What to do in Madison this weekend: La Rosa Noir, 'A Little Night Music' and more Isthmus Picks

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Wild & Witty: A Nature-Themed Trivia Night, Thursday, March 13, Lussier Family Heritage Center, 6:30 p.m.: Q: Which Dane County Parks allow horseback riding? A: That’s for us to know and you to find out! Break out of your trivia rut with this fundraiser for Dane County Parks, which make Dane County one of the best places to live. Teams (of up to 6 people) or solo trivia-sters are welcome to compete by answering questions in such categories as Wildlife Wonders, Dane County Parks, What's in the Water, and Conserving our Natural Resources. Registration is required and child care is available. See more details and register at lussierheritagecenter.com.

Terell Stafford + UW Ensembles, March 13-14, Hamel Music Center-Collins Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.: Trumpet player and composer Terell Stafford has remained a stellar and prolific presence in the national jazz scene since his days in saxophonist Bobby Watson’s Horizon in the 1990s. These days he’s a member of the Village Vanguard Orchestra, director of the Jazz Studies department at Temple University, and an in-demand clinician. (And somehow still finding time to write and record albums as a leader, like the sprightly 2023 outing Between Two Worlds.) His residency with the Jazz Studies program at UW-Madison includes a pair of public concerts, accompanied by the Graduate Jazz Quintet and Contemporary Jazz Ensemble on March 13, and by Jazz Orchestra and Faculty Jazz Group on March 14. Find tickets at artsticketing.wisc.edu.

Scammed! March 13-24, TNW Ensemble Theater: Thousands of people daily in the United States get conned by pros. What if someone decided to give the con artists a taste of their own medicine? That’s the premise of Scammed!, a new play written by TNW Ensemble Theater co-founder Danielle Dresden. Performances are at the theater at 7:30 p.m. on March 13-14 and 21-22 and 2:30 p.m., March 16 and 22-23. Tickets at tickettailor.com.

They All Stay With You: scenes from Anthropocenean life, through March 16, Broom Street Theater: If you haven’t noticed the increase in dystopian/fantasy fiction, you are not, as they say, paying attention. Now, dystopian/fantasy theater comes our way with Josh Drimmer’s They All Stay With You: scenes from Anthropocenean life, directed by BST artistic director Maria Dahman. The scene: human beings are on their way to becoming extinct, but we are apparently still insisting that our offspring attend virtual school. Drimmer describes the play as a “post-climate change horror-comedy” with supernatural elements that lend it a “whimsical and sometimes unhinged” feeling. Relatable. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Ticket info at bstonline.org.

Bird and Blossom, through April 6, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art: Twenty Japanese kachō-e (flower-and-bird woodblock prints) from MMoCA’s permanent collection are on display in “Bird and Blossom.” The depictions of birds in the natural world — from the Edo and Meiji era ukiyo-e and twentieth-century shin hanga movements — prompt contemplation of those relationships. Artistically, multiblock woodblock printing has its own unique aura. The art in the exhibition were collected by Madison residents Rudolph and Louise Langer and were a gift to the Museum that began the permanent collection in 1968. Assistant curator Eleanor Pschirrer-West will talk about the exhibit at noon on March 14.

Christie Tirado, through April 4, Tandem Press; reception March 14, 5-8 p.m.: In the exhibition “Grabando Historias,” UW-Madison master of fine arts candidate Christie Tirado focuses on the stories of immigrant families. The history captured in her prints is both personal (her parents immigrated from Mexico) and drawn from the Mexican diaspora. A reception takes place from 5-8 p.m. on March 14; regular gallery hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday-Friday.

Poetry and Pi(e), Friday, March 14, Black Business Hub-Room 402, 6:30 p.m.: This celebration of the mathematician’s favorite holiday, Pi Day (3.14, get it?) actually works quite well mathematically and thematically (the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) with its homonym of pie. How poetry got involved is anyone’s guess. This Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters event returns in person this year with readings from Wisconsin’s outgoing and incoming poets laureates, Nick Gulig and Brenda Cárdenas respectively. And yes, there will be pie! A virtual option is also available, but that’s BYOP. Register at wisconsinacademy.org.

Al Madrigal, March 14-15, Comedy on State, 7 & 9:30 p.m.: Al Madrigal, who had a fine run on The Daily Show in the early teens, has always had a warm stage presence even when making salient political points. Since his TDS days he's co-founded the comedy podcasting network All Things Comedy, been a regular on the TV show Lopez vs Lopez, and a scriptwriter on Showtime’s (sadly, cancelled) I’m Dying Up Here. Tickets at madisoncomedy.com.

Madison Symphony Orchestra, March 14-16, Overture Hall: The late works of an artist often have a retrospective feel, a sense of taking in all of the previous work, yet still questioning. The MSO takes on Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Op. 20 and Four Last Songs as well as Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626 in this program that thoughtfully explores these late works. Mozart’s Requiem, in fact, was left unfinished when he died and was completed by his associate Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on March 14-15 and at 2:30 p.m. on March 16; tickets at overture.org.

Sister Sadie, Friday, March 14, Stoughton Opera House, 7:30 p.m.: What started as a one-off collaboration for a Nashville concert in 2012 has grown into a roots music institution. Sister Sadie, now a six-piece, is based in bluegrass but unconstrained by the genre’s boundaries. Three-part harmony vocals remain a strong focus, with leads by 2024 International Bluegrass Music Association Female vocalist of the Year Jaelee Roberts. Their 2024 album, No Fear, picked up a Grammy nod for Best Bluegrass Album, and their jaunty 2025 single, “Do What You Want,” shows they aren’t resting on their laurels. Tickets at stoughtonoperahouse.com.

A Little Night Music, March 14-16, UW Memorial Union-Shannon Hall: Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music tells a story of love, jealousy, betrayal, chaos and surprise. University Opera will portray all of these emotional states in its production of this 1973 Broadway musical, inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 comic film Smiles of a Summer Night. The show will be directed by David Ronis, director of opera; Oriol Sans, director of orchestral activities, will conduct, and the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra will accompany student performers ranging from freshmen to doctoral students. It’s one of four Sondheim shows in Madison in four months this spring. Get on the bandwagon. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on March 14-15 and 2 p.m. on March 16; find tickets at artsticketing.wisc.edu.

Summer 2000, Friday, March 14, Gamma Ray, 8 p.m.: The music of Summer 2000 can range from gentle acoustic folk to jangly emo-pop to a wall of electronic noise. The through line that pulls it all together is the emotional universe of ringleader Jacob R. West. This strong lineup also includes Milwaukee’s Bug Moment (who just released hyper-pop shaded EP The Lazer Collection on March 7) and Madison’s own Sex, Fear and Excuse Me, Who Are You? Tickets at etix.com.

Arsenic and Old Lace, March 14-22, Bartell Theatre: Of the 1930s situation comedies, Arsenic and Old Lace is the one that most deserves to be a classic. The absurd plot — two elderly sisters poison their lonely male boarders out of some combination of sympathy and pity — is humanized by a cast of oddballs including nephew Teddy, who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt (the role involves “quite a lot of charging up and down stairs”) and “normal” nephew Mortimer, the supposedly sane center the rest of the characters revolve around. As Mortimer discovers his aunts' secret, bodies are switched and hijinx ensue in the best way. This OUT!Cast Theatre production is a fundraiser for Madison Theatre Guild, Madison’s oldest community theater. Bully! Shows are Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. plus March 16 and 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets at bartelltheatre.org.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Saturday, March 15, UW Cinematheque, 7 p.m.: The filmography of director Sam Peckinpah is filled with explorations of extreme characters and heavy-duty violence, which are often in the form of Westerns lamenting the end of the frontier days. The Ballad of Cable Hogue is Western with extreme characters set around the turn of the 20th century which sets up a revenge plot…but otherwise, viewers who are familiar with Peckinpah and haven’t seen it should expect to be very surprised. And perhaps more than misty-eyed at the end. If the film hadn’t been ignored at the time, Jason Robards may have picked up the Oscar he deserved in the title role. Still to come in Cinematheque's Peckinpah series is a screening of the restored Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid on March 22.

Watershed Reading Series, Saturday, March 15, Arts + Literature Laboratory, 7 p.m.: This is a nice mixed roster of essay and poetry. Toby Altman is visiting from Michigan State University in support of his new book of poetry, Jewel Box. Madison’s own Tamara Dean will be reading from the nature-based essays in her forthcoming collection from the University of Minnesota Press, Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless. Completing the trio is Audrey Gradzewicz, the 2024-2025 Ronald Wallace Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Prepare for some amazement.

La Rosa Noir, Saturday, March 15, UW Memorial Union-Rathskeller, 7 p.m.: Chicago band La Rosa Noir’s 2023 debut album, Arellano, covers a lot of ground, from the amiable indie rock of “Lavender Warm” to country stomp of “New Gods” to the mini-symphony of styles contained by “I’d Take You.” It’s a remarkably accomplished and confident collection, and it should be a treat to hear these songs live. With Commonwealth.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Sunday, March 16, Capitol Square, 1:30 p.m.: Despite its general all-around awesomeness, one Madison shortcoming is a dearth of parades. One fun exception is the annual parade honoring St. Patrick’s Day, which travels counterclockwise around the Capitol Square from the corner of Mifflin and Pinckney streets to East Wash. Leading the parade this year are WKOW-TV news anchors Amber Noggle and Brandon Taylor, followed by pipes and drums, fiddlers, people wearing green tossing candy, DIY “floats”...and maybe you? (A parade sign-up form can be found at stpatsmadison.org.) It’s all sort of free-form. Prior to the parade, an Irish flag ceremony takes place at noon in the Capitol Rotunda.

Marc Broussard, Sunday, March 16, Majestic, 7:30 p.m.: Funky, soulful and gritty, Louisiana native Marc Broussard modernizes R&B without excising the hurt. His 2023 album, S.O.S. 4: Blues for Your Soul, included contributions from Joe Bonamassa and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. With Kendra Morris. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.

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