Big debuts, special guests and celebrations

Wynton Marsalis brings the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to the Marcus Center for a career retrospective. Photo by Frank Stewart.

Music

Hailed as one of the most talented big bands in the world, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will appear tonight at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, as part of its new Marcus Center Presents series. The 15-person ensemble is led by musical director Wynton Marsalis, one of the greatest jazz musicians of the era. It will play a retrospective of his work for big band. Also on the docket is the orchestra’s specialty: Modern-jazz classics by such artists as Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets start at $33. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the online box office or call (414) 273-7206.

Brahms’ Second Symphony was crafted within the summer of 1877, a short period compared to the 15 years it took for his prior symphony.

Romance is in the cards for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The MSO’s centerpiece this week is Brahms’ enchanting Second Symphony, a lyrical work with a pastoral feel. Schubert’s charming, melodic Fifth Symphony, completed age 19, shares the program, along with  Tan Dun’s Water Concerto. Yuri Yamashita, one of a very few percussionists Dun has approved, will be the soloist. His instruments?Bowls of water. Concert times are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $22. For more information or to order tickets, visit the MSO’s website.

Alverno Presents brings in a lot of talented artists, but the African-American women’s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock is a long-standing series favorite. Social activist Bernice Johnson Reagon founded the female vocal ensemble (plus American Sign Language interpreter) in 1973. The show begins Saturday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m., and tickets are $45. To order, visit Alverno’s website or call (414) 382-6044.

The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s We Six sextet is known for American jazz, but the group will go global at its season opener. Drums Around the World features the core group plus guest drummers Robert Figueroa, Bony Plog-Benavides and Amy Richter, who will bring some worldbeat to the Helen Bader Recital Hall. The show begins Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $22. Call (414) 276-5760.

Saturday, Early Music Now brings Milwaukee a musical dynasty in the making. Jordi and Ferran Savall will perform at the Helene Zelazo Center at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Jordi Savall  is famous in early music circles after three decades in the field. He is a viola de gambist  of great renown. His son, Ferran, specializes in a spontaneous, modern style of singing that draws from soul, Eastern Mediterranean and Indian world music and early music. Their aim is to bridge East and West and Old and New Worlds. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. For more information or to order, call (414) 225-3113 or visit their website.

Miles Davis has secured a place as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Saturday, the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet will pay tribute to Davis at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. The concert will stay closely tied to Davis’ distinctive sound and survey his career. The program will center on Davis’ masterpiece, Kind of Blue. The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, and tickets are $57, $47 and $29. call (262) 781-9520 or check out their the Wilson Center website to order.

The Festival City Symphony kicks off its Symphony Sunday series with Tell Me a Story, a family-friendly event for both casual and devoted classical music lovers. Tell Me a Story features music that tells three distinct fairy tales: Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella), Stravinsky’s Divertimento (The Fairy’s Kiss) and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. The concert begins Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Pabst Theater; $14 for adults, $8 for children, students and seniors. Call the Pabst box office at (414) 286-3205 or go online.

Theater

After a months-long drumroll, Next Act Theatre will unveil its brand new home in the Fifth Ward with The Exonerated. The play tells the true stories of six people condemned to death for crimes they didn’t commit. They’re all eventually saved, but their harrowing experiences change them forever. The play plus the venue make this a must-see show. It play runs Oct. 6 to 30, with shows Wednesdays at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4:30 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 for Wednesday matinees, $35 for Saturdays, and $30 for all other shows. To purchase, go to Next Act’s website or call (414) 278-0765.

Etiquette teachers must be strict, disciplined and impossible to please. Right? But the instructor in In Tandem Theatre’s Mrs. Mannerly has a dark secret. Perhaps it is the key to helping a special student achieve the elusive perfect score in etiquette in this morality play of a comedy. The show opens Oct. 7 and runs through Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. weekdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $22 for weekdays and matinees, and $26 Friday and Saturday nights, with a $2 discount for students and seniors. For more information, visit their website or call (414) 271-1371.

Intimate details of celebrities’ sex lives can be shocking. At Theatrical Tendencies, they’re hilarious. The Little Dog Laughed, the company’s Tony-nominated fall premiere, takes us behind the scenes with a rising Hollywood star who’s got one potential speed bump in the way of success: His agent can’t keep him in the closet. Now the agent must contend with his crush on a local rent boy, the rent boy’s girlfriend and a shot at the role of a lifetime. A happy ending would be nice too, if she can swing it. The Little Dog Laughed runs Fridays and Saturdays from Oct. 7 to 22, with shows at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20, $17 for seniors and $12 for students. Buy online.

When your songs become Broadway standards, you know you’ve made it big. And the greatest of the standard bearers are the musical duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein, who produced the music and lyrics to such shows as Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. This weekend, Falls Patio Players, based in Menomonee Falls, will put on Some Enchanted Evening, a revue of the duo’s greatest works. Shows are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission and $13 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online.

Visual Art

Martha Glowacki’s “Echoes,” a collection of castings, graphite, found objects and photographs, is located in Charles Allis’ bedroom.

This Thursday, the Charles Allis Art Museum hosts Space and Place, an Academy Evenings conversation between visual artists Martha Glowacki and Carol Emmons. The event focuses on Glowacki and Emmons’ work for the museum’s The Charles Allis: 100 Years, a series of multi-sensory installations that reinvent Charles Allis’ Mansion. Glowacki’s installation, Echoes, is a collection of castings, graphite, found objects and photographs displayed in Allis’ bedroom. Emmons’ Alembic I is an iron sculpture with drawings and found objects set in the Marble Hall. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Charles Allis Mansion, and is free and open to the public.

Valerie Christell’s “Destruction of Innocence” exhibition features a collection of black and white photomontages.

Also check out TCD visual art contributor Valerie Christell’s show, Destruction of Innocence, at Galleria Edge, 463 W. Main St, Waukesha. Christell’s black and white photomontages merge twisted figures and natural environments. In addition to her work with us, Christell exhibits her work nationally,  teaches studio art and art history at Alverno, and was recently chosen as a 2011-12 mentor for the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network. The exhibition runs through Nov. 3, and gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Dance

While the primary company of the Milwaukee Ballet may get the big headlines, the organization also supports a second company of up-and-coming dancers: the Nancy Einhorn Milwaukee Ballet II. MBCII will dance Classical to Contemporary Sunday at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center. The concert begins at 1:30 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $20, with reduced price tickets for children and seniors. For details, visit the South Milwaukee PAC website.

Special Events

It’s been one year since ART Milwaukee formed and took up its mission: To bring art to the masses and create opportunities for local artists. The organization will celebrate with a birthday party located at its brand-new location: the Creativity Works Here hub of Grand Avenue Mall. The event begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 6, with brief presentations by Julia Taylor from the Greater Milwaukee Council and ART Milwaukee President Jeremy Fojut. Then art will takeover three levels of the Grand, as than 100 artists and 20 creative organizations show their work. The jamboree ends at 10 p.m., but an afterparty at Stir is already planned. TCD, also ensconced at the Grand Ave and an event sponsor, will join in. We will display works by Shelby Keefe, the Pfister Hotel’s artist-in-residence, and by local photographers. For complete info about this event, visit ART Milwaukee’s website.

American Players Theater: The Glass Menagerie, through Oct. 15

APT: Crime and Punishment, through Oct. 16

First Stage: Seussical, through Oct. 16

Fireside Theater: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, through Oct. 23

Alchemist Theatre: Faust: An Evening at the Mephisto Theatre, through Oct. 29

Milwaukee Rep: From My Hometown, through Oct. 30

Milwaukee Rep: Yellowman, through Nov. 13

Last Chance

Windfall Theatre: Omnium Gatherum, through Oct. 8

Soulstice Theatre: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, through Oct. 8

The Bay Players: Leading Ladies, through Oct. 8

Carte Blanche Theatre: Mein Kampf, through Oct. 9

Marquette University: Little Shop of Horrors, through Oct. 9