In this week’s performing arts’ scene, First Stage goes into Locomotion, Five Guys Named Moe grace the Cabot Theatre’s stage and Red Priest gives quite a show in, appropriately enough, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Theater
Locomotion
In First Stage’s production of Jacqueline Woodson’s Locomotion, we find a young lad named Lonnie Collins Motion who has had some tough breaks in his life. When he discovers a passion for writing poetry, he finds a way to express his feelings about the foster care system, his friends and his school, while sharing his unique perspective on the world. Locomotion is a play that lyrically weaves Lonnie’s past and present life together in a poignant story that reveals one boy’s journey of hope from tragedy to a brighter future.
“With Locomotion, Woodson presents us with rich, compelling characters we are able to identify with and invest in,” says director Aaron Todd Douglas. Depending upon which performance you attend, you’ll either see First Stage’s “Rainbow Cast” or its “Honeysuckle Cast;” the former consists of Kamani Graham, Aura Grant and Derrick Taylor, and the latter includes Jakobie Jackson, Ronna Kelly and Nahjee Robinson. Adult cast members are Ronnel Taylor, Tosha Freeman, Nadja Simmonds, Natalie Harris and Sherrick Robinson. The play is very appropriate for young people ages 9 and up.
Jan. 25-Feb. 24 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. For tickets, visit firststage.org.
Five Guys Named Moe
“I love the guys onstage, but also love the fact that there is a strong team of women rocking the show behind the scenes,” comments Malkia Stampley, director of the upcoming Skylight Music Theatre production of the high-energy tribute to jazz band leader Louis Jordan, Five Guys Named Moe. The production features an all-female creative team. Of the “guys onstage,” Stampley describes them as “six African American men in all their artistic glory, tailored suits, singing rock and roll, blues, dancing and living their best lives on stage.”
“Louis Jordan’s music is funny and theatrical and takes you on an emotional rollercoaster between laughter and heartbreak,” Stampley explains. “Five Guys Named Moe is popular with all audiences because Jordan’s music is funny, joyful and human,” adds Skylight artistic director Ray Jivoff. “This is a true ensemble piece with a small, swinging band.” The show features more than 25 songs.
Jan. 25-Feb. 10 in Skylight Music Theatre’s Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
Classical Music
“The Baroque Bohemians: Gypsy Fever from Campfire to Court”
Named after the flame-haired priest (and, far more famously, Italian Baroque composer) Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Red Priest’s vibrant and energetic performances have earned them comparisons to the Rolling Stones and Cirque du Soleil. In their most explosive program to-date, Red Priest explores the connections—both real and imagined—between gypsy musicians and the master composers of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Red Priest is a British Baroque instrumental group comprising four talented performers: Piers Adams, Adam Summerhayes, Angela East and David Wright. They play in a flamboyant, theatrical and virtuosic style making use of props, costumes, dramatic lighting and other effects, and the pieces they perform are generally their own arrangements—though based quite closely on the original music by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, etc. (John Jahn)
Saturday, Jan. 26, at 5 p.m. (pre-concert lecture at 4) in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 914 E. Knapp St. For tickets, call 414-225-3113 or visit earlymusicnow.org.
More To Do
NINE
“The great secret of NINE is that it took [Federico Fellini’s] 8½ and became an essay on the power of women by answering the question, ‘What are women to men?’” explains the play’s author, Maury Yeston. “And NINE tells you: They are our mothers, our sisters, our teachers, our
temptresses, our judges, our nurses, our wives, our mistresses and our muses.” Reimagined with a cast of nine women and one man, NINE brings Theater RED alumni and newcomers together for a courageous, no-frills production. Jan. 25-27 in Sunset Playhouse’s Studio Theater, 700 Wall St., Elm Grove. For tickets, call 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
Get It Out There
Danceworks’ DanceLAB is an experimental performance initiative dedicated to pushing artists and audiences to expand their thinking about dance as an art form. The focus is on collaboration, fusion of forms and current trends in the field, and many DanceLAB events include educational components to encourage artist-to-audience dialogue and participation. Get It Out There presents the hottest new work in our community created by local performing artists from a variety of disciplines. Immediately following each performance, audience members are invited to mingle and share feedback with the performers. Saturday, Jan. 26, at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. in the Danceworks Studio Theatre, 1661 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-277-8480 or visit danceworksmke.org.
“Robert and Clara”
Frankly Music bills this as a “commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Clara’s birth,” referencing the female half of the greatest composer-couple love stories in all music—that of Robert and Clara Schumann.” On the program is a piece by the Schumann’s beloved friend, Johannes Brahms—selected Choral Preludes of J.S. Bach, Op. 122. Robert Schumann’s Märchenbilder, Op. 113, and Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47, are on the program with Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22. Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. in Schwan Concert Hall, Wisconsin Lutheran College, 8815 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit franklymusic.org.
“Our Home in Vienna”
There is no more important place in classical music history than Vienna, Austria. Featuring works from composers whose careers were made in that great city, the Festival City Symphony under Carter Simmons presents this concert filled with lovely and engaging pieces by four Viennese masters: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gustav Mahler, Johann Strauss II and Franz Schubert. For tickets, call 262-853-6085 or visit festivalcitysymphony.org.
