Vaudeville, orchestras and stamps. Oh my.

Dance

Kelly Anderson and Danceworks will bring back the good old days of Vaudeville this weekend — with post-modern twists and a dose of Anderson’s celebrated naughty wit. More to come on this at TCD.

Curtain times: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18-20, and Feb. 24-27, Danceworks Studio Theater, 1661 N. Water St. Tickets are $25 and $20, $15 for students and seniors. Visit the Danceworks site or call (414) 277-8480 ext. 6025.

Theater

If you had millions of dollars, would you part with a million or two for two tiny bits of paper with glue on the backs? No?
Then you aren’t a stamp collector.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck and the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre will explain the odd allure of this hobby — and the passion and greed it can inspire — starting this weekend. The company will open Rebeck’s Mauritius at 8 p.m. Friday at the Cabot Theatre in the Broadway Theatre Center, 148 N. Broadway. The thriller runs through March 13. Tickets are $30-$35 at the BTC box office, 414 291-7800, and at the MCT website. (A preview performance is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday.)
By the way, I will be MCT’s guest speaker at a pre-performance Viewpoints session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23. Somehow, someone at MCT found out that I… I… have a stamp collection. There, I’ve said it. Don’t judge me.

Men are idiots. This fact has been well established in several generations of beer commercials, in which 20-something men ignore their hot girlfriends in order to pursue their passion for light beer.
If anyone around here has any lingering doubts on this point, playwright/actor/comedian Robert Dubac is coming to town to put them to rest. Dubac will play six characters in his Male Intellect: An Oxymoron? at Marcus Center Vogel Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17-20. (This will occur provided that Dubac, who is male, has the wit to find his way to the theater.)
Tickets are $38-$40 at the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206, and the Marcus Center website.

Nurture’s Wonders: Amy Hansmann and, L-R: Ben George, Thomas Dillon, Robert WC Kennedy, Michael Gau.

What’s funnier than modern misery?
Windfall Theatre will premiere Nurture’s Wonders, a “disturbingly depressing comedy for our times” Friday (Feb. 18) at the Village Church Arts Center, 130 E. Juneau Ave. The Parkers are a typical American family — you know, the one with the high-school kid with a gun in his locker. Thomas Rosenthal, a playwright who came to Milwaukee as a Rep acting intern, wrote the piece. At this point, Rosenthal and Windfall are old pals; this will be Windfall’s fourth Rosenthal comedy premiere. The cast: Amy Hansmann (Marti Parker), Robert W.C. Kennedy (George Parker), Michael Gau (Marshall), Ben George (Hipple), Thomas Dillon (Sarge) and Carol Zippel (Yvonne). The director is Maureen Kilmurry, artist in residence and guest lecturer at Marquette University. Tickets are $20; call Windfall at 414 332-3963. Nurture’s Wonders runs through March 5; all shows begin at 8 p.m.

First Stage Milwaukee will attend to its younger audience with its next show, U: Bug: Me, a folk-rock musical with a fly for a hero and a horsefly as the bully villain. The Ant-Hill Band will play live. First Stage will open Jeremiah Clay Neal’s show Friday, Feb. 18, at Marcus Center Todd Wehr Theater, where it will play many times through March 13. Tickets are $11.50 and up, depending on seat location and performance time and day. Click here for the complete schedule and to purchase tickets, or call the Marcus box office, 414 273-7206.

Music

Ilana Setapen

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, after a three-week German fest followed by Tango Buenos Aires and Pops with Arlo Guthrie, regain something like normality this weekend. Ilana Setapen, the orchestra’s brilliant young associate concertmaster, will step front and center to play Mendelssohn’s familiar Violin Concerto in E minor at 11:15 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18-19, at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Stravinsky’s Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra and Shostokovich’s Symphony No. 5 (for NOT small orchestra) complete the program in which guest conductor Carlo Rizzi, former music director of the Welsh National Opera, will make his Milwaukee debut. Tickets are $25-$79 Friday and $25-$95 Saturday; call the MSO ticket line, 414 291-7605, or visit the MSO website.

Sharon Hansen’s Milwaukee Choral Artists, comprising 20 or so of the area’s very best female singers,  will sing a post-Valentine program of music about love in the largest sense. The six parts of the program are: Romance is in the “Aire,” The Love of God, The Love of Family, The Love of Home, Love Lost and Found and The Pure Fun of Love. The Languages of Love program is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, at North Shore Congregational Church, 7330 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Fox Point. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors and $15 for students. Click here to buy them, or call 262 628-5022.

Richard Hynson, Chamber Orchestra music director

The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, revitalized and adventurous under music director Richard Hynson, and ensconced in a charming Downtown venue in Calvary Church, will be busy Sunday (Feb. 20). How’s this for an ambitious, intriguing program: Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Rolf Martinsson’s A. S. in Memoriam and Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3, by Ottorino Respighi. Tickets are $25 for adults, $23 for seniors, and $10 for students, at the orchestra’s website, by phone at 414 881-9900, or at the door. That would be the door of Calvary Church (the red brick one), 935 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Soulstice Theater: Shining City, by Conor McPherson, through Feb. 26 at the Marian Center, 3211 S. Lake Drive, St. Francis. $12/$15.
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.
The Milwaukee Rep: Speaking in Tongues, through March 13 in the Stiemke Theater; Nobody Lonesome for Me, Stackner Cabaret through March 13.

Last Chance

Skylight Opera Theatre: Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, closes Feb. 20.
Prometheus Trio: 11 a.m. Tuesday, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 N. Prospect Ave.

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