidal barber in Victorian London, and Marilyn White portrays the woman who owns the meat pie shop below his barbershop. The supporting characters, who have made the musical such a hit over the years, include Off the Wall favorites David Flores in the role of the villainous Judge Turpin and Jeremy Welter as his chief underling, Beadle Bamford. Off the Wall's production of Sweeney Todd runs through Aug. 8.

Also at 7:30 p.m. on July 23, this time just outside the city, the Greendale Community Theatre (GCT) opens what it's billing as the regional premiere of the late Jonathan Larson's popular 1993 hit, Rent. The GCT possesses a sizable budget for community theater, and this production will undoubtedly feature the same vivid costuming and set design seen in previous GCT shows at the Greendale High School Auditorium.

A group of 66 auditioning actors was eventually narrowed down to the lucky 17. Included in the cast are a number of young performers, which should add depth and realism to a musical that is as much about being young as it is about the 1990s. GCT's production of Rent runs through Aug. 1.

Also this week: On July 24 (through Aug. 2), Youngblood Theatre opens its final show of the month with the premiere of Benjamin James Wilson's drama God Bridge at Studio 508 in Kenilworth Square East.