Okay, folks. It’s time to put the patio furniture in the garage, pack up the swimsuits and get the yacht into dry dock. I’m all for a little summer fun – picnics, brats, the great outdoors – but let’s not get used to it. Time to get back to the usual Midwest existence: down comforters, snow blowers, root vegetables and pot roast.
And the arts. The serious stuff. Tolstoy instead of TMZ, Mahler instead of Miley Cyrus, independent films rather than Indiana Jones movies. Too much frivolity, after all, is a threat to our regional character. A recent Cambridge University study found that Wisconsinites are second in the nation in “friendliness,” but ranked 47th in “openness.” We’re always quick with a smile and a “Hey,” but our souls still seethe in private over life’s big questions.
But let’s take it slowly, shall we? Too quick a plunge into the depths might leave us with the cultural equivalent of The Bends. This week’s picks have enough gravitas to be respectable, but are high in the fun quotient, too.
LOOKING AHEAD
Global Union:The genre “world music” is nothing new. And thanks to Alverno’s David Ravel it’s nothing new to Milwaukee either. Ravel’s been bringing the best music from around the globe for a while. Lately, he seems fascinated with hybrids. More likely the genres themselves are melting together, and Ravel is staying on top of it. So come to Humboldt Park this weekend and hear what happens when surf guitars invade the Middle East (Lamajamal), Brazil meets bluegrass (Nation Beat), or Ireland floats down the Volga (Reelroad). Four bands a day. A nice end-of-summer party.
UWM Dance: From global to local. For 20 years, the UWM Dance Department has been creating a melting pot of its own, populating local companies with choreographers and dancers, and making Milwaukee a vacation spot for some inventive artists from around the country. They’ll spend two days celebrating this weekend, with concerts devoted to local companies (Friday) and to alumni (Saturday). It’s a Whitman’s Sampler of dance, without the coconut cream (nobody likes those).
State of the Union: Forget the Frank Capra film starring Tracy and Hepburn. Lindsay and Crouse’s Pulitzer-winning look at politics has heft and wit to spare – without the Capra-corn saccharine touch. The most humbling message of the play: despite our conviction that our election is the most important contest ever, it isn’t all that different than previous contests. But it does have snazzier computer graphics. Lee Ernst plays the pol with the heart of gold in Milwaukee Rep’s production.
Isabel Sharpe: Skip the star-studded remake of The Women that’s due in theaters soon (or just rent the original George Cukor version). If you’re looking for a story of women and the men who leave them, come hear Sharpe read from her latest, As Good As It Got. Milwaukeean Sharpe is well known in the steamy Harlequin world. But her “non-romance” novels are garnering solid reviews for their wit and heart.
LOOKING BACK
Like the other minimalists of his day, John Adams used to fool around with short, repetitive phrases and structures. But he soon discovered the joy of big orchestras and forms.
His “Son of Chamber Symphony” isn’t exactly big, but it’s awesome in its speed and dexterity. Like a relay race staged on a roller coaster, the melodic batons are passed deftly between instruments as they swoop and tumble past each other. At Turner Hall Saturday night, Present Music had a bit of trouble keeping things firmly on the tracks, but Adams “Son,” the “big number” on the program, was great fun nonetheless, with the ghost of Karl Stalling, the great musical mind behind decades of Warner Brothers cartoons, hovering over the proceedings with tapping toes and a toothy grin.
But Adams’ jittery delights were indeed about as minimal as the program got. Emphasizing dance-inspired music as a bow to the history of the ballroom in which they played, the group showed off the hall’s sprightly acoustics with Stravinsky’s “Ragtime,” a translucently scored, off-kilter tribute to the rhythms of early jazz. Sonia Gubaidulina’s “Witty Waltzing” was a fractured fairy tale version of Johann Strauss. PM accompanied it with Elizabeth Johnson’s and Your Mother Dances’ wry choreography, in which swans devolved into simians. In just over four minutes, we went from Petipa and Tchaikovsky to the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Musical Director Kevin Stalheim and company saved the big show for the finale, a definitely “maximalist” take on Randall Woolf’s “Hee Haw.” As written, “Hee Haw” is a blend of recorded, repetitive musical and spoken phrases and live country-style fiddling and playing. PM added dancers, tumblers and fencers into the mix, who bounced, parried and flipped through the audience as the musicians picked and grinned.
It’s hard to say what it all has to do with a twangy barn dance, but it did have everything to do with Turner Hall, and that was the point. For a place that is steeped in history and still vibrates with a future-leaning energy, there is no better way to go than over the top.
