ART
CHICAGO, WINDOW ON THE WEST: ARTISTS AND PATRONS OF THE NEW FRONTIER, 1890-1940
Artworks examining a half-century of local patronage opens Saturday, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; $10 suggested admission; 312-443-3600.
THOMAS STRUTH: PICTURING THE WORLD
The first touring survey of the work of the renowned German color photographer; opens Saturday, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; $10; 312-280-2660.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: HELEN TORR, A RETROSPECTIVE
The first major retrospective for a little-known early modern painter, opens Saturday, Terra Museum of American Art, 666 N. Michigan Ave.; free; 312-664-3939.
–Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
CHAMBER FEST
The Perlman-Schmidt-Bailey Trio — Giora Schmidt, violin; Zuill Bailey, cello; and Navah Perlman, piano — will present piano trios by Schubert and Shostakovich at 8 p.m. Monday. The Russian-born pianist Vladimir Feltsman returns to perform the complete Bach “French” Suites at 8 p.m. Thursday. Ravinia Festival, Lake-Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; $25-$40, $10 lawn; 847-266-5100.
GRANT PARK FESTIVAL
Free festival concerts will move indoors this week to clear room at the lakefront for Taste of Chicago. Christopher Bell will lead his fine Grant Park Chorus in a cappella works by James Macmillan, Herbert Howells and Morten Lauridsen at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd.; and at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Rockefeller Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. Violinist Jennifer Koh will be the soloist with conductor Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra, playing works by Ravel and Saint-Saens at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave. 312-742-4763.
ROBERT SPANO
The dynamic American conductor will take charge of next weekend’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts at Ravinia. Miriam Fried, head of faculty at the festival’s Steans Institute, will perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at 8 p.m. Friday. Another virtuoso fiddler, Itzhak Perlman, joins Spano and the orchestra for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at 8 p.m. Saturday; Ravinia Festival, Lake-Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; $20-$60, $10 lawn; 847-266-5100.
–John von Rhein
MOVIES
AFRICAN DIASPORA FESTIVAL
The new-film showcase, a favorite for the last 10 years in New York City, travels for the first time to Chicago. Among the nine films will be Michel Ocelot’s marvelous multiprize-winning cartoon feature, “Kirikou and the Sorceress” at 1 p.m. Sunday; Rolf de Heer’s Australian aborigine adventure “The Tracker” at 7 p.m. Thursday; and Joel Zito Araujo’s probing Brazilian documentary on the lives of black actors, “Denying Brazil,” at 5 p.m. Sunday and at 7 p.m. Wednesday; Facets Cinemateque, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; $7; 773-281-4114.
–Michael Wilmington
ROCK
WIRE
English punk band reunites with a vengeance on a surprisingly hard-hitting new album, “Send”; Wednesday at Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave.; $18; 773-489-3160; and Thursday at the Abbey, 3420 W. Grace St.; $18; 773-478-4408.
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ERYKAH BADU
R&B chanteuse rarely sounds like she’s going through the motions in concerts that have a jam-session spontaneity, with main squeeze and Chicago homeboy Common likely to make a cameo appearance, Friday at the Taste of Chicago, Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park; free.
THE FALL
Immigration problems have forced these acerbic Brits to cancel a handful of dates in the last year, so don’t miss them this time; Saturday at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.; $18; 773-276-3600.
–Greg Kot
THEATER
HAPPY DAYS
This 1961 Samuel Beckett masterwork imagines one “heavenly day” after another, as lived by Winnie and Willie — a typical middle-class couple whose lives are filled with the typical quotidian nonsense and small talk. The Hypocrites production directed by Sean Graney is very smart, adding just enough “theater” — a subtle but active lighting design, clever variations in mood and intimations of mortality — to enliven a marvelously exact but tricky text; through July 6 at Stage Left Theatre, 3408 N. Sheffield Ave.; $12-$15; 312-409-5578.
JOURNEY’S END
Stiff upper lips, 50 yards from the front lines. R.C. Sherriff’s World War I trench drama, set in a British officers’ dugout about to be battered by the Germans, remains a hardy and satisfying ode to grace under pressure. The David Cromer-directed Senachai Theatre Company staging is modest but deft and atmospheric, especially well-acted in the smaller roles; through July 5 at Breadline Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice Ave.; $22; 773-878-3727.
— Michael Phillips
THE NEUTRINO PROJECT
Composed of an improvised film that’s prepared, performed, shot, distributed and exhibited in less than an hour, `The Neutrino Project’ is a fresh, funny and remarkably inventive show; ends June 28 at Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway; $15; 773-472-3492.
THINGS BEING WHAT THEY ARE
This funny, charming and rather moving play from Wendy MacLeod probes the vulnerabilities of heterosexual, middle-class, decaying maleness with such good humor, affection and incisive accuracy you’d swear it was penned by a moonlighting sportscaster from Cleveland; through June 29 at Steppenwolf Garage, 1626 N. Halsted St.; $12; 312-335-1650.
–Chris Jones