Stackner Cabaret
The Stackner Cabaret offers a uniquely intimate theater experience, with staggered table seating surrounding the stage from above and below. This close-up setting puts you right in the action, and performers often interact directly with the audience. Blending a warm Midwestern dinner party atmosphere with exceptional live entertainment, the Stackner creates a welcoming and memorable experience from the moment you arrive.
The 182-seat venue is not a dinner theater, but full dinner service is available before each performance, with drinks and dessert offered during intermission or after the show. Casual seating near the cocktail bar adds to the relaxed, inviting feel of the space.
The Stackner Cabaret is located on Level 2, at the top of the gold escalators in the Associated Bank River Center Rotunda, to the left. It can also be accessed from the parking garage elevators.
History Of The Stackner Cabaret Name
The Stackner Family Foundation made history in 1985 with their grant, the largest in the Foundation’s history at that time, to Milwaukee Rep’s initial campaign to build out the Associate Bank River Center with three state of the art theaters. In recognition of the gift, the cabaret theater was named for the Stackner family. Patricia Stackner Treiber, the President of the Foundation, was “pleased to participate as a major contributor to this exciting civic project, the new theater district development. The dedication of the Stackner Cabaret Theater will be a significant memorial to my parents, John and Irene Stackner.” The generosity of the Stackner family continues, as they contributed to the recent renovation of the cabaret theater space this in the summer of 2018. In this way, the Stackner Cabaret remains a Milwaukee treasure and unique performance space.
Stackner Cabaret 2018 Renovation
During the summer of 2018 the Stackner Cabaret went under a $1.75 million renovation. Read more about the renovation and see photos and videos from each stage of the construction.
