All the highlights of another busy cultural season
Tag: Vol. 46 No. 49
Issue of Sep. 14 – 20, 2017
Ten best bets for fall music
Matthew Lux’s Communication Arts Quartet September 21 Matthew Lux is the Kevin Bacon of Chicago music, connected to just about every important living player in the city. He’s been a key presence in local jazz, rock, soul, and dance-music circles since graduating from Lane Tech in 1991, but it’s taken him till now to release […]
Ten best bets for fall visual arts
Chicago Architecture Biennial Aside from the main exhibition taking place at the Cultural Center, this year’s biennial boasts a number of smaller satellite shows, including new “anchor sites” in various neighborhoods; “Past Forward: Architecture and Design at the Art Institute,” an installation devoted to the museum’s collection; and many related productions at smaller galleries. Read […]
Ten best bets for fall theater
The Toad Knew News items always ID James Thierrée as “Chaplin’s grandson,” but he deserves something more like “physical theater genius” or “cunning surrealist.” Back at Chicago Shakespeare after a ten-year absence from the theater, the creator of Farewell Umbrella will help the company inaugurate its new space, the Yard, with The Toad Knew, a […]
Five best bets for fall TV
Nathan for You Nathan Fielder saves struggling businesses by taking the longest possible route for the shortest possible gain. In one instance, he enticed customers to fill up at a particular gas station by lowering prices. But the deal required a rebate—in order to cash it in, people had to hike up a mountain and […]
Five best bets for fall comedy
Nick Offerman: Full Bush Tour On the TV show Parks and Recreation, Nick Offerman’s character Ron Swanson was known for his love of red meat, his carpentry, and his bushy mustache. Swanson was a man’s man, and Offerman shares almost all these burly traits. He returns to the city that launched his career as part […]
Five best bets for bar and brewpub openings
Prairie School Late September A collaboration between Heisler Hospitality and Jim Meehan, founder of New York’s PDT bar, Prairie School is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright—both the design of the physical space and the drinks will reflect the architect’s aesthetic. The bar, which occupies the northeast corner of the Google building in the West Loop, […]
Ten best bets for fall movie releases
Battle of the Sexes The 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King was a carnival—the equal rights movement as prime-time game show, broadcast on ABC to an audience of 90 million. This makes it fine material for the offbeat comic filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), and publicity materials […]
Five best bets for fall dance 2017
Shen Wei, Reggie Wilson’s Citizen, Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming, and more
Ten best bets for fall lit
The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair The Hunting Accident is the story of how Charlie Rizzo uncovered the story of his father Matt’s friendship with his Stateville Prison cellmate Nathan Leopold, of Leopold and Loeb infamy. Carlson wrote that story down, and Blair illustrated it, and now it’s a handsome doorstop […]
Pat Hill’s legacy
The Chicago police officer and citizen activist was years ahead of her time.
Redmoon may be over, but Frank Maugeri is still going strong
The onetime artistic director of the defunct theater has a new nonprofit, the Cabinet of Curiosity Events.
A new dance company celebrates the ‘positive and peaceful places of the south side’
German dancer-choreographer Nejla Yatkin and the new South Chicago Dance Theatre put Jackson Park’s Garden of the Phoenix at the center of an immersive work.
The American Mercy Tour, United Flight 232, and ten more new stage shows
A dual-sided look at health care and an electrifying study of heroism are among this week’s best bets.
Chicago is Eve Ewing’s home, and her art
The U. of C. professor and Twitter star’s genre-defying debut book is the first part of a long-term creative project.