ART
`KERRY JAMES MARSHALL: ONE TRUE THING, MEDITATIONS ON BLACK AESTHETICS’
A new installation of paintings, sculptures and videos, plus the work of three artists Marshall invited; opens Saturday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; $10 suggested admission; 312-280-2660.
`NEW VIBRATIONS: SIX CHICAGO ARTISTS WHO WORK WITH SOUND’
Through Nov. 8, Columbia College A+D Gallery, 72 E. 11th St.; free; 312-344-6156.
`SILVER’
Three-hundred years of silver jewelry and ornaments from Native North America; through Jan. 11 at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 2600 Central Park Ave., Evanston; $5 suggested admission; 847-475-1030.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
REMBRANDT PLAYERS
The Rembrandt Chamber Players’ new season begins in a new venue, the acoustically superb Music Institute of Chicago-Evanston, in Evanston. The season-opening program holds Carl Nielsen’s Woodwind Quintet, Hasenoehrl’s wind arrangement of Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel” and the Faure Piano Quartet in C Minor; 5 p.m. Sunday, followed by a benefit at 7 at the Music Institute of Chicago-Evanston, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston; $28 for the concert only; 312-360-3145.
BELLA VOCE
Back by audience demand is “Bound Away,” a diverse program of folk songs, ballads, spirituals and choral arrangements from around the world, all sung by the chamber choir under Anne Heider’s direction; 8 p.m. Friday in St. James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron St.; 8 p.m. Saturday in Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 815 S. Washington St., Naperville; and 3 p.m. Oct. 26 in St. Joseph’s Church, 1747 Lake Ave., Wilmette; $10-$25; 312-461-0723.
CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER PLAYERS
Chicago’s oldest and most important new-music ensemble opens its season with three works never before heard by local audiences: Osvaldo Golijov’s “Last Round,” for double string quartet and bass; Dorothy Chang’s “Wind/Unwind,” for winds, strings and piano; and Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Perception,” for soprano, baritone, string sextet and tape. Cliff Colnot conducts the Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, and vocal soloists Tony Arnold and Steven Swanson; 7:30 p.m. Friday in the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St.; $11 for students and $20; 773-702-8068.
WILLIAM FERRIS CHORALE
Judith Willoughby, associate professor of conducting at Northwestern University, is guest conductor for the chorus’ season-opener, a harvest celebration that includes Copland’s “Old American Songs,” ragtime by Scott Joplin and blues by Jelly Roll Morton. Double bass player Michael Cameron is the soloist; 8 p.m. Friday, Mt. Carmel Church, 690 W. Belmont Ave; $16-$20; 773-325-2000.
— John von Rhein
MOVIES
`TAKING SIDES’
Director Istvan Szabo (“Mephisto”) and writer Ronald Harwood (“The Pianist”) give us an intelligent, moving and thrilling drama of ideas, a brilliant fact-based drama about the great German symphony conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler (Stellan Skarsgaard), battling to clear himself of WWII collaboration charges before a relentless American de-Nazification officer (Harvey Keitel). No MPAA rating; Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; $8.50; 773-871-6604.
`THE STATION AGENT’
The Sundance prize-winning tale of three outsiders — a reclusive train-loving dwarf (Peter Dinklage), a nervous woman (Patricia Clarkson) and a talkative fast-food van vendor (Bobby Cannavale) — who form an unlikely but likable trio in an isolated New Jersey town. MPAA rating: R.; at the Landmark Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark St.; $8; 773-509-4949.
`VERONICA GUERIN’
A true-life drama based on the brief but brilliant career of Guerin (Cate Blanchett), the newswoman who exposed Dublin’s ’90s narcotics gangs. Directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer — and not the sort of movie you’d expect from either of them — the film features memorable acting from Blanchett and Gerald McSorley, as the drug lord nemesis. MPAA rating: R. Now playing in select theaters.
`NOSFERATU’
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F.W. Murnau’s silent 1922 vampire film is a masterpeice of German cinema and is graced with mystical imagery and Max Schreck’s unforgettable performance as the undead lord of evil. With live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra; 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St.; free; 312-744-6630.
— Michael Wilmington
ROCK
THE STROKES
The kings of the garage revival resurface with a new album and even more carefully sculpted songs; Sunday at the Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $25; 312-559-1212.
SHELBY LYNNE
Despite its title, Lynne’s latest album “Identity Crisis,” presents the most direct and winning version of the country-soul singer yet; Tuesday at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St., $20; 773-478-4408.
GOV’T MULE
Guitar master Warren Haynes leads the heaviest and most soulful of the jam bands; Friday and Saturday at the Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield, $26; 773-472-0449.
CANNIBAL OX
One of hip-hop’s most innovative crews brings abstract beats, fierce tongue-twisting rhymes about a sci-fi future; with Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Friday at Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $15; 773-549-4140.
BEULAH
Indie-rock with orchestral flair delivered with exuberance and drive in concert; Saturday at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St., $12; 773-478-4408.
–Greg Kot
THEATER
`AZTEC HOTEL’
A fascinating hourlong dream. Making its U.S. debut at the Chopin Theatre, the five-person Polish troupe Teatr Cogitatur presents rapturous variations on a theme best known to American audiences by way of the Wim Wenders film “Wings of Desire.” A “white angel” and a “dark angel,” both winged and bare to the waist, eavesdrop on denizens of a hotel whose inhabitants deal with isolation, love and passionate devotion to vodka and cigarettes. (Polish, you know.) The after-effects of this precisely calibrated hallucination are mysteriously potent. Performed in English; 8 p.m. Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday only at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.; $15-$20; 773-278-1500.
`THE GOAT, OR, WHO IS SYLVIA?’
Edward Albee remains the American theater’s chief provocateur and chronicler of the heart’s darker, more acidic regions. In “The Goat,” a famous architect’s life is disrupted by an affair with, yes, a goat. It starts out funny, ends in bloody tragedy, and challenges audiences with an audacious blend of tones in between. Director Robert Falls’ Chicago premiere is a solidly powerful one, led by Barbara Robertson as the wrong’d wife and Patrick Clear as the conflicted two-timer; through Nov. 2 at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.; $30-$55; 312-443-3800.
— Michael Phillips
`DR. SEX’
Thanks to remarkably witty lyrics and a zestful and eminently hummable score, “Dr. Sex” is a strikingly fresh and remarkably entertaining little musical satire about Alfred Kinsey (of sexual report fame). This world premiere is an easygoing and eminently likeable R-rated blend of musical biography, Tom Lehrer-like parody, Midwestern sexual history and a permissive bacchanal. There’s more than enough sizzle, flesh and anti-puritan sentiment to attract the alternative crowd — and just enough old-fashioned theatrical wit and modesty not to turn off the mainstream fan of old-line musical comedy; through Oct. 26 at Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.; $25-30; 773-883-1090.
`OUR TOWN’
The first show in Writers’ classy and theatrically viable new home inside the Women’s Library Club of Glencoe, William Brown’s new production of Thornton Wilder’s oft-misunderstood existential classic is an uncommonly well-layered and unsentimental piece of directing, superbly cast with a peck of Chicago’s top tier of actors, brimming with adroit but unpretentious moments of deft human observation, and replete with just enough contemporary irony that the work feels fresh, clear and smart; through Dec. 7 at Writers’ Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe; $35-50; 847-242-6000.
— Chris Jones