 WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY? Druid Theatre Company’s The Cripple of Inishmaan is at
Chicago Shakespeare for less than two weeks? And tickets are going quickly?
THE FIVE
Don’t-miss picks for Wed 03.16.11 through Tue 03.22.11:
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museums Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life
The latest in the blockbuster Body Worlds franchise makes its U.S. premiere at the MSI with a look at the innards of some of the longest-living people on earth. You may feel like one of them by the time the exhibition line finally starts moving.
GO: 3/18–9/5. Through 3/18, the museum is open daily 9:30–4; from 3/19, open daily 9:30–5:30. See website for extended exhibition hours. $18–$27 includes general admission (advance ticketing recommended; kids under 13 must be accompanied by an adult). Museum of Science and Industry, 57th and Lake Shore. msichicago.org
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theatre The Cripple of Inishmaan
St. Pat’s for the thinking drinkers: Martin McDonagh’s yarn about an Aran Islander dreaming of Hollywood is as potent as bathtub poteen and as profane as a poxy sailor. And Galway’s Druid Theatre Company? One of the greatest Irish imports since whiskey.
GO: 3/16–27. $46–$56. Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier, 800 E Grand. chicagoshakes.com
ALSO THIS WEEK: Working, the musical take on Studs Terkel’s tome, continues to sing the blue-collar blues, with talkbacks featuring hard-working Chicagoans and local media types following select performances. On 3/16, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!’s Peter Sagal and his wife, Beth, share emcee duties. Don’t wait; don’t miss it.
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classical MusicNow
One bid for bringing in a younger crowd that we can get behind: The CSO’s lively composers-in-residence, Mason Bates and Anna Clyne, wrap their first successful season with two world premieres of their own, Stereo Is King and Spangled Unicorn, putting the phon—er, fun—back in symphony.
GO: 3/21 at 7. $20. Harris Theater, 205 E Randolph. cso.org
ALSO THIS WEEK: Lucy Crowe, onstage now in Lyric’s smash hit Hercules, sings a more intimate concert of works 3/17–20 with Baroque Band.
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farrago Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo
The Vampire Diaries’ Candice Accola and Michael Trevino, Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett, The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal and Laurie Holden, True Blood’s Sam Trammell, G4’s Chris Hardwick, and go-to sci-fi gal Eliza Dushku: If any of these names need more explanation, you’re not the right demo. In which case, go for Rick Bayless.
GO: 3/18–20. $20–$30 per day; $45–$60 weekend pass. West Building, McCormick Place, 2301 S Lake Shore. c2e2.com
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concerts Robyn Hitchcock and Joe Boyd: Live and Direct from 1967
The record producer Boyd reads from White Bicycles, a memoir of his successes with such famed acts as Nick Drake and Pink Floyd, while the psychedelic cult hero Hitchcock plays some of those musicians’ hits. An oldie—but groovy.
GO: 3/19 at 7 and 10. $31–$35. Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N Lincoln. oldtownschool.org
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WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND
Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals (a.k.a. people we like): YOU. Post a comment below about what you’re doing this weekend. Hey, we’re curious.
FREEBIES OF THE WEEK
concerts Disappears
With one disclaimer—the MCA’s fourth-Tuesday music series isn’t called Face the Strange for nothing—we enthusiastically recommend this next installment, featuring the local experimentalists Disappears. The band includes members of other beloved Chicago acts (The Ponys, 90 Day Men), plus Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth. Strange never sounded so good.
GO: 3/22 at 6. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Chicago. mcachicago.org
dance Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
For the full HSDC experience, you can see the troupe perform works by two prominent Israeli choreographers, Sharon Eyal and Ohad Naharin, in its mainstage show a few blocks north at the Harris. But a freer—as in both “improvised” and “no charge”—performance unspools at the Art Institute, inspired by the return of Marc Chagall’s America Windows.
GO: 3/17 at 6. Fullerton Hall, Art Institute, 111 S Michigan. artinstitutechicago.org
concerts The Polkaholics
What’s more Irish than a polka band and bowling? If you answered “everything,” you’re right—although we’d wager the same about most Chicago bars whose names end in “Pub.” For a refreshingly upfront night of inauthenticity, head to Lincoln Square Lanes, where this novelty act’s set list includes the songs “Is Ronald McDonald Irish?” and “Blarney Stone Polka.”
GO: 3/17 from 8 to midnight. Bowling and beer additional. Lincoln Square Lanes, 4874 N Lincoln, second floor. thepolkaholics.com
lit Story Week Festival
Still to come in Columbia College’s annual ode to the written word: Irvine Welsh, the Trainspotting author and now Chicagoan, reading at DJ’ing at Metro; chats and panels featuring the playwrights Regina Taylor and Tanya Saracho, the author Audrey Niffenegger, and Dan “Fake Rahm” Sinker; plus, a who’s who of local literati—Alex Kotlowitz, WBEZ’s Steve Edwards, Booklist’s Donna Seaman, Chicago’s own Richard Babcock—reading works by their favorite authors.
GO: Story Week continues through 3/18. See the full schedule
galleries The Op Shop
Hyde Park’s serial pop-up gallery-slash-community-space, The Opportunity Shop, returns with a new mandate: urban agriculture. Over the next two months, volunteers will tend a crop of seedlings to be replanted across the South Side; a spate of related events is scheduled throughout, but this Sunday—the spring equinox—is prime time for green thumbs, with a seed swap at 2, a potluck and celebration of the changing seasons at 5:30, and a screening of Dirt! The Movie at 7:30.
GO: Programming on 3/20 runs from 2 to 8:30. Op Shop IV: Spotlight on Urban Farming continues through 4/30. The Op Shop, 1001 E 53rd. theopshop.org
Photograph: Ros Kavanagh
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