Milwaukee Chamber Theatre Presents Brent Hazelton’s LIBERACE! With Milwaukee Native And Off-Broadway Star Brett Ryback

MILWAUKEE, WI – October 19, 2023 – A local legend returns in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s new production of the critically acclaimed audience favorite, LIBERACE! Written by Brent Hazelton in collaboration with the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts (www.liberace.org) with original music by Jack Forbes Wilson and additional composition by Paul Helm, LIBERACE! will be on stage at the Broadway Theatre Center from November 17 – December 10. Tickets can be purchased online at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/liberace or by calling the box office at 414-291-7800.

A one-man extravaganza with a live piano score spanning Chopin to “Chopsticks” and Rachmaninoff to Ragtime, LIBERACE! takes a journey into the famously flamboyant life of Mr. Showmanship himself and will have audiences cheering Cream City’s homegrown icon. But underneath all the opulence and acclaim, what is the human cost of living separate public and private lives when we feel the world forces us to hide essential parts of ourselves? The original production directed by Hazelton, featuring Jack Forbes Wilson, and premiered by Milwaukee Repertory Theater sold out both of its 2010 and 2014 runs before transferring for a celebrated run at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre.

Returning to Milwaukee Chamber Theatre to perform the title role in this new production is Off-Broadway star and Milwaukee native Brett Ryback. Ryback, now based out of Los Angeles, grew up in Muskego and spent his childhood performing around Milwaukee and taking music lessons with Wilson, a close mentor. “Slipping into the rhinestones of Milwaukee’s most iconic piano man is an honor and a thrill, especially as I follow in the footsteps of my own teacher, Jack Forbes Wilson. Liberace’s colorful and complicated legacy absolutely deserves a new look with fresh eyes, and I am beyond excited to bring him to life once again,” Ryback said.

Last seen at Milwaukee Chamber Theater in FILUMENA in 2000, Ryback more recently composed the scores for NATE THE GREAT and ARTHUR & FRIENDS MAKE A MUSICAL! which both premiered at First Stage. He originated the role of Marcus in MURDER FOR TWO Off-Broadway and was in the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Other recent acting credits include: THE HISTORY BOYS (Ahmanson), THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE (Mark Taper Forum), YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN (Cincinnati Playhouse), and the world premieres of SHREW!, THE PRINCE OF ATLANTIS, and DR. CERBERUS (South Coast Rep). Ryback’s TV appearances include: Mom, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, and The Assistant (Lifetime). His plays WEÏRD and A ROZ BY ANY OTHER NAME are both published in “The Best American Short Plays 2007-2008.” Brett co-created and starred in the musical podcast “In Strange Woods” (iHeartRadio Podcast Award nominee), and he is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Cole Porter Award.

LIBERACE! will be directed by MCT Artistic Director Brent Hazelton. “All the humor and huge heart of the original production will carry over, but I also can’t wait to see what new discoveries we’ll make after almost ten years since the last production,” said Hazelton. “Our focus at MCT is showcasing local excellence, and I can’t think of a more fitting way to do that than by telling the story of arguably Milwaukee’s most famous performer with another sensational Milwaukee actor-instrumentalist in Brett Ryback and an almost exclusively Milwaukee-based creative team.”

Throughout the run of LIBERACE!, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre will continue raising funds for its FourOneFourward Institutional Sustainability Campaign. MCT has currently raised $1.5M in three-year gifts of their $1.8M goal.

Launched during the 22-23 season, this campaign will create a stable foundation from which MCT can reorganize its operations and build an economic structure suited to post-pandemic operations. “Our new staff team has hit the ground running, our Board of Trustees is invigorated, and we’re all hungry to continue MCT’s five-decade priority of strengthening Milwaukee’s professional artist community while we ensure that we can sustain that effort for another fifty seasons,” said MCT Board of Trustees President Jason Rae.

FourOneFourward Sustainability Campaign gifts can be made by visiting www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/sustainability or by calling 414-276-8842.

In addition to Hazelton and Ryback, the LIBERACE! creative team includes Maaz Ahmed* (Assistant Lighting Designer), Scott Davis (Scenic Designer), Jim Guy* (Properties Designer), Adam Hastings* (Technical Director and Scenic Builder), Josh Schmidt* (Sound Designer), Noele Stollmack* (Lighting Designer), Amelia Strahan* (Assistant Costume Designer), Alex Tecoma* (Costume Designer), Dev Wiensch* (Assistant Stage Manager), and Emily Wright* (Stage Manager). *Denotes Wisconsin artist

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of LIBERACE! is sponsored by Executive Producers Robert Balderson, Lacey Sadoff; Producers Eric Durant and Scott Swickard; and Sponsoring Partner, The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Additionally, MCT is proud to partner with the following Milwaukee organizations for LIBERACE!: Cactus Club, Diverse & Resilient, Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and Zao MKE Church.

LIBERACE! premiered at Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret (Mark Clements, Artistic Director; Dawn Helsing Wolters, Managing Director), in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday, November 21, 2010.

PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION

LIBERACE! runs from November 17 through December 10 at the Studio Theatre inside the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202.

• Preview – Friday, November 17 at 7:30 pm
• Opening Night – Saturday, November 18 at 8 pm
• Pay-what-you-choose – Monday, November 20 at 7:30 pm
• Talkbacks – Thursdays, November 30 and December 7, following the 7:30 pm performances
• SipStudio – Saturday, November 25, Complimentary drinks between the matinee and evening performances, open to attendees of both shows that day (4 pm and 8 pm)
• ASL-Interpretation – Friday, December 1 at 7:30 pm

Tickets can be purchased by calling 414-291-7800 or ordering online at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/liberace. 4-Play and 3-Play subscriptions are also still available; learn more at www.milwaukeechambertheatre.org/subscriptions or by calling 414-276-8842 ext. 7.

ABOUT MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE

Founded in 1975 by Montgomery Davis and Ruth Schudson, guided until 2020 by Michael Wright and Kirsten Finn, and now led by Brent Hazelton, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (MCT) partners with other arts organizations, community-based organizations, and universities to produce thought-provoking productions and innovative outreach programs on an intimate, human scale. As part of its five-decade commitment to strengthening Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s local artist community, MCT provides regular employment and a stable artistic home to professional artists through a five-play subscription series, the Young Playwrights Festival (YPF), and the Montgomery Davis Play Development Series (MDPDS).

MCT performs at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward and is a proud Member Group of the United Performing Arts Fund. For more information, to purchase tickets, or to donate please visit milwaukeechambertheatre.org.

MCT recognizes that when we gather at the BTC, we do so on traditional homeland of the Kickapoo, Menominee, Peoria, Potawatomi, Miami, and Lakota people, and that we serve a community where members of Wisconsin’s sovereign Miami, Anishinabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.

MCT welcomes people of all races, all religions, all genders, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, and all abilities. We stand with all those who feel unheard or silenced, and we will ensure this is a safe place for all who enter.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.