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Wish You Were Here: The Show Must Go On!

Alumni share stories of their favorite among performances they watched during their time at the UW.

Audience members applaud during a dance battle at the Chinese Undergraduate Student Associationís (CUSA) Show Me Your Dance event at the Wisconsin Union Theaterís Shannon Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Feb. 22, 2020. The event featured dancers from Madacom, a Madison dance community comprised of three separate UW organizations: Dancas Dance Crew, Korean & American Student Performers (KASPer), and Hypnotiq: Hip Hop Dance Crew, Project Fresh from the University of Notre Dame, and the UKAN Asian Hiphop Dance Crew from Ohio State University. (Photo by Brian Huynh / UW-Madison)

U2 at Camp Randall. June’s Dairy at Memorial Union. The naked Peter Pan. Amara La Negra’s show stopping concert. Otis Redding’s last show or Carrie Coon’s first. College is a chance to expand your cultural horizons, and UW–Madison has offered loads of culture — high-brow, low-brow, and middle-brow — for decades.

Tell us about the best you saw during your days at the UW, as well as what made it so special. Send us your memory. (Include photos, please!) We’ll add it to this scrapbook.

James Taylor at the Field House. He was really grump that night! Tossed some equipment/chairs off the low key stage. He appeared mostly to be grumpy over repeated requests for him to play his then #1 hit "Fire and Rain". Which is finally did as an encore and promptly stormed off the stage.
William Rauwerdink ’72

In 1977 Billy Joel appeared at, of all places, the Stock Pavillion. He was touring his breakthrough album, The Stranger, and it was a fantastic show! He complained about performing in a barn, the smell, etc. But the music, and the acoustics, were sublime, and he played to a hugely appreciative audience. Unforgettable!
Cristie Leto JD’86

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