The Den Theatre — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Driving by during the day I thought this was one of the abandoned storefronts or discount furniture stores that's constantly having a liquidation sale along this part of Milwaukee. I'm happy I finally realized it's not. I came and saw H.M.S. Pinafore towards the end of the run, after Pirates of Penzance was snowed out by the massive blizzard (the theater handled the cancelation well, and canceling was the classy move). The show was excellent, comprehensible, well-sung, and really fun, with The Hypcrites' unique approach -- the boat set was lightly adhered to with various pieces of furniture, but the theme was basically a slumber party, with pajama costumes and bunk beds. The "promenade" approach seemed bizarre for the first 30 minutes or so, but works SO well with the open space and the cast. It's super fun as an audience member to start the show sitting on the top bunk of a bed where the cast joins you right as the show starts, then move to center stage, then move to a platform at the top of a slide leading to the pillow pit where you're surprised to learn a lot of activity will happen during the second half of the show. It made more sense than my description can convey. Two of our party were less comfortable, so after having a sheet waved at them vigorously just before intermission they moved to a more recessed spot where they could watch without finding themselves in the spotlight--so it worked for them, too. The music was great, the singing and playing well done (the cast on stage played all of the instruments, or at least realistically seemed to), and the interpretation of the original totally worked.

Also, upon entering I learned that it's more than just a theater. The anteroom to the theater is a cool coffee house slash bar that feels like a weird old aunt's living room, with seriously upholstered furniture and paintings everywhere. They have a great looking collection of board games that seem to be available for the borrowing, from Taboo to the Game of Thrones strategy game. I could totally come and sit and work, or play games or otherwise...

This is a cool space providing quality entertainment but a staff member was extremely rude and aggressive toward me and ruined an otherwise pleasant experience.

A group of friends and I enjoyed a comedy variety show in an upstairs theater at the Den. The show was good and we had a good time.

After the show, we returned to the main floor lobby, which was very quiet and empty. My friends went to the bathroom and I was left alone waiting in the lobby. While I was waiting, I was strolling around the first floor space, just checking things out, when I wandered through an open and unattended door into the first floor theater. I stood there for about 30 seconds watching what an event that I believed to be a trivia night or similar event.

I was then rudely grabbed by a large man with a nose ring who aggressively and rudely told me to leave. He acted like I had broken into the building. I told him that I had just seen a show upstairs and was waiting for my friends in the bathroom. He told me that the event I walked into was private and that I couldn’t just walk into the theater. I again told him that I hadn’t just walked in, that I was a paying customer, and that I was unaware that there was a private event in the room. There was no sign or any indication that a private event was going on. I was just checking out what I thought was a cool space.

The man was extremely rude, unprofessional and aggressive. The comedy show was good, but I can’t recommend a place that has out of control...

This would be a 5 star review but for the fact that the sound where we were sitting was really bad. we went to see Lucy darling last night 09/18/25, and thoroughly enjoyed the theater, the gorgeous bar, the drinks, the show and the service. unfortunately the sound in the area we were sitting was really bad. it was so soft we had to strain to hear the performer. I think the speaker in the rafters facing us was not working at all. the people in the seats next to us also said they couldn't hear anything. probably missed about 40 to 50 percent of the show just because we couldn't hear Lucy. I did go ask somebody if they could do anything about the sound but they never managed to fix it.

we were sitting in the mezzanine, seats J9 to J12. highly recommend the theater, its beautiful, just avoid that side of the room, and in particular seats J9 and J10 as there is a pole right in front of the middle of the stage, lol. I would recomend booking early and...