Ray Jivoff plans to lead Skylight with 'a sense of fun'
Next season, Skylight Music Theatre will feature five shows it has never staged before — and one guy who's performed there for decades.
Ray Jivoff, a staff member since 1999, is the Skylight's new artistic director, executive director Jack R. Lemmon announced prior to a season announcement party Tuesday evening. Jivoff had served as interim artistic director since the departure of Viswa Subbaraman last summer.
He first performed at the Skylight in 1990 in "Girl Crazy." Jivoff joined the staff in 1999 as education director, then stepped up to associate artistic director in 2009. Jivoff's extensive experience in youth theater includes a dozen years as theater director at Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha. He's also an accomplished actor whose Skylight roles have included Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles," Mr. Zero in "Adding Machine" and Harpo in multiple Marx Brothers shows.
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"Our upcoming 2017-'18 season reflects my goal to bring a sense of fun to the Skylight experience," Jivoff said in a statement. That season, which he planned, also reflects Jivoff's wealth of experience as a director and teacher of young people's theater.
Skylight productions take place at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. Next season's schedule:
"Hot Mikado," Sept. 29-Oct. 15. Lyricist David H. Bell and composer Rob Bowman have reorchestrated the Gilbert & Sullivan classic as a musical comedy of big band, swing, blues and gospel, while retaining the G&S mockery of knuckleheaded bureaucracy and ridiculous laws. (For example, "Three Little Maids" is sung a la the Andrews Sisters.) This swinging reset, first performed in 1986, is also a spiritual successor to a 1939 show called "Hot Mikado" with an African-American cast that included legendary dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
"Annie," Nov. 17-Dec. 23. For the holidays, Skylight will serve this popular musical about a plucky orphan, featuring the songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life." Jivoff said he will double-cast the children's roles; look for auditions beginning in April. He'll be looking for a dog or dogs to play Sandy, too.
"Zombies From the Beyond," Feb. 2-18. First performed off-Broadway in 1995, James Valcq's musical comedy lampoons the cold-war era and shlocky sci-fi movies by landing a flying saucer in 1950s Milwaukee. Valcq, a Milwaukee native, also composed and co-wrote "The Spitfire Grill." (Valcq is co-artistic director of Third Avenue Playhouse in Sturgeon Bay.)
"The Tales of Hoffmann," March 16-29, 2018. Jacques Offenbach's opera weaves together three tales of troubled and thwarted love.
"Urinetown," May 18-June 10, 2018. Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis' 2001 musical takes potty humor up a notch, with a satirical story about a bathroom monopoly. Bonus for musical theater fans: It also parodies other musicals, such as "The Threepenny Opera." Jivoff hopes "Urinetown" will appeal to theatergoers who came to the Skylight for "Avenue Q."
Season subscriptions are on sale now. For info, visit skylightmusictheatre.org or call (414) 291-7800.