ART
RUTH DUCKWORTH AND MARTIN PURYEAR
The sculptors speak about their lives as artists as part of an Art Resources in Teaching benefit event; 6 p.m. Wednesday, Rubloff Auditorium, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. $25. 312-332-0355.
`THE ARTFUL TEAPOT: 20TH CENTURY EXPRESSIONS FROM THE KAMM COLLECTION’
More than 100 artists create 250 teapots and related materials; opens Saturday, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. Free. 312-744-6630.
`ON PAPER: NEW ACQUISITIONS OF AMERICAN ART’
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Fifteen masterworks on paper, all recent acquisitions or promised gifts, by such artists as J.M. Whistler, Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer; opens Saturday, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. $10 suggested admission. 312-443-3660.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
ROBERT KRITZ
The gifted Chicago composer is being doubly honored this week. The Orion Ensemble will open its season with performances of his “Connections,” for clarinet, strings and piano (along with works by Brahms and Mahler), at 7 p.m. Sunday in Fox Valley Unity Church, 230 Webster St., Batavia; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan Ave.; and 3 p.m. Oct. 19 in Winnetka Presbyterian Church, 1266 Willow Rd., Winnetka. Kritz’s Concerto for Saxophone will have its premiere by the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Edward Benyas conducting, in a free concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; works by Rossini and Copland complete that program. $8-$23; 630-628-9591.
CHICAGO CHAMBER MUSICIANS
The city’s flagship chamber music ensemble launches its 17th season with a late-Romantic rarity — Franz Schmidt’s lush Quintet for clarinet, strings and piano — on a program that includes Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, Stravinsky’s Octet for Winds and Beethoven’s String Quintet, with guest violist Richard Young of the Vermeer Quartet; 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; and 7:30 p.m. Monday at DePaul University Concert Hall, 804 W. Belden Ave.; $8-$30; 312-225-5226.
LA VENEXIANA
The ensemble of five voices and harpsichord, praised as the world’s leading specialist in the Italian madrigal repertory, launches the new season of Howard Mayer Brown International Early Music Series concerts. Madrigals and sacred songs by Monteverdi, Grandi and Donati make up the program; 8 p.m. Friday in Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, 1131 E. 57th St.; $11 and $30; 773-702-8068.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
ORLANDO `MARACA’ VALLE
With Cuban musicians finding it increasingly difficult to get into the United States, the local appearance by the brilliant flutist-bandleader from Havana is a major event; 9:30 p.m. Thursday at Joe’s, 940 Weed St.; $15; 312-337-3486.
JASON MORAN
One of the most original, stylistically eclectic pianists in jazz returns to Chicago with his Bandwagon, with tenor saxophonist Von Freeman as guest; 9 p.m. Saturday at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive; $20; 312-362-9707.
— Howard Reich
ROCK
BETH GIBBONS AND RUSTIN MAN
Gibbons, the haunted voice in the trip-hop duo Portishead, returns with more shadowy pop dirges; Wednesday at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.; $20; 773-549-4140.
GORKY’S ZYGOTIC MYNCI
Long-running Welsh band specializes in melancholy orchestral pop, Wednesday at the Abbey, 3420 N. Grace St.; $12; 773-478-4408.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
As the opener for Neil Young’s summer arena tour, the Louisiana native has never sounded more confident or powerful on a concert stage; with the Jayhawks, Thursday at Riviera Theatre; 4746 N. Racine Ave.; $28.50; 773-275-6800.
RANDY NEWMAN
Master songwriter (“Rednecks,” “Baltimore,” “It’s Money That I Love” and, yes, “Short People”) on a rare solo piano tour; Thursday at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave.; $40; 312-559-1212.
HANDSOME FAMILY
Brett and Rennie Sparks update mountain soul and the murder ballad for an audience raised on punk rock and urban mayhem; Friday and Saturday at the Abbey, 3420 W. Grace St.; $15; 773-478-4408.
NILE
Death metal goes to Egypt with serpentine arrangements and Middle Eastern imagery; Saturday at the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave.; $21; 773-472-0449.
— Greg Kot
MOVIES
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FILM FESTIVAL, WEEK 2
Top picks this week include Rituparno Ghosh’s “Chokher Bali: A Passion Play,” from India; Andre Techine’s “Strayed,” from France; Tsai Ming-liang’s “Goodbye Dragon Inn,” from Taiwan; Jonathan Demme’s “The Agronomist,” from the U.S.; Samira Makhmalbaf’s “At Five in the Aferneoon,” from Iran; Christoffer Boe’s “Reconstruction,” from Denmark; Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions,” from Canada; Peter Hedges’ “Pieces of April,” from the U.S.; Raoul Ruiz’s “A Taste for Murder,” from France; Billy Ray’s “Shattered Glass,” from the U.S.; and Peter Greenaway’s “The Tulse Luper Suitcases,” from Britain. Admission: $10 (non-members), $8 (non-members). Call 312-332-FILM for schedules and information, 312-902-1500 or www.chicagofilmfestival.com.
`MYSTIC RIVER’
Director Clint Eastwood’s best movie since 1992’s Oscar-winning “Unforgiven.” A great cast — Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney tell the tale of three Boston working-class family friends scarred by abduction and abuse and, 25 years later, by murder. Modern noir at its best. MPAA rating: R. Playing in selected theaters.
— Michael Wilmington
THEATER
`ANNA IN THE TROPICS’
With atmosphere thicker than the Tolstoy novel inspiring it, Nilo Cruz’s 1929-set story takes place in a love-starved cigar factory outside Tampa. Following a fast-fading oral tradition, a charismatic new lector entertains the workers with “Anna Karenina.” Before long, he is entertaining himself with an affair with one of the owners’ daughters. It’s a charming tribute to the power of great literature and a good smoke. This Midwest premiere, staged efficiently by Henry Godinez, boasts a couple of superb performances: those of smoky-voiced Charin Alvarez’s Conchita and, as her soulfully eagle-eyed mother, Sandra Marquez’s Ofelia; through Oct. 26 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $22-$35; 773-871-3000.
`THE UNDERPANTS’
Steve Martin adapts a pre-World War I German comedy, about a comely hausfrau’s inadvertent flashing incident during a state parade and its social aftermath. The play is a charming oddity, and though unevenly cast, director Karen Kessler’s Chicago premiere of “The Underpants” features some terrific preening from Timothy Edward Kane’s lecherous boarder; Danny McCarthy’s strutting martinet Theo; and Kathy Logelin’s plaintively yearning Louise, owner and operator of the titular garments; through Saturday at Noble Fool Theater Co., 16 W. Randolph St.; $33-$44; 312-726-1156.
— Michael Phillips
`SWEET AND HOT’
Since 2005 will be the centennial of Harold Arlen’s birth, the life and works of the prolific but oft-neglected American songwriter are on the cusp of a huge and well-deserved increase in visibility. And by the beginning of that year, the venerable Drury Lane Theatre in Evergreen Park will be a Wal-Mart. Director Marc Robin’s production of the revue “Sweet and Hot” is the last show at the theater, so it’s an understandably emotional affair wherein the innumerable Arlen standards — “Stormy Weather,” “Paper Moon,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “That Old Black Magic” — are performed with the requisite technique and panache by the solid five-person cast of Roberta Duchak, Karla L. Beard, Stanley White, Paul Scrofano and Curt Dale Clark; through Sunday at the Drury Lane Theatre, Evergreen Park; $21-26; 708-422-0404.
— Chris Jones