What you need to know about Skylight Music Theatre’s ‘Noises Off ’
Maybe you thought Milwaukee’s Skylight Music Theatre had stretched the notion of musical theater as far as it could go, from opera to a revue of Disney songs.
Now artistic director Michael Unger comes along and says, hold my beer.
Skylight’s next production, “Noises Off,” which opens March 17, is widely considered one of the funniest farces of our era, but it doesn’t have any songs in it. So how can Unger justify Skylight performing it?
In a recent interview, Unger described what makes this “Noises Off ” a Skylight show. He also explained what happened to the season’s previously announced final production, “The Song of Bernadette,” and what will replace it.
What is ‘Noises Off’ about?
In Michael Frayn’s 1982 comedy, a not-very-good theater company performs the first act of a sex farce three times, with the production getting worse rather than better each time as the performers’ lives fall apart. Frayn’s secret sauce: In the second of the three attempts, all the action and slapstick is seen from backstage.
What makes ‘Noises Off’ a Skylight show?
Unger is adding music composed by Combustible Edison, the ‘90s lounge music combo that drew inspiration from Martin Denny and Esquivel. Unger called their tunes “the perfect fizzy cocktail of music” to accompany “Noises Off.” “Two great tastes that go great together,” he said.
How will music be incorporated?
Unger said The Sardines, a band led by show music director Kurt Cowling and featuring vocalist Leah Gawel, does not play under the action of the show, but will perform during intermission and scene changes. Percussion and drums will be visible onstage, with other instrumentalists in orchestra boxes. This ad hoc band’s name comes from a plot element in “Noises Off.”
How much music will there be?
About 10 songs, Unger said. “I honestly have been chasing the rights to (this) music for over a year,” he noted, because different companies hold the rights to them. (One is by noted film music composer Nino Rota.)
How complex is ‘Noises Off’?
Unger uses a software app called Stage Write to track movement and actions of characters in a production. Each change is documented on a chart. Skylight’s past “Little Shop of Horrors” had 284 charts. Last season’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” had 404 charts. At this point, his“Noises Off ” has 726 charts, he said.
What happened to ‘The Song of Bernadette’?
Skylight had planned to close its season in May and June with first fully staged production of a new musical, “The Song of Bernadette,” which, like the famed 1943 movie, draws on Franz Werfel’s novel of the same title. The musical’s creative team hoped to stage it here on their way to Broadway production. However, scheduling complications made this time slot impossible; Skylight hopes to reschedule it in the future.
What’s replacing ‘Song of Bernadette’?
Skylight will perform the femaleforward rock musical “SuperYou” May 26-June 18 (slightly different dates than the previously scheduled “Bernadette” run). Written and composed by Filipina-American performer Lourds Lane, “SuperYou” sees the superheroines of a comic book artist come to life when she needs them most. “It is led by a diverse team of women. The main characters are all women,” Unger said.
Previous versions of “SuperYou” have been concert performances, Unger said. Skylight’s will be a world premiere developmental production, fully staged, though the producers may enhance the video and other effects when the show heads to the West End, he explained.
“SuperYou” will be Skylight’s entry in World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival of new plays and musicals.