Galleries Galore

Visual Art

Gallery Night is back for its spring installment, this Friday and Saturday. A list of more than 50 participating locations can be found here, and TCD visual arts editor Kat Murrell will be providing more extensive coverage throughout the week.

One significant opening from the evening: Tory Folliard Gallery‘s 25th Anniversary show. A variety of sculptors, painters, and photographers will be honored in this show as a pivotal part of the gallery’s history. This special show runs through May 25.

For Gallery Day on Saturday, the Kenilworth galleries at 1925 E. Kenilworth Place will host their annual Kenilworth Open Studio show, featuring six floors of art exhibitions, film screenings, music, theatre and dance performances, demonstrations and hands-on activities for all ages. This year, UWM has added free food samples and giveaways, as well as an MKE Unplugged Stage with local bands performing live. Open Studio hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Theater

Seth Rudetsky, host of a Broadway-themed Sirius satellite radio show, brings his Big Fat Broadway Show to the Marcus Center’s Vogel Hall to help theater enthusiasts “deconstruct” the vocals of Broadway stars they love (or love to hate). Seth’s one-man performance is full of footage from his personal collection, so it’s almost as if you’re on 42nd Street yourself. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 18, and Friday, April 19. Tickets are available online now.

Sunset Playhouse presents Lucky Stiff, a musical based on “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo,” by Michael Butterworth. This memorable musical farce tells the tale of a murder, inheritance, and the magic of Monte Carlo. The show opens Thursday, April 18 and runs through May 12; tickets are available online for $25, $23 for seniors/students.

The Quasimondo brings an extravagant tribute to the Roman god of wine, fertility, and ecstasy. Bacchanalia is an celebration of song, dance, poetry and cuisine perfect for any life enthusiast. This show opens on Friday, April 19, and runs through Saturday, May 4. Tickets, including food and beverages, are $17, and can be purchased online.

Smithereen Productions, of The Improvised Musical (T.I.M.) fame, stages its first prescripted production this weekend: Spike Heels. This modern, darkly humorous take on Pygmalion written by Theresa Rebeck tells of a love triangle between a college professor, a high-powered lawyer and the working-class student with whom both fall in love. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held at the Underground Collaborative. The shows on April 22 and 25 are “pay what you can” performances. Tickets are $15, and available here.

Music

The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s Prometheus Trio will host the final performances of its thirteenth season this Monday and Tuesday. Join pianist Stefanie Jacob, violinist Timothy Klabunde, and cellist Scott Tisdel for a program including Turina’s “Círculo, Op. 91,”  Beethoven’s “Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1” and Mendelssohn’s “Trio in C Minor, Op. 66.”  The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22, $12 for students, and can be purchased online or by calling (414) 276-5760.

The UWM Peck School of the Arts will host a woodwinds concert with faculty performers on Thursday, April 18. Chamber Music Milwaukee brings together members of the Peck School’s Department of Music and their guests to revisit familiar works with new interpretations by using a variety of instruments and arrangements. This performance will be held in the Helen Bader Concert Hall at 7:30 PM. Tickets range from $5 to $17; for details call (414) 229-4308 or visit the online box office.

Early Music Now presents the Rose Ensemble, performing Slavic Wonders: Feasts & Saints in Early Russia, Poland and Bohemia.  This performance of Baroque motets from the Russian Orthodox tradition, medieval Latin chants for Slavic saints, and traditional works from the Polish Renaissance will take place on Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Basilica of St. Josaphat. General admission tickets are available for $25 online.

Special Events 

Alverno Presents and Cedar Block bring May The Schwartz Be With You to Turner Hall Ballroom. This event is a look back at the classic Milwaukee bookstore and its staff and patrons, who ultimately became Milwaukee’s finest artists, writers, musicians, and entrepreneurs. This multimedia presentation will take place on Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. at Turner Hall. Tickets are available online for $15.

To read a ThirdCoast Daily article about a particular show, please click on the show title. For more information about the show itself, please click on the venue. 

Last Chance

Theatrical Tendencies: The Normal Heart, through April 20

Ongoing

Next Act Theatre: Grace, through April 28

Milwaukee Chamber Theatre: Jeeves in Bloom, through April 28

Carte Blanche Studios: Sweeney Todd, through April 28

Renaissance Theaterworks: The Road To Mecca, through April 28

Milwaukee Rep: Ring of Fire, through May 5

First Stage: Jackie and Me, through May 5

Milwaukee Art Museum: Color Rush, through May 19

Milwaukee Art Museum: 125th Anniversary Celebration, through Aug. 10

Milwaukee Art Museum: Veterans Book Project: Objects for Deployment, through Sept. 2