The A.V. Club's 2009-10 Theater Guide

After a summer semi-hiatus, the Madison theater scene returns in full force this fall with an absolute shitload of options. There are two new professional theater companies in the mix along with American Players Theatre and the Overture Center, as well as the usual assortment of excellent community companies. Here’s The A.V. Club's not-so-brief rundown of what you can look forward to seeing on stage this fall and spring; keep up with us at madison.avclub.com for more theater coverage throughout the season

American Players Theatre
The Comedy Of Errors, through Oct. 4, $38-$62
As one of Shakespeare’s earliest works, The Comedy Of Errors is a lighthearted play filled with gags and pratfalls. Multiple sets of identical twins offer numerous opportunities for the Bard to develop the mistaken-identity slapstick that would later permeate his canon.

Hay Fever, through Oct. 3, $38-$62
Hay Fever fictionalizes playwright Noel Coward’s experiences with the highfalutin “theatuh” crowd he encountered when he traveled from England to America in an attempt to sell his plays. It’s set in the home of the Bliss family—a group that includes a flaky ex-actress and a novelist—and centers on their melodramatic interactions with a group of equally wacky visitors.

King Henry V, through Oct. 2, $38-$62
This historical drama explores the events surrounding the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and culminates by revisiting England’s unlikely victory in the Battle of Agincourt after being vastly outnumbered. Henry V has been interpreted both as glorifying this celebrated battle, and alternately, as an anti-war screed.

The Philanderer, through Sept. 19, $38-$62
The Philanderer is the second of George Bernard Shaw’s “plays unpleasant,” and it features a philosophizing womanizer named Leonard Charteris who meets his match in Grace—a self-described "new woman" ardently proclaiming to belong to no man. Shaw uses his famous wit to examine promiscuity and marriage in ways that are just as relevant to current-day audiences as those he was writing for more than 100 years ago.

The Winter’s Tale, through Sept. 26, $38-$62
As a tweener tragicomedy, The Winter’s Tale employs many of Shakespeare’s usual tricks like disguises and mistaken identities. But it’s most well-known for where it departs from his tried-and-true methods: the 16-year gap between the third and fourth acts, a goofy scene at a sheep-shearing contest, and quite possibly his most famous stage direction of all time: "Exit, pursued by a bear."

Touchstone Theatre at American Players Theatre
In Acting Shakespeare, through Oct. 2, $45-$57
Longtime APT vet James DeVita adapted Sir Ian McKellen's one-man show to tell his own story of going from the docks in Long Island to classical theater. In a plot twist befitting the Bard's greatest works, DeVita's adaptation recounts one of the seminal moments in his odd journey: seeing McKellen perform In Acting Shakespeare in New York.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night, through Oct 4, $45-$57
Three alcoholics and one morphine addict (who’s recently returned from the sanatorium, no less) spend a day in their living room slinging barbs and reopening old wounds. The repetitious plot and one-room setting helps establish that this particular day isn’t unusual for the Tyrones, while at the same time helping the characters articulate their strange expressions of humanity and underlying love.

Old Times, through Oct. 2, $45-$57
Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter's Old Times is a mind-bender in which a married couple—Deeley and Kate—are visited by Anna, a friend from their past. As the characters reminisce, their memories conflict, and the play investigates the way that all memories are subjective. It's these misguided recollections that help define the characters as individually and collectively flawed.

The Bricks Theatre
An Adult Evening Of Shel Silverstein, Oct. 14-22, $10
Shel Silverstein is most well-known for his children’s books The Giving Tree and Where The Sidewalk Ends, though he was also a prolific songwriter, cartoonist (for Playboy!), and playwright. After his death, David Mamet collected six of his comedic one-acts including The Best Daddy, in which a young girl has trouble understanding why her new birthday pony is under a blanket and not moving.

Broom Street Theater
Tales From The Dork Side, Sept. 25-Nov. 1
Local playwright Brian Wild’s sequel to his play Dork Side Of The Moon sends his “heroes” poking around a haunted house in an attempt to gain the inheritance of a mysterious uncle.

McBeth, Nov. 13-Dec. 20
BST Artistic Director Callen Harty contemporizes Shakespeare’s classic by having his female antihero duke it out with ghosts in the boardroom.

Cattywompus, Jan. 15-Feb. 21
First-time playwrights Christina Beller and Justin Lawfer have penned a wedding comedy filled with nuns, pirates, and stoner nursing-home patients.

The Wake Of Liam Doherty, Mar. 5-Apr. 11
Siobhan Edge premiered at BST with Lounging Around in 2009, and returns with a story about life, death, and love. The play will be directed by BST vet N-dig0.

Multiple O: The Second Coming, Apr. 23-May 30
Multiple O: The Second Coming follows up John Sable’s Multiple O, a work about polyamory.

Television: The Play, June 11-18
Television is a performance piece loaded with skits and short pieces based on how people watch TV. The audience will be enlisted to help decide which “shows” are watched.

Proud Theater: Decade, July 23-25
BST teams with the youth troupe Proud Theater to produce the best theatrical pieces, music, and poetry from the 10-year history of the event.

A Woman On Paper, Aug. 6-Sept. 12
A Woman On Paper delves into the relationship of two of the most dynamic artists of the 20th century: Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.

Invisible Boy, Sept. 24-Oct. 31
BST Artistic Director Callen Harty directs his own “poetic narrative with movement” concerning sexual abuse.

900, Nov. 12-Dec. 10
Rob Matsushita returns to BST for the first time since 2005, with 900 detailing, in real time, a 90-minute phone sex call.

Forward Theater Company
All About Eve, Overture Center, Nov. 7, $30/$20 (students and seniors)
This stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning Bette Davis vehicle revolves around an aspiring actress, Eve, who is befriended by a Broadway star. Though all is not as it seems when Eve is revealed to be a Machiavellian conniver (read: a bitch).

Why Torture Is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them, Overture Center, Dec. 30-Jan. 17, $30-$40/$20 (students and seniors)
This is the first Midwestern production of comedic master Christopher Durang’s satire—a play that unearths a pile of post-9/11 paranoia after a woman who suspects her own husband of being a terrorist.

Kiritsis, Overture Center, Mar. 20, $10 (donation)
David Schanker’s Kiritsis—winner of the Wisconsin Wrights New Play Festival—looks at religious beliefs and how they’re shaped during a hostage situation in 1977. (Staged reading only.)

The Laboratory Theatre
Educating Rita, Bartell Theatre, Oct. 2-17, $12 (advance), $15
An updated take on Willy Russell’s classic, this version of Educating Rita is moved from '70s England to Madison. Here, a twentysomething black hairdresser longs for “a better song to sing,” and looks for assistance from her alter-ego and tutor, Frank.

The Santaland Diaries, Bartell Theatre, Nov. 27-Dec. 19, $12 (advance), $15
The stage version of David Sedaris’ iconic essay of the same name, The Santaland Diaries is an irreverent and philosophical take on the commercialization of Christmas channeled through Sedaris’ experiences as Blisters the elf at Macy’s.

Madison Opera
Carmen, Overture Hall, Nov. 6-8, $49-$112
When a young Spanish soldier named Don Jose falls under the spell of the gypsy Carmen, it puts into motion an absolute shit-storm of events that rain down on his parade: He rejects his former love, joins a band of smugglers, gets dumped, and commits murder. Needless to say, love and lust abound in one the world’s most oft-performed operas.

The Turn Of The Screw, Overture Center Playhouse, Jan. 28-31, $49-$112
The adaptation of Henry James’ famed ghost yarn tells the tale of a young governess and the two children under her charge. James’ purposely ambiguous story has spawned numerous interpretations regarding whether the ghosts are "real" and the reliability of the governess as a narrator. Grammy-nominated soprano Caroline Worra stars in the production.

The Flying Dutchman, Overture Hall, Apr. 9-11, $49-$112
In Richard Wagner’s famous opera, a sea captain takes a regrettable oath overheard by the devil, who in turn dooms him to sail the seas off Norway until the end of days. That is, unless, he can find a woman during the time he’s allowed shore leave (once every seven years) to love him for all eternity—no small task for a smelly, seafaring chap.

Mercury Players Theatre
In The Beginning, Bartell Theatre, Sept. 4-26, $12-$18
The team who created Walmartopia (Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn) turn their gaze skyward to take on the biggest boss of them all. In the Beginning is an expanded version of one of the acts from January’s Blasphemy!, and pokes fun at creationism with a talking fish that seduces Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Vin, Bartell Theatre, Oct. 9-24
Two down-on-their-luck youths who have been friends for years are looking for an escape when they meet a sweet-talking grifter who has a plan to help. Instead, he ends up driving a wedge between them.

1SW33T R1DE, Bartell Theatre, Nov. 20-Dec. 12
1SW33T R1DE is a stylistic change of pace for prodigious local playwright Rob Matsushita in that all the violence takes place offstage. Still, it’s a harrowing account of the decisions a woman must make in the hours following a sexual assault.

Fat Men In Skirts, Bartell Theatre, Jan. 22-Feb. 13
In this darkest of comedies, a mother and son are stranded on an island for five years, during which time they become cannibals and lovers. They eventually return to civilization and unsurprisingly find that shedding their savage lifestyles isn’t the easiest task.

Mercury Rising: A New Play Competition, Bartell Theatre, Apr. 16-May 1
Eight one-act plays are chosen in a new play competition, and will be directed by Martinique Barthel, J.S. Fauquet, George Gonzalez, and Molly Vanderlin.

Poona The Fuck Dog And Other Plays For Children, Bartell Theatre, May 28-June 12
Poona (a.k.a. the fuck dog) romps through an adult fairy tale in which she’s looking for someone to play in her “big pink box.” Along the way she meets a fairy god penis, invading aliens, a sassy shrub, and God, who in this world, will answer any question for $5.

Blitz Smackdown (Round 4)/XI Annual Blitz, Bartell Theatre, June 18-19
Both of these are well-established Mercury events wherein playwrights draw a title out of a hat and then have 24 hours to write, rehearse, and produce a play. The twist on the Smackdown is that after the plays are performed, the audience chooses their two favorites. From there, the playwrights then have a 15-minute intermission to cast a one-page play they also wrote during the previous night. After the final two are performed, the audience anoints the ultimate champion.

Overture Center
Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, Nov. 10-15, $10-$45
The stage version of Hitchcock’s 1935 movie is a comedy filled with goofy puns and nods to Hitchcock’s other works like Psycho and North By Northwest. In it, the dashing Richard Hannay encounters murders, double-crossing secret agents, and, of course, femme fatales, all while trying to escape an entanglement with a group of spies.

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Dec. 3-20, $26-$36
Riff-heavy and oft-performed, The Complete Works tackles all 37 of the bard’s plays in 97 minutes, so a premium’s placed on speed, goofiness, and irreverence, rather than the arch language and dense plots that often scare folks off.

Grease, Dec. 8-13, $35-$70
There’s little to be said of the immortal Rydell High crew that hasn’t already been covered on the big screen, in reality shows like Grease: You're the One That I Want!, or the bazillion or so stage productions chronicling the Pink Ladies' and T-Birds' forays into teenage rebellion. This particular production features the silver-haired American Idol winner and Soul Patrol general, Taylor Hicks.

Little House On The Prairie: The Musical, Jan. 19-24, $27-$62
Melissa Gilbert plays the role of Ma in a musical recalling Laura Ingalls Wilder’s much-beloved books, which detail her experiences growing up in the Midwest in the late 19th century.

Rent: The Broadway Tour, Jan. 26-31, $30-$65
Two of the stars of the original 1996 Broadway production (Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp) reprise their roles in the New York-centric rock musical loosely based on the opera La Boheme—though in Rent, the story is updated to include the shadow of the AIDS epidemic.

An Enemy Of The People, Mar. 11-28, $26-$36
Henrik Ibsen’s classic looks at the irrationalities of the masses when a doctor is unable to convince the people in his town that a tannery’s pollution of local hot spring is a serious problem.

Neil Berg’s 100 Years Of Broadway, Mar. 13, $22-$42
Tired of Les Miserables and Phantom? Not to worry, Cats and Jesus Christ Superstar are only a few moments away. Neil Berg’s 100 Years Of Broadway is perfect for those looking to gorge on Webber, Gershwin, and Bernstein, or for general theater wonks with ADHD.

Almost, Maine, Apr. 22-May 9, $26-$36
Almost, Maine’s whimsical take on love soft-shoes through 20 different characters’ loosely connected stories. It’ll either be pleasantly sweet or overly saccharin depending on the audience’s tolerance for stories that involve repairmen who fix actual broken hearts carried around in paper bags.

The Lion King, Apr. 27-May 23, $18-$83
The wildly popular Broadway musical based on Disney’s Oscar-winner most notably features some catchy music written by Elton John (along with Tim Rice), and fantastical costumes.

StageQ
The Stops, Bartell Theatre, Oct. 30-Nov. 21, $10-$15
The Stops is a campy musical in which three female church organists—a Nazarene, Southern Baptist, and Jewish Unitarian—go on tour to save one of their favorite composers who’s recently been outed as gay.

Random Harvest, Bartell Theatre, Dec. 31-Jan. 16, $10-$15
A reclusive playwright is haunted by three ghosts of '40s Hollywood past, with Greer Garson being the most recognizable.

Sappho In Love, Bartell Theatre, Feb. 12-27, $10-$15
Sappho In Love’s fast-moving comedy stylings imagine classic Greek goddesses as lesbians. Artemis, the goddess of lesbian celibacy, and Hera, the goddess of coupledom, join forces to challenge Aphrodite, to see who can gain Sappho as an adherent.

Queer Shorts 5, Bartell Theatre, June 10-19, $10-$15
StageQ reboots its short-play festival for the fifth consecutive year with 12 new one-act works. StageQ has a history of deftly handling weighty themes, so expect this popular event (previous years have sold out quickly) to be thought-provoking and welcoming for both LGBT and straight audiences alike.

Strollers Theatre
Romance, Bartell Theatre, through Sept. 5, $15
Strollers Theatre tackles David Mamet’s politically incorrect courtroom farce, in which a Protestant defense attorney and Jewish defendant trade barbs and four-letter bombs under the unwatchful eye of a pill-popping judge.

Cat’s-Paw, Bartell Theatre, Sept. 10-Oct. 3, $15
Local playwright and filmmaker Rob Matsushita directs this thriller involving a TV journalist who’s taken hostage by an eco-terrorist. Matsushita is setting it in the mid-’90s to split the difference between an early-’80s script an audience with a post-9/11 mindset.

The Musical Comedy Murders Of 1940, Bartell Theatre, Oct. 29-Nov. 21, $15
The Musical Comedy Murders Of 1940 mashes up the tropes and plot devices found in 1940s murder mysteries including sliding panels, secret passageways, a bumbling police inspector, knives, dead bodies, and German maids.

Man Of LaMancha, Bartell Theatre, Apr. 8-May 1, $15
This Tony Award winner is a play within a musical, in which Miguel de Cervantes performs the story of his mad, windmill-chasing knight in order to gain the trust and respect of his fellow prisoners.

Playboy Of The Western World, Bartell Theatre, May 13-June 5, $15
When Playboy was written in the early 1900s, the word meant “hoaxer” or “trickster,” so the title fits for this tragicomic satire in which a young farm boy shows up in town falsely claiming to have killed his own father. The townspeople first laud him for his bravery, but later turn on him, leading him to attempt actual patricide.

University Theatre
The Imaginary Invalid, Mitchell Theatre, Oct. 23-Nov. 7, $14-$20
Moliere’s 1673 play touches current hot-button issues as it pokes fun of the medical profession by featuring a miserly hypochondriac who pushes for his daughter to marry a doctor so he can get free care. Interestingly, this production is being updated with a steampunk aesthetic.

Blood Wedding, Hemsley Theatre, Nov. 13-Dec. 5, $14-$20
Blood Wedding is one of the three works in the great poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca’s “rural trilogy” set in the Spanish countryside. This tragedy probes gender roles and social mores through the story of a bride who runs away with the son of her family's enemy.

Narukami—The Thunder God, Mitchell Theatre, Feb. 26-Mar. 13, $14-$20
Kabuki specialist David Furumoto directs a classic kabuki performance that leans heavily on the Japanese “aragoto” and “onnagata” dance-drama acting styles.

The Lady From The Sea, Hemsley Theatre, Mar. 19-Apr. 10, $14-$20
Henrik Ibsen’s psychological drama hinges on the excruciating decision of Ellida Wangel. Wangel is married to a widower, and must choose between her current husband and a love interest from the past (a character creepily named The Stranger).

Into The Woods, Mitchell Theatre, Apr. 16-May 1, $14-$20
Steven Sondheim’s musical intertwines and revitalizes fairy-tale icons like Little Red Riding Hood, Jack, Rapunzel, and Cinderella for a dark tale with dead giants and less-than-charming princes.