After two yea
rs of debate-watching, canvassing, nail-biting and answering robo-calls, isn’t it a good time for a breather, a break, a deep cleansing breath that gets us ready for the next four years? Well, Have a Seat. And while you’re at it, why not watch some talented dancers do the same? And stand on a seat. Leap over a seat. Slither under a seat. You never know what to expect at a Janet Lilly concert. Lilly gathered a group of choreographers, from around the world and asked them to make a dance with a chair in it. And she set her own new dance on the talented Danceworks Company. The results can be seen this weekend at Danceworks, Inc.
Whether you’re feeling hope, fear or anger after the election, it’s not a bad time for reflection. Enter the poets. Whatever your favorite genre, it’s a ripe time to get poetic.
One of America’s favorite bards, Robert Frost, will be featured at the fall concert of the Bach Chamber Choir & Orchestra. “Frostiana” features music by Randall Thompson and others, with a healthy dose of the appropriately autumnal wo
rds of Frost.
If you’re an Anglophile, celebrate the verse of Stevie Smith in Boulevard Ensemble’s fine production of Hugh Whitemore’s Stevie. She’s a bit autumnal herself, being rather preoccupied with death in that particularly tea-sipping British way. It’s the final weekend at Boulevard, so be sure to see Stevie (portrayed here by Amber Page) before she fades away into oblivion.
Not to get monotonous about it, but there’s poetry and death as well in the Milwaukee Rep’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. But there’s gorgeous language and images as well. See my review here.
Well enough of all this gravitas and mortality-brooding. Thank god for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which will lighten things up with…um…Mahler? Well, never mind. But if you’re going to sink into the eternal questions, why not go full speed ahead with Gustav’s big band. Actually, the Fourth is one of the shortest and smallest (instrument-wise) of Mahler’s symphonies. Still, built around the song, Das Himmlische Leben (Heaven’s Life), it tackles those big eternal questions. Edo de Waart conducts a program that also features Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto.
Finally, if you really are looking for a bit of spirit-lifting, one of the year’s best-reviewed film comedies arrives this weekend. Mike Leigh, the British director known as one of the best actor-directors in the business, gets a little less dark in his latest movie, Happy-Go-Lucky, which stars Sally Hawkins and a typically talented Leigh ensemble. Salon’s intrepid critic, Stephanie Zacharek, says, “Leigh and his actors work mysterious magic in Happy-Go-Lucky. This is a movie about hitting the groove of everyday life and, nearly miraculously, getting music out of it.”
See you in the lobby….
