What Kind of (Half-) Year Has It Been, 2023 Edition
2023 has been a year of great change and transition, as theaters around the country adjusted to a “new normal.” Again. Broadway is back (along with so-so movie-to-stage adaptations and jukebox musicals) but many regional theaters are not, either closing their doors, taking a year-long pause on programming, or shrinking their seasons to something more financially feasible. Subscribers are also back, but not in pre-pandemic strength. And artistic directors are playing a nation-wide game of musical chairs as the old guard throws up their hands and a new generation tries to make money, make changes, or simply make the best of it.
As we struggle to articulate the fundamental differences between live performance and AI, there has been much hand-wringing in the industry about what to do next, but no real answers. The only truism of the moment is that many fewer people are showing up for shows and as a result, many fewer artists are being employed in professional theater. Cast sizes are shrinking, staffs are being slashed, many new play development programs have been pushed to the back burner and, with the retirement of The Washington Post’s theater critic Peter Marks this month, professional criticism is almost extinct.
I was personally so distressed by the situation that I abruptly moved my family to the Pacific Northwest in August.
So the following list of memorable performances of 2023 isn’t a reflection of the entire year of Wisconsin theater – just the first eight months that I had the pleasure to attend. And I do mean that. It was an enormous pleasure to be in the audience every weekend, outdoors in Spring Green, in Madison’s gorgeous Overture Center, in Milwaukee’s Broadway Theatre Center, and in many other spaces. It was also really thrilling to write about what I saw and to offer my thoughts, along with many kudos.
The truth is, in spite of the doom and gloom that’s settled on the theater world like an ominous fog, there are still lots of things to celebrate about the plays and musicals that are happening.
Here is my annual collection of completely subjective awards and appraisals, cataloging extraordinary moments that reinforce my belief that live theater is the most powerful form of communication ever invented.
Most Alcohol Imbibed Per Person Onstage
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre
Early in Edward Albee’s OG doomed-dinner-party, fight-until-everyone’s-gone-feral play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, an overbearing and eccentric Martha tells her husband to make their guests feel welcome. “Make the kids a drink, George. What do you want, kids? What do you want to drink, hunh?”
And drink they did. Suffice it to say that the play’s four characters were awash in alcohol over the course of the three-hour play, to the extent that if the prop bottles had been filled with the real thing, some of the partiers may have required hospitalization. And thanks to smart people on the internet, we know exactly how many libations the script required each character to imbibe:
George: 3 glasses of bourbon on the rocks
Martha: 11 generous tumblers of gin
Nick: 8 bourbons on the rocks.
Honey: 5 snifters of brandy (before taking the bottle into the bathroom with her)
Even for Wisconsin, that’s a lot. The whole play is a lot. But director Keira Fromm and her superlative cast of Jim Ridge, Laura Gordon, Casey Hoekstra, and Kate Romond pulled off a stunning feat – using their sober brilliance to breathe terrifying life into this drunken tragedy. Thanks to their work, it was one of the most startling and devastatingly human plays I have ever seen.
Best Diva
Rána Roman, Evita, Skylight Music Theatre
Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber put a pen to paper to compose Cats or Phantom of the Opera, he collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on a musical about the rise and fall of controversial Argentinian first lady Eva Perón. The result was Evita, which starred local Milwaukee diva Rána Roman and started Skylight Music Theater’s year on an undeniable high note.
In the title role, Roman burst onto the stage like a lit firecracker, first revealing Eva’s youthful exuberance and her ambition, then her more Machiavellian side, as she manipulated the media and a series of men to get what she wanted. Looking just as regal in a simple house dress as she did in Evita’s signature sparkling white gown, Roman showed audiences Eva’s polished public side and her private discontent; her strength in the face of criticism and her physical frailty as she battled cancer.
Onstage for almost the entire show, Roman soaked up the spotlight, dancing and using her strong, clear soprano to tackle some very well known anthems as well as some interstitial songs that reached far above and below the scale. Her “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was triumphant, as was her call for glamor in “Rainbow High.” Roman has led casts before. This production showcased her undeniable “star quality.”
Most Radically Inclusive Production
The Cost of Living, Renaissance Theaterworks
This gorgeous, multi-layered play by Martyna Majok won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018 and enjoyed successful runs both on- and Off-Broadway, but The Cost of Living is rarely produced in regional theater because it is so hard to cast; two of the four actors are people who live with disabilities, using wheelchairs to get around.
Renaissance Theaterworks chose to take on this difficult project while simultaneously addressing other accessibility issues by projecting subtitles on screens around the stage at every performance; providing more parking spaces for those disabilities; rearranging their lobby to be more wheelchair friendly; and hiring Ben Raanan to direct, who is also the artistic director of Phamaly Theatre Company in Denver, CO, a creative home for theater artists with disabilities.
The production of The Cost of Living was not only important for its inclusiveness, it was an exceptional, starkly beautiful evening of theater. And it’s important to note that the crux of the play did not revolve around the fact that half of the actors were disabled. It hinged on the fact that people with disabilities have unique, funny, complex, poignant stories, just as we all do.
Outstanding Use of Imaginary Instruments
Airness, Forward Theater Company
Dear reader, please know that in my entire life, I never felt the urge to “shred” using either real of invisible instruments – until seeing this electric production from FTC, all about the bad-asses of the air guitar world. On my drive home from the theater I was suddenly cataloging every head-banging, big hair band hit of my high school years, and wondering about costume pieces that would really make my real/pretend performance shine. If only.
Such is the world of Chelsea Marcantel’s Airness – the guitars are imaginary, but the musicianship, passion, and performances are real. This enormously entertaining story (directed with flair by Molly Rhode) focused on five quirky veterans on the competitive air guitar circuit and one newbie, whose perceptions about the sport are initially as misguided as her motives for learning how to slay. Fortunately the veteran true believers put her on the right path to achieve “airness” – the ultimate blending of music, moves, and stage magic that transcends the original head-banging performance and approaches “serious pretend” nirvana.
Thanks to their no-holds-barred, no-musical-ability-required approach to righteous rocking out, Airness was as amusing as it was inspiring. So I say to the Airness cast: Marcus Truschinski, Josh Krause, Nadja Simmonds, James Carrington, Ashley Oviedo, and Joe Picchetti, having witnessed your artistry on wailing guitars and whammy bars, I would happily tune your imaginary instruments anytime.
Best Post-Show Discussion
Makin’ Cake, Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Presented by Four Seasons Theatre
Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton brought her one-woman show to Madison’s Overture Center in March. Clad in a flowing red dress and matching red spike heels, she mused on the topic of baking for 75 minutes, aided by music and slides projected on a large screen behind her. But this was no cooking show. She framed the evolution of cake with the history of American industry, advertising, gender politics, race relations, and the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” in this country. Through photos, maps, recipes, statistics, advertisements, legal precedents, and recent news coverage, Hamilton traced the cultural and economic chasms between Americans back through the centuries, and examined who could have historically afforded sugar, who was doing the actual baking, and who benefitted by keeping women contained in the domestic sphere.
While the show was thought-provoking and frequently entertaining, the most extraordinary thing about the evening was the talkback. Instead using this time to fish for compliments, beat the play’s themes to death, or answer audience questions about the mechanics of performing a play, Hamilton displayed her considerable talent at seeding meaningful conversations by asking the audience members to talk with each other. In short order I was having a funny, interesting and surprisingly frank chat with a woman I’d never met, about what resonated with us in the play and how it compared with our own experiences. Hamilton guided our conversations deftly, making everyone feel seen and heard while removing at least a few heavy layers of angst from discussions about race. It was a refreshing – even hopeful – end to an evening that explored some of our deepest divisions.
Most Deadpan Stage Presence
The Band from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, StageQ
In this confessional, existential, punk concert/musical about the victim of a botched sex-change operation, Hedwig (played by an inspired Kai Prins) is as fragile as she is fierce, as brash as she is broken. The struggling chanteuse’s set is a musical journey through her life, told in many moods. With an expansive vocal range, Prins easily delivered the evening's showstoppers one after another, from driving anthems to tender love songs.
Hedwig began by attacking the stage with “Tear Me Down,” then prowled through the audience with the racy “Sugar Daddy,” and vented her rage through “Angry Inch.” Taking a totally different tone, Hedwig then reinvented herself with “Wig in a Box,” mused about her failed relationship in “Wicked Little Town,” and recounted a bedtime story from her childhood that informs and haunts her adult life in “The Origin of Love.” It was a wild ride for audiences, and one Prins performed with startling emotional truth.
Accompanying Prins on the Drury Stage was The Angry Inch – the band for a rock show, including drums, keyboards, bass and guitar. Dressed in the off-brand, oversized satin coats of a Beatles/Sergeant Pepper tribute band, the accomplished musicians delivered the show’s score with ease, while appearing completely emotionally detached from their front person or the audience. I have never seen a more oddly stoic, whimsically attired group. But then, I have never seen a show quite like this one either. Kudos to StageQ for a tremendous production, from the opening number to the encore.
Most Convincing Pratfalls
Max Pink, Noises Off, Skylight Music Theatre
Taking a running jump at a pratfall and convincing the audience that you might actually die onstage is a rare talent, and one that Max Pink has in spades. In the dual role of a lead actor in a doomed English touring company and the character of a young real estate agent who was using one of his properties for his own trysts, Pink was astonishing in his clumsiness and physical mishaps. He not only tumbled headlong down a flight of stairs, he took half the set with him, falling through floorboards and dismantling railings on his way. Pink’s antics backstage in the second act were also impressive, although hurling props at your fellow actors between scenes is generally frowned on by the theater community.
Most Horrifying Father/Daughter Chat
I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, The Constructivists
I have often wished my relationship with my dad wasn’t so complicated and fraught, but we’ve got nothing – and I mean nothing – on this pair.
I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard is a meta-cubed two-hander focusing on a young actor (Rebekah Farr) and her famous playwright father (James Pickering) who are waiting anxiously for a review to be published of her performance in The Seagull, a Chekhov play about an author and his leading lady receiving bad reviews after performing a new play.
Once the audience got past the hall of mirrors that framed the play, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard was actually an intense character study that was, by turns, heart wrenching, gut punching and horrifying. In this case it was also a rare opportunity to see well-known (and well-loved) Milwaukee performer – Pickering – absolutely transform into a complicated, damaged curmudgeon with a caustic mean streak. The actor completely disappeared into his role as David, an abrasive, monumentally unhappy, manipulative and abusive father with both a god complex and the mammoth insecurities one can only develop as an artist constantly in search of approval.
As his insecure, fragile daughter Ella, Rebekah Farr stayed constantly engaged while responding with short exclamations, interrupting what was essentially an hour-long monologue. Farr was fascinating to watch as she struggled through the verbal onslaught – trying desperately to find the safe spaces as she was pulled through an emotional minefield. Ella’s wide open heart was as transparent as Farr’s face, which contorted with each tectonic shift in her father’s mood.
And like a crowd of rubberneckers watching the aftermath of a car crash, the audience couldn’t look away. I would expect nothing less than harrowing from The Constructivists, and they delivered once again – with exceptional artistry.
Understudy of the Year
Caroline Hansen, Peter Pan, Children’s Theater of Madison
Originally scheduled for the 2019-2020 season, CTM’s production of Peter Pan had a difficult journey towards opening night. Shut down on the eve of the first public performance in 2020 due to COVID-19, it was shelved for three years – until last spring. And just days before the 2023 production debuted, the actor playing Peter Pan (Kailey Azure Green) withdrew from the cast due to an injury. Ironically, Green got a lot of extra stage time last summer as an understudy at American Players Theatre, as COVID ran through the company. But this time Green’s understudy, Caroline Hansen, got the call and took over the title role for the entire run.
Fortunately Hansen was a revelation. She not only carried the show effortlessly, imbuing the perennial boy Peter Pan with wide eyes, high energy, fearless confidence and child-like wonder, Hansen gave absolutely no indication that she was filling in after limited rehearsal time. From the moment she flew into the Darling family’s nursery through an open window, Hansen absolutely owned the stage – letter and note perfect in her songs, never missing a step in the dance sequences or a jab in her sword fights. Oh, and she also flew across the stage, courtesy of ZFX flying effects, like it was second nature. The entire show was captivating, and felt like a bit of a miracle due to the extraordinary circumstances.
Theater Production That Made Me Care About Sports
The Royale, American Players Theatre
Previous winners in this category include The Wolves (women’s soccer), Fences (Negro League baseball), and The Sound of Music (mountain climbing).
Just before the biggest boxing match of Jay “The Sport” Jackson’s life, his manager Max spelled out the stakes. “You’re going to go in there. You’re going to knock him out in three. Your name’s gonna get written in history, and not in Black history Jay, not in white history either Jay. In something better. In sports history.” That is the dream of the main character in Marco Ramirez’s play The Royale — to transcend race and earn the title of world champion heavyweight boxer, not just the best Black athlete to step into the ring.
This taut, emotion- and action-packed production was about so much more than boxing. The poetic, layered play (based on real events) explored the personal cost of fighting against systemic racism and the reality of race-related violence in turn-of-the-20th century America. As Jay, Jamal James shone as a smart, erudite Black man in a position of growing social and economic power, on the verge of demonstrating that his athletic prowess was far superior to a white challenger.
But when the final results were announced from the “fight of the century” a glass shattered and the audience instantly felt the pain of damage that could not be undone. It was a brilliant piece of staging and a sobering end of a play about the fights that have to be waged, but can’t be won.
Most Versatile Set Piece: The Fences
Romeo and Juliet, American Players Theatre
Last summer American Players Theatre again staged the iconic Shakespeare tragedy Romeo and Juliet, about young lovers from two feuding families. But this time they unfolded the tale set in fair Verona in two languages — spoken English and American Sign. Directed with extraordinary vision by John Langs and featuring noted Deaf actor Joshua Castille as Romeo, it was an exquisitely beautiful production that awakened the well known text, making it feel fresh, vital and deeply poignant.
In this version, the star-crossed lovers’ struggles to communicate were undeniably amplified. But their oft-thwarted efforts to be together were also made literal by physical barriers in the form of tall metal fences. Throughout the play, multiple gold gate panels were almost always in motion, providing real obstacles for the lovers and undeniable walls that separated the families. An integral part of the action of the play, wheeled gates that either kept characters fenced in or kept them apart were moved seamlessly into dozens of formations by the entire cast. Several actors also scaled the walls to get to the other side, resting on top while balancing high above the stage in a way that heightened the danger of crossing an ancient boundary. It was a thrilling way to dramatize the stakes for the young people who were desperate to boldly transgress.
Best Storytelling through Set Design
Proof, American Players Theatre
American Players Theatre’s requires most of its sets to be easily installed and removed daily, since both the Touchstone and Hill Theatres quickly cycle through productions throughout the summer. But for Proof, produced indoors as the last play of the year, set designer Lawrence E. Moten was free to create an incredibly complex, physically imposing and mostly naturalistic scene that did not need to be disassembled until closing night. As a result, the quietly decaying house in a yet-to-be gentrified Chicago neighborhood was host to hundreds of tiny details, from bookshelves full of books and souvenirs from foreign travel and family photos hung in the hallway just beyond the porch, to the accumulated detritus of a life that came to rest on the porch. Coffee cups and ancient piles of magazines huddled next to an old boom box and took kit. Rubber boots were squirreled away behind struggling plants in mismatched flowerpots. This incredibly specific set design spoke volumes about the father and daughter who lived in the old house.
Other parts of the design basically told the story of the play. A cloud of open books danced in the air from the attic, as if leading inhabitants of the house on wild (mis)adventures. A wide, low tree stump in the yard showed that a strong, mature tree had been cut down, but a small shoot sprouted from the side, struggling to find the sunlight. This illustrated the mathematical careers of Catherine and her deceased father. And just as Catherine describes the method of proving complicated mathematical theorems as connecting the dots – leaping from one point to the next, sometimes not knowing where it will lead – there is a stone path in the backyard with wide swaths of grass between the rocks, eventually trailing off into the unknown. Like the crux of the play, the physical landscape was a puzzle to be solved. As clues fell into place, the story become complete.
So What’s In Store In 2024?
There is uncertainty, for sure, but there is also a lot to look forward to. In Madison, don’t miss Forward Theater’s upcoming one-woman show, What the Constitution Means to Me, featuring APT Core Company member Colleen Madden. The discussion about forms of government and laws around women’s bodies should be even more poignant in a fraught election year. Also call now for tickets to Four Seasons Theatre’s musical The Hello Girls, about the American military’s first female soldiers – bilingual telephone operators during World War One.
In some surprising good news, Spring Green’s Two Crows Theatre Company just announced it has reformed after a pandemic-enforced hiatus and will be mounting a full production and a staged reading of a new work this spring. Check their Facebook page for more details and performance dates, as they become available.
While you’re on the road, head over to Milwaukee to see Renaissance Theaterworks’s production of The Wolves, a dynamite play about a girls soccer team featuring an age-appropriate ensemble, Skylight Music Theatre’s Spring Awakening, featuring both Deaf and hearing actors, and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of the O’Neill classic, A Moon for the Misbegotten, with a killer cast including Kelly Doherty, James Pickering and LaShawn Banks. In the woods at APT next summer I’m hoping to make it back (fingers crossed) to see Brian Friel’s gorgeous love letter to a forgotten Ireland, Dancing at Lughnasa, Nick Payne’s surreal romance Constellations, and my favorite Shakespeare play of all time, Much Ado About Nothing. (That will mark my fourth APT production of that marvelous comedy.)
Most important, please check out the many, many live performances offered around you that I haven’t mentioned.
For my part, I’m going to explore a lot of new theater in a range of venues in Seattle. And to be honest, the task is a little daunting. Right now I don’t know what the shows are. I don’t know where I’m going to park, or if there are any good restaurants nearby for dinner before the plays. I’m not familiar with the actors, or the specific missions and strengths of the smaller companies. And I probably won’t see any friends in the audience – at least not the first time. But I’m going to do it anyway, because the potential rewards are so great. And in a new city, I have to start somewhere.
Please follow my lead. Venture out. Take a risk on a Friday night of entertainment and so much more. Get back to the theater so that next year, you too can look back on a plethora of memories, of moments that moved and inspired you.