entertainment

Melissa Manchester performs on May 19 at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts in Saugatuck, Mich.

Melissa Manchester’s connection to the gay community is long and enduring. From her early days as a Harlette, one of Bette Midler’s original back-up singers, to her rise through the singer/songwriter ranks during the 1970s and her ascension to full-fledged diva-hood, Manchester has remained on our radar. “Playlist: The Very Best of Melissa Manchester,” a 14-track compilation, represents the various phases of Manchester’s career.

‘The Artist’

If you saw “The Artist,” Michel Hazanavicius’ acclaimed silent film about Hollywood, you probably remember Ludovic Bource’s Oscar-winning score. If you had the same experience as this reviewer and the audience sat silent and rapt throughout the movie, then you were able to appreciate the soundtrack and the way it artistically supported and communicated the emotions and actions on screen. “The Artist: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (Sony Classical) belongs in the collection of every music lover who appreciates a good movie score.

Photo: Courtesy

Remember the fate of the pet rabbit in the movie "Fatal Attraction"? Unfortunately, that scenario is not far-fetched. Pets often become tools of manipulation or revenge in unhealthy relationships. 

‘Trigger’

Imperial Teen fans rejoice! After a five-year wait, the half-queer quartet of Roddy Bottum and Will Schwartz (both gay) and Lynn Perko Truell and Jone Stebbins (both straight), has returned with their best album, “Feel The Sound” (Merge). Things get up and running with “Runaway,” a bouncy opener that sets the tone for what’s to come. The musical mood may remain upbeat, but beneath it all is a serious quality. Feeling the sound has as much to do with sensation as it does with emotion.

An immediate anxiety betrays itself in John McGivern’s voice when you mention “Around the Corner,” his new Milwaukee Public Television series.

Roberta Flack. – Photo: Courtesy

Still killing us softly more than 40 years since the release of her first album, Roberta Flack, who says she was sure that she "was going to be the first short black girl from North Carolina to be applauded for her knowledge and ability to play Scriabin," has turned her attention to the Beatles. On "Let It Be" (429), the diva who ruled the charts in the 1970s and '80s leaves her distinct mark on a dozen Beatles classics, renewing and refreshing them in ways that only she could.

‘The Lorax’

The Milwaukee Rep’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room or the vibrator play” runs March 7-April 22 at the Stiemke Studio. For more, go to www.milwaukeerep.com.

Laura Gordon takes umbrage – albeit humorously – at the thought of the actors she directs in Milwaukee Repertory Theater productions simulating any aspect of their characters. This debate becomes even more, uh, penetrating when what we’re talking about are the actors’ orgasms that run throughout the Rep’s upcoming production of “In the Next Room or the vibrator play.”

Jervis Pendleton (Robert Adelman Hancock) and Jerusha Abbott (Megan McGinnis) in the Ventura, Calif., production of ''Daddy Long Legs,'' which Skylight Music Theatre is staging March 9 to April 1. – Photo: Courtesy

Playwright John Ciard wants to make one thing perfectly clear: "Daddy Long Legs," his musical adaptation of Jean Webster's 1912 young adult novel that opens March 9 at the Skylight Music Theatre, bears little resemblance to the 1955 Fred Astaire film of the same name.