In the years following a pandemic upheaval, Madison-area arts organizations are finding new ways to thrive. Around and beyond the city in 2024, we saw theatrical world premieres, high-profile visiting authors, the return of beloved operas and big Broadway tours.
Madison’s flagship downtown art museum lost one longtime leader and gained a new one. Children’s Theater of Madison appointed a new artistic director, while the Madison Symphony Orchestra began its search for John DeMain’s successor.
A quick word of gratitude, as we close the year. At the Cap Times, we have a team of freelance writers who help us cover the performing arts.
Dan Van Note and Erica Pinigis write dance reviews. Matt Ambrosio and Noah Fellinger cover the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Victoria Davis steps in occasionally to cover the opera and theater, and Josh Miller writes about music.
The Cap Times couldn’t produce the breadth of arts coverage we have without these writers, and I’m so grateful to work with all of them. Here are a few more headlines I’ll remember, and happy new year!
Former Madison Museum of Contemporary Art director Stephen Fleischman passed away in early 2024.
Jan. 20: “Late MMoCA leader Stephen Fleischman shaped Madison’s art scene”
Every time I got a chance to talk with Stephen Fleischman, head of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art for nearly 30 years, I took it. Stephen was a thoughtful, empathetic leader, beloved by museum patrons and staff. When he died on Jan. 14, 2024, at 69 from an aggressive cancer, he left Madison’s art scene a more vibrant place. The city is a little dimmer without him in it.
Author Amor Towles appeared at the Orpheum Theater in Madison on April 30.
April 23: “‘Gentleman in Moscow’ author Amor Towles keeps it short in new book”
I love an author-to-author interview, like this one former features editor Rob Thomas did with Amor Towles before his sold-out visit to the Orpheum Theater.
“You hope that your books have a life beyond the binding,” Towles said. “That someone is affected by it, that it changes the way they see the world … But I don’t have any hopes in terms of what it means to them, no less than I could if someone asked me ‘What’s the book about?’ If I could tell you what one of my books is about, then it’s a failure as a book.”
Willie Nelson performs at Breese Stevens Field.
May 19: “Willie Nelson helps Madison make it through the night”
“At least four, if not five, generations of fans packed Breese Stevens Field … to see (Willie) Nelson,” Rob Thomas wrote this past spring in this lively review. “While age may have slowed him down, causing him to lean on his adoring bandmates for support a little more than in past tours, he remains the Willie we all know and love.”
Chief of staff Harriet (Stephanie Monday), center in black, takes control in “POTUS, Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.” Shown with, from left, press secretary Jean (Cassie Carney), journalist Chris (Kendra James), and first lady Margaret (Laura McMillan).
May 27: “Seven women prop up the idiot in the White House in farcical ‘POTUS‘”
Strollers Theatre was the first non-Equity company to produce Selina Fillinger’s multiple Tony Award-nominated 2022 farce, but it certainly won’t be the last. The unseen president in this very funny play — subtitled “Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” — was inspired by the current political moment. We laugh so we don’t cry. Or scream.
Mare (Nancy Rodríguez), left, and Blanchard (Jim DeVita), right, have opposing ideas about who should succeed Queen Adahlia (Tracy Michelle Arnold) in “The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool” at American Players Theatre.
June 24: “APT’s world premiere of ‘Virgin Queen’ twists the knife”
The setup of this show — world premiere, long archaic-sounding title (“The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool”), a playwright (Michael Hollinger) I didn’t know well — had me skeptical. But American Players Theatre’s production turned out to be one of the most exciting trips to the theater I had all year. The plot, about a dying queen who hasn’t named a successor, winds like a serpent, squeezing tighter and deadlier for 70 thrilling minutes. What a ride.
The cast of the North American tour of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.”
July 11: “Campy ‘Moulin Rouge!’ mashes up the hits at Overture Hall”
Sometimes, a critic has to go negative. When a national Equity tour looks like a Very Expensive show choir performance with cornea-searing neon in every scene and two dozen costume changes for poor sick Satine, we don’t have much of a choice. “Moulin Rouge” wasn’t as cringey as “Pretty Woman,” but it came awfully close. My plea for the 2025-26 season: fewer jukebox musicals. Please?
Nov. 25: “Capital City gives ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ a promising premiere”
I’m not the biggest fan of Frank Capra’s cloying 1940s parable, but wouldn’t you know, it makes a great musical. With a jazzy score and careful culling of the story, Capital City’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” had promise. The Andrews Sisters-style number at the top of Act II, a scene-stealing angel “second class” and a palette straight out of a Crayola box helped this debut lasso the moon.
