Arts preview 2016-17: Culture city

Madison’s venues are popping with mind-blowing shows

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With a world-class university, a century-old modern art museum, a multimillion-dollar symphony hall and myriad theater spaces, Madison is becoming an arts and culture destination. But, so much to do. How do you decide? We asked Isthmus critics about the shows they’re most looking forward to in the coming season.

Classic to cutting edge

By Gwendolyn Rice

Madison audiences are lucky to have access to exceptional performing arts options all year long. But the fall is special: That’s when companies launch their seasons, which, this time around, are full of award-winning scripts and dynamite performances.

If you’re in the mood for a fairytale, Overture is hosting a touring version of Cinderella, Oct. 4-9. It features hometown girl and Tommy Award winner Tatyana Lubov in the title role. As the poster says, “glass slippers are so back.” At heart, it’s the same beloved story of a poor, mistreated stepsister who steals the prince’s heart. But when the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical was remounted on Broadway in 2013, the show gained new characters — including a sympathetic stepsister — and now the heroine is fighting for social justice as well as her own happily ever after.

On campus, UW-Madison’s Department of Theatre and Drama begins its season with an irreverent and modern look at one of Anton Chekhov’s most famous plays, The Seagull. In Aaron’s Posner’s Stupid F*cking Bird, Oct. 20-Nov. 6, the characters and their romantic entanglements are taken straight from the source material. But the storytelling is innovative, exciting and funny — all words which are not generally associated with Chekhov. It will be a fun night of theater, whether you’re a Seagull fan or a newbie to Russian drama.

Speaking of drama, do not miss The Pleasure Of His Company: Our 40 Year Love Affair With William Shakespeare — With Randall Duk Kim and Anne Occhiogrosso at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Oct. 21. It includes performances of classic scenes from Shakespeare’s plays and conversations with the audience about the power of the Bard’s unedited language. It’s also a homecoming for two of the visionaries who founded American Players Theatre in 1980. This evening celebrates the upcoming exhibit of the First Folio, Shakespeare’s original 1623 manuscripts, at the Chazen Museum, Nov. 3–Dec. 11.

Head out to American Players Theatre one last time this year for the final production, Mary’s Wedding, Oct. 28-Nov. 20. Stephen Massicotte’s beautiful and melancholy story of first love interrupted by World War I is set in a dream on the night before a young woman’s wedding. Directed by APT’s artistic director, Brenda DeVita, with choreography by Theater LILA’s Jessica Lanius, this production in the Touchstone Theatre is bound to be visually and emotionally stunning.

For important context in our ongoing conversations about race, the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre presents Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit 67, Oct. 28-Nov. 12. Framed by the music of Motown and the riots in 1967, African American siblings Chelle and Lank argue bitterly as they try to imagine a way out of those turbulent times.

In another period piece exploring race, Madison Theatre Guild will present The Whipping Man, March 3-18, by Matthew Lopez. Set in Virginia at the end of the Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier comes limping home to find his estate in ruins. Two of his former slaves inhabit the house now, and the trio celebrates an awkward Passover together, marking the release of the Hebrew slaves from bondage in Egypt in ancient times. Winner of an Outer Critics Circle New Play Award in 2011, critics have called the piece “haunting, striking and powerful.”

Four Seasons Theatre and Theatre LILA are collaborating on a re-imagined version of Big Fish, Dec. 2-11, a musical that pits a son rooted in reality against a father known for his tall tales. Instead of a big Broadway aesthetic, the creative team is putting its own spin on the production, using a small bluegrass ensemble and actors’ bodies to create stage pictures.

Forward Theater Company will bring a little piece of Ireland to Madison with John Patrick Shanley’s Tony-nominated play Outside Mullingar, Jan. 26-Feb. 12. It’s a quirky love story focused on two aging, introverted misfits — a rural cattle farmer and the woman who lives next-door — and their struggle to find happiness by overcoming family rivalries and a bitter land feud.

Children’s Theater of Madison celebrates the silliness and genius poetry of Dr. Seuss with Seussical, Feb. 25-March 12. The musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty is based on many beloved books, including Horton Hears a Who! and Green Eggs and Ham. After a not-so-successful Broadway run, the production was retooled and has since been a hit with audiences of all ages.

And finally, I’m looking forward to seeing Mercury Players’ production of Tracy Letts’ sprawling epic August: Osage County, March 10-25. Three sisters return home to attend their father’s funeral and try to confront their abusive mother, an ill-tempered, drug-addicted cancer patient. Exploring the extremes of family dysfunction, The New York Times called this Pulitzer Prize-winning play “fiercely funny and bitingly sad.”

MMoCA’s Triennial, and more

By Brian Rieselman

Madison’s fall visual arts season kicks off this year with something truly special: MMoCA’s Wisconsin Triennial 2016, which runs through Jan. 8. This is a major exhibition from Wisconsin painters, sculptors, printmakers and other talented visual artists featuring a rich array of styles and expressions. A couple of highlights: the dreamlike ceramics of Craig Clifford, futuristic glowing glasswork by Helen Lee, a haunting softly focused realist painting by Daniel O’Neal and a stark, fierce animal drawing by Colin Matthes. For sheer variety and the fun of discovery, this show is a consistent dazzler.

Always worth the wait, this big MMoCA show also has some fine company in other venues, large and small.

Two photographers who served tours of duty in Vietnam nearly 50 years ago have reunited to create a powerful show, “The Vietnam War and Its Lasting Impact: The Photography of Robert Seitz and Peter Finnegan.” The exhibit in the Playhouse Gallery at the Overture Center, which runs through Oct. 16, was curated by Housing Initiatives in conjunction with efforts to address veterans’ homelessness. Often raw and guileless as the snaps in a family photo album, these human-scale portraits are warmly composed and tinged with sadness. The smiling — and sometimes eerily familiar faces — are haunting and unforgettable.

Madison’s Latino artists get a turn in the spotlight at the Latino Art Fair in Overture’s Rotunda Lobby through Oct. 15. This year’s winner is painter Leticia Castillo, whose Legends of Mexico City explores traditional Mexican myths of time and place through depictions of subjects such as folkloric dance. With simplicity and the use of soft, wash-like bright color, Castillo’s pleasing expressions almost appear to pulsate with movement and celebratory life.

Not affiliated with Overture, but housed high under the same roof, the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters’ James Watrous Gallery consistently presents some of the most challenging and beautiful visual works by state artists. The gallery’s latest offering is no exception: “Beading Culture: Raised Beadwork and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin,” through Nov. 16, is an intricate exploration of the Iroquois Confederacy by contemporary Wisconsin Oneida artists. The artists’ raised beadwork spans new and traditional forms, including photographs and original works, animal imagery, rich textures and bold color. It’s an important show that evokes our region’s past while also reminding us of a vital living legacy. 

The Chazen Museum scored a treasure when it landed “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” (Nov. 3-Dec. 11). Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, many of which would have been lost forever if two of the Bard’s fellow actors hadn’t sought to publish them. This rare and priceless book is now on tour and contains 36 plays, all of which you can page through at your leisure (actually, no, you probably won’t be encouraged to do that). An accompanying multi-panel exhibit explores the playwright’s significance throughout the ages. In conjunction with this and many other Shakespeare-related activities this fall and winter, the Chazen will also display “Presenting Shakespeare: Posters from Around the World” Oct. 14-Dec. 11.

From ballet to postmodern

By Katie Reiser

There’s no shortage of high-quality dance performances in Madison, but sadly, there is sometimes a shortage of audience members. We have dedicated dance fans, but some people seem a bit intimidated. I’ve had friends admit they’re curious about dance but don’t seek it out because they “don’t understand it.”

You don’t have to “get it” to enjoy a dance performance. Maybe you’ll be wowed by the dancers’ artistry and athleticism, or perhaps you’ll be struck by how the music influenced the choreographer. This season presents so many opportunities for you to be moved by dance — don’t be shy.

After canceling their full-length ballet Peter Pan last spring due to financial woes, Madison Ballet is back on their toes again. The company’s comeback show, Black/White, takes place on the intimate Drury Stage of the Bartell Theatre on Oct. 14-15. A study in contrasts, it will begin with excerpts from Balanchine’s masterpiece The Four Temperaments. The George Balanchine Trust tightly controls which regional companies get permission to perform the master’s revered works, so local balletomanes are fortunate to have an opportunity to see this piece. The show also includes artistic director W. Earle Smith’s hip-hop inflected Street, set to music from Black Violin.

UW-Madison’s dance department turns 90 this year, and the faculty is planning a number of concerts, special alumni events and guest artists in residence during the 2016-2017 season. Assistant professor Kate Corby’s company, Kate Corby & Dancers, will be part of the celebration, with Oct. 20-22 performances of Compass at Lathrop Hall’s Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space. You’ll see why Dance Magazine in 2011 declared Corby a choreographer to watch. Corby’s work, always smart and challenging, has only gotten richer, reflecting her democratic process of generating dances through improv sessions. The concert will include her newest work, a duet for Ben Law and Chih-Hsein Lin, a real-life couple exploring the push/pull of their relationship. Chicago-based Hedwig Dances presents a reworked version of Tradewinds.

Kanopy Dance Company’s season opener Nov. 11-13 at Overture’s Promenade Hall, Martha Graham: [R]evolution in Black and White, continues to honor Graham’s legacy while also mounting new works. The choreographer’s groundbreaking Heretic from 1929 is being staged by Miki Orihara, a former principal dancer with Graham’s company, who will also perform the solo Resonance. Martin Løfsnes, another former Graham dancer and artistic director of his own 360° Dance Company, returns to Madison with the world premiere of his Ritual. Løfsnes and Greg Blackmon will dance the duet As Yet Untitled. Look for pieces from co-artistic directors Lisa Thurrell and Robert E. Cleary and an appearance from Chicago-based dancer Zada Cheeks (I dare you to try to take your eyes off him when he’s performing).

Dance can be a fleeting art form, and it’s sometimes frustrating for a dance critic to review an amazing performance that is no longer available for audiences to enjoy. That’s why you’re getting a heads-up about some one-night stands worth seeing.

Liz Sexe, UW dance lecturer and member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance, presents TWO: Exploring Duos at Madison Circus Space on Oct. 15. She’s asked her “Madison dance crushes,” local female choreographers, to create new duets for her and others she will be dancing with.

Two touring companies that have long been delighting audiences around the globe will be making quick stops in Madison. On Feb. 23, the always innovative Pilobolus performs Shadowland at Wisconsin Union Theater’s Shannon Hall, layering modern dance with multimedia shadow play. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo swoops into Overture Hall on Feb. 24 to dazzle you with their wit and campiness. But underneath that veneer is really great dancing from this all-male troupe, whose members perform in drag (tutus and pointe shoes) with aplomb.

I’m also excited to see the Chicago troupe The Seldoms at Wisconsin Union’s Fredric March Play Circle on Jan. 27. The acclaimed troupe combines movement, image, sound and text (and 75 suspended chairs) for thought-provoking dance theater.

Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group is far and away the dance company with the best tagline: “Not Just Your Mama’s Post-Modern Dance Company.” The Brooklyn-based group presents a piece called CITIZEN at Overture Center’s Capitol Theater on Jan. 10. It’s a timely piece about belonging and surviving, inspired by Wilson’s research into why some black artists (like Zora Neale Hurston) stayed in the United States to create art while many others departed for European cities.

An operatic feast

By John W. Barker

The coming season shows much promise for classical music lovers, with performances by our smaller ensembles as well as our world-class symphony orchestra.

The Madison Bach Musicians will be at the First Unitarian Society Oct. 7 and 9, presenting “English Music from the Renaissance and Baroque.” The excellent ensemble will offer vocal and instrumental works, some related to current Shakespeare celebrations.

On Oct. 14, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under the leadership of Andrew Sewell will bring lean sonorities to Tchaikovsky’s dashing Violin Concerto, with Russian virtuoso Ilya Kaler as soloist. Framing that will be a spritely Symphony No. 5 by the 18th-century Englishman William Boyce, plus Schubert’s youthful but surprisingly powerful Symphony No. 4, the “Tragic.”

The Madison Symphony Orchestra, under John DeMain, turns to its second program of the season Oct. 21-23. Elgar’s surging and too-little-heard overture In the South (Alassio) and Beethoven’s beloved Pastorale Symphony, the Sixth, will be followed by Max Bruch’s perennially popular Violin Concerto No. 1. The Norwegian virtuoso Henning Kraggerud will be soloist, and also play a composition of his own.

November brings a feast of opera. On Nov. 4 and 6, the Madison Opera will present the first of its three productions this season — Gounod’s rapturous French setting of Shakespeare’s beloved Romeo and Juliet, with Madison’s own Emily Birsan as Juliette.

And the University Opera tackles Verdi’s Falstaff, the great comedy — and another opera derived from Shakespeare — on Nov. 11, 13 and 15.

The MSO also performs Nov. 11-13 with guests Christine and Michelle Naughton playing Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos. Debussy’s colorful ballet score, Le Printemps (Spring), and that roof-raiser among Shostakovich’s symphonies, the Fifth, also will be included.

The standout in December will be the sixth of Madison Bach Musicians’ annual “Baroque Holiday Concerts.” The Dec. 10 concert at the First Congregational Church mixes some interesting instrumental curiosities by Biber and Telemann with Renaissance choral pieces and a Christmas cantata (No. 122) by Bach. 

When activities resume in January, the MSO will lead off with a pair of concerts (Jan. 14-15) outside its normal season schedule. They bring back the highly successful “Beyond the Score” format, this one devoted to Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliant Scheherazade. 

On Jan. 27, Andrew Sewell, with his compact WCO, will renew his focus on the monumental symphonies of Anton Bruckner with the Third, considered the composer’s first truly mature work in the form. The program will also include the contrasting Symphony No. 30 of the young Mozart and the unusual Guitar Concerto No. 2 by the Spanish-born Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, with guest Ana Vidovic as soloist.

On Feb. 10 and 12, we’ll get a chance to see a genuine novelty: the new opera by jazz composer Daniel Schnyder, Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, which dramatizes the life of the famous saxophonist. This Madison Opera production will be only the second time the jazz opera has been performed since premiering in Philadelphia in 2015.