This article is in partnership with the Skylight Music Theatre.
The summer movie blockbuster season has finally arrived at the box office this year. But while the big-name movies usually start to disappear from cinemas at the start of fall, Milwaukee audiences will still be able to find exhilarating blockbusters – just on stage rather than on screen thanks to the Skylight Music Theatre’s upcoming slate of shows for 2024-25.
Oliver Twist. Romeo and Juliet. Frankenstein. They’re the stars of some of the most famous stories since the creation of storytelling – and they’ll all grace the Skylight stage this season, along with some growing modern icons like “Waitress” and “Sister Act” helping energetically bookend it all, with the curtain going up on the first of the bunch on Oct. 4.
The entire quintet of productions will bring quite the cinematic legacy to the Skylight’s home at the Broadway Theatre Center – including a smash hit Disney musical comedy, an iconic movie monster, a critically acclaimed indie charmer, a Best Picture winner, and a modern twist on a Shakespeare classic that’s made generations swoon and sob whether it’s Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting or Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio.
According to the creative minds behind the Skylight’s upcoming season, assembling a 2024-25 marquee that’d look just as compelling outside a movie theater than a Broadway theater was a happy accident – or a meet-cute, in Hollywood parlance.
“Before we even really sat down to figure out strategically what a theme might be, these things just started falling into place – and suddenly we have a blockbuster season,” said Skylight executive director Susan Varela.
“The titles we picked were not necessarily picked because they were blockbusters, but when we finished the season, we realized, wow, these are all massive titles that everyone in the world knows about,” added Michael Unger, the Skylight’s artistic director as well as the director behind three of the upcoming shows. “Or thinks they do.”
"Waitress": Oct. 4-27
Indeed, in addition to their blockbuster status – as well as a general theme of transformation found in each show, according to Unger – the five productions coming the Skylight’s way in 2024-25 share a common through line: seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar ways. Or, in the case of the season-opening show, seeing familiar stories in unfamiliar settings, as the newly beloved Broadway hit “Waitress” will make its Skylight debut to start the upcoming season on Oct. 4-27.
“Over the years, I’ve developed a relationship with some of the rightsholders for different shows – and the licensing company for 'Waitress' actually reached out to me and asked: Are you interested?’” Varela recalled. “We said of course! So that kind of anchored our season, by happenstance that lucky turn of events.”
“So many theatres across the country are finally getting the opportunity to do ‘Waitress’ outside of the productions that are controlled by the Broadway producers. It’s the first time you’re getting these individual interpretations with different scales and different scenery. So that’s exciting,” Unger said.
Originated on screen by the late writer-director Adrienne Shelly and then brought to the stage by pop star Sara Bareilles, “Waitress” orders up the charming story of a small-town restaurant worker whose humdrum, loveless life suddenly orders off the menu when she discovers she’s pregnant. Thanks to its combo meal of Bareilles-penned earnest musical anthems and a cavalcade of unique pie flavors, the show is sweet in every definition of the word – a sincere sweetness has won over audiences, sweet tooths and otherwise, since its stage debut in 2015.
A little less than a decade later, the seemingly small show has evolved into a gigantic hit, earning four Tony nominations in 2016 and even getting the “Hamilton” treatment with a filmed version of the original show hitting screens this past holiday season – and becoming a small box office hit in its own right in the process.
But the show is best served live on a stage, an experience on the menu for the Skylight this fall.
“I’m just in love with the score, and it’s just a quirky story with a woman at the center of it,” Varela remarked. “And it just fell into place that we really wanted to have a female creative team to tell this very female-centric story. And it’s full of such heart and humor that it’s just the perfect thing to start us off.”
“It is such a brilliant piece of musical theater, and it’s so exciting to have a piece that’s female-driven,” Unger added. “It’s such a great story, and it’s equally funny and touching – you watch videos, and you’re crying and laughing at the same time. And it’s such a great message about empowerment.”
Just one pro tip: Don’t watch it on an empty stomach.
"Oliver!": Nov. 15-Dec. 29
While “Waitress” is a relatively new name on the Broadway scene, the next production on the Skylight slate is a more time-honored member of theatrical royalty: “Oliver!” – the theater group’s holiday gift to Milwaukee audiences running Nov. 15 through Dec. 29. For real, this time.
“We promised our audiences ‘Oliver!’ in 2020 – we refer to that as The Season That Never Was,” Varela explained. “We had presented five titles that we are now trying to make good on, because there was such excitement about that season. And once we have ‘Oliver!’ up and running, we only have one left that we promised our audience.”
It’s a promise Varela is very excited to keep to the Skylight crowd this season, not only for professional reasons but personal ones as well: The enduring musical take on Charles Dickens’ classic tale was her stage debut, taking on the title role back in the day at Greendale High School.
“That was the first step on my journey to becoming a professional actress, so I have such fondness for that score and that story,” Varela recalled. “And sometimes you wonder if the classics will still resonate with a younger audience, but many different people of different demographics have come up to me in the lobby and said, ‘We’re so excited about ‘Oliver!’”
Originated back in the ’60s, “Oliver!” may indeed be the oldest selection set for the upcoming season, but for Unger – who will direct its Skylight debut – its story of a kid struggling to survive and get by still feels fresh more than a half-century later.
“It’s really informed by the child’s perspective of a world that’s kind of messed up and how the children work at making it a better place – which is critical in our world,” Unger said. “The kids have to make the difference, because certain generations failed. The world’s a mess right now, but I love to focus on the youth and their ideas – so ‘Oliver!’ is that for me, where the kids really can help figure out how to make it a better place.”
“I’m just tickled to death that people are going to love it the way I love it,” Varela added.
"Juliet and Romeo": Jan. 17-Feb. 2
How do you follow a Skylight premiere? How about with a world premiere? That’s the plan for the season’s middle production, “Juliet and Romeo,” making its debut Jan. 17 through Feb. 2 as a perfect pre-Valentine’s Day treat. And even if audiences think they’ve seen every possible take on Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy – from traditional tellings, to versions blown up to their most Baz Luhrmann bombastic, to multiple musical editions set in an NYC gang war, to why not an adaptation starring sentient garden gnomes – “Juliet and Romeo” is truly a new take on those old star-crossed lovers.
The comedic brainchild of Paul Gordon – who also created the virtual Skylight hit “Being Earnest” during the pandemic – and co-composer/lyricist Curtis Moore, “Juliet and Romeo” actually takes place in modern times as a down-on-his-luck community theater director struggles to bring Shakespeare’s tragedy back to life. So he goes to the ultimate source for help: the ghost of William Shakespeare himself, who sends the director back in time and into the play itself for inspiration. Instead of a spark of inspiration, though, the director finds a chance for intervention, taking a stab at rewriting the most popular feel-bad ending of all time right from the source … only to end up rewriting it in a completely different way by falling in love with Juliet himself. Oh, and it’s all a musical.
It’s quirky, chaotic and certainly not the usual two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona.
“It’s clever, the music is delightful and it’s really funny,” said Unger, who will also direct the world premiere. “I don’t often laugh out loud when I read scripts, but I laughed out loud every time reading ‘Juliet and Romeo.’”
“Michael and I had a shared vision of the Skylight becoming an incubator for new shows,” Varela said. “We’re just floored by what’s available to (the productions) in Milwaukee. We have great audiences, and it’s not the same price point as somewhere like L.A., New York or even Chicago, yet they get a chance to work on a show – and Skylight gets to be a part of that. And that’s really exciting for us.”
"Frankenstein: The Musical": Feb. 21-March 9
After giving a starring turn to the ghost of William Shakespeare in “Juliet and Romeo,” the Skylight will move onto a far less whimsical tale of resurrection for their next production: “Frankenstein: The Musical,” making its Midwest premiere Feb. 21 through March 9.
Let’s get the obvious point out of the way: “Frankenstein: The Musical” will not feature Frankenstein and his monster doing a showstopping tap duet to “Putting on the Ritz.” You’ll have to watch “Young Frankenstein” for that. Instead, this production of the ultimate science experiment gone wrong will go back to Mary Shelley’s original horror tale for inspiration, pumping new blood to this classic monster.
“I keep referring to it as the chamber version of the story,” Varela said. “It’s not throngs of people with torches going to Frankenstein’s castle like you might think; it’s a smaller, more intimate way to tell the story.”
While the Skylight’s production will present a more atmospheric, scaled-down version of the horror saga – perfect for the intimate space of the Broadway Theatre Center – that’ll leave room for big ideas, ones just as alive (ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!) and pressing as when Shelley originally wrote her horror classic back in the early 19th century.
“I’m really excited about how faithful it is to the original Shelley novel in a way that lots of other Frankensteins are not,” said Unger, pulling double duty as director one final time for this show. “It really focuses on the warning of: Beware of what you wish for in terms of technology. Because we are creating monsters. A.I. is a monster. It’s also great in certain ways – but it’s also monstrous. It will force us to ask those questions if we do it the right way.”
"Sister Act": April 4-27
After resurrecting an unholy undead horror atrocity, the Skylight will go in a slightly different direction for its finale: the holy happiness and hallelujahs of “Sister Act,” raising and closing the curtain on its 65th season on April 4-27 with one last blockbuster, adapting the hit ’90s Whoopi Goldberg comedy into a live on-stage harmonious bellow of joy.
“It’s another great message, and it’s such a joyous, huge-hearted show,” Unger said of the Alan Menken-scored musical. “It’s a great way to send people off at the end of the season.”
The effervescent show marks one final recognizable name to complete its 2024-25 quintet of icons – but even if all the shows seem familiar on the page, Unger and Varela aim to make sure they’ll play all new on the Skylight stage.
“You get musical theater but in an intimate experience,” Varela said. “You’re not sitting in this vast place where maybe you need opera glasses to see the performers on stage. It doesn’t kind of wash over you like a wave. Here, you are standing on the beach and so close to the action, you can actually dip your toe in to what’s happening, right up close to it. And I feel like this season is really going to be advantageous with our space and the experience you get from Skylight.”
And now their blockbuster season is set. Now it just needs the crowd to bust the block for them, beginning this fall. For more information on 2024-25 season subscriptions and ticket sales, click here.
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.
