theatre The Madame Barker Holiday Variety Show
If you loved Molly Brennan as Harpo Marx in this fall’s crowd-pleasing Animal Crackers at the Goodman, wait’ll you hear her in a speaking part. Brennan handles hostessing duties in the role of Madame Barker, the singing ringleader of a bawdy holiday variety show from the unclassifiably experimental troupe 500 Clown. Expect music, comedy, dancing, and magic from a roster of guests, including—tada!—onstage guacamole-making by Rick Bayless.
GO: Dec 4, 11 at 11. $10; reservations recommended. Prop Thtr, 3502 N Elston. madamebarker.com

ALSO THIS WEEK: More ways to get festive include the AIDS fundraiser World of Chocolate on Dec 3, featuring the drool-worthy handiwork of some 30 local chocolatiers, and the cycling community’s annual excuse to let its hair (further) down, the Bike Town Bash, on Dec 5.

galleries Freaks & Flash
Tattoos are mainstream now, but that’s a recent shift. A couple of generations back, ink was largely relegated to sailors and sideshow carnies—an era F&F revisits through a selection of drawings for tattoos (ie, flash) and circus banners depicting those who displayed their decorated bodies (freaks). Much of the work on view here, composed largely of the holdings of several Midwestern collectors, has never been seen outside the realm of tattoo shops. Check out the show on Thursday, then stick around for three short films on tattooing, with two of the filmmakers in attendance.
GO: Screening: Dec 3 at 6; $5-$10. Exhibition continues through Jan 9. Intuit, 756 N Milwaukee. art.org

theatre American Buffalo, Icarus
Playwright David Mamet + director Amy Morton + a cast including Tracy Letts = If you see only one play in December, make it the one that put Mamet on the map. If you see two plays, make the second the story of a man who fell to earth, brought down by a deadly combination of wax wings and hubris. Icarus director/adapter David Catlin knows his way around fantastical voyages: He created the wonderland that is Lookingglass Alice.
GO: Buffalo: Previews through Dec 12; $20-$53. Regular run $20-$77. Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N Halsted. steppenwolf.org. Icarus: Previews Dec 5-12. Regular run through Jan 24. All tic kets $18-$62. Lookingglass Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 821 N Michigan. lookingglasstheatre.org

classical Eighth Blackbird
If anyone can make something atonal and alien even slightly accessible, it’s these guys. While moving about the stage in choreographed theatrics, the virtuosic sextet performs—from memory, no less—a new take on Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, with dramatic narration in German by the soprano Lucy Shelton.
GO: Dec 8 at 7:30. $10-$30. Harris Theater, 205 E Randolph. harristheaterchicago.org

ALSO THIS WEEK: If you missed the groundbreaking Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s appearance with the local new-music group ICE a couple of weeks back, here’s a do-over, of sorts: Saariaho won’t be in attendance, but you can hear the U.S. premiere of her Calices, as played by another local group, Dal Niente, on Dec 3.