ART
`ON WITH THE SHOW!’
With photographers Victor Skrebneski, Tom Maday and Michael Voltattorni, nearly 40 black-and-white images of the support staff of Chicago theaters opens Friday; City Gallery, Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan Ave.; free; 312-742-0808.
`IN MEMORY: THE IRAQ WAR, MARCH 19, 2003- … ‘
A continually evolving installation by Jean Perkins opens Saturday; Three Arts Club of Chicago, 1300 N. Dearborn Pkwy.; free; 312-944-6250.
`17TH EVANSTON + VICINITY BIENNIAL’
59 works by 35 artists; final week; Evanston Art Center, 2603 Sheridan Rd., Evanston; free; 847-475-5300.
— Alan G. Artner
JAZZ
CEDAR WALTON TRIO
The distinguished pianist-composer has penned some of the finest tunes and arrangements in the hard-bop idiom; Tuesday through Sunday at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $20-$25; 312-670-2473.
VON FREEMAN
Performing with Ari Brown, Willie Pickens, Harrison Bankhead and Kobie Watkins; 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday on the plaza of the Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street at North Avenue (indoors in case of rain); $10; 312-642-4600.
— Howard Reich
CLASSICAL
SALERNO-SONNENBERG
Hear American violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg perform sonatas by Mozart, Brahms and Poulenc, assisted by pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, in recital at 8 p.m. Monday in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre. Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; $25-$40; $10 lawn; 847-266-5100.
RACHMANINOFF FEST
Ravinia salutes the popular composer Sergei Rachmaninoff with a festival-within-a-festival, presented in association with the Rachmaninoff Foundation. The Russian bass-baritone Alexander Vinogradov will make his U.S. recital debut in a song recital at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Martin Theatre. More of Rachmaninoff’s music will come courtesy of duo pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter at 8 p.m. Thursday, also in the Martin. Leonard Slatkin will conduct a pair of all-Rachmaninoff concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Friday’s program will include a world-premiere film accompanying the tone poem “The Isle of the Dead.” Garrick Ohlsson is the piano soloist at both concerts, playing the Concerto No. 3 on Friday and the “Paganini Rhapsody” on Saturday. Ravinia Festival; $20-$40, $10 lawn; 847-266-5100.
GRANT PARK FESTIVAL
Principal conductor Carlos Kalmar will lead the Grant Park Orchestra in the Chicago premiere of John Corigliano’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Symphony No. 2 in free concerts at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St. Corigliano is the summer’s featured composer at Grant Park. The weekend program also holds works by Prokofiev and Wagner, with violinist Isabelle van Keulen as soloist. For his second program pair of the week, Kalmar will conduct a clutch of popular overtures at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and 3 p.m. July 11, also in the Harris Theatre. Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; free; 312-742-4763.
— John von Rhein
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MOVIES
BACK TO GODZILLA
The original version of “Godzilla (Gojira),” director Ishiro Honda’s epochal tale of a post-nuclear sea monster’s horrendous assault on Tokyo, shorn of the silly Raymond Burr scenes shot for the American release and restored to its original length. Long regarded as one of Japan’s great movies, the restoration — bleaker, scarier and more intentionally funny — shows why. With Takashi Shimura. In Japanese with English subtitles; The Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; 773-871-6604; www.musicboxtheatre.com.
DEPARDON RETRO
At Facets Cinematheque, a fine new retrospective (Sunday through July 11) “Caught in the Act: The Films of Raymond Depardon,” is devoted to the highly praised French documentarian and occasional dramatic feature-maker, whose latest work, “10 Chambre: Instants d’Audience,” was a critical hit at the last Cannes Film Festival. His style is austere, understated, compassionate and true; all 10 features and three shorts (one by William Klein about Depardon) are Chicago premieres. In French with English subtitles; Facets, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-281-9075; www.facets.org.
— Michael Wilmington
THEATER
`THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA’
Bernard Shaw’s 1906 comedy, too rarely revived, is a fascinating corkscrew set in early 20th Century London, among a cadre of London medical experts and demi-quacks. The recently knighted Colenso Ridgeon has a life-and-death choice to make: Should he save a poor, deserving medical colleague, or a wastrel of an artist, whose charming wife tickles Ridgeon’s various fancies and calls into question oaths both Hippocratic and hypocritic. It’s a very satisfying production directed by Michael Halberstam, with especially nuanced work from Karen Janes Woditsch, stalwart anchoring from Kevin Gudahl as Ridgeon and a ham-with-relish turn from Bradley Mott; through July 18 at Writers’ Theatre, 325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe; $45-$50; 847-242-6000.
`LEONCE UND LENA’
Antic, highly inventive craziness from director Sean Graney and The Hypocrites. Georg Buchner’s 1836 fairy tale, about the prince of Peep and the princess of Pup, didn’t get produced until a half-century after Buchner’s death at age 23. It’s a seminal punk masterwork, and Graney has a ball with it, guiding a young, fleet-footed ensemble with a precision rare in any sort of contemporary shot at commedia-styled slapstick. As the servant with the bullhorn says: Ja! Gut! Through July 11 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave.; $15-$20; 312-902-1500.
— Michael Phillips
`BLACKBIRD’
Given a strong and intense production by the tiny Profiles Theatre, Adam Rapp’s “Blackbird” goes out of its way to shock with the scatological, the sexual and the narcotic. The two-character play is the tale of two sad-sack, drug-addicted desperados in the shape of Baylis (honestly played by Darrell W. Cox), a Gulf War vet with a barrel-load of addictions, and a 19-year-old former stripper named Froggy (the terrific Lindsay Gould) who has run away from a privileged home in Michigan. The show is an affecting character study, its dark mores leavened by some intensely lyrical writing and a palpable concern for the human soul; through Aug. 29 at the Profiles Theatre, 4447 N. Broadway; $18-$22; 773-549-1815.
`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.
`DRINKING AND WRITING’
Performed in actual taverns, this humorous and savvy effort from the ever-imaginative Neo-Futurists is a funny, poignant and intellectually stimulating look at the irrefutable causal link between drinkers and writers of various stripes; open run (Mondays only) at Levin’s, 1450 Sherman Ave., Evanston; $12; 847-869-0450.
`FUDDY MEERS’
David Lindsay-Abaire’s strange satire of marriage and family life is one of those darkly satirical plays destined always to teeter on the theatrical knife-edge between yucks and yuck. Yet the very capable young Chicago director Kimberly Senior does her considerable best to give this hybrid play a Strawdog Theatre production that’s sufficiently credible that we stay with the characters throughout, and sufficiently funny that all the bizarre people on stage don’t begin to cloy; through July 31 at Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway; $10-$18; 773-528-9696.
`JOB OPPORTUNITY’
In Michael Fossberg’s noir-esque crime-caper show, the dramatic action takes place in the moving front seat of a 1985 Oldsmobile — literally. All seating for the audience, maximum of four, is in the car, which roams the city streets. The real fun is that one has no idea which street denizens are in the cast and who is simply roaming the streets. There’s a whiff of danger here, especially if you go for one of the late-night road trips; open run at Bailiwick Repertory Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.; $37; 773-883-1090.
— Chris Jones