ART
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BRITISH ART COLLECTION
“Building a Collection: New Acquisitions and Promised Gifts of British Art,” 70 drawings and prints from a span of more than 250 years; closes Sept. 6; Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; $12 suggested admission; 312-443-3600.
EMPEROR QIANLONG
“Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Quianlong,” paintings, jewelry, furniture and other works, some not on public view before; final fortnight; Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive; $17. 312-665-7400.
`TRANSPARENT WATERCOLOR SOCIETY OF AMERICA’
80 contemporary watercolor artists in an annual exhibition; final week; Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst; $4; 630-834-0202.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN
Combine one of today’s most accomplished virtuoso pianists and Charles Ives’ weird, wonderful knucklebuster, the “Concord” Sonata, and spontaneous musical combustion is guaranteed. The Canadian pianist also will bring his penetrating fingers and mind to Haydn and Schumann works; 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Martin Theatre; Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park; $25-$40; 847-266-5100.
DANIEL MULLER-SCHOTT
The young German cellist plays the second of two recitals this summer devoted to the complete Bach unaccompanied cello suites and other works for solo cello; 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Martin Theatre; Ravinia Festival; $25-$40; 847-266-5100.
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
David Alan Miller will discuss and conduct Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony in a family concert at 5 p.m. Sunday. The work has been the subject of Ravinia’s “One Score, One Chicago” education and community outreach program for 2004; Ravinia Festival; $35, $10 lawn; 847-266-5100.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL
Highlights of the week-long event include Kurt Elling and Von Freeman with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (free); Ravi Coltrane’s “Reflections on `A Love Supreme,'” 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park ($15-$45); Dee Dee Bridgewater, 8 p.m. Thursday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave. ($12-$49); Clark Terry, 8:30 p.m. Friday in Grant Park (free); Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Grant Park (free); Toshiko Akiyoshi, 8:30 p.m. Sept. 5 in Grant Park (free); 312-744-3315 or 312-427-1676.
IRA SULLIVAN
The phenomenally versatile multi-instrumentalist is in residence through the week, leading jam sessions featuring musicians appearing at the Chicago Jazz Festival; 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sept. 5 at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $20-$25; 312-670-2473.
— Howard Reich
MOVIES
ZHANG AND JET
Swooningly beautiful and furiously exciting, Zhang Yimou’s “Hero (Yingxiong)” is an action movie for the ages. Though they use the events that also inspired Chen Kaige’s 1999 historical epic, the legend of China’s first emperor, Yimou and action scene director Ching Siu-Tung take a more fantastical approach. Here we see the emperor (Chen Daoming), the assassins who stalk him (Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung) and the hero (Jet Li) he must decipher, clashing in a wild and lovely fantasia. In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles. In wide release.
HOLOCAUST DEFIED
Like “Schindler’s List,” “Rosenstrasse” is an inspiring re-examination of World War II Jewish history: a true, convincing, profoundly moving record of the bravery of a group of Aryan wives trying to rescue Jewish husbands in wartime 1943 Germany. Writer-director Margarethe von Trotta focuses, with lucidity and power, on the moral battle and on central character Lena Fischer. In German with English subtitles; Landmark Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark St.; 773-509-4949.
KUBRICK ON WAR
Two classic war films by Stanley Kubrick play this week at the Siskel Center: Kubrick’s devastating 1957 portrayal of a battle error and a rigged court-martial in World War II, “Paths of Glory,” with Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou and Timothy Carey (6 p.m. Tuesday) and his dark, ironic 1987 look at dehumanization in the Vietnam War, “Full Metal Jacket,” with Matthew Modine and Vincent D’Onofrio (6 p.m. Thursday). These powerful movies, based respectively on novels by Humphrey Cobb and Gustav Hasford, are among the most relentless and deglamorized film looks at warfare. Both will be shown in new or restored 35 mm prints; 164 N. State St.; 312-846-2600. www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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M. HULOT VS. PARIS
“Playtime,” by the great French comedy-maker Jacques Tati, gets a stunning revival and restoration. Tati puts his continuing character, M. Hulot, in a modern Paris full of steel, glass, concrete, right angles and, at night, crazy cabarets. A supremely happy film with, until now, an unhappy history, this is the local premiere of the restored, lengthened 70 mm “Playtime,” now regarded as one of the all-time peaks of world cinema. In minimal French, German and English with no subtitles; Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; 773-871-6604.
— Michael Wilmington
THEATER
`AIN’T MISBEHAVIN”
A fine and mellow rendition of the 1978 Fats Waller wallow. This musical revue is harder to get right than its perpetual recirculation suggests: Too much shtick, and you’ve got something perilously close to minstrelsy. Here, no problems and lots of payoffs. Director Dominic Missimi has a rock-solid onstage quintet (I particularly enjoyed Eugene Fleming, a supremely sly dancer and easygoing performer). The five performers are backed by musical director William Foster McDaniel’s tasty seven-piece combo. The song list includes “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now” and “Honeysuckle Rose.”In all, a very good time; through Sept. 5 at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire; $41.60; 847-634-0200.
`CANDIDE’
Considered by many to be the best of all possible Leonard Bernstein scores, “Candide” (1956) is a great, galloping achievement musically destined forever to outshine its own oft-revised libretto, based on the harsh Voltaire romp. This sonically impressive co-production by Light Opera Works and Pegasus Players features a nice big orchestra, some excellent choral work, and — although not as many as you’d like — a few choice singer-actors who happen also to be funny. Kate Young as the one-buttock Old Lady is the pip; closes Sunday at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson, Evanston; $27-$59; 847-869-6300.
— Michael Phillips
`BRUTALITY OF FACT’
Despite protestations to the contrary, people sometimes need to be protected from their families far more than families need to be protected from individuals. That’s not exactly a cheery truth, but it’s a fact of life and the theme of many great American plays. And it lies at the core of Keith Reddin’s “Brutality of Fact,” a typically quirky but shrewdly observed drama from 1994 that deals with a family ripped apart by religious extremism. This notably prescient play gets an exceptionally smart, moving, well-acted and thoroughly well-timed revival from director Nathaniel Swift and Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre Co.; through Sept. 5 at Victory Gardens Theatre Co., 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $18-22; 773-871-3000.
`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