Opening in September

The theatre season opens in the greater Milwaukee area this September with a mix of drama, comedy and musical flavors. This September features a more diverse cultural fusion than previous years. It's quite a variety available on local stages this month as Summer turns to Autumn. 

The Spitfire Grill
The 2022/2023 theatre season opens with a heartfelt musical drama. Director Michael Pocaro and Music Director Mark Mrozek lead Sunset Playhouse’s production of a 2001 musical adaptation of the 1996 indie film of the same name. The beloved story of a young woman looking to find herself in rural Wisconsin is brought to the stage with a rather impressive cast including local theatre veteran Marilyn White, the talented Josh Scheibe and local musical theatre icon  Matt Zembrowski. The show runs September 8th through 25th at the Furlan Auditorium in Elm Grove.

Lisbon Triviata
Sunstone Studios opens its season next week with a production of Terrence McNally’s tragic mid-1980s comedy. A literary editor’s relationship is falling apart. He tries to keep his mind off personal matters while conversing with an opera diva that runs late into the evening. The cast includes Joshua Biatch, Cory J. O'Donnell, Bryan Quinn, and Deshawn Thomas. The stage and Sunstone is perfect for an intimate, little comic drama. It’s one of the smallest stages in town. Perfect for a cozy evening with a few characters. September 9th through 24th at Sunstone’s space on 127 E. Wells St.

The Seanchai opens-up September for Interchange Theatre (the space that In Tandem founded.) Marie Jones' A Night In November an Irish comedy about events surrounding the World Cup qualifying match between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland at Windsor Park in 1993. John Dunleavy plays Kenneth Norman McAllister--a man who finds his entire life changed on a single night in November. The show runs Sep. 9 - 25 at the Interchange Theatre on 628 N. Tenth St..

​Shakespeare RAW - Twelfth Night
Boozy Bard returns at mid-month to host another series of strangely irreverent explorations into the most acclaimed writer in the whole of the English language as they present Twelfth Night. The shipwrecked romantic comedy fits-in quite well with the Shakespeare RAW approach. Actors arrive at the show not knowing what to expect until the hat assigns them their roles at random. Admission is $10, but it’s only $5 for those who show-up in pirate attire. It’s a fun, breezy informal roll with a beloved comedy makes its way to The Best Place Tavern at the Historic Pabst Brewery September 12th through 14th.

​Kill Move Paradise
Of all the shows on the coming month, this might be the one that I’m looking forward to the most: James Ijames’ dramatic look into the lives of four Black guys who are stuck in a cosmic purgatory in the afterlife. I love this sort of surrealism...it’s a chance to explore the deeper meanings of identity. The playwright has said that this drama was inspired by the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer. The cast that Next Act Theatre has put together for the show is phenomenal...Marques Causey, Ibraheem Farmer, Dimonte Henning and Joseph Brown Jr. Marti Gobel directs. September 22nd through October 16th at the space on 255 S. Water St.

Wife of a Salesman
Playwright Eleanor Burgess had come to realize that her grandfather was a salesman in Brooklyn right around the same time that Arthur Miller’s protagonist Willy Loman would have been around. Knowing that history doesn’t always look at the women in any situation, Burgess was inspired to write a dramatic comedy seen form the perspective of the wife of the salesman as she goes to confront his mistress. It’s a fun concept that The Milwaukee Rep explores in its first Stiemke Studio show of the season. Directed by Marti Lyons, the show runs September 27 through November 6. ​

Where Did We Sit On the Bus?
Milwaukee Chamber Theare opens its season with a fusion of talents as Kellen “Klassik” Abston and Isa Arciniegas present the story of a young Latino searching for identity and cultural history. The narrative fuses the music of Klassik with spoken word in a piece written by Brian Quijada. September 30th through October 23rd at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre.