ARCHITECTURE
A CENTURY OF PROGRESS
A new exhibition on Chicago’s Depression-era world’s fair, “A Century of Progress: Architecture and Chicago’s 1933-34 World’s Fair,” appears at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Ave., through Nov. 21. It features photographs, architectural renderings and souvenirs. Admission is free; 312-922-3432.
— Blair Kamin
ART
ANCIENT STABIAE
“In Stabiano: The International Archeological Project of Restoring Ancient Stabiae,” an exhibition centering around “Silenus,” a detached fresco from a villa dated A.D. 56-60; closes Friday; Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 500 N. Michigan Ave.; free; 312-822-9545.
JOHN PHILLIPS
“Hot Mix — John Phillips, Selected Works 1979-2004,” paintings and drawings by a Chicago artist who anticipated the fusion of abstraction and Pop art that dominates much painting today; opens Thursday; Columbia College, A+D Gallery, 72 E. 11th St.; free; 312-344-6156.
ART SINSABAUGH
“American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh,” the first major exhibition devoted to the late photographer, educator and student of the Institute of Design; opens Saturday, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; $12. 312-443-3600.
VISUAL CHINA
“Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China,” a traveling show of 130 works by 60 Chinese artists; opens Saturday, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; $10; Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Ave.; free; 312-280-2660, 773-702-0200.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
`THE PATRIOTS’
Ronald Combs’ new opera, about three heroic women during the American Revolution, opens the refurbished auditorium next weekend at Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. St. Louis Ave. Performances (sung in English) will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Oct. 9, also 2:30 p.m. Oct. 10. $25; 773-442-4636.
REMBRANDT CHAMBER PLAYERS
One of the area’s most dynamic chamber ensembles will begin its 15th anniversary season with a gala benefit concert at 5 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Music Institute of Chicago-Evanston, 1490 Grove St., Evanston. The program will hold works by Poulenc, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. The benefit will take place at 7 p.m. after the concert at the Women’s Club of Evanston, 1702 Chicago Ave., Evanston. $28 (concert), $160 (benefit); 312-360-3145.
SAVOYAIRES’ `THESPIS’
Evanston’s venerable Savoyaires will celebrate 40 years of Gilbert and Sullivan performances by presenting the duo’s “lost” operetta, “Thespis, or the Gods Grown Old,” complete with a new orchestral score by Kingsley Day. Dan Robinson will conduct, with Terry McCabe directing. Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and run Friday, Saturday and Sunday, through Oct. 10, at Chute Auditorium, Chute School, 1400 Oakton St., Evanston. $10-$20; 847-251-8767.
VERMEER AND CALLISTO
One of the area’s most venerable chamber ensembles, the Vermeer Quartet, and one of the newest, the Callisto Ensemble, will begin their seasons this weekend. The Vermeer will present string quartets by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Dvorak at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive. There will be a pre-concert lecture at 1:45 p.m. $28; 312-629-8696. The Callisto musicians will begin a season-long exploration of chamber works by Augusta Read Thomas, the Chicago Symphony’s composer-in-residence, pairing her music with Schubert’s great Quintet in C. Concerts are at 8 p.m. Sunday at the DePaul University Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave.; and 8 p.m. Monday at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave. $15; 312-566-9318.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
The venerable yet ever-innovative ensemble — staffed by Kahil El’Zabar, Ernest Dawkins and Ari Brown — will be joined by multi-instrumentalist Osunlade; 9 p.m. Friday at Sonotheque, 1444 W. Chicago Ave.; $15; 312-226-7600.
MCCOY TYNER
The leonine pianist leads a trio; Tuesday through Oct. 3 at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $30; 312-670-2473.
— Howard Reich
MOVIES
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BRANDO’S CONTENDER
Justly celebrating the 50th anniversary of an American movie masterpiece, The Music Box Theater will screen a new print of director Elia Kazan’s and writer Budd Schulberg’s gut-tightening classic of labor union crime and psychological trauma, “On the Waterfront.” This is the film that stars the late Marlon Brando in his top movie role as tough dockworker and washed-up boxer Terry Malloy, perhaps the single most influential and copied dramatic performance by any American movie actor. With Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint; music by Leonard Bernstein and cinematography by Boris Kaufman; through Thursday; The Music Box, 3733 Southport Ave.; 773-871-6604; www.musicboxtheatre.com.
BUNUEL’S PARABLE
Highlight of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Mexican series this week: “Nazarin,” Luis Bunuel’s great, tender, ironic parable of faith and morality in modern times, in which the director imagines what would happen to a man who tried to live rigorously by Christ’s principles in the corrupt modern world. In Spanish with English subtitles; 6 p.m., Thursday; Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, 164 N. State St.; 312-846-2600; www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
— Michael Wilmington
ROCK
FU MANCHU
Stoner-rock disciples deliver 10-ton riffs that fans of ’70s boogie-van rock will love, Saturday at Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St.; $15; 773-478-4408.
PJ HARVEY
Her new album, “Uh-Huh,” finds Harvey in a ticked-off mood, and she remains one of the most riveting live acts of the last decade, Saturday at the Riviera, 4746 N. Racine Ave.; $31; 773-275-6800.
R. KELLY AND JAY-Z
Despite the legal cloud hanging over Kelly, this remains a potent pairing of the reigning R&B and hip-hop kingpins, Wednesday and Thursday at Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont; $49.50-$125; 312-559-1212.
— Greg Kot
THEATER
`HANNAH AND MARTIN’
The Hannah of Kate Fodor’s play–her first–is philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Martin is Martin Heidegger, her mentor, lover and eventually a slippery Hitler apologist (or worse). Did Arendt, a Jew, detect the incipient fascist lurking within Heidegger, whose beliefs fed the Nazi doctrines? Premiering early last year, the show returns to open TimeLine’s new season; through Oct. 10 at TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave.; $22; 312-409-8463.
`MATT AND BEN’
Unknowns Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sit around Ben’s Somerville apartment working on a screenplay adaptation of “The Catcher in the Rye.” Then, a miracle: a completed script titled “Good Will Hunting” falls from the heavens. Can these two demi-talents deal with imminent celebrityhood and Oscardom? The hit of the 2002 New York Fringe Festival, written and originally performed by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, “Matt and Ben” isn’t as mean-spirited as you’d expect, but it’s a wry and nicely sustained gender-bent goof. The Chicago premiere stars Jennifer R. Morris and Quincy Tyler Bernstine as the guys who would be showbiz kings; through Oct. 3 at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave.; $25; 773-327-5252.
`POPPIN’ AND LOCKDOWN 2: DANCE THE RIGHT THING’
A fond look back at the pre-bling era. You don’t have to remember either of the “Breakin’ ” movies, or the clothes you may have worn in the 1980s, to have a good, semi-raunchy time at this Factory Theater lark. Break dancing fools Turbo and Caesar go up against the local crack kingpin. Uneven but highly diverting nonsense; through Oct. 3 at Prop Thtr, 3504 N. Elston Ave.; $18; 312-409-3247.
— Michael Phillips
`THE 4TH GRADERS PRESENT AN UNNAMED LOVE-SUICIDE’
This play from Sean Graney unspools precisely as billed. It is a genuinely painful little pageant performed by actors playing 4th graders who are putting on a show in honor of a former classmate whom, we are told, killed himself directly after writing the play we are now seeing. The point is to trace the reasons for that suicide–which is the consequence of nasty tricks by other children that slowly but surely render a pair of empathetic young sweethearts asunder; closes today at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave.; $12-$15; 312-902-1500.
`A CLOCKWORK ORANGE’
This is the Defiant Theatre’s last show. And despite the essentially apolitical nature of the original novel, this version of “A Clockwork Orange” drips with political fight. Alex and the Droogs here are reconfigured to act like American neo-con thugs let loose in a multinationalist world. It’s not the point of the original text, but it’s executed with the kind of creative passion we rarely see in town these days. The show — which is superbly designed in all areas — also is full of the kind of handmade visual tricks that recall such past Defiant causes celebres as “Action Movie.” Through Oct. 16 at the Storefront Theatre, 66 E. Randolph St.; $15; 312 742-8497.
`ANTIGONE’
In Julieanne Ehre’s feisty new production of “Antigone,” poor old King Creon doesn’t stand a chance. Ehre’s “Antigone” for greasy joan and company riffs on Brendan Kennelly’s translation. It substitutes passionate force for Sophoclean evenhandedness. And it plays out as a feminist attack on a misguided leader. The show is whip-smart and positively brimming with powerful ideas; through Oct. 10; $10-$20; 312-742-8497.
— Chris Jones