This Month in Milwaukee

13 Things To Do In February

BY RUSS BICKERSTAFF, ALLEN HALAS,

ELIZABETH LINTONEN, DAVID

LUHRSSEN AND JOHN SCHNEIDER

THROUGH FEBRUARY 12

Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Much Ado About Nothing 

Quadracci Powerhouse

Shakespeare’s best plays have often been transposed to settings unimaginable in his lifetime. The Rep’s Associate Artistic Director Laura Braza sets Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing in the 1990s—an era many of us have begun to look back on with wistful nostalgia. Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio are bound to entertain in whatever period costumes they may wear.

FEBRUARY 4

Lynden by Night: A Walk with Claudia Orjuela

Lynden Sculpture Gardens

Walk Lynden's grounds, 7-8:30 p.m., with educator Claudia Orjuela, who will introduce the mysteries and unique features of outdoor life after dark. Discover the sights and sounds of the night in Lynden’s back acres and observe its monumental sculptures beneath the light of the full snow moon. A bonfire and treats await at the end. Register at lyndensculpturegarden.org.

FEBRUARY 4-5

Early Music Now presents Sequentia

St. Joseph Chapel

The Paris based Sequentia, one of the world’s most respected and innovative ensembles for medieval music, offers songs from Anglo-Saxon and Germanic tribes of the European Northlands from the 8th to 11th centuries featuring themes of magic, healing, exile, death and celebration. Instruments include sixstring Germanic harps, triangular harps, wooden flutes and a swan-bone flute. EMN executive and Artistic Director Charles Grosz described the concert saying, “Sequentia will perform one of most engaging and extraordinary programs ever offered by EMN in its 36-year history. Though composed over 1,000 years ago, some works sound improvisational, almost 21stcentury, while others are as serene as lullabies. The audience is a participant in this program, as they are asked to solve riddles during this multi-media event.”

FEBRUARY 5

Buffalo Nichols, Stephen Hull Cactus Club

THROUGH MARCH 5

First Stage, The Hobbit 

Milwaukee Youth Arts Center

The engaging drama of Tolkien’s classic fantasy comes to life in a brisk 90-minute program as director Jeff Frank presents First Stage’s production of The Hobbit. The magic of Middle Earth fuses with the wonder of live theater. Frank has a talent for conjuring big adventure in small stage environments in one of the best children’s theatre programs in the country.

FEBRUARY 3-4

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, “Water Festival”

Bradley Symphony Center

Milwaukee is a city built on water, so why not a Water Festival from the city’s symphony orchestra? The three-week program concludes with the time-traveling, globe-spinning “Toward the Sea” featuring Mendelssohn, Takemitsu, David Ludwig, Helene Grime and—of course—Debussy’s Le mer

Since departing from acclaimed duo Nickel&Rose, Milwaukeeraised Buffalo Nichols has taken his songwriting out of the city to the rest of the world. With a mixture of blues and Americana, Nichols returns to the city where he cut his teeth for an all-ages early show at Cactus Club, alongside singer/songwriter Stephen Hull. Nichols is currently playing out material from his 2021 selftitled debut, released on Fat Possum Records.

FEBRUARY 9-12

Milwaukee Opera Theatre, Rusalka  Danceworks Studio Theatre

The hour-long adaptation of the Dvorak opera features English dialogue and narration by Jason Powell with sung passages in Czech. “This is our seventh collaboration with Danceworks in which dance and opera will be woven together throughout,” says MOT’s artistic director Jill Anna Ponasik. “Our ‘orchestra’ will be piano and harp, and the piece will be performed in the intimate Danceworks studio, with the audience inches from the performers.”

MILWAUKEE BALLET, "ORIGINALS"

FEBRUARY 9-12

Milwaukee Ballet, “Originals,” 

Pabst Theatre

Each choreographer for this season’s contemporary ballet showcase won first place in “Genesis,” the international choreographic competition created in 2005 by Artistic Director Michael Pink. First place includes the opportunity to create a second world premiere with dancers the winner now knows; thus, the young socially conscious 2022 winner Price Suddarth can delve even deeper. Timothy O’Donnell, the 2009 winner and now decade-long, ever-surprising resident artist will stage his sixth company premiere; and 2007 winner Nelly van Bommel will restage her 2008 hit Gelem, Gelem, an emotional journey named for the Romani people’s “national anthem.”

FEBRUARY 10

The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Lilly J Goren

Boswell Book Company

A fascinating trip through the Marvel fandom, The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is an inside look at the messages Marvel fans are taught from the world’s largest entertainment franchise. Between all the superheroes and action-packed crime fighting, Marvel has much commentary on power dynamics, gender, and society as a whole. Co-editor Lilly J. Goren gives her talk on this new anthology at 6:30 p.m.

FEBRUARY 11

Daisychain, Wristwatch, Credentials, Stephanie Joanna

The Cooperage

There are few supporters of Milwaukee’s music scene as adamant as Christopher Novak, who annually puts together a show for the ages in celebration of his birthday. These shows, though, often serve as a showcase of great up and coming talent in the city, and February 11 will be the latest installment. Chicago’s Daisychain will take the stage, with support from Wristwatch, a new project from Bobby Hussy, indie rock band Credentials, and Stephanie Joanna, previously of Milwaukee’s LO/ST.

FEBRUARY 17-18

Present Music “Future Folk Machine”

Jan Serr Studio

“This is a direct reference to the inscription on Pete Seeger’s banjo,” says Present Music’s Co-Artistic Director Eric Segnitz. The concert program features diverse composers including Gyorgy Ligeti, Morris Kliphuis & Lucky Fonz III. Segnitz describes Unsuk Chin’s “Gougalon” as “a childhood recollection of scenes from a street theatre in her native South Korea. An ‘imaginary folk music’ of grinning fortune-tellers, fake magicians and snake-oil salesmen, it blends the grotesque with an Asiatic sound world.”

FEBRUARY 23

Rust Ring, Rat Bath, Brave You, Okay Omen X-Ray Arcade

A quartet of punk and emo-adjacent bands will make for a unique bill as Rust Ring celebrates the release of their new album, North to the Future. Elements of shoegaze and country will also be in the mix, with support from county-punks Rat Bath, synth punks Brave You, and post-punk act Okay Omen. The allages show is certain to blast music from the walls of Cudahy’s live music haven.

FEBRUARY 25

SunSquabi

Miramar Theatre

Jam band and EDM fans unite at the Miramar when electronic hybrid SunSquabi headlines a night of funky dance music. The group recently released a collaboration with The String Cheese Incident and promises a unique live experience every time they hit the stage. Turning heads wherever they go, the group is on a month-long tour from their home base in Denver through the Midwest.