A packed arts weekend starts Tuesday this week

Dance

 

The tango is serious, sexy business in Argentina, as we will see tonight – Tuesday, Feb. 8 – when Tango Buenos Aires lands at Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall. The Milwaukee Symphony is presenting the event, but not playing. Tango Buenos Aires travels with its own traditional tango orchestra, comprising piano, violin, bass, guitar and, of course, the crucial bandoneon, the wailing little accordion that sounds like nothing else.The band and 10 dancers, choreographed by Susanna Rojo, will perform 25 numbers in a revue format. The idea is that we get to know the couples — the comic one, the romantic one, the jealous  one, and so on — as an evening of dancing and relationships plays out in a tango salon and the dances turns from sweet to rough to impassioned.
Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. Tickets are $25-$95 at the MSO ticket line, 414 291-7605, and the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206.

Choreographers from all over the world send videos to Michael Pink, the Milwaukee Ballet‘s artistic director, in hopes of making the finals of the company’s biennial Genesis International Choreographic competition. This year’s finalists are Lucas Jervies, an Australian; Mauro de Candia, an Italian based in Berlin; and Edgar Zendejas, a Mexican based in Montreal. So that’s international. They’ve been in town for three weeks creating new works on the company. The company will perform them before audiences and a panel Friday through Sunday, Feb. 10-13, at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St. The winners — and really, no one loses — get $3,o0oo, $2,000 and $1,000 — and the top winner gets a return engagement with MBC. Yes, the audience gets to vote for its favorite.
Tickets are $25-$89 at the Pabst box office and at the Milwaukee Ballet ticket line, 414 902-2103.

Theater

Three of Milwaukee’s smaller theater companies will get busy this weekend.

Soulstice Theater opens Shining City by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, a play about faith, redemption, therapy and ghosts. It opens at 7:30 Thursday (Feb. 3) and runs through Feb. 26 at the Marian Center, 3211 S. Lake Drive, St. Francis. $12/$15.

The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, 703 S. 2nd St., is staging Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues as a fundraiser for Sojourner Family Peace Center and for the V-Day Campaign. Tickets are $15, $10 students/seniors. Call 414 383-3727.

The Carte Blanche Studio Theatre will stage Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid Feb. 11-20 in its space at 1024 S. 5th St. Tickets are $20. Opening night curtain time is 8 p.m., but start times vary; check times and purchase tickets through the Carte Blanche website.

Music

You can get anything you want at the Milwaukee Symphony, even Arlo Guthrie. Yes, the counter-cultural slacker hero of the 1960s will be the guest artist at the MSO Pops at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11-13, at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. Tickets are $25-$95 at the MSO ticket line, 414 291-7605; the MSO website; and at the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206.

How did Renaissance England sound? Like this. Come hear it live at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12,  at All Saints’ Cathedral, 818 E. Juneau Ave. Early Music Now will present Plaine & Easie. Members Shulamit Kleinerman and Nathan Whittaker play Renaissance-style violin and cello, respectively, John Lenti plays lute, and Linda Tsatsanis sings. The Seattle quartet will perform a full concert of music from Renaissance England. Tickets are $27, $12 for students; order online here or call 414 225-3113. And yes, that 5 p.m. start time is correct; the call it Early Music Now for more than one reason.

Valentine’s Day and Chamber Music Day both fall on Monday, February 14,  this year.

Chamber Music Milwaukee, the remarkable mixed-ensemble series run by Greg Flint and Todd Levy at UWM, will offer Songs of Love, with guest soprano Susanna Phillips. I think I hear her now.  Concert time is 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, at the UWM Zelazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. Tickets are $17, $12 for UWM personnel and $10 for students, at the UWM Peck School of the Arts box office, 414 229-4308.

Also at 7:30 p.m. Monday, the Prometheus Trio, comprising violinist Timothy Klabunde, pianist Stefanie Jacob and cellist Scott Tisdel, will be at work at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 N. Prospect Ave. Robert Levine, the MSO’s principal violist, will be their guest. The program: Berwald, Piano Trio in E-flat;  Schnittke, Piano Trio; Dvořák,  Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 87. Tickets are $22, $20 for students and seniors. Call 414 276-5760.

Art and Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century, ponders the 21st-century relevance of America greatest 20th century architect. The show opens Saturday, Feb. 12, at the Milwaukee Art Museum and runs through May 15.

Ongoing

The Milwaukee Rep: Speaking in Tongues, through May 13 in the Stiemke Theater; Nobody Lonesome for Me, Stackner Cabaret through March 13.
Skylight Opera Theatre: Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, through Feb. 20. Use the code BRELVAL30 to get 30% off.

Last Chance

Off the Wall Theatre: Jeremy Welter’s take on Alice in Wonderland, through Feb. 13.
The Milwaukee Rep: Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, closes Feb. 13.
Next Act Theatre: Big Boys, through Feb. 13.

Note to Readers and Producers: The On Stage column is not comprehensive. If your event is not listed here, please consult our events calendar, a free service for both presenters and readers. Also, feel free to add events I have not included above in the comment box below. — Tom Strini