Kelsey Lawler - Page 7

Ebenezer Scrooge's story is ever familiar and warms the soul, and the Rep consistently delivers production value you can count on. Yet even knowing that this is a Christmas Carol steadfast and true, there's always something new to glean - whether it's actually new or just new to your memory.

Twelve (largely-failed) meet-cutes, four performers, two backup singers, and one very chatty partridge in a pear tree suffering from a year of aloneness. It's a different kind of Christmas show, to be sure. Simple in its premise and more of an introspective snapshot of one woman's life, rather than the sweeping "good will toward men" sentimentality that often accompanies such holiday fare.

'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' sets a merry tone for the holiday season - a season that, in the world of this Christmas pageant, challenges kids to focus on something other than just Santa and presents. The holiday season is all about renewed faith and finding something good and peace-willing to believe in. 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' reminds us of that, and such reminders are always a gift for kids young and old.

The stakes are always higher and the timeline is always tighter at holiday time. What results in 'Christmas in Babylon' are lessons in forgiving others, forgiving yourself, and moving forward - lessons that, for some reason, we are all more willing to embrace at this most wonderful time of the year.

The Skylight's musical Hairspray is Milwaukee's bigger, bolder, bowl-you-over show for the holidays, celebrating diversity of all kinds, from the color of your skin to the inches in your waistline. It's unabashedly idealistic and optimistic - a look at what great strides we might make if we put down our prejudices and picked up our dancing shoes.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, a play set in the world of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice,' following Lizzie and Mr. Darcy's happy ending. With their romance confined to the pages of Austen's novel, the Darcys take a turn as supporting characters in this story that focuses on the Bennets' forgotten middle daughter, Mary.

This is an upbeat, lighthearted musical revue that flows breezily through nearly thirty tunes from "Minnie the Moocher" to "White Cliffs of Dover" to "As Time Goes By."

McDonagh will leave behind a macabre masterwork in The Pillowman, and the Constructivists company can live easy, knowing they did his work justice.

This is a story of family and feeling, with a fanciful little twist. Go if you like the thought of pondering the boxes we put ourselves in-what we believe can or can't be true for us, based on imaginary constructs. Outside Mullingar dares us to challenge those boxes and live knowing that "Life is here! We name it!"

A delightful, dazzling escape filled with corseted girls in golden tap shoes, The Bard on air guitar, and a big ol' wink to the audience before launching knowingly into any musical encore. If serious theater is your only joy, then you will find little of it here; playfulness and jokes made of delicious low-hanging fruit rule in 'Something Rotten.'

In the slew of vibrant, singular experiences that the MOT has put forth in recent years, Antiology is shaping up to join the ranks of greatness.

What the Skylight brings to Stephen Schwartz's already glorious music and lyrics is a cast and creative team brimming with sheer brilliance.

Would you believe that one woman could embody the likes of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holliday, and Maria Callas? Milwaukee Rep alum and diva in her own right, Bethany Thomas, does just that.

Making its midwest debut at Theater RED, This Prison Where I Live is one in playwright and Director Angela Iannone's four-play Booth Cycle. Iannone's achievement, beyond the work itself and assembling such a stellar group of creatives, lies in encouraging a curiosity for histories both infamous and intimate. 

We're told from the very beginning of Doc Danger & the Danger Squad that, in this universe, creativity rules and the hero always escapes. Spoiler alert? Not so much. And if so, who cares! Doc Danger isn't so much about its tightness of plot or genuinely shocking twists and turns. It's about having a rollicking good time inside the brain of composer and Milwaukeean Jason Powell.

This World Premiere event isn't the Peter Pan narrative you'd expect. There's no pixie dust, Neverland, or mermaids. The only magic found on stage - and it's a powerful magic at that - comes from the remarkable cast of teens performing playwright Kimberly Belflower's simultaneously authentic and lyrical new script.

From curtain rise to fall, 'An American in Paris' hinges on dance. The show is a work of art from start to finish, as every danced moment, from the nuance of falling in love to show-stopping kick lines, is crafted to artistic perfection.

Typically performed in four acts, Milwaukee Ballet Artistic Director, Michael Pink, has trimmed the classic into two acts, maintaining Swan Lake's integrity and grandeur while making it a more comfortable experience for modern audiences. And whatever traditions are eschewed, they are answered with innovations that strengthen the narrative.

In the end, you may leave Urinetown wondering, as Little Sally does, what kind of a musical is this? Officer Lockstock would have me remind me you that it isn't supposed to be a happy one. It's one full of mixed signals: comedic tropes, untimely death, catchy music, rich vs. poor, hope for tomorrow, and an ultimately uncertain future. It makes you think not only about the baddies who want to regulate our metaphorical toilets, but also the do-gooders who act on righteous principle alone without regard to reality. 

Beautifully written, with minimal sets and moments that suggest the characters are aware of the parts they're playing, this is a wonderful and enduring work of dramatic art - and one that the Milwaukee Repertory Theater carries out with ease.