Little Bang Theory

THE LAST LAUGH with live music by LITTLE BANG THEORY

THEATRE GIGANTEis one of Milwaukee's liveliest and most innovative performing arts groups combining original theater, dance, text and music in ways that are thought provoking and always entertaining.

Theatre Gigante

F.W. Murnau’s 1924 silent masterpiece starring Emil Jannings, accompanied live by Little Bang Theory playing music composed by Frank Pahl.

Jan Serr Studio

<h3>THE LAST LAUGH &amp; LITTLE BANG THEORY</h3> F.W. Murnau’s 1924 silent film masterpiece starring Emil Jannings, accompanied live by Little Bang Theory playing a dazzling original score by Frank Pahl! <h4>One Performance Only: November 23rd</h4><h4>Jan Serr Studio: 1925 E Kenilworth Pl, 6th floor.</h4> <h3>TICKETS:</h3>$25 Online$30 at Doors

<h3>Join Theatre Gigante and Little Bang Theory for F.W. Murnau’s Jazz Age Classic</h3>

<h3>Synopsis by Selena Milewski:</h3>F.W. Murnau’s THE LAST LAUGH opens on an opulent Jazz-Age hotel, The Atlantic, where a finely dressed porter (Emil Jannings) presents the establishment’s first face of welcome, directs traffic, and carries unwieldy trunks. Though he remains zestful, we quickly see that his years of service have, in fact, taken a toll. He sits down to massage his aching knees and his supercilious manager makes a note of it. Later that day, he’s coldly relieved of his post and uniform and demoted to the role of washroom attendant.Humiliated, he hides the demotion, steals back his porter’s uniform, and attends his niece’s wedding dressed as she expects to see him. After a night spent drowning his sorrows in drink, he dozes off on the job and his neighbor visits the hotel, sees that he has been replaced, and spreads the news like wildfire, resulting in mockery and ridicule. Only The Atlantic’s night watchman is kind to him, covering him with a coat as he sleeps in his washroom attendant’s chair.A title card now informs us that, were this real life, the story would end here. Instead, however, our hapless hero receives a miracle: A wealthy man dies in his arms and leaves him a fortune. The film ends with the former porter dining extravagantly with the watchman at The Atlantic, showering staff with tips, lifting a poor man into his carriage, and departing joyfully.

<h3>The History of The Last Laugh by Selena Milewski:</h3>Premiered in 1924 in the Weimar Republic in Germany, THE LAST LAUGH was far from director F.W. Murnau’s first success. It did, however, represent a sea change in his style and the trajectory of cinema history overall.Throughout his earlier efforts, Murnau worked within a style of chamber drama called Kammerspiel, which focused on realistic psychological drama and elevating the stories of lower-class people. Murnau joined UFA Studios for THE LAST LAUGH and, with this shift, changed his style as well.While he continued to uplift ordinary people’s stories, he adopted edgier cinematic devices indebted to the German Expressionist style that pervaded the visual arts of the time. The film pioneered the use of “unchained camera” technique, for example, in which the camera moved around the set on a wheeled dolly, allowing viewers to feel truly part of the action.THE LAST LAUGH experimented with other cutting-edge techniques such as montage and out-of-focus moments to convey the porter’s subjective experience of drunkenness. Moreover, with only two intertitles, the film embodied the goal of Murnau and screenwriter Carl Mayer to create Stimmung, an encompassing atmosphere that viewers could perceive through visuals alone.The film was a critical and financial success in itsown time and its enduring popularity led to a 1955 remake featuring Hans Albers. Three yearslater, it ranked number 11 on the famed Brussels 12 list at the World Expo.

<h3>About Little Bang Theory:</h3>Detroit-based Little Bang Theory is a post-modern musical trio of seasoned musicians and educators Frank Pahl, Terri Sarris, and Doug Shimmin. The group was founded in 2006 and has been creating unforgettable scores composed by Frank Pahl for silent films, theatre, and dance ever since.Pahl, the son of a former Wyandotte Toys employee, became a toy collector years ago and eventually turned his treasure trove into a reservoir for sonic artistry. Little Bang Theory’s music features Pahl’s collection, along with bells, found objects, and Foley devices such as thunder sheets. While eschewing lyrics, the three have likewise been known to augment their instrumental scores with vocals and exceptionally tuneful whistling.Praised for its whimsy, innovation, and superb capacity to tell stories without words, Little Bang Theory’s unique output is a feast for the senses. A long-time friend of Theatre Gigante, Pahl has collaborated with the company on projects including FILMS BY LADISLAW STAREWICZ (2015); LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH (2017); NOSFERATU (2021); THE WIND (2024); and THE LODGER (2024).

<h3>About F.W. Murnau:</h3>Friedrich Wilhelm (F. W.) Murnau (1888-1931) developed an interest in performative storytelling early in life. As a child, he read Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Ibsen, and Shakespeare, and staged short plays with his siblings. While studying literature and art at Heidelberg University, he met famed stage director Max Reinhardt and received a scholarship to perform and study directing at his company for six years.Following this formative period, he was part of the Imperial German Army in World War I, ultimately serving as a gunner and surviving several plane crashes. In 1919, Murnau premiered his first film, THE BOY IN BLUE, but did not gain great success until 1922’s masterpiece, NOSFERATU. THE LAST LAUGH marked a shift in the director’s style from intimate drama to cinema incorporating cutting-edge techniques and abstraction influenced by the German Expressionists then dominating the visual art scene.Following its international success, Murnau moved to Hollywood to work for Fox Studios. He completed several more films before coming to an untimely end at the age of 42. A giant of the silent film era and major force in bringing German cinema to the world stage, Murnau died tragically after a car accident mere days before the premiere of his last film, TABU.