Remembering Dominique Noth

Dominique Paul Noth.

Dominique Paul Noth, who served as a theater and movie critic over a 60-year period, including three decades with the Milwaukee Journal and the past 12 years for Urban Milwaukee, died Friday at age 84. He was both a founding member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a Hollywood insider who interviewed major figures in the entertainment industry, including Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Cary Grant, Bob Fosse, Steven Spielberg, Liza Minnelli, Ron Howard and Rita Moreno.

Noth had advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease complicated by heart failure, which led to his death.

“Dom Noth was a true original,” said Milwaukee Rep artistic director Mark Clements in a statement. “For decades, he brought a sharp eye and an even sharper pen to Milwaukee theater, believing our city deserved and, in many cases, delivered high-quality theater that rivals New York. He reviewed our very first A Christmas Carol in 1976 and returned to it year after year, just as he did with practically every production we put on. Dom wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers — he believed criticism should be honest, not polite — and that forthrightness defined his work.”

Cary Grant and Dominique Paul Noth.

Noth also wrote about politics and labor issues, and from 2002 to 2013 he was editor-in-chief of The Milwaukee Labor Press, where he also operated as the publication’s field reporter, photographer and layout editor. “Culture was never separate from politics for him,” his daughter Jeannie Gaffigan told Urban Milwaukee. “Theater, film, newspapers, labor, elections and public leadership were all part of the same larger story about how a city understands itself.”

In the 1970s and ’80s, Noth taught film classes at UW-Milwaukee, drawing on his seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of classic Hollywood movies, studios and history, and on his interviews and encounters with top film figures. (Speaking as a student who attended some of his lectures and film presentations, the class was informative and terrific fun.) But Noth also was well-versed in foreign films and in the 1970s hosted a Channel 10 series on the films of Ingmar Bergman with guest host Roger Ebert, and the two critics discussed and debated the Swedish auteur’s films.

In the 1970s, the Rep had come of age with its then-new facility in the Todd Wehr Theater while the avant-garde Theatre X was staging provocative shows, and Noth was the city’s top reviewer and champion of both, also writing feature stories about local theaters. “Unlike some, he was not afraid of and was very interested in alternative theater,” recalled actress Flora Coker, a longtime member of Theatre X who later performed for numerous other companies. “The first time he reviewed me I was panned. But I think I learned from that. Dom was a serious critic who always brought such depth to his reviews. He was a treasure for Milwaukee and we were lucky to have him.”

By the 1980s, Noth had risen to the position of arts editor for the Journal and edited and oversaw its growing core of critics, including Tom Strini. “I owe everything to Dom Noth,” Strini told Urban Milwaukee. “In 1982, he hired me as The Journal’s dance critic and critic-at-large, over the objections of higher-ups. He supported many of my wilder story ideas and helped me learn from my mistakes. He was adept at gently improving my career trajectory, most notably by changing my title and duties to music and dance critic — the right call, though I didn’t think so at the time. I grew as a writer, thinker and person because of Dom.”

Dominique Paul Noth. Photo courtesy of Noth’s family.

Born in 1942, Noth was the son of cultured parents who had fled Nazi Germany, first emigrating to France in 1933 and then in 1941 to the United States. His father was a German anti-Nazi author and activist, and later a professor at Marquette University. His mother, who was Jewish, was an opera singer and Holocaust survivor. She was pregnant with Dominique when the couple fled to America.

“Given my family history and when I was born,” Noth once wrote, “I was forced to pay some attention to world events by age 5.”

Noth attended Marquette University, where he was active as a folk singer and became involved with Teatro Maria, Marquette’s influential student theater group, as both an actor and director. After graduating in 1963, Noth worked in New York for Time magazine as a copy boy and later became a stringer, writing background material and copy for other writers, including theater critics. While in New York, he continued performing, appearing in an Off-Broadway production of The Rivals, and working with Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for nonprofit theater.

In 1966, Noth was hired as a copy editor at the Journal and soon began his rise, switching to news and then arts writing. As a theater writer, he traveled to review major theater and film events beyond the city, including New York productions and performances at the Shakespeare festival in Stratford, Ontario, bringing a wider cultural world back to Milwaukee readers.

His reviews of local theaters were not always welcomed. In an incident in 1974 that got a headline in the Journal, Noth was barred from seeing a Skylight Theater show by Clair Richardson, its founder and artistic director, because of “critical reviews in the past,” Noth said he was told. Richardson later relented and Noth was back to reviewing Skylight shows.

Noth began what would be his last position, as a contributing writer reviewing theater and film for Urban Milwaukee, in January 2014 at age 71, and it was immediately clear he hadn’t lost his touch. He reviewed straight plays, musicals and cabaret shows with equal authority and also reviewed the Florentine Opera on occasion, displaying an impressive knowledge of the operatic repertoire. He also did film reviews with particular attention to movies under discussion for Oscar awards. He regularly won awards for best critical review from the statewide Milwaukee Press Club, most recently in April for the 2025 year and his review of The Children at Next Act Theatre.

He reviewed a number of shows directed by Edward Morgan, the former associate artistic director for the Milwaukee Rep who frequently directed shows for Next Act. “He was a fine writer who clearly both loved and respected theater and theater artists, even if he sometimes took us to task, which is, of course, a part of his job,” Morgan said. “It seemed to me that Dom both saw and engaged the larger ideas of the plays and productions he reviewed, that he came to the theater as an educated critic with an open mind and heart.”

“He cared deeply about the craft and about this community,” added Clements, “and his dedication over so many years will be long remembered.”

Here is the obituary for Noth, including details on the celebration of his life.

The family is establishing the Dominique Paul Noth Memorial Fund to support the arts in Milwaukee. Donation information will be shared soon.