By Kate Gardiner | Top photo by Holly Leitner; other photos as noted
My parents will tell you: The Belfry Music Theatre’s nationally renowned tribute bands are some of the hottest tickets in town.
The historic campus just north of Williams Bay does an almost year-round business in live music, with more than 100 performances per year in its 240-seat theater. These performances lean heavily toward tribute bands — everything from five-day residencies by Eagles cover bands to new Joni Mitchell tribute artists like Kiki Ebsen. The formula has proved extremely popular, with most shows sold out weeks in advance thanks to an avid group of subscribers and ticket-holding supporters. Fans come from all over the world — including from as far away as Australia and Japan. Many enjoy reservations at the theater’s two on-site restaurants, and some even stay at the new, luxury Belfry House hotel next to the theater.
In fact, today’s iteration of the Belfry inspires ardent fans and loyal supporters. “We go almost every night they’re open,” says Lake Geneva resident Henri Savage, who is well-known to the all-volunteer staff as perhaps the most frequent attendee, along with her husband Richard. “There are so many good bands playing the music I listen to all the time. I sit there, close my eyes and let the music fill my soul, just like I did back in my hippie days.”
Former Badger High School teacher and Lake Geneva resident Sally Roth leads the volunteer efforts. “We had three volunteers to start, and we spent three years waiting out the theater’s renovation,” said Roth. “Today I have a waiting list, and more than 65 volunteers who help with every show.”
ECCLESIASTICAL ROOTS TO THESPIAN PURSUITS
Despite its unquestionable success as an entertainment venue today, the Belfry wasn’t always a local mecca for hospitality and nostalgic music. The building itself started life in 1888 as a Mormon Church at nearby DeLap’s Corner in an area then known as East Delavan, before it was moved to its present-day location. In 1934, it became home to the Belfry Players, a summer stock theater group originally organized by the Lake Geneva Drama Club, showcasing future talent thanks to a robust scholarship program and the national pull of theater legends summering in the area.
“Part of the attraction of the Belfry was the proximity of the theater to folks like Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne,” says Roth. “Their home, Ten Chimneys in Genesee Depot, hosted all sorts of acting programs on site, as it continues to do today.”
The Belfry Players began performing at least three plays a year, eventually stabilizing at six productions every summer by the 1960s. This high volume of work, and the presence of legendary Belfry director William “Bill” Fucik, cemented The Belfry’s reputation as one of the best summer stock training theaters in the Midwest.
TRAINING FUTURE STARS
Eventual screen legend Paul Newman found his way to Williams Bay in 1948, between his junior and senior years at Kenyon College in Ohio. According to the biography “Paul Newman: A Life,” Newman was given a coveted room- and-board scholarship to act at the Belfry, spending his nights at the Lazy Cloud Inn and his days rehearsing and learning to direct plays. The following summer, Newman returned to the Belfry, playing the lead in the theater’s production of Tennessee Williams’s seminal work “The Glass Menagerie” — a harbinger of Newman’s film career to come — and directing other shows, including Noel Coward comedies, Agatha Christie murder mysteries and serious plays by Williams and Arthur Miller.
On the Belfry stage in 1949, he met and fell in love with another aspiring actor: Beloit native Jacqueline Witte. Newman and Witte married at the end of the season, on December 27, and soon took off for Hollywood, a series of events that would eventually lead to one of Hollywood’s most heated love triangles by the early 1950s. When Newman finally split with Witte to marry his second wife, Joanne Woodward, Witte returned to southeastern Wisconsin to raise the couple’s children.
“Star Wars” legend Harrison Ford also began his path to professional acclaim and young love at the Belfry. “The story goes that Harry Ford (he was going by Harry then) came down from Ripon College, where he was failing out of his senior year, to audition as both an actor and a carpenter,” says Roth. “They offered him the job — in part because he could help build the stage — and he said he couldn’t start until Monday because he had plans over the weekend. When he showed up the following Monday, he was a newlywed, just married to his first wife, fellow Ripon undergrad and chef Mary Marquardt. She became ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ at the box office while supporting Harry’s acting education — he’d only had one quarter-long class in acting at Ripon at that point.”
Ford appeared as a resident actor in six plays in 1964 — including his ‘honeymoon’ role in “Take Her, She’s Mine.” At the end of the season, legend has it, the couple packed up their car and drove west to Hollywood.
Gary Burghoff, who played “Radar O’Reilly” on TV’s hit sitcom “M*A*S*H,” got his start at the Belfry’s summer stock program as a high school sophomore from Delavan, in part thanks to his mother’s contributions to the theater as a choreographer. Hard-working Burghoff mowed the theater’s lawn in between his stage roles, including a turn as Bobby in “The Boy Friend.” Many years later, in 2016, Burghoff sent a note to Roth, the volunteer coordinator, apologizing for missing a fundraiser supporting the theater. “The Belfry Theatre has given a start to SO MANY young actors along with providing great entertainment year after year,” he wrote.
MAKING ACCOMMODATIONS
In 1950, the Belfry Players added dormitory-style housing next to the theater with the addition of Crane Hall, which had been donated and carefully moved to the site from nearby Crane Farms. The building, renamed the Belfry House, provided much-needed housing for the visiting actors, directors and guests.
But despite the theater’s success as a midcentury training ground for young Hollywood stars, the Belfry struggled to remain profitable in the long run. By 1969, it was crippled by overwhelming debt and at risk of destruction thanks to a highway-widening project that expanded Highway 67 further into the theater’s front yard. The property fell into disuse, used for only occasional productions but no longer home to a thriving summer stock community.
In 1976, the Belfry was reborn, this time as Dobama West, a collaboration between Cleveland’s legendary Dobama Theater and the Southern Lakes Reparatory Group. The new production company revived traditional plays and high–powered musicals like “Oklahoma!”, “The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd” and “Side by Side” by Stephen Sondheim. However, despite its ambitious start, the collaboration lasted only three seasons.
The theater closed again in 1979. Sporadic productions and youth theater programs persisted through the 1980s. In the 1990s, the venue served as the home of The Eddie Cash Show, featuring the rockabilly legend who hosted his eponymous musical variety act on stage, bringing the music of legends like Buddy Holly, Tom Jones, Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison to the stage for live and recorded performances.
A ‘TRANSFORMATIVE’ ERA
By 2013, the theater had been dormant for over a decade and was ready for change. A new owner, Transformative Arts, stepped in, envisioning a community space and state-of-the-art home for music and performance that would appeal to local residents and the significant summer tourist market. The project started with a rehabilitation of the building, and quickly grew to encompass the entire campus.
That first season featured just 13 performances from tribute bands. The first show, featuring a Beatles tribute band, with the audience seated in lawn chairs, sold out completely. Today, the calendar has expanded to more than 100 shows per year and the seating has been upgraded to comfortable theater seating.
Many visitors drive more than an hour to see their favorite shows. Around 65 percent of ticket holders come from all over Illinois and southeast Wisconsin to see bands ranging from a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute to a Cher tribute to 1960s pop group The Buckinghams.
“I’m excited to play places like the Belfry,” says Kiki Ebsen, daughter of television actor Buddy Ebsen and star of a Joni Mitchell tribute act. “It’s a perfect fit because of the intimacy of the room, and because it’s so gorgeous. It’s a great time for Joni to get more exposure — and perfect for someone like me who is flying in from California to play just the one show.”
“The sound system is impressive for a small rural theater,” explains Brahm Sheray, the bass player for Jimmy Buffett tribute band Adventures in Parrotdise. “The Belfry is an unexpected, historic gem. The sound system is modern and the sound is clear. The lighting is impressive without being distracting, and the crowds are outstanding.”
Frequent theater-goers also enjoy the sugar rush that comes with every performance: during the show, volunteers serve chocolate-chip and oatmeal cookies from Daniels’ Foods in Walworth and the finale is followed by complimentary Dove Bars for every patron. “People tell me that we should make t-shirts that say, ‘I’m at the Belfry for the music — but I stay for the Dove Bars,’” laughs Roth.
The Belfry also hosts local fundraisers for nonprofits like the Treehouse Child and Family Center, and they were the first-choice venue to premiere the documentary “Buddy Melges: The Wizard of Zenda” in 2023.
A LUXURY GETAWAY
The most recent updates to the Belfry campus took place in 2020 to the former dormitory building. After exploring the option of converting it into a luxury hotel, the owners opted instead for a historic reconstruction, tearing down the original building and replacing it with a new, luxury boutique hotel built on the same footprint and with many of the same exterior details as the original. Rooms feature heated bathroom floors and en-suite fireplaces.
The new hotel also contains a fine dining restaurant, Opus at the Belfry House, which features a refined 5- and 7-course tasting menu available on the weekends. The building is also home to Bistro67, a restaurant on the hotel’s patio. In both dining experiences, Woodstock-based chef Eric Feldbusch, who joined the hotel in March 2024, crafts exciting menus for theater-goers and other diners.
“The Bistro is a great outdoor patio — we’ve had dinner there a lot,” says Savage, the Belfry superfan. “The hotel has a comfortable, romantic ambience. Sitting outside on the patio, looking at the stars at night — we love it. It’s our place for entertainment, and what we do all summer.”
