BWW Reviews: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Celebrates Comedy: Well done, Jeeves!

That debonair, delectable English butler Jeeves returns to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's (MCT) Cabot Stage for the final installment with Margaret Raether's Jeeves Takes a Bow at Milwaukee's Broadway Theatre Center. On opening night, the cast and crew from the former two productions-Jeeves Intervenes and Jeeves In Bloom-were invited to return for the evening's celebrations. Toast the impeccable talents of actor Matt Daniels, who recreated the role of Jeeves for each MCT production in his elegant, inimitable style.

Jeeves is the intelligent adult butler to Bertie's upper crust shallow persona, played by American Players Theatre actor Chris Klopatek who at times literally crashes into his best friend, Binky, Northern Sky Theater actor, Chase Stoeger. Raether based her amusing, and often childlike, English characters on P. G. Wodehouse's novels long before the BBC's Absolutely Fabulous or Downton Abbey fame.

In the final installment of the Jeeves trilogy, the story revels in a Downton Abbey meets the beloved New York's Bert and Ernie with a touch of Bugsy Malone added to invoke infamous "dens of depravity." The all done in, madcap performance reprises mistaken identities and mismatched lovers. Bingy arrives in the Big Apple.enamored with a bit part on the New York Stage and actress Ruby, the debuting former Rep Artistic Intern Anna Cline with her 1933 accent and attitude. Bertie and Ruby appear in a new musical, Naughty Natalie, funded by Ruby's father, Knuckles McCann, the ever accomplished Steven M. Koehler.

Bertie originally left England to escape the clutches of his Aunt Agatha, and experience a new life in New York. When his mother's friend Vivienne Duckworth, played by Kay Allmand who travels from Door Shakespeare and Third Avenue Playhouse, appears on Bertie's doorstep apparently to write a novel on the evils of New York's prohibition culture, the fun begins.Vivienne believes she's engaged to Bertie, who Bingy has been impersonating during his own love affair with Ruby since he arrived, a humorous match of the English B's acompanied by tea.

Under Tami Workentin's astute direction, the stop-second timing required for physical comedy by all the actors, especially the three male characters-Daniels, Klopatek, and Stoeger--reverberates from the stage to the audience in laughter. Workentin keeps the Klopatek and Stoeger mayhem in tight sync, while Daniels enchants with his graceful service dance in between them. A stunning 1930's New York hotel room designed by Rick Rasmussen contains all the action, complemented by Kim Instenes's sparkling sequined costumes. MCT"S Jeeves Takes a Bow delights with the set's exceptional visual eye candy and precise comic timing to please any audience.

Music comes to these New York actors, while Jeeves even plays the piano in a clever production number and accomplishes another feat for Jeeves---a song written for the musical Naughty Natalie. Once again, this cast representing the best of Wisconsin theatre captures the audience's heart. With the two other exceptional Jeeves on the Cabot stage in 2010 and 2013, this 2015 production completes the trilogy, and will become one of Milwaukee's treasured memories. For a night of lighthearted fun, so welcome in Spring, who better than Jeeves to bring this to town? To Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Daniels and the accomplished cast: Well done, Jeeves, well done. All take a well deserved bow.

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents Jeeves Take a Bow in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center through May 3. For further information, or subscriptions to MCT'S 2015-2016 season themed "Looking for Love..In All the Wrong Places" please call 414.291.7800 or visit www. milwaukeechambertheatre.org.

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