Review: Say Yes to the BACHELORETTE at Theatre RED beginning March 3.

Prime bridal season in 2016 begins in April, with the June summer and September fall weddings following afterwards, two of the most popular months to marry, which also supports a $72 billion dollar bridal industry. Theatre RED offers an antidote to the sentimentality and excess of festive weddings currently advertised by contemporary bridal culture in their biting, chilling dark comedy coming this March: Bachelorette.

Written by Leslye Headland to continue the playwright's Seven Deadly Sins play cycle, Bachelorette represents "gluttony" with a tale of four friends, a bride, maid of honor, and two uninvited friends, or so named "frenemy," that meet head to head the eve of their first-to-be married friend's wedding.

Theatre RED Co-founder and Producing Director Marcee Doherty-Elst, Director Mark Boergers, and actor Kelly Doherty, gathered before an evening rehearsal to discuss the cultural themes inherent in the play that will be staged at Alchemist Theatre beginning March 3. In today's society, "Say Yes to the Dress," "Bridezilla" and the "Perfect Wedding" permeate media, print and television, to persuade youthful minds to plan the ultimate wedding event instead of perhaps promoting fulfilling marriages. The company stages the play so audiences might perceptively review their personal beliefs regarding careers, friendships, relationships, weddings and the ultimate life changing event--marriage.

In Headland's play, the maid of honor (Regan, Tess Cinpinski) meets two old friends (Katie, Shannon Nettesheim, and Gena, Liz Faraglia) excluded from the weekend events on a Friday before the exclusive New York wedding. These almost 30-year old Ivy League graduates represent various perspectives on career choices and how relationships change and sustain themselves as people mature post-graduation. As several surveys contend, women college graduates now out number men college graduates 3 to 2, so there's a short supply of men with college degrees for all those well educated college women. The bride, Becky, has won the proverbial golden life ticket---she's marrying a handsome, rich man for love, the first friend to marry, and will never need to work again, even with her prestigious college degree from Princeton.

Becky's lavish New York wedding sets a high standard for her friends to achieve because three of the most expensive places to marry include Chicago, $48.500, Long Island, $57.000, and then New York in Manhattan at an average of $87,000 per wedding. The average price of a wedding dress grows close to $1300.00, or choose a designer Vera Wang beginning at $2900.00, or the Luxe Wang beginning at $6900.00. How many "friends" could compete, much less complete, this supposed perfect dream come true? Are Becky's friends happy for her? Essentially on the night before the very extravagant and exceptional wedding day, the women's addictions and insecurities explode in their faces and friendships, while the three single ladies dally with some random men in the bridal suite, Jeff, Nick Narcisi, and Joe, Evan Koepnick, for frenetic sensual escapades

The courageous, gritty and edgy play selection offers a professional, polished production, a hallmark of Theatre Red's mission statement for Milwaukee. Director Boergers hails from Chicago's Arc Theater, while also Artistic Director for Cardinal Stritch University, and believes, "The play proposes life is complicated, reflecting on the often tragic nature of female friendships. competition, and the cultural context and pressure to be [or achieve] a certain, prescribed way."

Doherty-Elst claims, Bachelorette focuses on a dark version of "Mean Girls" meets "The Hangover" --A wake up call for the audience to own life and love, what benchmarks, if any, are needed, that signal achievement of success? Do they match an ideal and strive for something unattainable?"

Kelly Doherty plays the bride Becky, and believes, "Bachelorette mirrors what the result of Reality TV can herald in an age of privilege, when parents often shield their children form disappointment."What do young women except to achieve in the 21st century? A fulfilling career, marriage to wealthy young man, and then raising children without working? Currently, an interesting trend explains children might be the new status symbol. In New York, if you have three or four children, this means a family can afford to raise a large family, and have the woman, or wife, stay home to care for them. Surprising to think of children as a modern status symbol?

Statistically, earners over six figures represent a small percentage of the total population, so what is the actual reality to these expectations? The issues can be intriguing, and might require more contemplation after the curtain falls. Theatre RED will be dressing the 64 seat Alchemist Theatre similar to a posh hotel bridal suite while the surrounding lounge transforms into a bridal like atmosphere to immerse the audience in the "wedding party" experience.

Drink specials and party packages will be included with a ticket to the performance, while wedding themed games can be played, evoking the supposed "fantasy and fun" of the wedding event. This interactive evening offers three varied ticket packages for Theatre RED's darkest production to date, and because of the subject material recommended for persons over the age of 18 that continues their season theme "We All Have Blood on Our Hands."

Alchemist's intimate space welcomes this provocative Milwaukee Bachelorette premiere, an antithesis to what today's culture believes about the current wedding experience. Do women in contemporary society continue to accept these life milestones as a privilege and somewhat predictable, to be planning the fairytale wedding while also receiving the red rose of true love thats last a lifetime as explored on television's real life show "Bachelorette?."

Do today's weddings reveal the gluttony of an industry without any end in sight to the financial costs involved---and to the detriment of the bride and groom, who have a entire lifetime ahead of them to determine if love proves true?. Interestingly, another study indicated that the more expensive the engagement ring and the wedding, the less chance the marriage has of long term survival. Examine the fascinating facts attached to these themes at Alchemist Theatre while viewing the disturbing, dysfunctional and highly entertaining peek at the dark side of bridal bliss in Theatre REDs Bachelorette.

Theatre RED presents Bachelorette at Alchemist Theatre, 2569 South Kinnickinnic, beginning March 3 through March 17. Statistics in preview found through www.soundvision.com, Huffington Post, and The Knot. For further information on Theatre RED ticket packages, performance only tickets, or upcoming Theatre RED events and productions, please visit: www.theaterred.com

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