Most of Milwaukee's professional theaters are generalists. They offer their audiences some of this and a dab of that. A dark comedy here, a classic American drama there, and a bit of the abstract and absurd occasionally thrown into the mix.
It makes for varied seasons, but rarely does a troupe shift gears as radically as In Tandem Theatre Company has done in the last two months. The group has gone from a beautifully staged and acted production about respecting spiritual and cultural differences ("The Chosen") set in Brooklyn during World War II to a late 20th century drawing-room comedy that evokes the frothy wit of Noel Coward.
That is "Veronica's Position," which opened last weekend at the Tenth Street Theatre. The show is a pleasant and entertaining diversion, well timed for the lightness of spring.
Dramatist Rich Orloff grounded his play in show business history. Seven years after their second divorce, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton appeared on Broadway in a production of Coward's "Private Lives," a comedy about a couple of ex-mates.
Taylor had limited stage acting experience, and if you want to take the word of then New York Times theater critic Frank Rich, the production plodded in a most un-Cowardly way. The year was 1983.
Set in late 1989 and early 1990, "Veronica's Position" is about a screen star famous for her supermarket tabloid personal life. Lots of men and marriages.
She is cast in a Broadway production, with one of her exes as her co-star, while she is being romanced by a U.S. senator. (Taylor was married to Virginia Sen. John Warner for a while.)
The show is dreadful, the formerly married stars spar and spoon, and the senator turns out to be narrow minded and controlling as he attempts to censor federally-funded arts projects.
Forget the plot. This is all about the larger-than-life characters and the zingers they trade. The "Veronica's Position" actors must take their characters to the brink of going over the top, maintaining sharp comic timing with the one-liners.
In Tandem's production, under Jane Flieller's direction, accomplishes that.
Tiffany Vance, who resembles a 40-ish Taylor, hits a difficult and necessary mark. She is a convincing diva, wielding her stardom and its perks with relish, but she is also likable.
That is important. Vance keeps us in the game.
Richard Ganoung delivers a deliciously sardonic portrait of the co-starring ex-husband, on the wagon for most of the play until a spectacular fall from sobriety. It's the best, most inventive depiction of a drunk I have seen on a stage.
"Veronica's Position's" humor is driven by the actress' very gay personal assistant, and T. Stacy Hicks nails it. Pity Steve Koehler, who must be senatorial and play the heavy and straight man here. He does it well.
Joe Fransee is strangely stiff as a visual artist whose work offends the senator, and Libby Amato is miscast as the Broadway director attempting to turn a turkey into a swan. Regally pretty, Amato looks uncomfortable playing a scheming manipulator, even if the conniving is for a good cause.
During more than three decades of writing about Milwaukee theater, I have encountered a trove of good stories. None are better than Sarah Sokolovic's.
Sarah made the nearly unprecedented leap of going straight from high school to professional stage acting, without stopping for college. She began with the city's smaller companies – the now defunct Circlestage, Off the Wall Theatre and the old Broadway Baby Dinner Theatre.
Methodically climbing the ladder, Sokolovic acted with Renaissance Theaterworks, the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, the Milwaukee Rep and the American Players Theatre in Spring Green. No ingenue, she possessed a visceral grittiness rarely found in young actors.
That was on display in the two Bialystock & Bloom productions – "Bash" and "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea" – that were her most impressive work. Sarah could raise the hair on the back of your neck.
The young actress was "discovered" by noted director David Chambers when he staged a Milwaukee Shakespeare production in 2005. A member of the faculty at the Yale School of Drama, the country's most prestigious theater school, he urged her to consider entering the graduate-level acting program.
Without having an undergraduate education, Sokolovic was admitted to the fiercely competitive Yale program, completed it a year ago and immediately went into an off-Broadway musical in New York, "The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World." Now she has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award in the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical category for her work in that show.
Her fellow nominees include the legendary Elaine Paige for the Broadway revival of "Follies," and Broadway veterans Judy Kaye ("Nice Work If You Can Get It") and Marin Mazzie ("Carrie" revival). That's amazing company, but those of us who have watched Sokolovic grow can't say we are surprised.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
