A Packers Musical?

From left to right, John Rottier as Edgar, Sierra Rottier as Gabby, Mark Thompson as Ralph, Mariah Kiefer as Cordy, and Bob Zimmerman as Frank in Dad's Season Tickets. Photo credit: Anne Kenny Creative.

A review of Dad's Season Tickets

by Benjamin Earnest, age 13

The musical Dad’s Season Tickets, performed at the Waukesha Civic Theatre, is about a family in Wisconsin who are obsessed with the Green Bay Packers. Two of the three sisters passive-aggressively fight over who will get their dad’s season tickets once he passes them on. Rhonda, the oldest, works with her husband, Ralph, to impress her dad. On the other hand, Gabby, the middle child, does the same with her husband Edgar. In the middle of all of it, Cordy, the youngest, recognizes the tension during their first Packers party of the year and tries to stop it so they can have a normal Christmas. The story continues with twists and turns.

John Rottier delivered the personality of Edgar amazingly in the way that their character is an English teacher. Their lines give off a very poetic feel and the most hilarious mindset. In general, all the casting was phenomenal, and the spread of personality to each character all the actors do as if it’s a piece of cake. The music director, Heather David, did great work on all the beautiful harmonies that all the girls have.

Director Justin Spanbauer says, “I just wanted to show that musicals can be appealing to both sporty people and people in theater, and to include the fun sporty aspect in the audience.” And following that, WCT gave the audience noisemakers to use instead of only clapping. Also, in the middle of the stage there was a big score board that displayed scores for the games and the fights between the characters, designed by Michael Talaska with projection design by Meghan Hopper.

While the actors and crew made all these impressive aspects seem easy to the audience, as a fellow actor, I can tell that even a small mistake like missing a quick change could have had a big influence on the context of a scene in a show like this.

One scene that especially made me love this musical even more was when Mariah Kiefer (Cordy) sang “Two Sides to Every Story”. This song describes how her other sisters don’t see how they are affecting their dad by fighting around the most special time of the year. My favorite aspect is how the character expresses how she feels and the quiet, soft part of the song.

In summary, I recommend this to sports fans and theatre fans just to have a fun time at the show. Performances are September 12-28 on the weekends at the Waukesha Civic Theatre.