Winter Arts Guide 2024
53212 Presents
5 Points Art Gallery
Acacia Theatre Company
The Alice Wilds
All In Productions
American Players Theatre (APT)
Aperi Animam
Arts @ Large
Bach Chamber Choir
Bay View Gallery Night
Bel Canto Chorus
Black Holocaust Museum
Bombshell Theatre Co.
Boerner Botanical Gardens
- Education Center open 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday – Friday.
Boulevard Theatre
The Box Theatre Co.
- Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Feb. 9-25
Disney has mined familiar fairytales for material since the days of Uncle Walt. In recent decades, the studio turned twice to Hans Christian Andersen for loose adaptations of his 1837 tale, “The Little Mermaid.” The Broadway musical version debuted in 2007 and has become popular on stage across the U.S. (David Luhrssen)
Bronzeville Arts Ensemble
Broom Street Theatre, Madison
Cabaret Milwaukee
Capital City Theatre, Madison
- This One’s for You: The Songs of Barry Manilow, Feb. 22
Carroll Players
Carthage College Theatre
carthage.edu/arts/experience-the-arts/theatre-dance-performances/
Catey Ott Dance Collective
Cedarburg Artists Guild
Chant Claire Chamber Choir
Charles Allis Art Museum
Chazen Museum of Art (UW-Madison)
- Art of Enterprise: Israhel van Meckenem’s 15th Century Print Workshop, through March 24
- Look What Harvey Did: Harvey K. Littleton’s Legacy, through Aug. 16
Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin
The Constructivists
Concord Chamber Orchestra
Concordia University
DanceCircus
David Barnett Gallery
Dead Man's Carnival
Early Music Now
- La Morra, Shaping the Invisible, Feb. 24, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
On their first North American tour, the seven-member pan-European ensemble will focus on the music of Italy—specifically, the Renaissance era of Leonardo da Vinci. Safe to say that most of us have never heard the music La Morra’s singers and instrumentalists will present, including work by composers such as Giovanni Serraglia and Henricius Issac. Their concert will be an excursion beyond the usual canon of early European music. (David Luhrssen)
Ex Fabula
Since 2009, Ex Fabula has been connecting community through the art of true, personal storytelling. Ex Fabula, which is Latin for “from stories”, presents storytelling workshops, StorySlams and Community Collaborations where people listen to each other, feel heard, and grow in empathy and understanding. (Morton Shlabotnik)
- Lost/StorySlam, Feb. 28, Ope! Brewing
Falls Patio Players
- Pride and Prejudice, Feb. 24, Feb. 9-11
Even if you’ve never read Jane Austen, you know her work through many film, television and theatrical renditions. Her 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice, is among her most popular. Although the social system navigated by Elizabeth Bennet is considerably different than the mores of today, her problem of finding the right partner, and seeing through phoniness, remains timely. (David Luhrssen)
Festival City Symphony
- A Classical Affair to Remember, Jan. 27
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, FCS’ program features music from the Romantic Age—that’s capital “R” for the period in European culture that elevated Lord Byron and E.T.A. Hoffman as well as composers who longed to break the rules, engage in subjective fantasies and explore the exotic, erotic and the sublime. Characteristic among them was Robert Schumann, whose seldom-heard Concert Piece for Four Horns shares the bill with Antonin Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings and Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4. (David Luhrssen)
First Stage
- The Lightning Thief, Feb. 3-March 3, Todd Wehr Theater
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The old gods are still among us. In Rick Riordan’s 2005 novel The Lightning Thief, a 12-year-old boy with ADHD, Percy Jackson, stumbles into an odyssey on a class trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He must confront a nasty Fury, a Minotaur and other beings while coming to terms with his own identity as the son of Poseidon (by a human mother). Sequels followed sales, and then a Broadway rock musical by Rob Rokicki.
- Elephant & Piggie, Feb. 24-March 7, Milwaukee Youth Arts Center
Florentine Opera
- Songbird, Feb. 16-18
Jacques Offenbach’s operettas have been ranked “among the finest of all light musical entertainment,” an inspiration for Gilbert and Sullivan. The Florentine Opera’s Songbird is a slimmed down version of Offenbach’s three-act La Périchole (1850), a story of impoverished street singers too poor to pay for a marriage license. Songbird switches the setting to New Orleans and moves the calendar forward to the 1920s. (David Luhrssen)
Forte Theatre Company
- Legally Blonde, Jan. 26-28
Reese Witherspoon starred as a cute, unserious-looking sorority girl in a 2001 romantic comedy, based on an autobiographical novel, that became popular enough to spawn sequels—and a stage play. The Broadway musical opened in 2007 and its assertion of femininity on campus traveled to London’s West End and now to Franklin, Wis. (David Luhrssen)
Frankly Music
Fresco Opera Theatre, Madison
Gallery 218
Gallery Food Hall
2335 N Murray Ave, Milwaukee
Gallery Night and Day
GHS Dramatic Impact
Green Gallery
Greendale Community Theatre
Grohmann Museum
- Cory Bonnet: Patterns of Meaning, Jan. 19-April 28
For “Patterns of Meaning,” Pittsburgh painter Cory Bonnet used old wooden foundry patterns as the foundation for new creations—paintings, sculptures and assemblages. “Patterns of Meaning” is a novel approach to historic preservation coupled with a thoughtful repurposing of industrial artifacts,” says Grohmann’s director James Kieselburg. “Patterns from frames, wheels, core boxes and gears become the materials on which scenes of industry are painted, from which glass is cast, and with which new sculptural assemblages are constructed.” (David Luhrssen)
Grove Gallery
- David Jones: Shadow Play, through Jan. 27
- Rachel Foster: Empathetic Objects, Feb. 16-March 23
Haggerty Museum of Art
- Image in Dispute: Dutch and Flemish Art from the Haggerty Museum of Art’s Collection, through May 12
It was a time of upheaval and religious conflict in the Low Countries with militant Protestants waging war against religious iconography. “As traditions of artmaking came under increasing verbal and physical attack, artists began to innovate, developing new subjects to accommodate changing beliefs and new pictorial modes that rendered conventional themes with gripping emotion and psychological force,” said curator Kirk Nickel of an exhibit featuring some 50 paintings, engravings and etchings from the Haggerty’s collection. (David Luhrssen)
- Dynamic Range: Photographs by Bill Tennessen, Jan. 19-May 12
Harley-Davidson Museum
- Mama Tried: Bringing It Together, through January 2025
Mama Tried is an annual invitational for custom motorcycles—from choppers to racing bikes—that draws enthusiasts from around the world to Milwaukee. The H-D Museum’s first major new exhibition since COVID gathers 13 motorcycles, “an eclectic selection of everything and everyone,” says curator David Kreidler. When held in recent years at the Eagles Ballroom, Mama Tried has included as many as 100 motorcycles plus vendors. “We’re not trying to recreate the event but introduce the event,” Kreidler explains. (David Luhrssen)
- Off-Road Harley-Davidson, continuing
- Building a Milwaukee Icon: HD’s Juneau Ave. Factory, continuing
- Tsunami Motorcycle Display, continuing
H. F. Johnson Gallery of Art
Hover Craft
Hyperlocal MKE
Inspiration Studios Art Gallery
- Rogues Artists Group Exhibit, February
- Theatrical Tendencies, The Submission, February
Irish Cultural and Heritage Center
- Reverie Road, Feb. 10
Reverie Road is a new Celtic trad band of former members from well-known groups Solas (John Williams on accordion and Winifred Horan on fiddle) and Gaelic Storm (Katie Grennan on fiddle), plus concert and Indian raga pianist Utsav Lal. They come to town on their first tour with a brand new album. Judging from their already-released single “The Gap of Dreams,” this promises to be a great show from some veteran players. (Barry Houlehen)
- The Drowsy Lads, Feb. 17
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts
- Free Improvisation Sessions, Saturday mornings
- Milwaukee Jazz Institute, Sunday afternoons
Jewish Museum Milwaukee
- The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis, Jan. 19-May 19
The act of writing has always been sacred in Jewish history, and its centrality is illustrated by the efforts of Lithuanian Jews to rescue their literary heritage from destruction. JMM curator Molly Dubin describes the exhibit as a “nearly unbelievable true story” of Jews who, during the Holocaust and its aftermath, “through brave acts of resistance, powerful friendship and devotion to literature, rescued thousands of rare books and manuscripts.” (David Luhrssen)
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
- Sunny Leerasanthanah: Naturalization, through Jan. 28
- Kea Tawans: I Traveled into the Future in a Dream, through Jan. 28
- Recent Acquisitions: Mary Jo Schwalback, through Feb. 4
- Sharing the Same Breath, through April 21
- Rose B. Simpson: Counterculture, through Feb. 25
Kettle Moraine Symphony
- Beethoven’s Fifth, Jan. 27 (UWM Washington County)
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C Minor was for a long while the most performed symphony in the canon and it remains the most familiar—even to non-classical audiences. The stark opening theme is the sonic manifestation of the defiant spirit of humanity, struggling forward against adversity. It’s music for our time. (David Luhrssen)
Kohler Memorial Theater
Ko-Thi Dance Company
Lake Arts Project
Lake Country Playhouse
- Geezers, Jan. 26-Feb. 11
- Urinetown the Musical, Feb. 28-March 10
Latino Arts, Inc.
- Celebrating Our Shared Roots, through Feb. 23
- 11th Annual Guitar Festival Concert, Feb. 11
Lily Pad Gallery West
Lynden Sculpture Garden
- LaNia Sproles: Products of the Heart, through Feb. 25
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Theatre Guild
Marcus Performing Arts Center
- Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation, Jan. 25-27
- Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jan. 27
- The Magic of Bill Blagg Live, Feb. 2
- The Lightning Thief, Feb. 3-March 3 (First Stage)
- Black Violin, Feb. 9
- Dance Theatre of Harlem, Feb. 14
- Johnny Cash: The Official Concert Experience, Feb. 15
- Songbird, Feb.16–18 (Florentine Opera)
- Mamma Mia! Feb. 20-25 (Broadway Series)
The feel-good 1999 Broadway hit was adapted into a popular 2008 movie starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. The romantic comedy features crowd favorites from Swedish supergroup ABBA, such as “Lay All Your Love on Me,” “Waterloo” and “Dancing Queen.” (David Luhrssen)
- Delfeayo Marsalis, Feb. 29
MARN Art + Culture Hub
Marquette University Theatre
Master Singers of Milwaukee
Material Studios + Gallery
Memories Dinner Theatre
Menomonee Falls Symphony
- Valentine’s Dinner Concert with vocalist Corynn Latta, Feb. 10 (Davian’s, Menomonee Falls)
MIAD Gallery at the Ave
- Punks, Geeks, and Lovers: A Zine Exhibition, through Jan. 27
Milwaukee Art Museum
- Art, Life, Legacy: Northern European Paintings in the Collection of Isabel and Alfred Bader, Sthrough Jan. 28
- 50 Paintings, through June 23
So, what can be said of such a diverse cross-section of 50 unrelated contemporary paintings? A lot, actually. Namely that all cross-sections have their own particular angle-of-entry. The works in “50 Paintings” are indeed diverse in form, strategy, and style; the curators have a good read on the attitudes that are bubbling in contemporary art studios, as well as the histories from which they’ve sprung. (Shane McAdams)
Milwaukee Ballet
- Genesis, Feb. 8-11
The 11th edition of Milwaukee Ballet’s biannual Genesis International Choreographic Competition offers three one-act world premieres from company dancers by exciting emerging choreographers chosen by artistic director Michael Pink. Covid risk limited the 2022 competition to Americans, but this year’s contestants are Australia’s Jack Lister, Italy’s Matteo Di Loreto and New Jersey’s Tsai Hsi Hung. Qualified judges from around the country select the winner who, in addition to receiving the top cash prize, will return in 2025 to create a full-length premiere. A cash award also goes to the one choreographer voted favorite by audiences. (John Schneider)
Milwaukee Children's Choir
- The Music Must Dance, Feb. 25 (St. Sebastian Parish)
Milwaukee Comedy
Milwaukee Festival Brass
Milwaukee Film
Milwaukee Fringe Festival
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Gallery
Milwaukee Irish Arts
Milwaukee Jazz Institute
Milwaukee Jazz Orchestra
Milwaukee Makers Market
Milwaukee Musaik
- Gala Evening with Joyce Yang, Jan. 23 (Wisconsin Lutheran College Center for Arts & Performance)
Milwaukee Opera Theatre
Milwaukee Repertory Theater
- Guys on Ice, Jan. 12-March 13 (Stackner Cabaret)
- Little Women, Jan. 16-Feb. 18 (Quadracci Powerhouse)
- What the Constitution Means to Me, Feb. 6-March 10 (Stiemke Studio)
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
- Labadie Conducts Mozart, Jan. 26-27
- Mozart Oboe & Symphony, Feb. 2-3
- Beethoven Piano & Pictures at an Exhibition, Feb. 9-10
Modest Mussorgsky sought “a new kind of melody” that emulated the inflections of human speech. Whether or not he achieved that end, the Russian composer added several works to the classical music canon, including Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). Moved by the death of his close friend, painter Victor Hartmann, Mussorgsky wrote Pictures with unusual speed as a tribute. The piano suite is accompanied at the MSO concert by Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and a work by early 20th century Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, Redes. (David Luhrssen)
- Goosby Plays Mendelssohn, Feb. 23-25
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra
- Rhythmic Revolution, Jan. 26
- Flute Fanfare, Feb. 7
- Symphonic Spectacular, Feb. 10
- Symphonic Power, Feb. 11
- Prelude Winter Wind Ensemble, Feb. 21
- Progressions Winter Concert, Feb. 22
- Founders Concert, Feb. 24
Morning Star Productions
Museum of Wisconsin Art
- Lon Michels: Disrupting Patterns, through Jan. 21
- Katherine Steichen Rosing: Resilience, through Feb. 18
MOWA | DTN (Saint Kate–The Arts Hotel)
MOWA on the Lake (St. John's on the Lake)
Next Act Theatre
- Scarecrow, Feb. 21-March 17
Playwright Heidi Armbruster stars in her own one-woman play, an autobiographical piece about a New York City actress who returns to her Wisconsin family’s dairy farm as her father is dying. Scarecrow is funny and touching, one part loss and two parts survival. Armbruster described it by saying there is “an opportunity in grief or crisis to reconfigure or recommit.” (David Luhrssen)
Nō Studios
North Shore Academy of the Arts
Northern Sky Theater
Oconomowoc Arts Center
- Wrong Window, Jan. 25-27 (OHS Players)
- Shrek the Musical Jr., Feb. 8-10 (Silver Lake Intermediate)
- The Wizard of Oz, Feb. 22-24 (Nature Hill Intermediate)
Oil Gallery Milwaukee
Optimist Theatre
Over Our Head Players
- Seven Sacrifices, Jan. 19-20, Jan. 25- 28
- Snow Dance 2024, Feb. 9-11, Feb. 15-18, Feb. 22-25, Feb. 29
Overture Center for the Arts, Madison
- Perfect Pair: Mozart & Mahler, Jan. 19-21
- Yid Vicious, Jan. 20
- The Rainbow Fish, Jan. 20
- The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Jan. 25-Feb. 11
- Shane Gillis, Jan. 26
- The Anonymous Lover, Feb. 2-4
- Panchromatic Steel, Feb. 3
Paint Cedarburg: A Plein Air Painting Event
Peninsula Players
PianoArts
Portrait Society Gallery
Present Music
- Cello, Cello, Jan. 31, Feb. 1 (Jan Serr Studio)
Recently appointed as Kronos Quartet’s cellist, Paul Wiancko will debut a commission by Milwaukee’s Jan Serr and John Shannon. Wiancko’s older chamber works, American Haiku, Closed Universe, and When the Night Comes will also be performed. “Cello, Cello” will also feature a second world premiere, a new multi-media work by Pamela Z (along with some of her earlier pieces). “The concert will finish with the Fluxus audience-participation classic Hooting and Drinking Machine by John White, and then segue into a post-concert reception,” says PM’s Co-Artistic Director Eric Segnitz. (David Luhrssen)
Prometheus Trio
- Haydn, Moravec and Brahms, Feb. 5
“This year is different insofar as we have a different violinist for each concert and our programs are affected by our guests. We definitely consult with them on the program,” said Prometheus’ Stefanie Jacob. Her daughter, Emmy Tisdel, will join the trio as guest violinist on this program, playing Paul Moravec’s Mood Swings. They will be joined by Georgi Dimitrov, a violist with the MSO, for Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, Op 25. A Haydn trio will fill out the program. (Ken Kapp)
Quasimondo Physical Theatre
Racine Art Museum
- Collection Focus: Don Reitz, through Feb. 3
- Wisconsin Artists 1960-90, through Feb. 3
- Gathering Voices at RAM: 20 Years of Building America’s Largest Contemporary Craft Collection, through Feb. 24
- RAM Showcase: Focus on Clay, through May 25
- RAM’s First 20 Years: A Visual History of the Art and Architecture, through July 20
Racine Symphony Orchestra
Racine Theatre Guild
- Dial M for Murder, Jan. 12-28
“Do you really believe in the perfect murder?” Margot asks her lover, a murder mystery author. In Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Dial M for Murder, Margot was played unforgettably by Grace Kelly and her lover, Max, by the nervously affable Robert Cummings. Ray Milland was Margot’s suave husband, plotting her demise. Hitchcock based the film on a play by Frederick Knott; the stage version is making a comeback with a recent version at the Milwaukee Rep and now at RTG. (David Luhrssen)
- Alice in Wonderland, Feb. 2-4
- The Golden Girls Special, Feb. 3-4
- Broadway Blockbusters, Feb. 10
- Kal Bergendahl Project, Feb. 17
- Now and Then, Feb. 23-March 10
Real Tinsel Gallery
Sacra Nova Chorale
Saint Kate - The Arts Hotel
Seat of Our Pants Reader Theatre
Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts
- Genevieve Heyward, Feb. 9
- Milwaukee Classical Guitar Society, Xufei Yang, Feb. 10
- Steve March-Torme, Feb. 14
- Bodytraffic, Feb. 23
Sunset Playhouse
- A Fox on the Fairway, Jan. 18-Feb. 4
- Other Desert Cities, Jan. 19-21
- Soul Sisters: Aretha to Whitney, Jan. 22-23
- Country Crossover, Feb. 8-11
Theatre Gigante
Third Avenue Playhouse, Sturgeon Bay
Thrasher Opera House, Green Lake
Tory Folliard Gallery
UW-Parkside Theatre
UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts
- Vocal Arts Festival, Jan. 26-27 (Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts)
- Vocal Showcase Recital, Jan. 26 (Music Building Recital Hall)
- Cello Cello, Jan. 31-Feb. 1 (Present Music) (Jan Serr Studio)
- Winterdances: Liminal, Feb. 1-4 (Theatre Building Mainstage Theatre)
- Fiber/Form 2023, Feb. 2-16
- UWM Wind Ensemble & Symphony Band, Feb. 16 (Zelazo Center)
- Miscast 2024 (Music Building Recital Hall), Feb. 17
- First & Second Year Voice Recital, Feb. 19
UWM Theatre/Peck School of the Arts
UWM Union Art Gallery
uwm.edu/studentinvolvement/arts-and-entertainment/union-art-gallery
UW-Whitewater Crossman Gallery
UW-Whitewater Young Auditorium
Var Gallery & Studios
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
- Supernova: Hope Yang & Keith Kaziak, through March 10
Village Playhouse, Wauwatosa
Voices Found
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
Warehouse Art Museum
Water Street Dance Milwaukee
Waukesha Civic Theatre
- Songs I’ve Grown Into, Songs I’ve Grown Out Of, Jan. 19-20
- The Humans, Feb. 2-18
- Joe Richter, Feb. 14
West Allis Players
West Bend Theatre Company
- Blind Dating at Happy Hour, Feb. 9-11, Feb. 16-18 (West Bend Masonic Center)
West Performing Arts Center
Wild Space Dance Company
Windfall Theatre
Wisconsin Center (Baird Center)
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
Wisconsin Craft
Wisconsin Lutheran College - Center for Arts and Performance
- WLC Jazz Festival Concert, Jan. 20
- The Fourth Wall, Feb. 4
- Philomusica String Quartet, Feb. 12
- WLC Theatre: Encore! Feb. 16-18, 22-24
- Sarah Hagen, Feb. 25
Wisconsin Philharmonic
- Waukesha JanBoree Family Concert, Jan. 21 (St. Luke Lutheran Church, Waukesha)
