Fourteen actors/musicians gather in a small rehearsal room at the Milwaukee Rep. In the corner, a rock band is set up, complete with drums and electric guitar.
Erika Olson steps to the front. She’s playing 22-year-old Lawrencia Bembenek, who makes a pivotal decision in 1980 to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the Milwaukee Police. It wasn't a typical job for a young woman.
Bembenek’s parents don’t like the idea. But they can’t stop her.
Olson sings, "I can do anything I want, and I can go anywhere."
Little did she know, a two years later, she would be imprisoned for murder.
The story of Laurie Bembenek is one of Milwaukee’s most infamous true crime tales. Forty years later, the Milwaukee Rep has adapted it for the stage, as a rock musical.
Bembenek’s short stint as a cop ended in 1980, when she was fired for allegedly smoking marijuana. She accused the MPD of discrimination, and she outed other officers for dancing naked in public and other inappropriate behavior.
In 1981, Christine Schultz, the ex-wife of Bembenek’s police detective husband Fred Schultz, was killed. Bembenek became the MPD’s main suspect. She maintained her innocence, but was found guilty in a trial.
Nine years later, Bembenek escaped from Taycheedah prison and fled to Canada. Her supporters, who thought she was innocent, urged her to "Run, Bambi, Run."
Bembenek was caught, and eventually pled guilty to second-degree murder to avoid more prison time. But questions remained about whether she was framed for Christine Schultz's murder.
"As we recalled the story, we realized just how stranger than fiction it was," says Academy Award-winning playwright Eric Simonson. "And it might make a good musical."
Simonson first mentioned the idea of a Bembenek musical to Milwaukee Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements several years ago.
"Mark’s next question was who should write the music?" Simonson says. "And I said right away, 'Gordon Gano of the The Violent Femmes.' His music is very to the heart, it’s the to the point, it’s direct, it’s raw. And I feel like the character of Laurie Bembenek is like that too."
The Violent Femmes have Milwaukee roots. Gano agreed to write original music for the project.
"It’s been an amazing process of collaboration and ideas and ways to express myself in the writing, and to have such focus with characters and the story," says Gano.
Simonson says 'Run Bambi Run' doesn’t set out to prove Bembenek’s innocence or guilt.
"What we tried to do is write the story from the point of view of the individual characters," Simonson says. "We don’t make a decision as to what exactly happened that night. We let the audience decide for themselves."
But everyone has their own opinion.
"I think Laurie was innocent," says Erika Olson, the actress who plays Bembenek in the musical. "In all the research that I’ve done, and the books that I’ve read, I just feel like there’s no way that she did it."
Olson says it was Bembenek's character that drew her to the show.
"I really like playing strong women," Olson says. "I like playing women who speak up for themselves, who go against the current and fight for what they believe in. And I also love to root for underdog too."
Bembenek died in 2010, at age 52.
Why, 40 years after the crime, does her story continue to pique our interest?
"You have drugs, sex, rock and roll, and in many people’s minds it’s an unsolved murder," says Kris Radish, a former Milwaukee journalist who wrote a book about the case. "You know, an ex-cop, a cop’s wife, a beautiful woman escapes from prison – it’s very compelling."
Radish says that’s why Bembenek’s story has been told and retold so many times, in books, made-for-TV movies, a podcast, and now on the stage.
'Run Bambi Run' is showing at the Milwaukee Rep from Sept. 13 - Oct. 22.
