Sometimes you have to think ahead. Sure, right now you’re probably thinking about who’s going to sit next to Uncle George at Seder. Or whether to go with a Healthy Choice Easter basket for the kids this year – “
Oooh, mom – Soy Crisps!!!” But mid-April is one of the busiest times in the arts calendar. So better not wait to put the good dishes away before you make your plans.
You’re probably out of luck already if you didn’t get Wilco tickets within five minutes of the concert announcement. Those lucky, organized, or obsessed enough are likely in for a treat. Jeff Tweedy and company booked the Pabst specifically because of its intimacy – other stops on this short mid-America tour are much larger. The concerts come a few days before the release of the band’s concert DVD, Ashes of the American Flag, and they are two of only a few shows they’ll play before heading to Spain and Portugal, and then return for the big summer festivals. The Pabst and the band are actively discouraging scalping, but the $35 tickets are going for up to $250 each on various resellers. 
But fear not. For this weekend, the Milwaukee Rep has decided to put us in mind of the blues via Stephen Jeffries’ 2003 play, I Just Stopped By to See the Man. Robert Johnson is here, or at least a character created with Robert Johnson in mind. Like The Blues Legend, “the man” in this play is reputed to have met the devil at The Crossroads. But unlike Johnson, Jesse Davidson is alive and well and living a reclusive life in the south. Karl, a white British rocker (think…oh…maybe Eric Clapton) wants to git the blues in his soul, and tracks down Davidson to ask him the meaning of it all. Did I mention Jesse’s daughter? Well that’s where some complications set in. Rep Resident Actor Lanise Antoine Shelley joins two Chicago actors in the Rep’s intimate Steimke Theater.
John Scofield isn’t British (b. Dayton, Ohio, 1951), but he’s been enamored of the blues for quite some time, 
putting a decidedly contemporary jazz spin on the form. That’s the particular focus of his latest CD, Piety Street, which explores music by the likes of Mahalia Jackson and Thomas A. Dorsey. And Shank Hall is a great venue for this kind of contemporary jazz.
And finally, there’s mystery aplenty at the Alchemist Theatre this weekend, which features an old-time radio play done Wisconsin Hybrid Theater style. This week, the folks with the big microphones and odd sound effects tackle a one of the spine-tingling tales of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Deerstalkers welcome, but leave your Calabash Pipe at home – no smoking in the theater.
Movies for Grown-Ups: If the kids haven’t dragged you to the wildly uneven Monsters vs. Aliens (the dialogue is surprisingly witless, but never has the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge looked so cool), there are several smart choices to get your weekly cinema fix. Kelly Reichardt’s back-to-cinema-basics Wendy and Lucy is a miracle of concentrate
d simplicity. In the quiet journey of a woman looking for her lost dog, Reichardt pares away the non-essentials, and is able to create moments and images of remarkable power and resonance. It opens at the Downer Theater this week, but will also play with her previous film, Old Joy, at the UWM Union Theatre in early May.
Gomorrah, Matteo Garrone’s bleak, banality-of-evil story about the Mafia in Naples, Italy, opens at the Oriental Landmark. Time magazine’s Richard Corliss called it, “Probably the bleakest, least sentimental study of the Mafia in Italian or American film history.”
Milwaukee Film’s Monday Night at the Movies features The Country Teacher, a new Czech film about a 30-something gay man and his struggles to find a quiet, satisfying life within the frenetic party culture of Prague. And the UWM Union Theatre’s weekend line up includes a whole slate of features and documentaries, including Portuguese master Pedro Costa’s In Vanda’s Room and the landmark documentary Jaguar by Jean Rouch.
Until next week…save me some jelly beans.
