Sounds on Stage

Theater

Milwaukee Opera Theater presents Victory for Victoria, a concert reading of a new musical by local artists Susan Peterson Holmes, Peggy Peterson Ryan and Alissa Rhode. Victoria is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Victoria Woodhull, a once-famous suffragist in the antebellum period who ran for president in 1872, the first woman to attempt it. Local organizations and individuals have sponsored each of the twenty musical numbers in honor of women in their lives, making this show a unique community experience. Reserved tickets are available for $20 online but general admission is also available for $15. The show will be performed Friday and Saturday only (Sept. 6 & 7) at 7:30 p.m. at the Sunset Playhouse.  

Local playwright Fly Steffens will stage her play Love is a Horse with a Broken Leg Trying to Stand while 45,000 People Watch on the Patio of The Red Dot starting September 3. This free show, an experimental work that draws on the works of Charles Bukowski and James Joyce for inspiration, will be performed Tuesdays and Wednesdays through September 11, at 7:30 p.m. There will be table services for dining and drinks during the performance; audiences are encouraged to arrive early to ensure they have a seat. This show contains adult content and features tobacco use on stage.

Boulder StoryHealers’ A Day for Grace will premiere on September 5 at Next Act Theatre. This story of one man’s journey into fatherhood, from disagreeing with the delivery nurse to watching his daughter grow. Doug Vincent both wrote and stars in the show, which runs through September 8. Tickets are $20 online, with a student and senior discount price of $15.

Theater Unchained (formerly Carte Blanche Studios) opens its production of Spamalot, a parody musical about King Arthur inspired by the Monty Python movies on the same subject, this weekend. The production runs from September 6 to 22, with performances at 8 PM on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday and 6 PM on Sundays. Tickets for this show are available for $25 online.

Music

Present Music opens its 2013-14 season with Inuksuit, a performance at the Lynden Sculpture Garden on Saturday, Sept. 7 (rain date Sept. 8). The concert features the piece by the same name, by John Luther Adams, an aural soundscape created by 99 percussionists spread throughout the garden’s grounds. Tickets are $20 online, or $15 for Lynden members, and the performance begins at 4 p.m. Present Music supporters can also look forward to a Rhythmic Revel Inuksuit Fundraiser taking place after the concert at 5:30 p.m.; tickets are $99 and include a ticket to the performance as well as beverages, food and entertainment.

Skylight Music Theater presents the first of many Opera 101 experiences this Wednesday, September 5. Artistic director Viswa Subbaraman will present a educational experience followed by a concert every first Thursday of the month (except October and January, and this month’s installment a day early) in an attempt to dispel the idea of opera as an antiquated or stuffy art form. These shows are free at the Hotel Foster and begin at 7:30 p.m. 

Early Music Now will feature the history of the clarinet during their Vienna Revisited concert. Clarinet expert Eric Hoeprich, joined by soprano Clara Rottsolk and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman will perform selections from the works of Beethoven, Schubert, Spohr, and Weber. General admission tickets for the September 7 performance are $25 online. There will be a pre-show lecture about the historical and musical evolution of clarinets at 7 p.m. and the musical performance begins at 8 p.m. at Wisconsin Lutheran College.

Last Chance

Milwaukee Art Museum: 30 Americans, through Sept. 8

MAM: Wisconsin 30, through Sept. 8

Ongoing 

American Players Theatre: Too Many Husbands, through Sept. 14

APT: All My Sons, through Sept. 28

Milwaukee Rep: I Left My Heart: A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett, through Oct. 20

APT: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, through Oct. 5

APT: Two Gentlemen of Verona, through Oct. 6

APT: Dickens in America, through Oct. 19

APT: Antony and Cleopatra, through Oct. 20