February is an interesting mix of action comedy and drama in s number of cozy, little producctions that are opening in the final full month of winter. Stages heat-up amidst what is expected to be an unseasonably warm February in Milwaukee,

Back in 2005, American author Rick Riordan developed a series of children’s fantasy novels featuring the characters from Greek mythology walking around in the 21st century. The Percy Jackson Chronicles has inspired movies, video games and TV shows. It also serves as inspiration for a live stage musical which is being produced by First Stage. The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is based in the first novel in the series. It comes to the small stage at the Marcus Center. Director Jeff Frank conjures a modern sequel to Ancient Greek myth February 3 - March 10. For ticket reserevations and more, visit First Stage online.

A young white playwright pens a script about the African American experience. It’s been selected for a major play festival. It’s a bad idea that turns worse in a dark comedy that explores race relations and a whole lot more. Jeff Talbott’s  The Submission makes an appearance late this wonder as Theatrical Tendencies presents an intimate production of the play at Inspiration Studios on 1500 S. 73rd St. in West Allis. Directed by Mark E. Schuster, the production features Christopher Orth, Jaleesa Joy, Matthew Umstot and Kevin J. Gadzalinkski. The show runs Feb. 16 - 25. For ticket reservations and more, visit Theatrical Tendencies online.

Next Act continues its season with a show that opens late this coming month. Laura Gordon directs palywright/Perfoerm Heidi Armbruster in a production of her one-woman show Scarecrow. She’s playing a big city actress who finds herself back home soon her family Wisconsin dairy farm. The promo copy compares Armbruster’s story to the type of thing seen on the Hallmark Movie Channel. The intimate stage Next Act shares with Renaissance on south Water St. has hosted some remarkable one-actor shows in the past. The cozy stage should find welcome home for Armbruster’s tale. Heidi Armbruster’s Scarecrow runs Feb. 21- Mar 17 on 255 S. Water St. For more information, visit Next Act online.

A couple of Mo Willems’ beloved characters get another moment onstage as First Stage presents Elephant & Piggies “We Are In A Play!”  Director/choreographer Michelle LoRicco welcomes James Carrington and Rachel Zientek in the lead roles they played a few years back for First Stage back in the 2019/2020 season. The two seasoned actors play the two beloved characters as they settle-into their space onstage...slowly realizing how best to be in the show that...they’re in. It’s a fun, casually metaphysical show for even the youungest theatergoers. 45 minutes long,  the show is ideal for kids ages 3 - 9. It runs Feb. 24 - Mar. 17.

Back in 1980, Universal Pictures released a musical fantasy for cinema featuring songs performed by the Electric Light Orchestra and Australian pop diva Olivia Newton-John (who also starred in t the film.) In spite of the presence of Gene Kelly (in his final performance) and Newton-John’s post-Grease / pre Physical popularity, the movie was a critical and commercial failure. Retro fashion eventually gives everything a second chance, though. The bizarrely surreal Solid Gold-era, post-disco / pre-MTV 1980 musical has become  popular enough to launch a contemporary live stage musical adaptation which makes its way to the Broadway Theatre Center this winter as The Skylight presents Xanadu.


Kaitlin Feely stars as ancient Greek muse Kira who has come to Southern California in 1980 in the interest of helping a struggling artist named Sonny Malone. Mitchell Gray is fun as a lovable doofus spoof of the original character who falls hard for a woman on rollerskates who turns out to be a magical being. Sonny ultimately finds success while opening a roller disco named...Xanadu. In a fusion between the plot of the original movie and inspiration drawn from 1981’s Clash of the Titans, Kira’s life is thrown into chaos courtesy of her older sister Melpomene. Molly Rhode goes delightfully over the top in the role of the arch-villain. The music fuses Sonny’s boss (played by James Sloyan in the movie) with the classy,  old Gene Kelly character into a single identity that is played with dapper style by Rick Richter.

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The design team on the show does a staggeringly good job of fusing together elements of early 1980s sparkly post-disco visuals that more or less perfectly nail the height of pop fashion in the year 1980. The retro 1940s that also make an appearance on the stage are particularly strong in a musical number that fuses swing music with early 1980s hard rock. Choreographer Stephanie Staszak did an exquisite job of bringing both dance styles together onstage in a musical number that works MUCH better onstage now than it did onscreen back in 1980. I realize that choreography for cinema is a completely different thing than putting it together onstage. And I know that a lot of it has to do with editing as well, but the 1980 film made the “Dancin’” dance number feel a bit odd and mechanical. Staszak does a staggeringly impressive job of juggling the 1940s with the 1980s in a strikingly memorable moment.


Feely is a great deal of fun as Kira. The book leans pretty far into spoofing Olivia Newton-John. (And to be fair...a spritely, little Greek muse skating around with an Australian accent IS pretty silly.) Feely swimmingly carries cosmic comic cuteness across the stage with a delightfully exaggerated Aussie accent as she gracefully glides around on roller skates for much of the entire 90 minutes of the show. Feely’s irresistible energy carries the weirdness of a throughly enjoyable musical.


The Skylight’s production of Xanadu runs through Feb. 11 at the main stage on 158 N. Broadway. For ticket reservations and more, visit the Skylight online.

For the most part, it’s just two people talking. It’s not always the SAME two people, but for the most part, A Moon For the Misbegotten is just two people talking. It’s the smallest canvas imaginable, but what playwright Eugene O'Neill did with it is absolutely stunning on so many different levels. This winter, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre explores O’Neill’s romantic drama with fierce intensity that has been deftly delivered to the stage by director Mary MacDonald Kerr. Set around a small shack on the edge of everything, the drama resonates with powerful emotion on the intimate studio theatre stage of the Broadway Theatre Center.

As the drama opens, Josie is aiding her brother Mike to leave the tiny farm ruled over by their alcoholic father. A.J. Magoon has a respectable presence as a man about to head out in the general direction of a coming-of-age drama that O’Neill had no interest in telling. He’s far more interested in those who get left behind as others leave. (That’s kind of the whole focus of the drama.)

Kelly Doherty is deeply engaging as Josie--the daughter of an aging tenant farmer played by Milwaukee theatre veteran James Pickering. O’Neill settles much of the early part of the drama between Josie and her father Phil. Pickering’s grizzled charisma carries his end of the drama with a witty weariness that feels a few shades wiser than Phil would like anyone to know. Doherty and Pickering have an exquisite dynamic. It isn’t easy for a couple of actors to convincingly pretend like they’ve spent the bulk of every day together for the better part of a couple of decades. (The audience is so often doing a lot of work in completing the illusion.) Pickering and Doherty make the audience’s job of completing the illusion of familial familiarity deliciously easy. The two actors have a clever awareness of the rhythms and motions of daily life between a father and daughter who are too emotionally exhausted to do anything but love each other. It may not LOOK like they do, but there’s a real affection that shines through the edges of the frustration and animosity that tangles its way through the early going of the play.

La Shawn Banks is an earthbound specter in the role of Phil’s landlord James Tyrone, Jr.--a well-educated guy who is too busy waiting around for the future to realize that he’s already dead. There’s a dreamy restlessness about Banks as he glides and floats through the ghostlike existence of a man who spends most of his waking hours drunk and most of his sleep in the vacant nightmare of his waking life. Doherty and Banks share an inescapable gravity as Phil bares his soul to Josie in a casually riveting emotional connection between two people on the edge of an ending as the play draws to its crushingly inevitable conclusion.
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​Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of A Moon For the Misbegotten runs through Feb. 4 at the Broadway Theatre Center. For more information, visit Milwaukee Chamber Theatre online.
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​The Field
The soccer field bend into the vertical. There’s an impenetrable wall of turf at the far end of the stage. Scenic Designer Doug Dion delivers a powerful visual image for Renaissance Theaterworeks’ production of The Wolves. Playwright Sarah SeLappe’s relentless, fast-paced comedic coming-of-age drama is brought to Renaissance’s cozy studio theatre stage on South Water Street with heart and passion courtesy of a cast of actors from the First Stage Young Company. It’s a highly concentrated ensemble drama that hits the stage with an irresistible fury of energy. I’d seen a production at Marquette not too long ago. I was quite happy to see it come to the stage again in an all-new production with Renaissance.

The Format
It’s contemporary suburban America. An indoor soccer field. A group of nine girls warm-up and prepare for a few games over the course of the quick pulse of 90 minutes without intermission. They are The Wolves. They’re genuinely good. Very competitive. Their lives unfold in a series of pre-game exercises that rush across the AstroTurf that’s been cleverly committed to the stage by Dion. There are...a lot of soccer balls. The ensemble is actually practicing. Nets lower into place to ensure no errant balls fly into the audience.

The Pace
“The play should take ninety minutes,” Sara DeLappe. (The page before the Author’s Notes.)

It’s a cast of nine girls. There’s a hell of a lot going on in all of their lives. DeLappe does a remarkable job of weaving them through an impressively diverse amount of stress on and off field. Pacing is absolutely essential to the show otherwise the central insanity of life on the precipice of adulthood is completely lost. Director Elyse Edelman is remarkably precise with the timing and intensity of a drama that goes WELL beyond the standard cliches of a youth sports drama. Action rushes around the stage and through the aisles. Conversations overlap conversations overlapping other conversations. The cast does laps and their voices can be heard echoing into the theatre from the lobby. It’s an engagingly immersive experience.

The Cast
It’s SO cool that Renaissance was able to work with. A cast entirely composed of kids from First Stage’s Young Company. So often college kids are found playing high school kids on stage and screen. There’s something powerfully visceral about a group of actual teens playing teenagers that feels that much more intense. There are some impressively fierce performances in the ensemble. Alice Rivera is cool and competent as the slightly awkward team captain #25. Ryan Bennett makes quite a dramatic and charismatic statement as the gruff #7...a rough and tumble striker who arguably gets knocked around more than anyone else in the ensemble. Lorelei Wesselowski grants Bennett a bit of gravity in the role of #7’s sidekick at midfield. Reiley Fitzsimmons is quirkily magnetic as the new girl #46. Madison Jones delivers compellingly awkward inner stress to the stage as the unlucky #2. Josie Van Slyke has a crazy energy about her as the witty #13. Maya Thomure lends a sharp sense of perspicacity to the production as the articulate #11. High school freshman Natalie Ottman plays to the energetic strengths of a very childlike #8. Elena Marking shows great strength in the role of the Goalie #0. DeLappe gives the goalie an explosive moment alone onstage...and it could be very, very difficult to make that work, but Marking does a jaw-droopingly impressive job of control dramatic combustion during that moment. The sole adult in the production--Marcella Kearns provides potent punctuation as a soccer mom at the end of the play.

​Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Wolves runs through February 11th. For ticket reservations and more, visit Renaissance Theaterworks online.