Seven years ago my band The Kissers was part of a spectacularly crazy idea to create a live musical documentary about World War One. The plan was for it to be a concert at the Barrymore Theatre with musicians, actors, and speakers performing in front of larger-than-life images of people from the time. I researched the history, wrote and arranged songs, and compiled hundreds of images for nearly two dozen songs. And this all happened within about nine months.
I didn’t expect anyone to come to a show about World War One. So you can imagine my surprise when we had to delay the start of the show because there was a line down the block.
The Greatest War: World War One, Wisconsin, and Why It Still Matters was a spectacular success. Though it was only meant to be a one-time commemorative event, we reprised it again the next year at the Wisconsin Union Theatre. And then it inspired an album of The Kissers’ music from the show.
I had another surprise when we performed the album release show for The Foe and the Fallen: Songs from The Greatest War last year. Afterwards people were gushing about the impact it had on them. I was moved and humbled. The comments felt on par with what we received after The Greatest War. Soon after I asked in an email for reviews of the show. Here’s one response:
“This is so much more than a concert, this is so much more than theatre, it is indescribable in its impact to the soul. It was an emotional connection to the characters, the places and the stories. I left a different person and felt the awe for days after. As I remember my experience at the concert, those emotions rush back. It is not to be missed!”
I walked off the stage of the Bur Oak with two realizations:
- This is important, meaningful work that needs to be shared with as many people as possible.
- We had just performed the new version of The Greatest War that can travel all over the state.
So on November 11 of this year–107 years after the end of WWI–we will be performing for the first time The Foe and the Fallen: Stories from The Greatest War. The music is based on The Kissers album and includes some surprises. And this will be the full multimedia experience of the original show.
-Ken
Written by: Ken Fitzsimmons
Ken Fitzsimmons has worked in music for 30 years, receiving a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of jazz bass great Richard Davis, and an MBA from the Bolz Center of Arts Administration. He is the bassist in Milwaukee-based Little Blue Crunchy things and co-founder of the nationally touring Irish rock group The Kissers.
He has taught music privately for three decades and serves as the Education Director at Madison Music Foundry. In 2018 he was the Artistic Director for the multimedia “rock and roll history show” The Greatest War: World War One, Wisconsin, and Why It Still Matters produced in partnership with Four Seasons Theatre and Antishadows Theatrical Design.
