Dan Myers
Krystal Lonsdale as Alice in MTM's production of "Alice."
Music Theatre of Madison is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding with a free Festival of New Musicals staged at unconventional venues beginning Thursday, Sept. 3.
Festival offerings will be staged as readings but still will be ambitious, with musical performances and, in the case of the first show, Alice, a cast of 13.
“These are things that are not being done in other cities, by up-and-coming major voices in musical theater, and they’re all good,” says Music Theatre of Madison executive director Meghan Randolph.
Like the festival, the entire season will be produced at inventive venues, often appropriate to the plays’ subjects. Spring’s full production of La Cage aux Folles, for example, will be performed at LGBT-friendly Five Nightclub.
“There’s a lot of challenges that come with trying to work in nontheatrical venues, but we have a really incredible production staff that can do what I want and not go crazy,” says Randolph.
The company, which usually goes by MTM, began “by accident,” says Randolph, a native of the Kansas City area whose family relocated to Madison while she was in high school. After earning a degree in musical theater at the University of Michigan, she toured for a year in a production of Cats.
“I realized that that lifestyle was not for me,” she recalls. “Pounding the pavement, competing against a zillion people for work and then doing a show a million times that you don’t like — that’s not what I wanted to be doing.”
So Randolph returned to Madison. “I wanted to do something and I wanted to do it my way, to be honest,” she says. “MTM kind of developed from there.”
The first production was Hair, produced outdoors at Lake Farm Park in 2006. Since then, MTM has specialized in newer, lesser-known, offbeat and even dark musicals, such as Parade, Nevermore and Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story. “This coming year it’s going to be much more joyful,” says Randolph.
Fundraising is a continual problem, as it is for most nonprofits in the current economy, especially arts nonprofits. Randolph notes that Wisconsin ranks 48th in state funding for the arts. Despite the hardship, the company pays its actors and crew. “We’d have a nice reserve if I hadn’t paid everybody, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.
Randolph adds that, for her, highlights of MTM’s first decade have come when audiences took a risk by seeing something they’d never heard of before: “That’s the best, because we have a lot of people who have faith that we’re really going to take them somewhere new and exciting.”
MTM’s new musicals
Alice
- Thursday, Sept. 3, Madison Public Library, room 301, 7:30 pm
In this rock take on the looking glass classic, Lewis Carroll’s heroine flees to Wonderland to escape inner demons. Book, music and lyrics are by Madisonians Dan Myers and Meghan Rose. Myers previously wrote Broom Street Theater’s Finding Human and Chat. In addition to working in musical theater and scoring independent films, Rose performs with area bands including Little Red Wolf, I Saw the Creature and Damsel Trash.
Big Money
- Saturday, Sept. 19, Wisconsin Public Television studios, 821 University Ave., 7:30 pm
In this musical based on a true story, a 1980s game show contestant discovers the key to winning. Book, music and lyrics are by Kyle Jarrow, a Brooklyn-based writer and musician who creates work for the stage, television and film, and plays with the rock band Sky-Pony. Jarrow previously performed with Super Mirage.
Nightmare Alley
- Saturday, Oct. 3, The Frequency, 6:30 pm
Living tarot cards relate an innovative and spooky tale. Based on the 1946 cult novel and film adaptation, and last performed at the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival, the show has since been greatly revised by playwright, composer and lyricist Jonathan Brielle.
All performances are free. Walkups are fine, but reservations are recommended. or reservations, visit http://www.mtmadison.com
