The Cool Fool Kite Festival | Veterans Park | 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 1
The Cool Fool Kite Festival @ Veterans Park, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Winter has a way of isolating us, confining us indoors for long, uncomfortable periods. That’s why there’s something liberating about heading outdoors in spite of the weather and making the most of it. Every Jan. 1, Milwaukee celebrates the new year with two audacious, weather-defying traditions: the Polar Bear Plunge at Bradford Beach, where hundreds of warm-blooded heroes dive into the icy waters of Lake Michigan at noon, and the neighboring Cool Fool Kite Festival in Veterans Park, which fills the skies with dozens of extravagant kites. While grand kites fly overhead, a group of artists called the Quiet Ice Carvers will be creating live sculptures on the ground. Yes, it can be a bit chilly around the lakefront, but organizers do their best to keep the crowd warm, offering free hot chocolate and coffee while supplies last.
Friday, Jan. 2
Mike Lebovitz @ Comedy Café, 8 p.m.
One of hundreds of young comedians trying to make a name for himself in Chicago’s crowded comedy scene, Mike Lebovitz distinguishes himself with a wry, slightly absurd stand-up style that recalls a more grounded Every Joe alternative to Eugene Mirman. He’s also the co-creator of the Chicago comedy showcase Señorita Weiner’s Top Secret Humor Experiment and Ice Cream Social Club, which invites likeminded comedy fans to share jokes and sundaes together. Lebovitz parks at the Comedy Café this weekend for three shows with standups Danny Kallas and Rodney Burayidi. (Also Saturday, Jan. 3, 8 and 10:15 p.m.)
Bucks vs. Pacers @ BMO Harris Bradley Center, 7:30 p.m.
This weekend the Milwaukee Bucks invite fans to raise a stein—a Coors Light ceramic stein, to be exact. The team will give away 10,000 of them to fans 21 and over when they take on the Indianapolis Pacers.
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Saturday, Jan. 3
Yonat Mayer w/ Kyle Feerick @ Shank Hall, 7 p.m.
Yonat Mayer cut her teeth singing at desperate venues around Milwaukee, Israel and India before she landed in San Francisco, where she founded her band Yonat and Her Muse, a soulful folk-pop group that takes cues from Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones and Lauryn Hill. The group released a sweetly bluesy EP, Daybreak, in 2013, with plans to follow it up with a full length this year. Her group will share this show with another singer-songwriter who draws generously from the soul playbook, Milwaukee’s Kyle Feerick.
Sunday, Jan. 4
Bach Chamber Choir and Orchestra @ St. Joseph’s Chapel, 3 p.m.
For more than 40 years the Bach Camber Choir and Orchestra has been bringing some of the greatest classical compositions of all time to Milwaukee audiences. This program at St. Joseph’s Chapel (1501 S. Layton Blvd.) will celebrate the holiday season with interpretations of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and G.F Handel’s Messiah. Those favorites will be supplemented with two original compositions by director Brian McLinden.
Tuesday, Jan. 6
Anything Goes @ Marcus Center, 7:30 p.m.
The Marcus Center’s first major touring production of 2014 arrives like a telegram from another era. One of the musicals that cemented the image of the American sailor as a singing, dancing romantic, Anything Goes is a relic from a more innocent time, yet it’s been consistently popular since its 1934 debut, and the subject of a major revival every few decades or so. Credit that longevity to its songbook, which features some of Cole Porter’s finest tunes, including the standard “I Get a Kick Out of You” and the irrepressible title song, which, in yet another sign of the show’s continued reach, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga covered last year. This production, which took home three 2011 Tony awards, runs through Sunday, Jan. 11.
