Review: MKE's Cold Nights Warm to Berlin's Hot Music at the Stackner's I LOVE A PIANO

This season Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Stackner Cabaret warms the holidays with the Great American Songbook: A tribute to the incomparable composer Irving Berlin in the musical revue I Love A Piano. When an old forlorn piano with one broken note magically reveals the instrument's history during the performance, Berlin's lyrics and melodies that defined the country's multiple generations play on. In this mesmerizing production filled with more than 50 Berlin songs, the cabaret regales America's 1910's to post World War II eras that stirs memories in the audience's heart and soul.

Berlin often captured the soul of America's past with his heartbeat on humanity through his prolific music. Four talented artiste lavishly cavort on stage--Kelley Faulkner, Jane Labanz, Eric Shorey and Steve Watts---where each performer dances, tinkles those ivories, and sings Berlin's legacy under JC Clementz's direction and Dan Kazemi music direction, the Rep's recent dream team when producing in the Stackner. Throughout the performance, costumes switch from glittering flapper dresses, to "Puttin' on the Ritz" furs, tails and top hats, and later service uniforms in a twinkling of an instant through Sally Dolembo's designs, so the audience's eyes never leave the stage.

Throughout the one intermission evening, these familiar Berlin melodies will have the audience lip syncing the words: "Pack Up Your Sins...Go to the Devil, a poignant "Russian Lullaby," to "Steppin' Out With My Baby' or the "Best Things Happen When You Dance." Berlin's "White Christmas" lyrics, music and score, steal a few scenes to highlight the upcoming holidays, including the tender, "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep." These renowned melodies strike heart chords to set home fires burning for those unable to be near the hearth at year's end.

A production written by Ray Roderick and Michael Berkeley, with choreography by James Zager, Berlin's genius whether "reveling with Mr. Devil" or "dancing and cuddling up tight" dazzles in multiple numbers under these four talents. Each actor stages a singing whirlwind when together, and each for a singular moment in the production. Often the quieter tunes, such as Labanz's "What Will I Do?" or the rendition of "How Deep is the Ocean?" compel the audience in their seats to steal a few silent memories for themselves or with that loved one sitting near by.

This holiday season, Berlin and I Love a Piano gives audiences a spellbinding production to "Let Yourself Go." Love this cabaret and know that "You've Got Your Love to Keep You Warm' on a great evening of dancing and singing. Perhaps, one of the most powerful moments in the entire cabaret was the singing of the Jewish immigrant Berlin's "God Bless America"... a moment to be treasured this season and one audiences might remember because they infrequently hear this song: "Stand beside her, to guide her, through the night with the light from above...from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam...."

Only a song written by the magnificent Berlin in 1918, almost 100 years ago, and revised in 1938, might resonate so clearly at the end of 2016 and illuminate the cabaret with good will to last the whole season long. At the Stackner, love that old piano to revisit with hope, joy and peace the life, times and music of Irving Berlin.

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents ˆI Love a Piano' , a celebration of Irving Berlin, at the Stackner Cabaret in the Patty and Jay Baker Theater complex through January 15, 2017. For information on performances or tickets, including select student discounts, or those 35 and under, please call: 414.290.5340 or www.milwaukeerep.com

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