Now that you’ve had a chance to fully digest Isthmus’ Fall Music Preview (Sept. 6), we asked our arts writers to share what they’re looking forward to this fall and winter. From local to international, small venues to large, they’ve picked their best bets for theater, comedy, visual art, dance and classical music. There’s no excuse for hiding at home. Get out there.
School of Rock
Theater
From literate spiders to lesbian cartoonists
By Gwendolyn Rice
Perennial children’s favorite Charlotte’s Web is back for another run at Children’s Theater of Madison, Oct. 5-21 in Overture’s Playhouse. Theatre LILA artistic director Jessica Lanius trades her directing duties for an eight-legged costume, assuming the role of Charlotte. She’ll be crawling over a web made of steel on the barnyard set. And associate artistic director Mike Lawler makes his CTM directing debut with this production, set in small-town Wisconsin and featuring a diverse cast. According to arachnid sources, the show should be “terrific.” It could even be “radiant.”
All kinds of people fall in love. But the ones who are the most fun to watch are smart and witty to the extreme, able to verbally spar with skill while they jockey for position in the relationship. That’s the draw of Engaging Shaw, the last show of American Players Theatre’s 2018 season, running Oct. 25-Nov. 18 in the Touchstone. Based on the real-life romance between George Bernard Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend, the four-person comedy features real-life couple Colleen Madden and Jim Ridge as the erudite lovers.
To celebrate its 10th season, Forward Theater has added a musical to its lineup, and not just any musical. Based on the graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home is an eloquent, irreverent, groundbreaking production about love, extreme family dysfunction, homosexuality, suicide, and growing up in a funeral home. Adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, it garnered Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Leading Actor and Best Direction in 2015. Seeing it live in Madison this fall is going to be amazing. But we’ll be seeing it with Madison’s resident Broadway star Karen Olivo (Hamilton, In the Heights) in the lead role, fresh off her Boston run of the new musical Moulin Rouge. It runs Nov. 1-25 in The Playhouse at Overture. Get tickets soon.
When Gore Vidal’s play The Best Man opened on Broadway in 1960 The New York Times called it “a political melodrama that comes close enough to the truth to be both comic and exciting.” A comment on the politics of the time, the script pits presidential candidates against each other to win the endorsement of a former commander-in-chief. Will it be the honest liberal or the bigoted charlatan who gets the nod? The Madison Theatre Guild production, Nov. 2-17, at the Bartell Theatre, is directed by Dave Pausch and arrives just in time for the 2018 midterm elections.
The 2003 hit movie School of Rock was a fun vehicle for the irrepressible Jack Black, and a great excuse for him to geek out as a killer guitarist backed by a band made up of gifted and talented kids from an elite private school. The touring Broadway musical, Nov. 20-25 in Overture Hall, features the talents of another well-known musician: Andrew Lloyd Webber. With 14 new songs, the same irreverent take on educational methods, and a cast of mega-talented kids playing their own instruments, mark me present. I’m ready to rock.
(clockwise) Whose Live Anyway, John Cleese, Maria Bamford.
Comedy
Outliers and titans
By Josh Heath
The season of swimming, sweating and sausage is quickly turning into the time of sweaters, snow and seasonal affective disorder. But Madison’s got plenty of red-hot comedy in the pipeline to keep your bellies, cheeks and, most importantly, your hearts, warm with laughter.
October, a month otherwise known for being spooky, has a stacked comedy lineup. The veteran improvisors of Whose Live Anyway, including fan favorites Jeff B. Davis, Greg Proops and the cantankerous Ryan Stiles, will take the Overture Center by storm on Oct. 4. Make up an excuse to get out of family dinner to see these guys make up everything on the spot.
Famously angry Christopher Titus is stopping by the Barrymore on Oct. 5. Combining pointed political commentary with stories about a messed-up childhood and observations about the modern world, Titus always turns out a surprisingly relatable slice-of-life set.
On Oct. 19, we’ve got Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite) who, like a joke-based King Midas, turns everything she touches into comedy gold. Her show at Overture’s Capitol Theater is bound to be packed with cartoon-ready voices, mental health-based humor, Midwestern sensibility and undaunted spirit that makes her stand out from her peers.
Notoriously divisive comedy figure Michelle Wolf, fresh off her tragically short-lived Netflix series, is keeping busy by telling it like it is. She’ll be at Comedy on State Oct. 25-27. She’ll live up to her name by leaving you howling with laughter as she takes down the orange-tinted patriarchy.
The next night, Oct. 28, self-proclaimed NFL champion and legitimate comedy legend Michael Ian Black is making a rare stop at Comedy on State. Well-known for loving the ’80s and his infinite supply of acting cameos, Black’s humor is, well, black. He never holds back, punching up, down and all around. His cocksure attitude sells his on-stage smugness perfectly.
Rounding out the year are two titans of industry. Dearly missed Late Show host Craig Ferguson, whose absurdist sense of humor made him stand out among his late-night competition, is bringing said absurdity to the Barrymore on Oct. 29, a stop on his new tour, “Hobo Fabulous.”
Finally, John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, is coming to the Overture Center on Nov. 18 as part of his “Why There Is No Hope” tour. The show is also billed as “An Evening of Humor” with John Cleese, so maybe the comedy is found in the lack of hope? We can only, uh, hope so.
(clockwise) Kanopy Dance, Ballet Folklórico de México, Magnum Opus.
Dance
Just do it!
By Katie Reiser
Dance is often an exuberant expression of emotion in our lives — families and friends on the dance floor at weddings or bar mitzvahs, the viral challenge of dancing to Drake’s In My Feelings (#dotheshiggy), and even end-zone celebrations at football games. But it’s a shame that Madison audiences don’t flock to see dance performances. Try something new this year! Experience the artistry and athleticism of local and touring dance companies.
I’m looking forward to the return of The Seldoms, a Chicago-based dance company that takes a multidisciplinary approach to productions. I loved PowerGoes in 2017, and can’t wait to see RockCitizen, a look at the lasting influence of the 1960s counterculture movement (and not just because they have created a mobile “brascape” net made with more than 200 bras). That show is at the Wisconsin Union’s Play Circle Sept. 27-29.
On Oct. 6, Dance Wisconsin’s season begins with Collaborations at Madison College’s Mitby Theater. Sacramento Ballet company dancer Anthony Cannarella, a former student of artistic director JoJean Retrum, is setting a new work to a score composed by his musician brother Dominic Cannarella-Anderson, who is studying at Berklee College of Music (and a former member of the Madison retro rock power trio After the Rain). Dancers from the Milwaukee Ballet II company will be performing.
Two distinguished members of UW-Madison’s dance department will be presenting concerts at Lathrop Hall’s cozy and inviting Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space. First up is Li Chiao-Ping’s Dancing on the Ceiling: performances by women of a certain age, Oct. 12-13. Li, who creates works that challenge and entertain audiences, is gathering accomplished (and mature) female dancers and choreographers for the production. Li’s company will also be trying out a new venue on Dec. 1 with Dolce Stil Novo (Italian for “sweet new style”), staged on a three-quarter round arena style auditorium at Madison’s Masonic Center. Marlene Skog’s Consider it not so deeply. will be performed at Lathrop Hall Nov. 15-17. Inspired by Shakespeare’s female characters, the thoughtful production just premiered in Chicago.
Kanopy Dance opens its season with Celebrations at Overture’s Promenade Hall Oct. 19-21. The program includes a reconstruction of Martha Graham’s masterwork Celebration, and Sospiri from acclaimed former Graham company member Jacqulyn Buglisi, who has long had her own company. There will also be solid pieces from Kanopy’s co-artistic directors.
Madison’s little ballet company that could, Magnum Opus, presents Flip Side Oct. 19-20 at the Verona Area Community Theater. And Nov. 30-Dec. 21 they will perform their Christmas production Full Light, artistic director Abigail Henninger’s lovely work set to Handel’s Messiah at different venues in Dane County.
So You Think You Can Dance Live! will be at Overture Hall on Oct. 26. Super fans can choose a meet-and-greet ticket package so they can hobnob with their favorite dancers from the hit reality show and get some branded swag. Also at Overture Hall for one night on Nov. 6 is Ballet Folklórico de México, a troupe that has consistently provided inspiring programs of traditional Mexican dance with gorgeous costumes, stirring music and infectious exuberance.
The dance holidays begin in earnest with Kanopy’s creative antidote to The Nutcracker, Winter Fantasia, at Overture’s Playhouse Nov. 30-Dec. 2.
Not that there’s anything wrong with The Nutcracker. Madison Ballet returns to Overture Hall with its colorful and crowd-pleasing take on this classic full-length ballet Dec. 7- 26. I’m even more curious to see the company’s Emerging Voices production this spring at the Bartell Theatre, and hope that Madison Ballet will rally from the recent financial challenges and the retirement of longtime artistic director W. Earle Smith.
(clockwise) Joel Shapiro: the Bronzes, Women Against Hate, United By Love, Cutting Down the Cottonwood, Iceland’s Vanishing Beauty.
Visual art
Feasts for the eyes
By Brian Rieselman
Sometimes a casual, wandering drive in the countryside near home can be the best autumn visual arts excursion. Not knowing what you might find amid the flaxen cornfields, woods and winding roads is half the fun as our part of the world turns crisp and cool.
A visit to the small galleries and shops in the town of Paoli, southwest of Madison makes a perfect easy day trip to satisfy your senses and curiosity; you might even pick up a pumpkin or two at a wayside stand. You might want to work in a stop at the excellent Abel Contemporary Gallery, which just announced it will be relocating to Stoughton in the spring.
At apple harvest time I’ll be heading over to Spring Green for the Taliesin Plein Air painting event to benefit the famed Frank Lloyd Wright estate. Twenty-nine painters have gathered outdoors to create new works inspired by the historic grounds and masterpiece structures on 800 acres of rolling land. Events open to the public, including sales of the paintings, are set for Sept. 21-22.
Back in Madison, a host of challenging and exciting works are on tap this fall at our ever-evolving local galleries and museums. Among the highlights: three cutting-edge upcoming exhibits at Arts + Literature Laboratory.
Women Against Hate, United By Love, Oct. 5-Nov. 3, combines stories with photography and interactive panel discussions to combat intolerance. Multimedia artist Eric Garcia presents Cutting Down the Cottonwood, Nov. 10-Dec. 22. Garcia’s work features a reading and new images such as the dark, witty pen-and-ink on paper drawing, “Babysitting Death.”
In November (exact dates and details are still being worked out), ALL will present a new series of works by veterans and civilians, examining the veteran experience in three-dimensional objects, music and performance.
Joel Shapiro: the Bronzes, Sept. 23-Jan. 13, is a major exhibit of 15 works from the influential sculptor’s oeuvre, presented by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Large-scale, boldly geometric abstract forms in gravity-defying combinations suggest motion and a surprising dynamic sensibility.
The James Watrous Gallery presents two conceptual solo exhibits running Nov. 16-Jan. 27. In Fore and Aft, multi-media sculptor Maggie Sasso uses fabric and fiber art forms to shape stories or “impossible metaphors,” including imagery informed by the history of Dane County lakes.
Prints by Nathaniel Stern, on display in Autumnal Tints, are created with a scanner he straps to his body as he “performs” dynamic movements hovering over his choice of subject matter. For this series he documented fall foliage around Milwaukee’s lakefront. The resulting images are lush, abstract and color-rich. Both artists have accompanying statements about the meaning of their works and their processes, adding a poetic dimension to their innovative visions.
Iceland’s Vanishing Beauty: Photography by Michael Kienitz, through Feb. 3 at the Chazen, presents a magnificently composed, bittersweet and sweeping series of dramatic views shot over five years at Vatnajokull National Park in Iceland. Ice caves, crystal-blue canyons and habitat-rich wetlands comprise a bracingly cool world of natural wonders, and share a vivid reminder of what’s at stake when an ecological paradise begins to disappear forever.
(clockwise) Emanuel Ax, Christopher Taylor, Pro Arte Quartet.
Classical music
Lively lineup
By John W. Barker
There’s no better place to start the fall classical season than with the critically acclaimed Pro Arte Quartet, which plays Mills Hall on Sept. 21. The storied quartet was founded in Brussels in 1912 and has toured the world. Today it’s the ensemble in residence at UW-Madison and the Chazen Museum of Art. The concert program includes Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet (Op. 76, No. 4), Shostakovich’s Quartet 7, Op. 108, and Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15, Op. 132.
The following weekend will belong to the Madison Symphony Orchestra, performing three concerts at Overture Hall on Sept. 28-30. The soloist will be that giant among American pianists, Emanuel Ax, playing the monumental Concerto No. 2 of Johannes Brahms. Also scheduled is a piece, Fanfare Ritmico, by American composer Jennifer Higdon, and a suite drawn by conductor John DeMain himself from Sergei Prokofiev’s great ballet, Romeo and Juliet. It is worth noting, too, that John DeMain is now in his 25th year as the orchestra’s music director.
On Oct. 5-7, at Grace Episcopal Church, the Madison Bach Musicians will offer a program of arias and sonatas by Bach and Handel. The ensemble, led by Trevor Stephenson, is also celebrating a 15th anniversary.
The MSO returns Oct. 19-21, under guest conductor Tania Miller, with Michael Oesterle’s Home, and the popular Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, framing the noble Cello Concerto of Edward Elgar, with Zuill Bailey as soloist. The Pro Arte Quartet will again perform on Oct. 27 at Mills Hall.
November will be a particularly busy month, full of opera offerings. On Nov. 2 and 4, the Madison Opera will offer Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, the two paragons of verismo melodrama. And on Nov. 16, 18 and 20, the UW Opera will stage the Baroque masterpiece of Claudio Monteverdi, The Coronation of Poppea, a remarkably powerful drama of lust, cruelty and intrigue set in Nero’s ancient Rome.
Between those events will be Madison’s grandest celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday anniversary. DeMain, who studied intensively with Bernstein, will lead the MSO in a program, “Remembering Lenny” (Nov. 9-11). The concerts pay tribute to Bernstein’s Broadway connections by including the Overture to Candide and Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, followed by his Symphony No. 2, titled The Age of Anxiety, a veritable piano concerto with soloist Christopher Taylor. The latter half of the program will be devoted to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, the last work Bernstein conducted in public before his death.
The MSO presents “A Madison Symphony Christmas” Nov. 30-Dec. 2, with Mt. Zion Gospel Choir, Madison Youth Choirs, and rising opera stars Cecilia Violetta Lopez and Kyle Ketelsen.
The Madison Bach Musicians will offer their annual baroque holiday concert on Dec. 8 at First Congregational Church, featuring music of Josquin des Prez, Heinrich Schütz and J.S. Bach.
The Middleton Community Orchestra rounds out the month with a Dec. 19 program that includes Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer (Paul Rowe, baritone), Darius Milhaud’s ballet Le Boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58, and the Háry János Suite from Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.
