Redmoon's latest extravaganza, Spectacle '09, runs through Sunday at Belmont Harbor.
‘CINDERELLA STORIES Two iconic Lucindas celebrate 30-year milestones.

THE FIVE-ish

There’s so much going on this week, we resort to fuzzy math to make it add up to five. Our don’t-miss picks for Wed 10.07.09 through Tue 10.13.09:

1

concerts dance Lucinda, Lucinda
The drawling country rocker Lucinda Williams celebrates her 30th year as a recording artist with three career-spanning shows at Park West. Meanwhile, the postmodern choreographer Lucinda Childs limbers up for the 30th-anniversary reprise of her blockbuster collaboration with Philip Glass, Dance, by introducing and discussing Lucinda Childs, a documentary on her early work, at the MCA.
GO: Williams: Oct 13-15 at 7:30. $35. Park West, 322 W Armitage. ticketmaster.com. Childs: (Screening) Oct 13 at 6. Free. (Performances) Oct 16 at 9; Oct 17 at 7:30. $10-$40. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Michigan. mcachicago.org
2

classical Josh, Josh
Joshua Bell, the blockbuster violinist, is generally considered a classical-music heartthrob, while Joshua Roman, the 25-year-old YouTube Symphony member and former Seattle Symphony principal, has been dubbed a classical rock star. We say both are safe bets, but it’s hard to go wrong with this week’s classical options, including Dame Evelyn Glennie with Orquestra de São Paulo, Alex Klein with Baroque Band, and Christian Tetzlaff playing Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin.
GO: Bell: Oct 7 at 6:30; Oct 8-10 at 8. $22-$129. Symphony Center, 220 S Michigan. cso.org. Roman, with the New Philharmonic: Oct 9, 10 at 8. $25-$35. McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd, Glen Ellyn. atthemac.org
3

theatre The House on Mango Street, Fedra: Queen of Haiti
Two biggie adaptations open on Chicago stages this week. In Steppenwolf’s Mango Street, the local playwright Tanya Saracho reworks Sandra Cisneros’s canonical young-adult novel set in Chicago. Every female who is, or ever was, 13 waits with baited breath. In Lookingglass’s Fedra, J. Nicole Brooks takes the tragic Greek myth of a woman who falls for her stepson and sets it in Haiti, with herself in the title role. Like Cougar Town in the tropics—except we actually want to see it.
GO: Mango Street: Oct 13–Nov 8. $10-$20. Steppenwolf for Young Adults at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N Halsted. steppenwolf.org. Fedra: Previews through Oct 9; run continues through Nov 15. $28-$62. Lookingglass Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 821 N Michigan. lookingglasstheatre.org
4

museums Califone, The Seldoms
Up next: Local museums get hip. At the MCA, the dreamy Chicago group Califone presents twin projects worthy of its experimental rep: a new album-as-soundtrack, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, played live alongside the premiere of frontman Tim Rutili’s feature film of the same name. And at LUMA: The Seldoms. The Chicago dance company whose performances most closely resemble art installations presents a response to the museum’s current exhibition on American abstract artists. A discussion and reception with the dancers follows, with cocktails by The Violet Hour (more art, this time in a glass).
GO: Califone: Oct 10, 11 at 7:30. $10-$20. Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E Michigan. mcachicago.org. The Seldoms: Oct 9 at 6. $30. Loyola University Museum of Art, 820 N Michigan. theseldoms.org
5

farrago Chicago Overcoat
And finally: Chicago’s underbelly, as envisioned by a pack of 20-something Columbia College grads. It’s a tale of kids made good (or, considering the subject matter, just made): For its debut flick, the nascent group of filmmakers known as Beverly Ridge Pictures managed to woo actors including Stacy Keach, Armand Assante, The Sopranos’ Frank Vincent—and Dominic Capone, Al’s great-nephew. See the film’s world premiere this week, part of the Chicago International Film Festival.
GO: Oct 10 at 7:30 (red carpet at 7); Oct 11 at 12:45; Oct 19 at 8:45. $9-$12. AMC River East, 322 E Illinois. chicagofilmfestival.org

FREEBIES OF THE WEEK

museums With Malice Toward None
No one else’s lint is half as fascinating. Of all the odes to Lincoln’s 200th, this one, organized by the Library of Congress and featuring the contents of Abe’s pockets the night he was assassinated, is our top pick. Also on view: the Bible on which he took the oath of office in 1861 (also used to swear in Obama); Abe’s own scrapbook of press clippings, complete with handwritten marginalia, on the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and a hastily scribbled transcription of his Farewell Address to Springfield, a task handed over to an underling when, in bidding Illinois adieu, Abe grew overwhelmed by emotion.
GO: Oct 10–Dec 19: Open Mon, Fri, Sat 8:15-5; Tue-Thu 8:15-7:30. Newberry Library, 60 W Walton. www.newberry.org

farrago Art on Track
Chicago Artists Month happenings include this Orange Line party train powered by the arts group Salvo. Live mariachi music, people-watching: It’s just like rush hour—only fewer seats.
GO: Oct 10: 11-8. The train picks up riders at the Adams/Wabash stop and circles the Loop every 15 minutes. Donations accepted. chicagoartontrack.com

museums You! The Experience
Harry Potter has left the building, but the MSI debuts its new permanent exhibition with free weekday admission. YOU! turns our insides out with displays such as iSTAN, a computerized mannequin that lets museum-goers diagnose diseases; a digital imaging system that maps veins; and a giant heart that takes visitors’ pulses, then beats along in time.
GO: Opens Oct 8. Mon-Sat 9:30-4; Sun 11-4. Free admission Mon-Fri Oct 8-30; Sat, Sun $9-$13. 57th and Lake Shore. msichicago.org

Photography: (Lucinda Childs) Photo © Peggy Kaplan