Marvelous Musicals

“The team of Frederick Heide and Lee Becker creates outrageously funny musicals.”   

                                                  (Dave Begel, On Milwaukee)

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS & COMPOSERS

FREDERICK "DOC" HEIDE is an award-winning writer, performer, educator, psychologist, and recording artist. He co-founded Northern Sky Theater, which earned the Governor’s Award for Arts, Culture, and Heritage and has been called "one of the most exceptional professional troupes in the country" (Chicago Tribune). Doc has authored or co-authored two dozen hit musicals and collaborated for over a decade with Paul Sills, the founding director of Chicago's Second City who The New York Times called "the godfather of modern improvisational sketch comedy."   Doc is a Kerrville New Folk Finalist, has recorded four albums, and has published a book of 55 original songs (Tangled in Wonder, Gorham Press). A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, he is Professor Emeritus at the California School of Professional Psychology and recipient of the Winifred Boynton Creative Spirit Award. In 2026 he will be inducted as a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Further bio info at: https://zenofthieves.com/bio   

LEE BECKER began improvising over 35 years ago with ComedySportz while attending UW Madison. He helped found ComedySportz NYC, and worked with the group in Milwaukee, performing and running workshops in all three locations. He is a core member of Northern Sky Theater where he is a performer, musician, and playwright. Lee was a founding member of Door Shakespeare in Door County, WI, and has also performed and written for First Stage Children’s Theater in Milwaukee. Along with Doc Heide, he has been a workshop facilitator for the Medical College of Wisconsin's Door County Summer Institute for over 25 years, providing trainings for mental health professionals using role play and Spolin theater games. He has done similar work as a guest teacher at Alliant University’s California School of Professional Psychology.   

JAMES KAPLAN contributed music to three of Heide and Becker's musicals.  He composed music for several hit shows with Richard Rodgers Award-winner Fred Alley including Guys on Ice (which has had dozens of productions coast to coast).  James is a frequent musical director for Northern Sky Theater in Wisconsin.   

Paul Libman (composer for Guys & Does) has been a frequent collaborator with playwright Dave Hudson, with whom he has twice won the Richard Rodgers Award. His music is featured in Muskie Love, Main-Travelled Roads, Cheeseheads:  The Musical and many other shows. Libman is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Workshop in New York.