#5: Cooking with the Calamari Sisters at the Marcus Center.
Why? Because you’ve been watching cooking shows since Julia Child first slammed that flounder onto her cutting board, and you know the genre well enough to predict the exact face Guy Fieri will make when he samples that bite of Sloppy Joe. It’s time for a little satire, and that’s exactly what you’ll get in this drag-cooking show brought to you by the group that gave us Dixie’s Tupperware Party. Join Carmela and Delphine as they sing, sear and sauté their way into your hearts and gall bladders.
#4: Bob Odenkirk at the Pabst Theater.
Why? Because he brought just the right blend of cheese and desperation to his performance as Saul Goodman, the opportunistic lawyer on Breaking Bad. But if your take on Odenkirk stops at “Better call Saul,” you’ve got a lot to learn, bud. Like his work with David Cross in the brilliant sketch comedy series, “Mr. Show.” Or his terrific deadpan performances in Nebraska and the FX series Fargo. Here, you get to sample his humor at its driest, as he comes to the Pabst to hawk his new book, A Load of Hooey.
#3: First Stage’s The Three Little Pigs at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center.
Why? Because it’s time to tear your toddler away from Candy Crush and Angry Birds and get them to the theater. And this First Stage musical is designed specially for three-to-six-year-olds, so there’ll be no shushing or tsk-tsking when they start talking back to the actors or need a potty trip in the midst of a scene. Adam Estes and Marvette Knight are joined by several young performers, all directed by Sheri Williams Pannell.
#2: Danceworks Performance Company’s Paleontology of a Woman at Next Act Theater.
Why? Because the Danceworks company is never content to rest on its toe shoes (or Chuck Taylors)—so it’s always on the lookout for for interesting and unexpected collaborators. This time, Dani Kuepper and friends have tapped Timothy Westbrook, local fashion designer of Project Runway fame, who developed this project with the dancers and local composer Allen Russell. Using mostly found materials as fodder for costumes, Westbrook and the dancers chart an evolutionary history from the Mesozoic era to the Tim Gunn era. Sit and marvel at the march of time and hemlines over millions and millions of years.
#1: Milwaukee Ballet’s Don Quixote at the Marcus Center.
Why? Because it shows what the Milwaukee Ballet does best these days. Michael Pink’s version of the iconic Marius Petipa ballet sacrifices none of the pageantry and spectacular athleticism of the original. But it reshapes the it bring a clearer and more emotionally satisfying story and character of Don Quixote (played assuredly by MB Ballet Master Denis Malinkine). Pink’s version shows three separate episodes from the Don’s adventures. On Thursday night, the ensembles were beautifully harmonized and precise, particularly the Act Two dream sequence, in which Quixote imagines a fleet of ethereal Dulcineas. But as with much of Pink’s work, the triumph here is in the blend of technical bravura and solid characterizations. In the romantic competition that shapes the first act, the boo-hiss rival to Kitri (Luz San Miguel) and Basilio (Davit Hovhannisyan) is a dashing and vain toreador rather than an odious nobleman, and Alexandre Ferreira hams up his vanity with hilarious character touches (including one courtesy of The Fonz). As always, Pink’s sets these mini-dramas against a lively community of minor characters—gypsies, townspeople, etc.—who cohere into a charmingly realized theatrical world. Oh, and there is spectacular dancing as well, particularly solo turns by San Miguel, Hovhannisyan, Ferreira, Valerie Harmon (as an ethereal Dulcinea), Ryan Martin (as a comically loose-limbed Sancho Panza), and Annia Hidalgo, who dances the famous pas de deux with Ferreira. The three remaining performances this weekend feature alternating casts. See it twice and witness the true depth of the company.
