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!