01/25/08

Tennessee Titan

Tennesseein’ Is Believin’

A new play by Tennessee Williams—who’s been dead, remember, for nearly 25 years—doesn’t come around every day. Which makes the world première of The Day on Which a Man Dies a big deal. The show doesn’t open until next Friday, February 1st, but due to its limited six-performance run in the intimate Links Hall (3435 N. Sheffield Ave.; 800-838-3006), you might want to call for tickets now. (Full disclosure: A later version of the play circa 1970, significantly different but with the same title, has been produced once before, in 2001 at Connecticut’s White Barn Theater.) David Kaplan, director of the Links Hall run, has an ongoing relationship with the Williams estate, and he’s staging this production with precise fidelity to Williams’s words and notes. Completed in 1959 and inspired in part by the Japanese poet Yukio Mishima and in part by Jackson Pollock, the play includes elements of Japanese dance and...

Posted at 10:11 AM in Marquee | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/18/08

Mug for the Camera

Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

Posted at 08:40 AM in Marquee | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/11/08

Trock and Roll

The Pocket Guide to Sex

David Sedaris’s January shows at Steppenwolf sold out long ago, but seats are still available for the theatre’s funny, poignant Traffic Series, focusing on what it means to be an American. Next up: radio personality Sharon McGhee’s The PocketBook Monologues, an African American response to The Vagina Monologues, about sex and intimacy among women of color. (The show’s title refers not to a purse but to a polite euphemism for a certain part of the female anatomy.) Showtime is 7 p.m. Monday the 14th in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theatre (1650 N. Halsted St.; 312-335-1650). Tickets are $35.

Best Bets for Things to Do This Week...

Posted at 08:36 AM in Marquee | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/04/08

The Circus, Canadians Come to Town

Outlook: Sketchy
The presents have been exchanged; the Champagne has been drained; all that remains on your holiday to-do list is embarking on those lofty New Year’s resolutions—to which we say, let the procrastination commence! One handy time filler: the seventh annual Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival. Featuring 125 sketch-comedy acts from across North America, Sketchfest gives you plenty of excuses to put off until tomorrow what you could do today. Highlights include a musical bit, Sex, Cubs & Rock ’n’ Roll, from local pH productions, Friday the 4th at 8 p.m., and the no-holds-barred festival closers, Suspicious Clowns, Sunday the 13th at 7 p.m. Performances take place at Theatre Building Chicago (1225 W. Belmont Ave.; 773-327-5252); ticket prices vary, though most shows run about $12. Visit chicagosketchfest.com for...

Posted at 07:37 AM in Marquee | Permalink | Comments (0)