ART
MAN RAY
“Conversion to Modernism: The Early Work of Man Ray,” drawings, photographs and magazines produced by the pioneering artist from 1907 to 1917; opens Saturday at the Terra Museum of American Art, 666 N. Michigan Ave.; free; 312-664-3939.
JAUME PLENSA
“Jaume Plensa,” works by the celebrated Spanish artist who is creating a fountain for Millenium Park; through March 27 at the Arts Club of Chicago, 201E. Ontario St.; free; 312-787-3997.
`SKIN TIGHT’
“Skin Tight: The Sensibility of the Flesh,” garments, photographs, video, installations by international designers; through May 9 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; $10 suggested admission; 312-280-2660.
— Alan G. Artner
ROCK
HOPEFEST
The 13th annual concert for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless will include Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo in a rare acoustic set, ex-New York Dolls singer David Johansen, Pinetop Perkins and Honeyboy Edwards, and the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra; 8 p.m. Sunday at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave.; $40-$100; 312-435-4548 or www.hopefestchicago.com.
CALIFONE
Rustic instruments and electronic experimentation coalesce into richly atmospheric tone poems as Tim Rutili and company unveil their new album, “Heron King Blues”; 10 p.m. Friday at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.; $8-$10; 773-276-3600.
MARCIA BALL
Roadhouse Texas piano boogie-woogie with a Cajun accent, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at FitzGerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn, $15; 708-788-6670.
ANDREUS
A hip-hop era take on the socially conscious music of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, 9 p.m. Saturday at Nevin’s Live, 1450 Sherman Ave., Evanston, $10; 847-869-0450.
— Greg Kot
CLASSICAL
ARS VIVA
Alan Heatherington will lead his Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra in a typically eclectic program to begin the new year. Concertmaster David Taylor will perform Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” on a program that also holds Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” Suite, Honegger’s “Pastoral d’ete” and the Mendelssohn “Italian” Symphony; 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie; $28 and $35; 847-673-6300.
WINTER CHAMBER FESTIVAL
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Pianist Daniel Barenboim joins musicians from the CSO and Staatskapelle Berlin for a program of works for strings and winds, including Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, as the fourth program of Northwestern University’s 2004 Winter Chamber Music Festival; 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; $10-$28; 847-467-4000.
BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the quartet members invited 10 of their favorite composers (including Sofia Gubaidulina, Nicholas Maw, Wynton Marsalis, Steven Mackey and Chicago’s Shulamit Ran) to write “commentaries” on selected contrapuncti from Bach’s unfinished “Art of the Fugue.” University of Chicago Presents Chamber Music Series; 8 p.m. Friday in Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St.; $11 and $30; 773-702-8068.
CHICAGO SINFONIETTA
Harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy is the soloist with Paul Freeman and the orchestra in his own Concerto in E-flat for Harmonica. Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the new Joan and Irving Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St. and 2:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at Dominican University, 7900 W. Division St., River Forest; Ticket price TBA; 312-236-3681.
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Chief conductor Sir Colin Davis will lead his venerable band in Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and Stravinsky’s complete “Firebird” ballet; 8 p.m. Friday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $37-$85; 312-294-3000.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
JAZZ FAIR
The highlight of the cold-weather season remains the unfortunately renamed Winter Delights Jazz Fair; highlights include Ernest Dawkins and the Chicago 12, 7 p.m. Thursday; Chicago Jazz Orchestra, 8 Bold Souls, Jody Williams Band and Jimmy Ellis Quartet with Dee Alexander, 7 p.m. to midnight Friday; jazz films, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday; Alejo Poveda, Conjunto and Josen Rendon, 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday; Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; free; 312-427-1676.
PAUL WERTICO
The brilliant Chicago musician collaborates with the Chicago Percussion All-Stars; 8 p.m. Saturday at Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; $12; 847-491-5441.
— Howard Reich
THEATER
`HAIRSPRAY’
Lots of fun, propelled by a strong Motowny score and a generally exhilarating brand of retro pop silliness. Plus-size 1962 Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad changes the course of civil rights history and becomes a local idol in the bargain. In director Jack O’Brien’s fine touring edition Tracy’s mom is played by Bruce Vilanch. For the Chicago engagement, the supporting role of Seaweed is played by Chester Gregory II; through Feb. 15 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theater, 24 W. Randolph St.; $37-$87; 312-902-1400.
`THE LION KING’
Director Julie 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 Sunday at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; $18-$82; 312-902-1400.
— Michael Phillips
`DOORS OPEN ON THE RIGHT’
Joshua Funk’s stellar, daring and frequently hilarious new revue on the Second City mainstage blames poor Steve Bartman (of Cubs choke infamy) for everything from fire to the lack of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The cast is young but the material is hot and Funk’s formative mastery of the Second City genre without recent peer; open run at Second City, 1616 N. Wells St.; $17-19; 312-337-3992.
`OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS’
Now remounted at the Mercury Theatre in proscenium form, Joe DiPietro’s proudly retro play is a shamelessly sentimental piece of emotional realism about an initially ungrateful young fellow who comes to understand the worth of his quartet of New Jersey grandparents only when he decides to move to Seattle to pursue his selfish career. Michael Weber’s production cuts the treacle with performances from a splendid quartet of veteran Chicago actors unafraid to wrestle with the meanness and insularity of old age, as well as the wisdom it imparts; through Jan. 25 at the Mercury Theatre, 3745 N. Southport Ave.; $38.50-$44.50; 773-325-1700.
`PANTS ON FIRE’
This 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 everywhere; open run at Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St.; $17-$19; 312-337-3992.
`ROSE RAGE’
Edward Hall’s wildly revisionist and controversial but indisputably vital and clear-eyed reduction of Shakespeare’s three “Henry VI” plays imagines a juicy butcher’s abattoir replete with a bloody floor. Deaths are accompanied by the live, on-stage slicing of real offal and animal flesh. Tension is underscored by the sharpening of knives. Anachronistic metaphors predominate. And the red-hot, two-part, six-hour show has actors both stomping happily on the flag of St. George and playing merry hell with the original text. The fascinating, thrilling end result — directed with oft-dazzling sizzle and superbly performed throughout — is Elizabethan history recast as bastard, blood-infested Jacobean tragedy; through Sunday at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier; $70; 312-595-5600.
–Chris Jones
MOVIES
`THE STATEMENT’
An intelligent, mature political thriller from Brian Moore’s 1996 novel about a besieged old Vichy collaborator (Michael Caine, brilliant as always) fleeing both the French police and a hit squad. Directed with classical precision by Norman Jewison, this is a good movie from an excellent cast (Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, Frank Finlay) and scenarist (Ronald Harwood of “The Pianist”). MPAA rating: R (for violence); Wilmette Theatre.
`THE COOLER’
Writer-director Wayne Kramer’s “The Cooler” may not be way cool, but it’s still a smart, gritty, atmospheric look at Las Vegas casino community, with bank-breaking performances from William H. Macy as a jinxed employee, Maria Bello as his hooker-playmate and Alec Baldwin as their bully-boy boss. Winner of several critics’ group awards, for Bello’s and Baldwin’s acting, it opens wide this weekend. MPAA rated R (for sexuality and language); area theaters.
`GIGI’
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One of the last classic MGM musicals, Minnelli’s multiple 1958 Oscar-winner “Gigi” is still a charmer. A witty, swell-elegant Lerner and Loewe adaptation of French novelist Colette’s tale of Gigi (Leslie Caron), an innocent young girl trained to be a consort in a Parisian fin de siecle milieu of casual sex and sophistication. With Maurice Chevalier (who steals the show), Louis Jourdan (who falls to Gigi) and Hermione Gingold (who remembers it well). Sunday and Wednesday, Gene Siskel Film Center; 164 N. State St., $8; 312-846-2600.
— Michael Wilmington