‘McCarthy’ Goes ‘Home’ to Milwaukee Rep

Is there a life after Los Angeles? There sure is. Milwaukee Repertory Theatre is presenting “McCarthy,” Jeff Goldsmith’s play about the rise and fall of the ignoble Wisconsin senator and his witch hunts during the infamous McCarthy Era. The play is again directed by Frank Condon, who staged its successful premiere at Los Angeles’ Odyssey Theatre in the summer of 1988. A “small percentage” of the Milwaukee gross will accrue to the Odyssey as original producer.

The first production of the play in Joseph R. McCarthy’s home territory brought a curiously unemotional reaction from Milwaukee critics, considering their familiarity with the subject.

In the Milwaukee Journal, Paul Gerard said that the playwright and director “show how McCarthy’s character is the essence of America, a symbiosis of American values pushed over the edge.” He scarcely judged the play itself but had a favorable reaction to the performances, particularly that of Milwaukee Rep veteran James Pickering as McCarthy (Pickering originally created the leading roles in Larry Shue’s “The Nerd” and “The Foreigner” at Milwaukee Rep). “Pickering” he wrote, “creates a powerfully credible McCarthy.”

Referring to “Goldsmith’s selective viewpoint,” Jay Joslyn of the Milwaukee Sentinel felt the play “may not suit the taste of all visitors,” and commented that the audience at the performance he reviewed “was somewhat thinned during the intermission.” He also called the production “a thumping good show,” painted with “a broad brush and bright colors.” The play is “Condon’s show. He manipulated Goldsmith’s splashes of colors to give the piece splendid theatricality that overrode many of the details.”

Joslyn also appreciated Pickering’s “wonderful metamorphosis,” although at some moments his “tendency to underscore his part’s emotions with facial twists adds to the slapstick quality of the play.”