FANTASY AND ROMANCE

The 2007-08 performing arts season draws to a close in May with laughter and passion. The Madison Rep opens its production of the hit comedy that worked so well last year at this time for the Milwaukee Rep with Larry Shue’s The Nerd. Closer to home, In Tandem finishes its first season at the newly completed Tenth Street Theatre with The Girl in the Frame, a comic musical about marriage and romantic fantasy. Windfall Theatre shows the passion and intimacy of which musical theater is capable with A New Brain, William Finn’s autobiographical play about brain cancer. It just might be the most emotionally affecting evening of musical theater to come along all season. Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra hosts its single biggest blockbuster this side of The Messiah as legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma comes to town on the seventh. In dance, the Milwaukee Ballet closes its superb season with a little bit of fancy fantasy dance as it brings The Kingdom of Shades and Offenbach In The Underworld to the stage alongside a new work by Artistic Director Michael Pink. In another imaginative take, visiting company Storybook Dance Theater presents a family-friendly performance based on Alice in Wonderland.