The Weidner Center of the Performing Arts has presented an astounding array of performances from Broadway to chamber orchestras to pop acts and numerous family events over its 20 plus years on the UW-Green Bay campus. In celebration of UW-Green Bay’s 50th Anniversary, listed below in no particular order is a compilation of the 50 best shows to ever grace the Weidner Center’s stage.
1. Yo-Yo Ma

2. Jerry Seinfeld

3. Julie Andrews

4. Robert Goulet

5. Ray Charles

6. Tony Curtis

7. Ann-Margret

8. Willie Nelson

9. Tony Bennett

10. The Phantom of the Opera

11. Miss Saigon

12. Maya Angelou

13. Anne Murray

14. James Taylor

15. Bonnie Raitt

16. Tim Conway & Harvey Korman

17. B.B. King

18. Madeline Albright

19. Itzhak Perlman

20. David Copperfield

21. Victor Borge

22. George Carlin

23. John Denver

24. Wynton Marsalis & The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

25. Mannheim Steamroller

26. Johnny Cash

27. Marie Osmond & Donny Osmond

28. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

29. STOMP

30. Blue Man Group

31. John Mellencamp

32. Oak Ridge Boys

33. Kenny Rogers

34. Cats

35. Lady Antebellum & Jason Aldean

36. Riverdance

37. Les Miserables

38. Jeff Dunham

39. Lily Tomlin

40. Johnny Mathis

41. Peter, Paul and Mary

42. Jim Gaffigan

43. Celtic Woman

44. Bryan Adams

45. Kenny G

46. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

47. Rent

48. Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy & Bill Engvall

49. Garrison Keillor

50. Gordon Lightfoot

Sorry, I disagree wholeheartedly on the Yo-Yo Ma at No. 1. I wanted to ask for my money back at that one.
The concert was billed as YO-YO MA and the Silk Road Ensemble and it would have been more accurately been SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE with Yo-Yo Ma. It was almost entirely ensemble playing and, remarkably, very little that highlighted the Cello. He might have done one very brief solo number at the outset, but then was just one of many thereafter.
Now, the group he assembled was excellent, the music was beautiful. But when you pay $75 to see Itzhak Perlman, for instance, you don’t get 90 percent symphony orchestra and 10 percent Perlman. The “Yo-Yo Ma” show was not.
I was lucky to be at most of them and hope more will come. I thought the night with Gregory Peck should have been included!