New Year, New Shows

Yes, there’s still a chance to catch some holiday fare, including the Sunset Playhouse’s It’s a Wonderful Life and In Tandem’s A Cudahy Caroler Christmas. And the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra offers its annual New Year’s Eve Celebration.  But it will soon be a brand new year, with brand new shows, including Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and El Cimarron at Skylight Music Theatre.

Theater

Milwaukee Repertory Theatre presents Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie from Jan. 5 – March 9. Tickets are $45 for adults, $20 for ages 19-35 and students 18 and younger, available online or call (414) 224-9490.

Skylight Musiec Theatre presents El Cimarron, a powerful story about the life of a runaway slave, from Jan. 3-22. Tickets are $37.50, available online or call (414) 291-7800.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is hosting their New Year’s Eve Celebration on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 8 p.m. at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts for an evening of Viennese waltzes and champagne. Tickets range from $22-$102, available online or call (414) 291-7605.

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra presents Doc’s Back! in which MSO’s Principal Pops Conductor Emeritus Doc Severinsen returns to play his renditions of Great American standards from Jan. 3-5. Tickets range from $22-$102, available online or call (414) 291-7605.

Visual Art

Tory Folliard Gallery opens three new exhibitions: Roger Bechtold’s “The Nature of Things,” Jeremy Popelka’s “Veiled Monuments,” and Ben Grant’s “I’ve Got on With It a Little All the Same” that will all run from Jan. 4-Feb. 1.

Milwaukee Art Museum hosts Lecture: Sully, Peale, Stuart: Philadelphia Portraitists at the Top of Their Game on Thursday, Jan. 2 at 6:15 p.m. at the Lubar Auditorium. Guests will hear about great American portraitists and their differing styles. The lecture is free with museum admission.

Special Events

A.C.T. Comedy Boot Camp at Waukesha Civic Theatre is an unpredictable, sketch comedy show in which the writers and actors have only four days to prepare.

Waukesha Civic Theatre presents the unpredictable sketch comedy show A.C.T. Combat Boot Camp on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. High school age playwrights, actors and directors will have to bring original scripts from initial concept to performance in just four days without any advanced preparation for a show where anything can happen. Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors, available online.

The Arcade Theatre in the Underground Collaborative presents Who Killed Santa?, an alternative, adult show filled with holiday song parodies and puppet violence, from Jan. 2-12. Tickets are $20, available online.

Last Chance

Off The Wall Theatre: The Creature from the Black, Black Lagoon, through Dec. 31

Sunset Playhouse: It’s a Wonderful Life, through Dec. 31

The Pabst Theater: Jim Gaffigan, through Dec. 31

Waukesha Civic Theatre: Four Guyz In Dinner Jackets, through Dec. 31

In Tandem Theatre: A Cudahy Caroler Christmas, through Jan. 5

Milwaukee Art Museum: Thomas Sully: Painted Performance, through Jan. 5