Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike poster
Milwaukee’s Pride Month 2024 features a broad range of events from PrideFest and the Pride Ride motorcycle tour to the Pride Parade and the Brewers’ Pride Night. This year, LGBTQ relevant theater and cinema add to the celebration with three stage productions and a weekend of films presented by the Milwaukee Film.
Kinky Boots the Musical with music by Cindy Lauper opened June 7 at the Waukesha Civic Theatre. Directed by Christopher Orth, this stage version of the popular British movie Kinky Boots offers an extensive cast and live vibrant music played by a nine-piece orchestra, tells the story of a failing shoe factory revived by producing extravagant footwear for drag queens. Audience raves are already in! The show runs through July 23.
Theatrical Tendencies (TT), Milwaukee’s LGBTQIA+ focused theatre, continues its eighth season with a third production, Christopher Durang’s comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Directed by Mark Schuster, this award-winning play on Chekovian themes features the expected Durang absurdities in the context of generational and sibling rivalries. The cast includes familiar faces from the TT stable as well as some other, equally familiar ones. Opening on Friday, June 14 at Inspiration Studies in West Allis, the six performance run ends on June 23. Information and tickets may be found at theatricaltendencies.com
Fun at La Cage
Problemista poster
Another family-oriented musical, La Cage Aux Folles, opens its 12-performance run on Thursday, June 13 and ends on June 30. Appropriately enough, it is being staged at its namesake (and sponsor), LaCage Niteclub, in the venue’s upper room. Staged by Outskirts Theatre Co. under the direction of Jonathan Hetler with Paula Foley Tiller as musical director. La Cage aux Folles tells the tale of gay parents, owners of drag cabaret, coping with their son’s impending marriage to the daughter of an extremely right-wing and bigoted politician. Hilarity ensues. Cameo performances by local drag divas take place throughout the run. Information and tickets: outskirtstheatre.org.
The Milwaukee Film’s Pride Weekend takes place June 21-23 at the Oriental Theater. The venue’s history as the site of the opening night festivities of the former (and sorely missed) Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival adds a touch of nostalgia to the Pride Weekend event that screens a program of seven selections. They range from John Waters’ queer classic of bad taste Female Trouble starring drag legend Divine to more contemporary works, including Problemista by Julio Torres about a young gay El Salvadorian immigrant finding adventure and love in New York City, and Markie in Milwaukee by filmmaker Matt Kliegman. Markie presents the intriguing story of Markie Wenzel, a 7’ tall Baptist minister, who, at age 46, comes out as transgender. The filmmaker will be present at the screening. Also on the marquee are Tongues Untied by Marion T. Riggs, the seminal 1989 documentary focusing on Black gay life; and a study in revenge, the sexually changed noir genre Femme, directed by Sam H. Freeman and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Additional information and film trailers are available at mkefilm.org/oriental-theatre.
