What to do in Madison this week: D Smoke, 'This One's For You' and more Isthmus Picks

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Message from Our Planet, Feb. 19-June 2, Chazen Museum of Art: This exhibit of new media works includes software and other digital technologies, video, and light-based works. In “Message from Our Planet,” visitors will see vintage examples of media devices from the 1960s to current models. Art is one of the ways we communicate with the future humans of this planet, the exhibit suggests, or even beings from other worlds. Curator Jason Foumberg was inspired by the cultural artifacts that were sent into space via Voyager 1 in 1977 that included music from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chuck Berry.

Chelsea Chen,Tuesday, Feb. 20, Overture Hall, 7:30 p.m.: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s concert organ series continues with a performance by Chelsea Chen. A virtuoso player and composer, Chen will perform works by Debussy, Vierne, J.S. Bach and others, including her own “Three Chinese Folksongs.” It’s a return appearance for Chen at the Overture Center’s Orgelbau Klais organ, following a 2019 series concert. Tickets at overture.org.

D Smoke, Wednesday, Feb. 21, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall, 6:30 p.m.: California hip-hop artist D Smoke broke through big time in 2019 by winning the Netflix music competition series Rhythm + Flow, and doubled down with a couple Grammy nods in 2020 for his second full-length album, Black Habits. D Smoke took another big step forward with the 2021 album War & Wonders, a tour de force of musical and rapping/singing styles. He’s playing a concert as part of UW-Madison’s Black History Month celebration; it’s free, but register here.

An Evening of Ebony Excellence, Thursday, Feb. 22, Monona Terrace, 5-9:30 p.m.: The Madison Black Chamber of Commerce puts the spotlight on Black business excellence with its annual awards dinner, which highlights retail outlets, personal and wellness services, entertainers, media providers and more (find the nominee announcement at facebook.com/MBCofC). Guests arrive on the red carpet starting at 5 p.m., with the awards program at 7 p.m.; a Black Wall Street art exhibit from the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum will be on display, as well as offerings from local vendors. Note, tickets must be purchased at eventbrite.com by Feb. 20, and will not be available at the door.

Mending in the Museum: The Professionalization of Textile Conservation, Thursday, Feb. 22, UW Nancy Nicholas Hall-Room 2235, 5:30 p.m.: As anyone who has ever had a beloved pair of jeans or favorite T-shirt can attest, clothes fall apart. If you want to save them, you need to mend them and there are good and bad ways to do that. The same is true for historically important textiles. Art conservation is still a young science and textile conservation is even younger. Sarah Scaturro, conservator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will speak on textile conservation as a profession with its own set of ethical issues, scientific techniques, and artistic practices, in this year’s Ruth Ketterer Harris Lecture. Following the lecture, an opening reception for the new exhibit “Remaking the Renaissance” takes place in the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery.

Madison Ballet, through Feb. 25, Overture Center-Promenade Hall: In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Madison Ballet drills down into all the ways that love makes us feel like dancing — but can also provoke other complex emotions. This is the company premiere of “Something to Remember You By” by award-winning choreographer Stephanie Martinez. Also on the bill for “Love”: “Guitar Concerto” by Ja’ Malik and the classical virtuosic ballet, “Paquita Suite” staged by Andrea Long. Shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday; a talkback will take place with the choreographers and artists of Madison Ballet, moderated by artistic director Ja’ Malik, after the Feb. 15, 18 and 22 performances. Tickets at overture.org.

Past and Future: Plans for Lake Monona's Waterfront, Thursday, Feb. 22, Zoom, 7 p.m.: Madison certainly has not taken advantage of its lakefront the way it could have, but on the other hand things could be worse…and are getting better. This Madison Trust for Historic Preservation architectural talk will look back at the original John Nolen plan from 1911 and the new plan for Lake Monona currently underway. Speaker Anna Cawrse is a landscape architect with the Denver firm working on the current redevelopment. Lynn Bjorkman is vice president of the Madison Trust. RSVP for Zoom link at tickettailor.com.

Cabaret Soiree, Thursday, Feb. 22, Bur Oak, 7:30 p.m.: Barry Manilow, who’s been around forever, is forever young. He just wrapped his third Christmas television special and his play Harmony, about a singing ensemble in Nazi Germany, finishes a Broadway run on Feb. 4. And then there’s his pop music. That’s the stuff that will be celebrated in the three-woman tribute, “This One’s For You,” part of Capital City Theatre’s Cabaret Soiree series. This will be a true experience in the hands of Madison vocalists Gail Becker, Shannon Payette Seip and Emily Glick, who all share a deep background in theater and nightclub performance here and around the country. Tickets at seetickets.us.

The Hello Girls, Feb. 22-March 3, Overture Center-Playhouse: The Hello Girls is a musical based on the novel Switchboard Soldiers by Madison’s own Jennifer Chiaverini. Its heroes are women who entered the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War I to work as telephone operators, putting through calls, translating French and English and keeping highly classified information secret — during a bloody war and a pandemic. The story follows them home, where they needed to battle for the right to vote. It debuted Off Broadway in 2018; the score is reminiscent of the stirring notes of Les Miz, upbeat World War I morale tunes like “Over There,” and even (a bit anachronistically) the harmonies of the World War II-era Andrews Sisters. This Four Seasons Theatre production shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Tickets at overture.org.

Torch Song, through March 2, Bartell Theatre: StageQ tackles this two-act version of the Harvey Fierstein classic Torch Song Trilogy. It’s about Arnold Beckoff, a torch-singing Jewish drag queen in New York City in the 1970s and '80s. While times have changed since the play was written, drag queens have perhaps never been more of a hot-button topic. Shows are 7:30 p.m.Thursday-Saturday (2 p.m. only on March 2) and 2 p.m, Sunday, Feb. 25. Tickets at bartelltheatre.org.

Doed Koecks, through March 2, Broom Street Theater: From a mysterious diary found in the basement of a small town Wisconsin library, to the 17th century practice of “sin eating” (baking sins into cakes and eating them to take them off the slate of the deceased), this Broom Street Theater production by the playwright Coleman is intriguing. As depicted in Doed Koecks, the revival of sin eating ends up creating a global megachurch. All shows at 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday; advance tickets at eventbrite.com.

Find the individual Picks collected here, and as part of the full calendar of events.