ART
AROUND THE COYOTE FALL ARTS FESTIVAL
The annual interdisciplinary celebration; opens 8:30 p.m. Thursday and ends Sept. 7; 1935 W. North Ave. and environs; $20 Thursday, $5 Friday-Sunday; 773-342-6777.
PAUL GAUGUIN AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Forty works on paper by the great post-Impressionist from a recent gift to the museum, observing the centenary of Gauguin’s death; opens Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; $10 suggested admission; 312-443-3600.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
LABOR DAY SPECTACULAR
Daniel Rodriguez joins conductor Erich Kunzel and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra for an annual holiday concert of classics and light classics — including, of course, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” complete with cannon volleys; 7 p.m. Monday at the Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; $30-$40; 847-266-5100.
STARS OF LYRIC OPERA
Lyric’s fourth annual free concert at Grant Park offers the usual stellar array of singers from the fall roster (also guests), including Ben Heppner, Ruth Ann Swenson, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Angelika Kirschschlager and others. Lyric music director Andrew Davis will preside over the Lyric Opera Orchestra in the program of favorite arias, ensembles and overtures. In all, a perfect prelude to the opera season; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Petrillo Music Shell, Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard; free; 312-332-2244.
WOMEN OF SONG
Two popular Chicago singers, Patrice Michaels and Suzanne Mentzer, will present free recitals on the same afternoon. Soprano Michaels will join with pianist Ana Cervantes to perform “Fuego en el Sangre — Fire in the Blood,” a program of Spanish and English songs; 3 p.m. Sept. 7 in Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; free; 312-744-6630. Mezzo Mentzer will substitute for the previously announced Stephanie Blythe in a song recital to benefit Soli Deo Gloria, a non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning new sacred classical works; 4 p.m. Sept. 7 in College Church, 332 E. Seminary Ave., Wheaton; free; 630-231-5828.
CHICAGO A CAPPELLA
The nine-voice vocal ensemble under Jonathan Miller’s direction celebrates its 10th anniversary by presenting the world premiere of “The West Lake,” a work by Chinese composer Chen Yi commissioned for the occasion. The program also includes spirituals, Renaissance polyphony, vocal jazz and pop; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.; 8 p.m. Sept. 13 at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St., Oak Park; and 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at Northwestern University’s Lutkin Hall, 700 University Pl., Evanston; $12-$25; 773-755-1628.
More Top Picks Best Portable Solar Panels
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
TERENCE BLANCHARD
The formidable trumpeter, fresh from an appearance at the Chicago Jazz Festival, turns to a more acoustically friendly setting for a weeklong engagement; Tuesday through Sunday at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $20; 312-670-2473.
— Howard Reich
MOVIES
THIRTEEN
One of the prize American indies of the year serves up the fast-lane life among “ordinary” adolescent girls in a Los Angeles-area school, a life encompassing sex, drug use and petty crime. The remarkable cast is topped by Evan Rachel Wood as the sensitive Tracy, co-writer Nikki Reed as bad girl Evie and Holly Hunter as Tracy’s frazzled, well-intentioned mother, Melanie. Selected theaters.
TOPS AT THE SISKEL
A strong week at the Gene Siskel Film Center includes a variety of classics and first-rate films. Among them: a week run of Luchino Visconti’s 1960 Italian epic of poverty and crime in Milan, “Rocco and His Brothers,” Sunday through Thursday; George Cukor’s sparkling 1940 romantic comedy with Katharine Hepburn, “The Philadelphia Story,” Sunday; another Hepburn classic, Gregory La Cava’s 1938 backstage comedy-drama “Stage Door,” Monday; three classic French “heist” film noirs, including Jules Dassin’s 1955 “Rififi,” Sunday; Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1970 “Le Cercle Rouge,” with Alain Delon, on Monday; and Melville’s 1955 “Bob le Flambeur,” Sunday and Wednesday; 164 N. State St.; $8; 312-846-2600.
FLYNN AS ROBIN HOOD
The Errol Flynn version of “The Adventures of Robin Hood” is Hollywood’s best-loved Golden Age swashbuckler, with Flynn as roguish Robin, Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, Alan Hale, Eugene Pallette and others. Digitally restored; the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; $8.50; 773-871-6604.
— Michael Wilmington
ROCK
THE EX
Dutch agit-punks have been one of rock’s most subversively joyous forces since 1979, and they’ll jam with Chicago free-jazz innovators Ken Vandermark and Hamid Drake; Thursday at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.; $8; 773-276-3600; they follow with a rock set, Friday at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St., $12; 773-478-4408.
THE NATIONAL
Mood merchants from New York, via Ohio, sound like they’ve been schooled on Joy Division, Scott Walker and Leonard Cohen; Thursday at Nevin’s Live, 1450 Sherman Ave., Evanston; $8; 847-869-0450; and Saturday with the Standard at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport Ave.; $10; 773-525-2508.
E*I*E*I*O
Wisconsin’s answer to the Blasters celebrates their 20th anniversary of roots rock, country ‘n’ soul; Friday at Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont Ave.; $7; 773-774-6599.
ERASE ERRATA
Jagged dance grooves from next wave West Coast riot grrrl band; Saturday at the Hideout’s seventh annual Block Party, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave.; $10; 773-227-4433.
— Greg Kot
THEATER
A CHORUS LINE
The 1975 celebration of Broadway hopes and dreamers has returned, and if you haven’t seen “A Chorus Line” in a while, you may be surprised how well it holds up. Director/choreographer Rudy Hogenmiller has worked this material in various incarnations (including the 1977 L.A. premiere) for a quarter-century, and he knows every single move, nuance and surefire touch the original director, Michael Bennett, brought to this project. Uneven to be sure, the cast is very good on the high end. The show remains a fiendishly effective backstager; through Sept. 21 at Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind.; $25-$30; 800-955-5566.
THE LION KING
Director Julie Taymor’s visions of the African food chain — giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, mice and, of course, a pride of lions — were worth the wait. Taymor and company’s gorgeous, supple visual achievements take your breath away. Half the score’s lovely too; arranger Lebo M one-ups the weak Elton John/Tim Rice songs without even trying. Chicago’s own Larry Yando snarls artfully as the villainous Scar; Rafiki the baboon, played by South African performer Thandazile A. Soni, is pure delight; through Nov. 23 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; $18-$82; 312-902-1400.
MAMMA MIA!
The beloved spandex songbirds of Sweden known as ABBA provide the backbeat in what amounts to karaoke for the masses. Against long odds the show is a good time, exuberantly brainless in its appeal, and just this side of pushy. The story, set on a Greek island, has something to do with a young bride-to-be’s search for her father, and the bride’s mother’s vexation at having three of her old fellas around. Who’s the pop? Who cares? Where’s the pop? It’s everywhere, and hits such as “Take a Chance on Me” and “Dancing Queen” retain a mysterious allure; through Sept. 27 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.; $37-$78; 312-902-1400.
THE MOUSETRAP
For 51 years, Agatha Christie’s snowbound murder mystery has been playing its crafty shell game all over the world, on stages large and small. Set among a deeply suspect group of travelers stuck in Monkswell Manor, with a killer among them, “The Mousetrap” minted a host of whodunit cliches, while drawing on dozens more from earlier mysteries, Christie’s own and others’. The Drury Lane Oakbrook rendition is zestily acted and nicely paced. Fiona Bergin, David Lively, Susan Allison Miller, Brian J. Gill and, as the mysterioso Italian interloper, John Reeger top an engaging ensemble; through Oct. 5 at Drury Lane Oakbrook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace; $19-$25 (dinner theater packages from $38.75); 630-530-0111.
More Top Picks Shark Ai
— Michael Phillips
LOST IN YONKERS
Despite its titular wit, this is not Neil Simon’s funniest or most unified play. But “Lost in Yonkers,” the object of an intriguing and enjoyable little Eclipse Theatre revival from director Steve Scott, remains Simon’s most revelatory and complex comedy about familial agony. It’s CeCe Klinger who shines most here: Her gutsy Bella is like a squishy piece of Jell-O in the July sun, wobbling and rebelling in the burning face Grandma Kurnitz’s maternal tyranny; ends Sunday at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., $12-$22; 773-871-3000.
PANTS ON FIRE
Mendacity may be older than the republic, but this still is an unusually fertile time for this lively, exuberant and very funny new comedy revue at the spunky Second City e.t.c., which, thanks to an especially talented current cast, continues to beat the pants off the more staid Second City mainstage. Director Joshua Funk and his youthful coterie see and debunk liars — be they personal or professional — everywhere; open run at Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St.; $17-$19; 312-337-3992.
— Chris Jones