Welcome back to Chicago's Tuesday culture roundup, a quick and dirty guide to what's opening, closing, and buzzing in local arts each week. Note that this isn't a curated event list like Chicago's in-print Go Listings or weekly Chicago Guide—just a roundup of what's coming, going, and breaking throughout the city. Got a tip, quibble, or sweet nothing? Let us know in the comment section.
News
St. Vincent will join Wire at DRILL: Chicago
Post-punks Wire are bringing their mini-fest DRILL to Chicago June 11–13, and announced yesterday that St. Vincent will join them onstage at Thalia Hall June 12 for an extended version of their song "Drill." Also playing the festival are Tim Hecker, White Lung, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Disappears, Olivia Block, and others.
NBC and Second City announce a new summer comedy festival
The NBCUniversal Second City Break Out Comedy Festival will highlight rising talent in sketch, improv, and standup at Up Comedy Club June 5–6. Tickets start at $20, and the event, hosted by Al Madrigal and Ron Funchess, will feature performances by Joel Boyd, Nigel Downer, Calvin Evans, Martin Morrow, Chucho Perez, Danielle Pinnock, Chris Redd, Jasbir Singh Velasquez, Kevin Vidal and Dominizuelan (Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo).
The Flat Iron Arts Building is now hosting comedy showcases
Per the Reader, Collaboraction's space in Wicker Park's Flat Iron Arts Building is now hosting an artist-run comedy showcase. Flat Iron Comedy's Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night shows at 7:30 and 9:30 will feature improv, standup, storytelling, sketch, music, and dance curated by a rotation of ensemble members.
Lil Durk shares the first single from his studio debut
Ahead of his studio debut Remember My Name, Englewood rapper Lil Durk has shared its first single "Like Me," featuring Jeremih. Stream the pop-steeped cut below.
Music Box GM Dave Jenning decamps
Dave Jennings, manager of the Music Box Theatre since 2009, last week told the Tribune he had taken a job with Sony's restoration team in Culver City, Calif. No word on his replacement.
Sicko Mobb drops a sunny sophomore mixtape
More than a year after the West-Side hip-hop duo's debut Super Saiyan Vol. 1, Lil Trav and Lil Ceno have shared Super Saiyan Vol. 2. The tape is a spring jam if ever there was one; stream below.
Opening
April 11: Spring Awakening, Fearless Theatre's boozed-up reimagination of Frank Wedekind's 1910 youth drama. Fearless Theatre at the Charnell House (3421 W. Fullerton)
Open Now: The Bird Feeder Doesn't Know, the world premiere of Todd Bauer's dramedy about an ailing couple's crawl toward assisted living an its toll on their palsied son. Raven Theatre (6157 N. Clark)
Open Now: Original Voices, a third annual group show featuring artists working in new and underexposed media. Ken Saudners Gallery (230 W. Superior)
Open Now: Balm in Gilead, Lanford Wilson's 1964 panorama of Manhattan's seediest diner. The Den Theatre (1329 N. Milwaukee)
Open Now: Our Bad Magnet: Three Scottsmen bore into a childhood friend's knack for tall tales. Angel Island (735 W. Sheridan)
Open Now: Song About Himself, Mickle Maher's take on post-Internet degeneration of language. Theater Oobleck at Storefront Theater, Gallery 37 Center for the Arts (66 E. Randolph)
Open Now: Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Nora and Delia Ephron's ode to women and the clothes that color them. First Folio Theatre at Mayslake Peabody Estate (1717 W. 31st)
Open Now: Title and Deed, Pulitzer finalist Will Eno's one-man travelogue. Lookingglass Theatre (821 N. Michigan)
Open Now: La Bête, a comedy written entirely in couplets. Trap Door Theatre (1655 W. Cortland)
Open Now: End Days, Windy City Playhouse's Henry Godinez–directed debut. Windy City Playhouse (3014 W. Irving Park)
Open Now: The One and Only Ivan, LifeLine's kid-friendly take on Katherine Applegate's bestselling children's book. LifeLine Theatre (6912 N. Glenwood)
Open Now: Outside Mullingar, the Chicago premiere of John Patrick Shanley's comedy about two shy lovers in rural Ireland. Northlight at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Blvd.)
Open Now: The Hammer Trinity, Nathan Allen and Chris Mathews's six-hour BYO marathon play. The House Theatre of Chicago at Chopin Theatre (1543 W. Division)
Open Now: The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by the unerring Kimberly Senior. Writers Theatre at Books on Vernon (664 Vernon, Glencoe)
Open Now: Marie Antoinette, David Adjmi's hyper-modern take on the young French queen's tale. Steppenwolf Theatre (1650 N. Halsted)
Open Now: Game of Thongs: A Game of Thrones Burlesque. Breasteros. Yep. Gorilla Tango Theatre (1919 N. Milwaukee)
Closing
April 10: The Full Monty, a musical based on the 1997 film in which a group of pink-slipped steelworkers turn to stripping to support their families. Kokandy at Theater Wit (1229 W. Belmont)
April 10: Red & Cyan: 3D Anaglyph, Degenerate Gallery's first group show of entirely three-dimensional work. Degenerate Art Gallery (5554 N. Winthrop)
April 11: Crime Then and Now, a Roosevelt exhibit that sets archival Tribune crime photography next to the paper's modern-day violence coverage. Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University (18 S. Michigan)
April 11: Cosmic Current, part one of a 40-year retrospective on sculptor, ceramicist, and filmmaker Philip J Capuano. Linda Warren Gallery (327 N. Aberdeen)
April 12: The Mecca Tales, in which five American Muslim women meet on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Chicago Dramatists at No Exit Cafe (6970 N. Glenwood)
April 12: A Midwinter Night's Tale: A Midsummer Night's Dream meets The Winter's Tale in the heart of the Polar Vortex. Duplicity Ensemble at Filament Theatre (4041 N. Milwaukee)
April 12: On An Average Day, in which two long-estranged brothers—one a golden boy, the other a schlub—reunite to sift through their past. Spartan Theatre at Collaboration (1579 N. Milwaukee)
April 12: Homefront, in which a Tennessee emigre returns home from New York to his rupturing family. Project 891 at Heartland Studio (7016 N. Glenwood)
April 16: The Illusion, Tony Kushner's adaptation of Pierre Corneille's labyrinthine tragedy L'Illusion Comique. Right Brain Project Rorschach (4001 N. Ravenswood)