Big Names, New Faces

Theater

The World’s Stage Theater Company will open Waiting – A Song Cycle at the Tenth Street Theater on Thursday, May 23. This new musical by Bob Kelly and Kelly Pomeroy follows several couples’ love stories though song. After its run here in Milwaukee, the show will travel to New York City, where it will make its Off-Broadway debut at The Cherry Lane Theatre. Student tickets are $12 and adult tickets are $15. Tickets are available online for this unique new show. Curtain time is 8 p.m.

Liz Duffy Adams’ play Or opens at Carte Blanche Studios. Or tells the tale of Aphra Behn, a modern woman entangled in love, intrigue and corruption as she works as both a spy and playwright. Performances are May 31 through June 9 at 8 p.m. Fridays, 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are available online for $20.

The Quasimondo hosts the premiere of Get Happy!, a play written and directed by Annetta Martin, a senior at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. The physical theater work tells conventional fairy tales in unconventional ways. Performances are May 25 at 8 p.m. and May 26 at 1 p.m.; tickets are available by calling 414-312-0619 or online.

Music

Edo de Waart leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in Brahms’ First and Fourth Symphonies at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts May 24 to 26. The program will be performed three times: Friday at 11:45 a.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets start at $22 and are available for purchase online.

Present Music closes its season this Friday, May 24 at Turner Hall Ballroom. Multitude is a collection of multimedia performances including art installations, modern dances, a world premiere by Sean Friar, and a performance by Wisconsin ska/rock band Something to Do. Tickets for this multifaceted evening are available online beginning at $15.

Local hard rock legends Die Kreuzen reunite at Turner Hall Ballroom with guest We Are Hex this weekend. Their concert on Sunday, May 26 marks the band’s second visit to Turner Hall in the last twenty years. Tickets are available for $20 online and doors open at 7 p.m. Then, on Monday, May 27, high energy indie rock band Japandroids visit Turner Hall in support of their 2012 sophomore album Celebration Rock. Tickets for this show are available online for $15.

Special Events 

The United Performing Arts Fund partners with Miller Lite to host the UPAF Ride for the Arts on Sunday, June 2. If you’re not registered yet, you can drop into the Shops of Grand Avenue to do so, beginning on May 28. Routes range from 5 to 75 miles, and the cost is $45 for adults, $35 for kids and $115 for families. More information about this event is available online.

To read a Third Coast 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

Next Act Theater: The Mystery of Irma Vep, though May 25

Marcus Center: Dixie’s Tupperware Party, through May 26

Off the Wall Theatre: Kiss of the Spider Woman, through May 26

Ongoing

Milwaukee Rep: One Night with Janis Joplin, through June 2

David Barnett Gallery: Blast From the Past: Forty-Six Years & Forty-Six Works Of Art, through June 8

Skylight Music Theatre: Porgy and Bess, through June 9

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

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