Overture Center and Wisconsin Union Theater's 2010-11 seasons bring splashy musicals and more Regards to Broadway Jennifer A. Smith on Thursday 08/26/2010 On the heels of the Overture Center's record-breaking run of The Lion King, the arts center is queuing up other Broadway shows with easy name recognition and pop-culture ties. Over the course of its four-week run, The Lion King pulled in 68,000 theatergoers and grossed over $4.8 million. It generated an additional $15 million in spin-off economic activity, such as hotels and restaurants. >MoreArtists look at themselves in MMoCA's True Self Keeping up appearances Jennifer A. Smith on Thursday 08/26/2010, (1) Like Identity is a notoriously slippery concept. What do we even mean when we talk about it? Some mixture, perhaps, of characteristics we can't change (like age or ethnicity) and things we can (how we dress). Other aspects of identity are not necessarily visible, like religious or political affiliation. Identity can be a reflection of the things we hold dearest about ourselves, or it can be a guise to cast off or change at will. >More
Isthmus on the isthmus: Dinner and drinks with The Quickening author Michelle Hoover (video) Ben Reiser on Friday 08/06/2010 Join author Michelle Hoover, in Madison on a book tour last week, at The Icon on State Street for a discussion covering her work, growing up in the Midwest, ordering wine and empanadas. >MoreMadison stages present plays for every taste in the coming 2010-11 theater season You've got options Bruce G. Bradley on Thursday 08/05/2010 Whether you're looking to catch the latest Broadway blockbuster or witness the world premiere of a local novice's creation, Madison's many theater companies have it all. From the retro to the risqué, the sheer volume and diversity of productions in the 2010-2011 theater season is staggering. You're bound to find something that appeals to you and gives you good return for your entertainment dollar. >More
Wisconsin's Art Works campaign promotes creative class Culture as economic engine David Medaris on Thursday 07/22/2010 As brochures go, Art Works' is big and arresting: 15 inches wide by 22 high by 20 pages deep. It opens to reveal a series of 10 poster-size images, including the UW-Madison Engineering Center's striking terrazzo floor, works by the likes of glass master Dale Chihuly, Ko-Thi dancers, a farmer, happy campers, a pillow fight and a Harley-Davidson employee. >MoreIsthmus on the isthmus: 2010 Art Fair on the Square (video) Ben Reiser on Monday 07/12/2010 For the umpteenth year, artists took over the Capitol Square over the weekend in an event benefiting the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. >More
The Emmys cap an amazing year for TV Dean Robbins on Thursday 08/26/2010 Which is better, movies or TV? I think we can settle the question at Sunday's Emmy Awards. The Hurt Locker, which won the Best Picture Oscar this year, was good. But was it great? I don't think so. >MoreKim Kardashian plugs her own PR in The Spin Crowd Dean Robbins on Thursday 08/19/2010 Here are the six scariest words in TV: "From the Mind of Kim Kardashian." The airhead socialite has become famous for doing nothing, aside from playing herself in the reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. And how hard could that be, since her life basically consists of standing around in tight clothes? >More
Kane & Lynch 2 is gritty and creative but short PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Rated Mature) Doug Elfman on Thursday 08/26/2010 Lynch wakes up in an alley drenched by rain. He was sliced, neck to feet, then knocked out and left for dead, nude and bleeding on filthy pavement. But he wakes up, and his first thought is: I gotta save Kane. >MoreMadden '11 is as smooth and fun as you'd hope, despite the haters Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 & 3, Wii, PlayStation Portable (Rated Everyone) Doug Elfman on Thursday 08/19/2010 I've been surprised to read comments of some discontented gamers online, writing nasty things about the new Madden NFL '11. I'm not talking about critics; critics love the game. But an incensed minority of gamers complain that the offensive line isn't working properly. (They're wrong about that.) They say that if you run play-action passes, you'll get sacked too much. (Wrong again.) >More
Cartoonists Across America, Phil Ortiz 'Simpsonize' Madison Amanda Lanyon-LeSage on Saturday 08/28/2010 11:00 am Friday, Phil Ortiz and Phil Yeh painted a mural for the Henry Vilas Zoo that featured the State Capitol, the Madison skyline and Phil Yeh's signature zeppelins. >MoreMusic Theatre of Madison's Yours, Anne entertains despite problematic book and score Emily Mills on Friday 08/27/2010 10:14 am When you think of topics for musicals, I don't imagine that the Holocaust springs to mind. Other than the over-the-top satire of Mel Brooks' Springtime for Hitler from The Producers, few shows have succeeded at putting the absurdity and atrociousness of World War II to song. Yet that's just what Enid Futterman and Michael Cohen did when they wrote Yours, Anne, a musical originally staged in 1985 and based on the famous diary of Anne Frank. >MoreArts Beat: Overture Center loses chief financial officer Joe Tarr on Wednesday 08/25/2010 4:19 pm, (2) Comments The Overture Center's chief financial officer, Chris Hunjas, is leaving, becoming the third employee in the art center's finance department to leave in the past year. >MoreA Book A Week: Lima Nights by Marie Arana Becky Holmes on Monday 08/23/2010 6:00 pm Years ago I read Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa. I don’t remember much of the story but I do remember the setting: Lima, Peru, in the 1950s. I remember the atmosphere of elegance and faded glory in the grand European-style apartment buildings and along the boulevards, the mix of haves and have-nots, and also my total unfamiliarity with the topography. >MoreFour Seasons Theatre and Tom Wopat revive an American classic with South Pacific Jennifer A. Smith on Saturday 08/21/2010 11:33 am You know Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein whether or not you think you do. That legendary team gave America some of its best-known musicals (Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music) and catchiest songs. They've permeated the culture to such a degree that, even if you've never seen South Pacific on stage, you can probably hum a few bars of "Some Enchanted Evening" or "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair." >MoreA Book A Week: Red Bones by Ann Cleeves Becky Holmes on Thursday 08/19/2010 6:00 pm I love Ann Cleeves' mystery series set in the Shetland Isles. I love the cold wet climate, the isolation, the sheep. Weird, I know. But even if this setting sounds awful to you, if you are mystery fan, you will enjoy Red Bones. >MoreA Book A Week: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See Becky Holmes on Tuesday 08/17/2010 6:00 pm I am conflicted about Lisa See. I think she excels in writing about places and time periods but isn't so good at creating original characters. The sisters in Shanghai Girls have a relationship that is clichéd and predictable. The dialogue is almost painfully banal. Yet the settings (1930s Shanghai, 1940s and '50s Los Angeles) are great, very evocative and filled with detail. >MoreThe Creative Class is in session for Year of the Arts at UW-Madison David Medaris on Tuesday 08/17/2010 1:24 pm UW-Madison is designating the 2010-11 academic calendar its Year of the Arts. From September through next August, it aims to gather more than 300 exhibits, performances, symposia and other arts-related events and initiatives, putting a bright spotlight on the university’s creative classes. The theme for this year-long observance: Illuminate. >More
Arts Beat: Laboratory Theatre drops out of Bartell Theatre's 2010-11 season Dean Robbins on Friday 08/13/2010 4:32 pm, (1) Like The brochures have already been printed for the 2010-11 season at Bartell Theatre, set to start next Thursday, Aug. 26. But Laboratory Theatre, one of Bartell's resident companies, has suspended operations, leaving open slots in November and February. >MoreArts Beat: The Bricks Theatre offers community 'shares' for its new season David Medaris on Monday 08/09/2010 5:27 pm C.S.A. shares are no longer reserved for locavores alone. The Bricks Theatre has announced the availability of Community Supported Arts "shares" for its 2010-2011 season. Instead of the weekly boxful of fresh produce that comes with the more familiar community-supported agriculture subscription, the bounty here is theatrical. >More
Provocative, intimate Exits and Entrances ideal for APT's Touchstone stage Jennifer A. Smith on Wednesday 08/11/2010 1:06 pm As directed by Kate Buckley, Exits and Entrances is intimate, affecting, and another excellent example of the sort of fare that is well-suited to the 200-seat, indoor Touchstone Theatre. As we see these men in two encounters several years apart, we can't help but feel the weight and turbulence of history outside the world of the theater, yet those themes are handled deftly through the lens of a single human relationship. >MoreClass privilege and lost love churn in American Players Theatre's The Circle Jennifer A. Smith on Sunday 08/08/2010 10:33 am Superficially, The Circle has more than a few things in common with Noël Coward's Hay Fever, which APT staged last summer. You've got two plays by British playwrights, written just a few years apart in the 1920s. Add in unconventional families, stately upper-class homes, quotable quips and romantic dalliances. Even many of the cast members are the same between the two shows. >More
Michael Feldman celebrates 25 years of Whad'Ya Know? The secret is consistency David Medaris on Thursday 08/05/2010 It has already outlasted TV's Ed Sullivan Show (which aired for 23 seasons) and Merv Griffin Show (22). Now, as Madison-based radio quiz show Whad'Ya Know? marks its 25th anniversary, host Michael Feldman is on the verge of surviving Larry King Live (ending this fall after 25 years). >MoreIsthmus on the isthmus: Inside the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (video) Ben Reiser on Friday 07/23/2010 Take a hard hat tour of the mammoth structure going up on University where groundbreaking collaborative research is the goal. Oh, and they got a bar and restaurant in there, too. >More
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