#5: America’s Got Talent Live at the Riverside Theater.
Why? Yes, you very well may ask, “Why?” whenever you turn on the hit NBC show and its assorted collection of cute kiddie acts, daredevils, and earnest Celine Dion wannabees. Well, this live show promises to answer that question, simply by booking the greatest Answer Man of them all as the host: Jerry Springer. We hear that the leading contender for this year is Akron, Ohio’s Frank Rzkewski’s performances of Chekhov monologs performed while making his grandmother’s Borscht recipe.
#4: Peter Pan & Wendy at First Stage.
Why? Because your kids were wide-eyed and gape-mouthed during last season’s Milwaukee Ballet performance of Peter Pan. Since then, they’ve taken to sporting green tights and begging for a pet St. Bernard. Unless you want to find them swinging from the garage rafters in a homemade pulley “flying” system, you better give them their J.M. Barrie fix. Milwaukee’s always engaging children’s theater obliges with its own adaptation by Doug Rand.
#3: Mozart’s Requiem at St. Josephat’s Basilica.
Why? Because the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra takes the occasional road trip, and we’re psyched to hear Mozart’s expansive and dramatic mass float around the domes of arches of our Lincoln Avenue landmark. Edo de Waart conducts the orchestra and MSO Chorus. And the great Todd Levy opens the program with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.
#2: Compagnie Jant-Bi at Alverno Presents.
Why? Because this Senegalese company takes African dance forms into the world of contemporary dance, using traditional vocabulary and energy to grapple with the real world of Africa today. “Waxtaan” is a piece for eight dancers and five drummers that offers a meditation on 21st-century power and politics.
#1: Main-Travelled Roads at Milwaukee Chamber Theater.
Why? Because this is the perfect time to visit Hamlin Garland’s home-spun world of Wisconsin small towns in the 1880s, where characters have names like Ed the Creamery Man and Nina the Dutch Girl. Paul Libman and Dave Hudson’s adaptation of Garland’s stories is rare venture into music theater for MCT, but it’s a perfect fit. And with the Rhode sisters behind the scenes (director Molly and Music Director Alissa), we’re in good musical hands.
Main-Travelled Roads Photo by Mark Frohna.
