Next Act Theater presents "The Taming"

3 women, 2 viewpoints, 1 nation 

Could The Taming be any more relevant? In this fiery election season, one might be hesitant to seek out a politically-driven play. We've been bombarded with the taunts, interruptions, petty this, and lunacy that. There's just a lot. Why sit through a stage version when we're living it in the real world? But that's just why Milwaukee's Next Act Theater couldn't have timed The Taming more perfectly.

Lauren Gunderson's play tells the story of the eve of the Miss America pageant, as Miss Georgia plans to start the next revolution. Yes after winning the crown, the beauty queen has a big agenda — and she recruits (roofies) a conservative senator's top aide and a twitter-addicted liberal blogger to help her cause. In case you couldn't guess, the two couldn't be more unalike or more firmly entrenched in their own points of view to ever listen to each other. 

That's where Miss Georgia steps in. Her revolutionary plan is to rewrite the Constitution. Yep. She calls on the conservative and the liberal to recognize that the Constitution and its Amendments are over 200 years old and were written by a bunch of white guys playing fake-it-til-you-make-it. She argues that so much of their ideology is ridiculous, outdated, or could be drastically altered based on what we've learned in the course of our nation's history. 

While watching The Taming, it was a pleasant surprise to see that Miss Georgia's talents went beyond her ability to rock a thigh-high slit. She had extensive knowledge of history and our Founding Fathers, a three-ring binder stuffed with concrete plans to restructure our nation, and the gall to try and bring her plan to fruition. One of my favorite lines (delivered hilariously by Bree Beelow — as were all her lines!) was "I am an ambitious American woman in evening wear, and I will not be fucked with!" 

There's much more to The Taming than just the delightful Miss Georgia. There's a sort of dream sequence back to the days of James Madison and George Washington, a perfectly-played LGBT under current, and of course the question of how the liberal nut (played by the hysterically erratic Sara Zientek) and conservative stickler (played by the phenomenal Marti Gobel) are ever going to see eye to eye. I don't think it's giving much away to say that, yes, this high-spirited and hilarious play has a happy ending. You'll see it coming. While a sunshiny meeting of Right and Left might sound pie-in-the-sky, it's encouraging to witness such a timely dream realized on stage.

The Taming is playing now through October 23rd at Milwaukee's Next Act Theater. For ticket info, visit nextact.org.