A big theater weekend, and German music

Theater

L-R: Andrew Edwin Voss, David Rothrock and Tess Cinpinski in Youngblood Theatre’s “Red Light Winter.” Youngblood Theatre photo.

One year ago, three days into a sold-out run of Red Light Winter, actor and Youngblood Theater co-founder Andrew Edwin Voss was stabbed and seriously injured in a random attack that had nothing to do the show. Youngblood had no choice but to cancel the remainder of the run.

Voss is back and so is Red Light Winter, the story of two college buddies who travel to Amsterdam and find themselves in a bizarre love triangle with a prostitute. (Adam Rapp’s play is about sex and there is some nudity. So don’t bring the kids. Or your mom.) The original creative team — Tess Cinpinski as Christina, David Rothrock as Matt, and Andrew Edwin Voss as Davis, and director Benjamin James Wilson — has reassembled to finish what they started last year.

Red Light Winter opens at 8 p.m. Friday Jan. 21 through Feb. 5 at the Alchemist Theater, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Tickets are $15; call the Alchemist, 414-426-4169, or visit the Youngblood website.

Can a naïve, insecure, good-hearted fellow succeed in business over his ruthless, aggressive boss? Two such unlikely adversaries square off in a comic battle for the soul of corporate America in Rich Orloff’s Big Boys this week at Next Act Theater. Two big boys of Milwaukee theater, Norman Moses and Next Act artistic director David Cecsarini, will take on these juicy roles. Mary McDonald Kerr directs. Big Boys previews at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and opens at 8 p.m. Friday. The show runs from Jan. 20 through Feb. 13 at the Tenth Street Theater, 628 N. 10th St. at Wisconsin Avenue (in the lower level of the Red Church). Tickets are $25, $29 and $35, depending on performance day and time. Call the box office, 414-278-0765, or visit the Next Act website.

Hank Williams, the archetype of the tragic, hard-drinking, country-music bad boy, is the subject of an intriguing revue the Milwaukee Repertory Theater will open Sunday, Jan. 23, in the Stackner cabaret. Associate artistic direct Sandy Ernst is directing the Midwestern premiere of Lanie Wilson’s  Nobody Lonesome for Me, which runs through March 13. Matthew Brumlow will portray Hank Williams and Peter Silbert will play the Ghost Guitarist.  Tickets are $45, $40 for students and seniors, for 8 p.m. shows on Fridays and
Saturdays. They are $35 and $30 for all other shows. Call The Rep’s box office, 414-224-9490, or visit the company’s website for tickets.

The French say: There is only red wine. The Germans say: There is only German music.

For the next three weeks in Milwaukee, the Germans will be right. Friday, the Milwaukee Symphony will open three consecutive weekends of its German Festival with Brahms’ Variations on a heme by Haydn, Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with guest pianist Ronald Brautigam. This program is set for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 21-22. Tickets are $25-$92 at the MSO ticket line, 414-291-7605, and at the Milwaukee Symphony website. Music director Edo de Waart will conduct all three weekends of German Festival programs.

Jan. 29-30: Pianist Garrick Ohlssohn featured in a program of Brahms, Schumann and Beethoven.

Feb. 4-5: Emanuel Ax, piano; Margaret Jane Wray, soprano; Clifton Forbis, tenor; Andrea Silvestrelli, bass, featured in a program of Beethoven and Wagner.

Ongoing

First Stage Children’s Theater: The Magic Bicycle, at Marcus Center Todd Wehr Theater through Feb. 5.
Sunset Playhouse: Guys on Ice, through Feb. 6.
Renaissance Theaterworks: Crumbs from the Table of Joy, in collaboration with Uprooted Theater, at the Broadway Theatre Center through Feb. 6.
Milwaukee Rep: Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater through Feb. 13.