Weekly Highlights from 3/31-4/6
Garrick Ohlsson plays with the MSO this week. Press photo by Philip Jones Griffiths courtesy of website.
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It’s Your Mother!, Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theatre, 3/31-5/9
Written by Betsy Tuxill and Patricia Durante, this play takes a comedic look at the mother/daughter relationship. Through a series of scenes and monologues, It’s Your Mother! explores the tensions inherent in the relationship between mothers and daughters, from a daughter’s first visit home after going off to college to planning a wedding and the other inevitable conflicts of life (choice of career, choice of spouse, how to raise children, etc.).
Tickets $20. Showtimes vary slightly, so visit the Boulevard or call 414-744-5757 for more information.
The Value of Names, Next Act Theatre, Off-Broadway Theatre, 4/1-5/2
In this play, Benny Silverman used to be a big deal on stage and screen. Today the comic genius gets by with a little TV. He’s still very funny. His daughter Norma, a chip off the old actor’s block, has caught her break in a play directed by Benny’s ex-friend Leo. The pals parted ways decades ago after Leo named Benny before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Leo kept working while Benny was blacklisted. At Norma’s urging, Leo meets Benny to try to patch things up, but forgiveness is not going to come easy.
Tickets $24-$32. Showtimes vary slightly, so visit Next Act or call 414-278-0765.
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American One-Act Operas, UWM Opera Theatre, Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, 4/1-4/3
UWM Opera Theatre presents an evening of American one-act operas directed by voice faculty members. The program will include Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief and Carlisle Floyd’s Slow Dusk.
Tickets $15 general/$9 students, seniors & UWM alumni, faculty & staff. Showtimes Thursday & Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Visit Peck School of the Arts or call 414-229-4308.
Ohlsson plays Chopin, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Marcus Center Uihlein Hall, 4/3-4/4
It was a young, desperate love that inspired this concerto by the teenage Frederic Chopin. Too shy to declare his feelings, he wrote: “I say to my piano what I would like to be saying to you…” Chopin master Garrick Ohlsson performs this ardent declaration under the baton of Edo de Waart.
Tickets $25-$93. Showtime 8 p.m. Visit the MSO or call 414-291-7605.
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AND JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT….
These shows are ending their runs soon. Have you gotten your tickets yet?
Dangerous Folk, Sunset Playhouse, now-4/3
A “mighty wind” of classic folk music memories led by David HB Drake, Julie Thompson and Cap Lee, this music seeks to affirm the positive message that shaped a generation.
Tickets $12. Showtimes vary, so visit Sunset Playhouse or call 262-782-4430 for more information.
The Skylight’s Harpo, Chico and Groucho — Ray Jivoff, Benjamin Howes and Norman Moses — clowning during a PR shoot at the Oriental Theater.
A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Skylight Opera Theatre, Broadway Theatre Center, now-4/4
Two one-act musicals provide a “double feature.” The first act, A Day in Hollywood, takes us to the lobby of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in the 1930s where the ushers sing a musical tribute to the screen stars and productions of that magical era (including a musical homage to film clichés and a tap salute to the 1930 Production Code governing on-screen sex and violence). The second act, A Night in the Ukraine, is billed as “the funniest musical the Marx Brothers never wrote,” sweeping us away to Russia for a madcap musical featuring all the usual Marx Brothers suspects, and loosely based on Chekhov’s one-act play,The Bear.
Read Tom Strini’s preview and review.
Tickets $20-$62. Showtimes 7:30 p.m. with 2 p.m. Sunday matinee. Visit the Skylight or call 414-291-7800.
8 Bit Warrior, Alchemist Theatre, now-4/11
Journey back to the 80s in this original comedy. Will Davies, a high school student, is striving to become the all-time leading scorer on Donkey Kong, but a new kid in town is looking to prove his gaming prowess. It all comes to a head at the Midwest Vid-Con video game tournament. Bonus: you’ll get to see your favorite classic video games performed live on stage.
Read Ryan Findley’s review.
Tickets $15. Showtimes 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinees at 3:30 p.m. Visit the Alchemist or call 414-426-4169.
Gerard Neugent and Steve Pickering, as put-upon thug and corrupt mayor. Photo by Jay Westhauser.
On a stormy winter night, a brash pulp-fiction novelist holes himself up in a deserted Wisconsin summer resort to win a bet. He has wagered that he can write a best-seller in 24 hours, and Slaughter Peak Lodge is the perfect place to get his creative juices flowing. Best of all, he’s got the only key – or so he thinks. It’s not long before his night of perfect solitude unravels into a tangled web of criminal conspiracy, romance, intrigue and murder that could have come straight from one of his novels. Fact and fiction dissolve into mayhem in Joe Hanreddy’s grand finale as artistic director. Based on the novel Seven Keys to Baldpate written by Earl Derr Biggers and the play by George M. Cohan.
Read Tom Strini’s review.
Tickets $10-$35. Showtimes vary, so visit the Rep or call 414-224-9490 for more information.
Route 66, Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Stackner Cabaret, now-4/25
Travel along the famed “Main Street of America” with some of the most popular songs of the road.
Tickets$25-$35. Showtimes vary, so visit The Rep or call 414-224-9490 for more information.
Read Peggy Sue Dunigan’s review.
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For more arts/culture coverage or events leads, check out the TCD Calendar.
