Media (2012-2017) | elyseedelman

Elyse Edelman as Scrooge in SCROOGE IN ROUGE

Directed by Jane Flieller

In Tandem, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Mark Frohna

As Vesta, an actress who specializes in playing men's roles, Elyse Edelman is also committed to her part – she is a particularly wicked Scrooge. With delightful cheek, she gives a little hop each time she delivers a pun or punchline as if to signal applause. The three actors not only have great comic timing, but also impressive singing voices.

Gwen Rice

onmilwaukee.com

Not to be outdone, a cross-dressing Elyse Edelman – fresh from her delightful turn as a wicked baroness in the First Stage “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” – makes the Rep’s Scrooge look like a softie. “He was so mean he’d send a Mother’s Day card to an orphan,” Lottie tells us. “He was so tightfisted fortunetellers had to read his knuckles,” Charlie pipes in. You get the idea: channel Dickens’ penchant for melodrama and inflate things still further. Edelman’s Scrooge takes so much delight in his wicked ways that he can’t contain himself: He continually repeats an ebullient skip-and-hop, itself accompanying a gleefully demented grin and occasional wink.

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Elyse Edelman as Baroness Bomburst in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG

Directed by Jeff Frank

First Stage, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Paul Ruffolo

[...] he plays with Ms. Edelman as a duo who revel in just how nasty they can be. And all that nastiness makes for a very good time for those of us sitting in the audience.

Dave Begel

davebegelontheater.com

No wonder the dastardly rulers of Vulgaria (a delightful Drew Brhel and Elyse Edelman, both having way too much fun being wicked) hate children so much […] villains may be nasty, but their wickedness is so silly and overdone that it’s also a delight: fun in its own right, even as it exposes evil for what it is. Ditto the Baron and Baroness who rule Vulgaria and who sing “Chu-Chi Face” to each other. It’s a daffy, infantile song that underscores what can happen when childhood goes wrong: The Baron and Baroness act like spoiled brats whose love of play and craving for toys is selfish and cruel in the way children (and materialistic adults) can sometimes be. That said, I’d watch Brehl and Edelman play spoiled brats (or most anything else) anytime. In this production, “Chu-Chi Face” is both a comic highlight and a tacit commentary on how relations between two selfish people can grow sadistic as well as silly; what comes through, here, is how much these two dislike each other, even as they coo at each other.

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Elyse Edelman as Viola in TWELFTH NIGHT

Directed by Joseph Hanreddy

Door Shakespeare, Door County WI

Photo by Len Villano

[…] when Viola appears before the Countess disguised as a man, Olivia is undone by Viola’s impassioned plea on Orsino’s behalf. As presented by Edelman and Staples, this scene is as haltingly tender and moving as I’ve seen it. Turned upside down by the tempest coursing within her, Edelman’s Viola departs from her prepared speech, spontaneously reaching instead for glorious poetry she didn’t even know she had. It makes this Viola, usually presented as so suave and sure, much more vulnerable. It makes her more like the rest of us.

See full write-up at the link below, or by clicking on the picture above:

https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/arts/2017/07/17/elyse-edelman-brings-new-dimension-door-shakespeares-twelfth-night/483868001/

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Elyse Edelman as Bessie in THE DROWNING GIRLS

Directed by Mallory Metoxen

Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Troy Freund

Edelman has an expressive face that cleaves emotional emptiness one moment and lustful and joyous certainty the next.

Dave Begel

onmilwaukee.com

Bessie (marvelously played by Elyse Edelman), the first one to appear, is incredulous, sad, angry, and hurt. She cannot understand why her husband, the man who swore to love, honor and protect her, could be so cunning and cruel.

totaltheater.com

Edelman is particularly good at playing overlooked and undervalued women, conveying her characters’ intrinsic worth to us even as those characters remain oblivious to it themselves. Her ability to channel these characters’ ensuing awakening to the barely believed prospect that they might indeed be special is alternately funny and poignant. She’s the best reason to see this show.

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Well-intentioned as they are, the adults around Caitlin – a grieving father (Dan Katula), school counselor (Marvette Knight) and fifth-grade teacher (Elyse Edelman) – often can do only so much to help her […] Edelman is characteristically fine, here, capturing that Caitlin’s teacher isn’t nearly as trained or empathetic as one might hope in addressing Caitlin’s needs.

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Jouranl Sentinel

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Elyse Edelman as Mrs. Johnson in MOCKINGBIRD

Directed by Marcella Kearns

First Stage, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Paul Ruffolo

Another notable performance comes from Forward Theater newcomer Elyse Edelman. Last summer, she turned in several hilarious performances at American Players Theater, but she does extremely well with serious material as well. Her performance as Maria is interesting, funny, and most importantly, believable.

Hannah Nies

Proes Before Hoes blog

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Elyse Edelman as Maria in MR. BURNS (A Post-Electric Play)

Directed by Jennifer Uphoff-Gray

Forward Theater, Madison WI

Photo by Zane Williams

Edelman impresses in her tall boots as Grammy, the "Original Queen of the World," who dances with her granddaughter Lilly. In an outstanding dream sequence where Lilly fantasizes about the powerful, purple plastic purse, the dazzling scene displays a showpiece for the production's adult cast, young performers and technicians.

Peggy Sue Dunigan

broadwayworld.com

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Elyse Edelman as Grammy in LILLY'S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE

Directed by Marcella Kearns

First Stage, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Paul Ruffolo

Elyse Edelman as Mary Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Directed by Tyne Rafaeli

American Players Theatre, Spring Green WI

Photo by Zane Williams

There is, however, call for mention of two actors who have become scene stealers [...] Elyse Edelman, who plays the bookish daughter Mary, is so prim and proper that we find ourselves hoping that something good happens to her before too long. Both of them deserve to have long runs as core members of the impressive APT community.

Dave Begel

onmilwaukee.com

There’s plenty of late-teenage voltage coursing through the five women of the Bennet household—even in the resident geek Mary (Elyse Edelman) and Chris Klopatek, as the earnest Mr. Collins, delivers some well-timed overenthusiasms.

Paul Kosidowski

Milwaukee Magazine

Mary is really too plain and out of it to fit in the family -- think Agnes Gooch. Actually, Elyse Edelman plays the role beautifully.

William H.

Madison Magazine

Elyse Edelman's pontifications as the pedantic Mary competed for the most laughs with Mr. Collins.

Marilyn Marie Holguin

Academic Article: Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research

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Elyse Edelman as Mary Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Directed by Tyne Rafaeli

backstage at American Players Theatre, Spring Green WI

Elyse Edelman as Luciana in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Directed by Leda Hoffmann

Door Shakespeare, Door County WI

Photo by Jason Fassl

Elyse Edelman as Luciana in THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Directed by Leda Hoffmann

Door Shakespeare, Door County WI

Photo by Jason Fassl

A particularly clever example of this sort of comedy is manifest in a moment between Dornan's Antipholus and Elyse Edelman in the role of Luciana. [...] She speaks so eloquently that he falls in love with her. And the comedy ensues. Edelman has a breathtakingly expressive face. We see every kind of emotion wash over her face in quick flashes as Antipholus expresses his admiration. It's one of the funnier moments in the production.

Russ Bickerstaff

Shepherd Express

Throw in a couple of merchants, a spurned courtesan, Adriana the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus and her sister Luciana, and you’ve got enough characters all spinning plates in the air. The performance by Elyse Edelman, who plays Luciana, is absolutely priceless. While her sister whirls and twirls, she is the picture of bewilderment, embarrassment, curiosity and quiet lust. Without a single word, Edelman draws laughs just with her face and body.

Dave Begel

onmilwaukee.com

Elyse Edelman's Luciana— a lifelong doormat for whom spinsterhood looms — offers a forlorn subtext, illustrating what it must cost to make this plea on her sister's behalf. She speaks to this seemingly wayward husband about the importance of loving another — even though Luciana herself is lovelorn. As the man she believes is Adriana's husband begins to woo her, Edelman's Luciana registers disbelief, followed by dazed wonder and then awakening joy. She's moved in spite of herself by the words of love wafting her way — while dutifully tamping down emotions she knows she shouldn't feel and isn't quite sure she can control. [...] To nevertheless reach for more — going deeper in the way that Edelman's Luciana and so many others in this play try to do — suggests how lost and alienated these characters often feel in this world of surfaces.

Mike Fischer

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Elyse Edelman as Louise in PRIVATE LIVES

Directed by James Bohnen

American Players Theatre, Spring Green WI

Photo by Carissa Dixon

The two left-behind spouses become appropriately appalled after they visit the reconnected twosome hidden away in Amanda's Paris apartment, A few days interrupted briefly by Amanda's maid Louise, Elyse Edelman who speaks volumes using a few words in French.

Peggy Sue Dunigan

broadwayworld.com

Nods go to scenic designer Andrew Boyce, whose sophisticated and inventive set adds much to the production, and Elyse Edelman, forced to speak her tiny role as Amanda’s Parisienne maid, Louise, entirely in French. C’est la vie.

Michael Muckian

Shepherd Express

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I imagine this can make casting difficult because you need to find people that can act, sing, dance, and play a musical instrument. But this cast is full of such quadruple threats. [...] Elyse Edelman is a steady part of the ensemble effort, but is a standout as the Robber Girl who can’t shake her mother.

Bev Wolf

Cherry and Spoon blog

Elyse Edelman shines as the Robber Girl who delights in thievery but is annoyed by her mom.

Jill Schafer

broadwayworld.com

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Elyse Edelman as Robber Girl in THE SNOW QUEEN

Directed by Doug Scholtz-Carlson

Park Square Theatre, St. Paul MN

Photo by Rebecca Bernstein

Elyse Edelman and Boersma, directed by Clementz, were disarmingly plain and endlessly touching as they meet, marry, spat, love, procreate and wait for the end of the line without ever leaving a subway car. [...] and Rich Ruben's Hamlet in Hiding, a madcap bit about Irish bank robbers, would be winning SNL skits. The interns knocked them out of the park. Special commendations go to Edelman, Dawkins and Zientek for the wholehearted embrace, under Leda Hoffman's direction, of their inner Irish female Three Stooges.

Tom Strini

Tom Strini Writes blog

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Elyse Edelman as Mary in HAMLET IN HIDING

Directed by Leda Hoffman

Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Milwaukee WI

Photo by Casey Schroeter

Laugh-out-loud farce, introspective clowns, timeless love stories: just when you thought this show couldn’t have anything more, it also has music. The songs that are sung live during the show are really lovely; John Mistler’s compositions are beautiful and the company does them justice, particularly Jonathan Bulter-Duplessis and Elyse Edelman.

James E. Trainor III

Iowa Theatre blog

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