From Broadway to Bayview: How Susan Varela is Revitalizing Milwaukee's Skylight Music Theatre

After two decades performing on Broadway stages in productions like "Les Misérables" and touring nationally with shows including "Cats" and "Evita," Susan Varela made a bold decision in 2013: return to her Milwaukee roots. Now, as executive director of Skylight Music Theatre, the Greendale High School graduate is drawing on her 30-year theater career to guide one of the city's premier performing arts organizations through its post-pandemic revival.

Varela stepped into the leadership role in 2023, four years after joining Skylight as director of artistic operations. Her journey from Milwaukee stages to Broadway and back again offers unique insights into both the challenges facing regional theater and the opportunities that drew her home to Wisconsin's arts scene.

Varela was one of the guests on “Milwaukee Made.” The following Q&A is from her chat with show host David Caruso.

Q: Was it always your dream to be on stage and kind of how did growing up in the Milwaukee area really guide your career?

Varela: “I always wanted to be on stage. That was the thing I wanted to do from the time I was a child. And I was lucky enough to grow up with a family that was very supportive of my dreams. I went to Greendale High School, and as I like to say, everybody thinks that their school was special, but we have a little bit of evidence that Greendale was a special place because at one time, myself and four other performers from Greendale High School were on Broadway at the same time performing. It was a pretty special thing.”

Q: What made you decide to come back to Milwaukee?

“So we were there, my husband Andrew and I were there (New York City) for 20 years. We had just become parents, and we were thinking we have done what we wanted to do in New York City. We were looking for our next adventure. And part of that was having a really wonderful place for our son to grow up. I know many people raised their kids in New York, and that is great, but that was not necessarily for us. We were looking for a better quality of life for our son. And we had to, of course, have an opportunity to have a great art scene for two artists to make a life and a living. 

“And so Milwaukee, we like to say, was on the list. It wasn't necessarily a given because it was my hometown. We needed certain things to be met in order for us to go. But we had been watching over the years how the art scene had just been evolving in Milwaukee and just change in the city itself. And we wanted to be a part of it. And so we had a little leap of faith, and we came here and we thought, ‘well, we're going to rent a place and we'll stay here for about six weeks and we'll see how it goes.’ And after about six days, I said, ‘we're never leaving.’”

Q: What were some things about it that made you after six days decide that you were never leaving?

Varela: “Well, my family was here, so that was helpful. But Milwaukee has so much to offer. It's like, I don't know, four seasons of awesomeness. If you like the arts scene, we have a world-class arts scene here. We have a symphony, a ballet, a professional music theater, a repertory company. I mean, there's so much to offer in the arts. If you like sports, of course, you're covered there. And there's just so much to do here and so much to be a part of. So we love it. It's beautiful. And we couldn't say goodbye.”

Q: You decided to become the executive director in 2023, which obviously wasn't too far post Covid and many performing arts organizations were struggling tremendously to get their footing after the pandemic. What made you decide that it was your time to step up into this role when you knew it was going to be kind of a rough path ahead?

Varela: “Well, I feel like nobody loves this place more than I do. I grew up going to shows here. It became my theatrical home when I returned to Milwaukee in 2013. And I felt this deep desire to step up and lead this team. I didn't see it as a challenge necessarily. I saw it as an opportunity. I had this very clear vision for what I saw Skylight could be and what it could get back to, and I wanted to be a part of that. It was very humbling to be chosen as executive director, and I was thrilled to roll up my sleeves and take that on.”

Q: One of the biggest challenges that we've all talked about is post Covid is really just getting, as we say, butts in the seats. How big of a challenge has that been and what were some of the ways that you are encouraging audiences to come back to the Skylight?

Varela: “We had to remind everybody that we were here because of course, people got used to being at home and watching TV and not having shared experiences outside. I think we all learned in the pandemic how we need each other, and we need these shared experiences as human beings. Even those that would say that they were loners beforehand were like, where are my friends? Where are my shared experiences? We just had to remind them, come to this beautiful place and have this experience with other people. It's a connection that you can't deny. There's another arts leader in town who was just telling me recently, there have been medical studies about this phenomenon that when you are in audience, that everybody's heartbeat starts to sync.

“That's incredible that this physiological thing happens to you when you are sitting together with strangers and friends and having a shared experience and watching something on stage. And so we had to just remind people, we're here and you're going to love it. And the second they walked back in the door, they were like, oh yeah, the arts are important.”