Tom Strini
On Stage May 24

Youngblood’s take on Faust, MSO’s Wicked Divas

By - May 24th, 2011 01:04 am

Theater

From Tony Johannot’s book illustration for Goethe’s “Faust,” via Wikipedia Commons. Mephistopheles is on the right.

The title gives you the gist of Youngblood Theatre’s latest, which opens at 8:30 p.m. Friday: An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on His Final Evening.

The playwright is Mickle Maher, author of the brilliant Spirits to Enforce, a big hit for Youngblood last year. Spirits was a skewed take on Shakespeare; frankly, I can’t wait to see what Maher did with the Faust tale, another classic of Western Civ, and how those enormously daring and clever Youngbloods will handle it.

Edward Morgan is directing a cast featuring Youngblood stalwarts Michael Coty and Rich Gillard. Youngblood is known for putting unlikely

Michael Cotey

Rich Gillard

venues to imaginative use; the company is staging An Apology at the Pritzlaff Building, 143 W. St. Paul Ave. The company is also known for its ridiculously cheap tickets: All seats $15, except on pay-what-you-can June 6. Curtain time 8:30 for all shows: Fridays and Saturdays May 27-28, June 3-4 and 19-11; Mondays and Tuesdays June 6-7 and 13-14.

Buy tickets online here or buy them at the door from one hour before curtain. Cash only at the door.

Music

Wicked, like Phantom and Les Miz, is one of those shows. It will be packing them in for years, if not decades, on Broadway and on tour. The MSO Pops will get a dose of it this weekend, as Steven Reineke conducts a Wicked Divas program featuring Julia Murney and Jennifer Laura Thompson.

Both have played in Wicked, a modern take on The Wizard of Oz, told from the witches’ point of view, on Broadway. Thompson was Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. And Murney? Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, naturally.

Wicked, of course, is not the only credit for these show-biz veterans. They will sing from other shows on their resumés, including Ragtime, The Music Man, All That Jazz, Evita, My Fair Lady and, of course, The Wizard of Oz.

Concert times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 27-29, at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Tickets are $23-$93 at the MSO website or ticket line, 414 291-7605, and at the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206.

Ongoing

Uprooted Theatre: Pink Champagne, co-produced with the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, through May 29.
First Stage: Miss Nelson Is Missing!, through June 5.
Skylight Opera Theatre:
The Adding Machine, through June 12.
Fireside Dinner Theatre: A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, through June 26.

Last Chance

Sunset Playhouse: Uke whiz Lil Riv, closes May 28.
Sunset Playhouse: Love, Sex and the IRS, through May 28.
Boulevard Theatre: Two to Go, Shaw/Wilder double bill, through May 29.

Note: On Stage is not comprehensive. For more events, please check the TCD performance calendar listings.

0 thoughts on “On Stage May 24: Youngblood’s take on Faust, MSO’s Wicked Divas”

  1. Anonymous says:

    When you listed some of the other musicals that were featuring in the MSO Pops concert this weekend, you said that songs from “All That Jazz” were going to be sung. I believe you mean “Chicago.” “All That Jazz” was an autobiographical film on the career of “Chicago” choreographer Bob Fosse, and takes its name from the famous song which opens “Chicago.”

  2. Anonymous says:

    Good question, Kyle. That’s the way the MSO listed it. They probably do mean “Chicago.” — Strini

  3. Anonymous says:

    The MSO website probably meant that, yes, because the program book for May-June says “Chicago.”

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