Rep to Open New Theater Complex With Broadway Star, Tony-Winning Musical
Curtains up October 11 with Bernadette Peters concert and acclaimed musical.
Construction of the new entrance to the Associated Bank Theater Center. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
“You are here at the start of a moment.”
So declared Mark Clements, artistic director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, which will open the $80 million Associated Bank Theater Center this fall with a three-time Tony Award winner and a production of a heartwarming musical about a small Canadian town’s response to the 9/11 tragedy.
A special concert by famed Tony winner Bernadette Peters will formally open the complex on Oct. 11. And Milwaukee Rep will launch its 2025-26 season with Come From Away in the 650-seat Ellen & Joe Checota Powerhouse Theater.
“The opening of the Associated Bank Theater Center is a landmark moment for both Milwaukee Rep and our entire region,” said Clements. “The Center is more than just a building; it embodies our community’s steadfast dedication to the arts and its power to inspire transformative change. Celebrating this occasion with a special concert featuring the incomparable Bernadette Peters is sure to make it a night to remember as we embark on this exciting new chapter.”
In June 2026, when all construction is complete, a free block party is planned to give the public a chance to explore the complex.
Peters is known for work in some of Stephen Sondheim‘s many productions. She also won Tony Awards for her roles in Song and Dance and Annie Get Your Gun. Tickets for her concert will go on sale on May 5 for between $100 to $450 each. But before the sale to the general public, the more than 600 donors to the $80.1 million Powering Milwaukee campaign will be given a chance to purchase their seats.
Come From Away, the Rep’s opening show, is based on the events at Gander, Newfoundland, when 9/11 caused 38 planes and 7,000 passengers to be diverted to an island airport and a town found itself nearly doubling in size overnight. In 2022, the Tony-nominated musical concluded a five-year Broadway run.
The Milwaukee Rep held a groundbreaking in May 2023 to start the renovation of its multi-theater complex at 108 E. Wells St. In the ensuing months, a portion of E. Wells Street was closed as construction ramped up. The nonprofit theater organization is hosting its current season in the previously-renovated Stackner Cabaret, the awaiting-overhaul Stiemke Studio and off-site venues.
The phased project includes a new entrance, named for Sandra and William Haack, a riverwalk gathering space named for Northwestern Mutual, a 35,000-square-foot production center, new staff offices and bathrooms and a new donor lounge.
The new mainstage Ellen & Joe Checota Powerhouse Theater is replacing the 720-seat Quadracci Powerhouse theater. It will have a flexible configuration, a fly loft to move scenery, accessibility improvements and new production technology. The number of seats is being reduced to 650, in part because the new seats would be wider. The organization says it will be the only theater with fixed seats in the world that can convert from a thrust to proscenium configuration, making it “compatible with every theater in the world.”
The black-box-style, 205-seat Stiemke Studio will be modernized to increase the capacity and provide for easier theater reconfigurations. David Herro and Jay Franke made a $5 million gift, with $4 million going to the Powering Milwaukee campaign and $1 million to a new plays fund, that will see the new studio theater named the Herro-Franke Studio Theater. Work on it was delayed until May 2025, allowing the Powerhouse Series shows to use the theater during the current season.
The 186-seat Stackner Cabaret, which was overhauled in 2018, will see minor changes.
Associated Bank, which owns the attached Associated Bank River Center tower, is the naming rights partner. The Milwaukee Rep is working with Eppstein Uhen Architects, Hunzinger Construction and construction management and advisory firm Chamberlin LLC on the complex’s development.
Construction Photos
2023 Renderings
Complex Photos
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