Nate the Great
“Nate the Great is a brand new ‘whodunit’ musical based on the popular series of children’s detective stories written by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat,” explains First Stage director Niffer Clarke. “Readers of the books, as well as audience members of all ages, will be delightfully engaged in the crime-solving adventures of pint-sized detective Nate, his friend Annie, her little brother Harry, their dog Fang and cat-obsessed pal Rosamond. Solving mysteries is serious business for Nate, and audiences can be sure that, along the way, there are irresistible songs, amazing dancing and lots and lots of…pancakes!”
With book and lyrics by John Maclay and music and additional lyrics by Brett Ryback, Nate the Great makes its world premiere at First Stage, kicking of the latter’s 2018-’19 season. The production’s young performers include Seth Hoffman (Nate), Nafia Johnson (Annie), Bryn Dresselhuys (Rosamond) and Zephaniah Ponder (Harry). (John Jahn)
Oct. 12-Nov. 11 at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit firststage.org.
Punk is Dead!
The Alchemist Theatre describes Punk is Dead!, written and directed by Aaron Kopec, as “A horror punk love story between an immovable object and an unstoppable force,” and “a wicked and raw journey through the lives of two lost souls fighting to hang on to the night in late-1970s New York City.”
Liz Mistele stars as Don, a character Alchemist Theatre describes as being “full of music, manipulation, chaos, toxicity and love.” Natasha Mortazavi portrays Stoli, a girl with a “dark, twisted mind.” Michael Christopher plays Chuck; Christopher’s “obsession with punk’s lurid antiheroes drew him to Punk is Dead! like so many moths to a streetlight in the Bowery.”
Oct. 11-27 at The Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For tickets, visit thealchemisttheatre.com.
Red Velvet
Written by Lolita Chakrabarti and directed by Bill Watson, Red Velvet is set amid the social uproar of Britain’s debate to end slavery. Some 30 years before it happened in our country, an African American actor performed the title role in William Shakespeare’s Othello on the professional stage for the first time—sending shock waves through the culture of 19th-century Britain. Red Velvet comprises the true story of this actor, Ira Aldridge.
Ira Aldridge (1807-67) was an American (and later British) stage actor and playwright who made his career largely on the London stage and in Europe—especially in Shakespearean roles. The New York City-born Aldridge remains the only actor of African American descent among the 33 actors of the English stage honored with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which is located in The Bard’s hometown. Red Velvet is a journey through a little-known historical moment that presents engaging questions throughout its storytelling concerning still relevant issues of racism, sexism and the responsibility and value of art in the face of continuous social change.
Oct. 17-21 at UW-Milwaukee’s Kenilworth Five-0-Eight, 2155 N. Prospect Ave. For tickets, visit uwm.edu/arts/box-office.
MORE TO DO
Passion in Pigskin
Opera on Tap-Wisconsin’s co-manager and mezzo-soprano Kirstin Roble describes this work as a marriage between “lust and intrigue in the setting of a football game,” and says that Passion in Pigskin’s composers and writers, Michael Lydon and Ellen Mandel, “will be in the audience for this exciting Wisconsin premiere,” adding that “Mandel’s music has been performed all over the U.S. and Europe, and Lydon was a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine and wrote the definitive biography of Ray Charles.” Oct. 11 and 12 at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery, 224 W. Bruce St. For tickets, visit operaontap.org/milwaukee.
Alice in Wonderland
Milwaukee Youth Theatre’s Brittany Curran directs a production of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale that follows the White Rabbit and young Alice through childhood adventures. There are talking animals, comic royal characters and races whereby the contestants run in circles, getting nowhere fast. Also, we watch as Alice joins the Mad Hatter’s frantic tea party and attends the Queen of Hearts’ trial. The play gives a modern view and artful twist to a beloved tale wherein nonsense makes sense. Oct. 11 and 12 at the Lincoln Center of the Arts, 820 E. Knapp St. For tickets (including making school group reservations), call 414-390-3900 or send an e-mail to contact@milwaukeeyouththeatre.org.
“New//Old”
Like all art forms, music navigates the space between its rich history and its push toward the future. The Concord Chamber Orchestra’s opening concert this year is fully in keeping with the overall theme of their season. As they explain it, “How could we know what ‘hot’ means if we didn’t also know what ‘cold’ is? Join us for our new season as we explore the yin and the yang—balance in its many forms.” The concert features, unsurprisingly given its title, both old and new works for chamber-sized orchestra by Mily Balakirev, Rudolph Dolmetsch, Terry Riley, Paul Hindemith, Carl Friedrich Abel and George Frideric Handel. Saturday, Oct. 13 at St. Sebastian Parish, 5400 W. Washington Blvd. For tickets, call 414-750-4404 or visit concordorchestra.org.
Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor
Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus will kick off its new season with an homage to Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427/417a, is the beloved Austrian composer’s last musical setting of the mass (not counting his Requiem, which was left largely unfinished at his death). He composed it in Vienna in 1782-’83 when he was no longer a church musician of the Salzburg Cathedral. The large-scale work—in effect a missa solemnis—is scored for solo voices (two sopranos, tenor and bass), double chorus and large orchestra. Like the Requiem, it, too, remained unfinished, missing large portions of the credo and the complete agnus dei. Even so, it’s a celebrated and powerful work; one of the finest of its genre and era. The Bel Canto Chorus performs this work on Sunday, Oct. 14, at the West Performing Arts Center, 18695 W. Cleveland Ave., New Berlin. For tickets, call 414-481-8801 or visit belcanto.org.
Something Rotten!
The Marcus Center opens its season with Something Rotten!, a work that was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and “a deliriously entertaining new musical comedy that brings down the house” per The New York Post after the its 2015 Broadway premiere. The book is by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics are by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Set in 1595, the plot involves the Bottom brothers—Nick and Nigel—who struggle to find success in England’s theater scene as they compete with the wild popularity of their contemporary, that Renaissance rock star William Shakespeare. Oct. 16-21 in Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org/show/something-rotten!.
