More Top Picks Anchors
player ready...ART
`FOCUS: INIGO MANGLANO-OVALLE’
The Chicago-based artist presents a monumentally scaled model of an iceberg formation and a new digital video; through May 14; Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave.; $12; 312-443-3600.
`THE HERE AND NOW’
Artists Sanford Biggers, Katrin Sigurdardottir and Javier Tellez are each represented by a single sculpture that addresses the notion of presence; closes Sunday; Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 5811 S. Ellis Ave.; free; 773-702-8670.
`DIDIER NOLET’
Imagined landscapes by a French-American painter living in the Chicago area; through May 15; Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst; $4; 630-834-0202.
— Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL
JOHN ADAMS
The Pulitzer and Grammy honoree, inaugural winner of Northwestern University’s Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, will wrap up his campus residency with an all-Adams concert that is to include “Grand Pianola Music” and “Gnarly Buttons,” played by faculty and student musicians; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; $8.50; 847-467-4000.
BELLA VOCE, FERRIS CHORALE
Anne Heider’s chamber choir will devote its three concerts next weekend to Renaissance masters including Josquin des Prez’s “Missa ave maris stella,” beginning at 8 p.m. Friday at St. James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron St.; 312-461-0723; tickets: $25. Chorus master Paul Nicholson leads the William Ferris Chorale in music inspired by animals, including Menotti’s madrigal fable, “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore,” in concerts beginning at 8 p.m. Friday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 690 W. Belmont Ave.; $20-$30; 773-325-2000.
CHAMBER RICHES
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra launches a new chamber music series, All Access, designed to connect patrons with CSO musicians in an intimate, informal setting, with a free (ticket required) concert by the Lincoln Quartet (works by Kodaly, Mozart and Dvorak), 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Buntrock Hall, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; 312-294-3000. CSO principal flutist Mathieu Dufour will join the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio for its concert, 8 p.m. Friday in the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St.; $30; 773-702-8068.
`MESSIAH’ IN WHEATON
John Nelson will direct Wheaton College choral and orchestral forces, and vocal soloists including tenor Ben Heppner, in performances of Handel’s beloved oratorio at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in Edman Memorial Chapel, Washington and Franklin Streets, Wheaton; $20-$43; 630-752-5010.
WOSNER AND SWANN
Two rising pianists, Shai Wosner and Jeffrey Swann, will solo with area orchestras on Sunday. Wosner will play the Schumann Piano Concerto with conductor Francis Akos and the Highland Park Strings as substitute for Ruth Laredo at the orchestra’s benefit concert, 3 p.m. Sunday in Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Hall, Highland Park; 847-831-3622; tickets: $40. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 will serve as Swann’s song when he joins the Chicago Philharmonic and associate conductor Robert Debbaut at 7 p.m. Sunday in Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; $47-$55; 847-866-6888.
— John von Rhein
JAZZ
ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
Kahil El’Zabar’s enduring group continues to extend the sonic possibilities of the jazz avant-garde; 9 p.m. Friday at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive; $15-$20; 312-362-9707.
VON FREEMAN
The mighty octogenarian still thunders; Thursday through Feb. 27 at the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.; $20; 312-670-2473.
— Howard Reich
THEATER
`THE BLUEST EYE’
In a world where the culture’s paragons of beauty all have blond hair and blue eyes, three pre-adolescent African-American girls learn some bruising lessons about self in Toni Morrison’s wrenching 1969 debut novel, a bit softened but ably adapted by Lydia Diamond. As the young girls, Alana Arenas, Monifa M. Days and Libya V. Pugh interact as if they’ve been living these roles for years; through Feb. 27 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; $10; 312-335-1650.
`CHERRY ORCHARD’
The play, Chekhov’s farewell (100 years old this year), remains the great existential gang comedy, chilled by loss and mourning, its characters nervously skittering this way and that while the big decisions remain undecided. Director Tina Landau and scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez locate the playwright’s fading provincial Russian estate in a universe of white lace. One wishes Landau had gone further with the visual and conceptual concepts, but then, I always wish directors would; through March 5 at Steppenwolf Upstairs, 1650 N. Halsted St.; $20-$60; 312-335-1650.
`GAGARIN WAY’
More Top Picks Best Drones Under 300
Already translated into 19 languages beyond its native Scottish burr, Gregory Burke’s kidnapping-gone-wrong comedy–quite, quite black–makes its welcome U.S. premiere courtesy of a lovely, nasty production of A Red Orchid Theatre. Michael Shannon (who made a nice splash in New York in “Bug”) and Guy Van Swearingen play Eddie and Gary, two West Fife factory workers fed up with global capitalism. John Judd and Steve Schine portray the flies caught in a comically sticky web. It’s patently ridiculous, and mostly meant that way, but director Karen Kessler shrewdly modulates the tension while her cast finesses the jokey, high-flown banter on topics ranging from Sartre to Marxism to the dubious merits of anti-globalist terrorism; through March 6 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells St.; $14-$20; 312-943-8722.
`THE GLASS MENAGERIE’
A disarming revival of the Tennessee Williams masterwork, rough around the edges in a good way. Director Sean Graney of The Hypocrites isn’t afraid to push these iconic characters to extremes; the way Mechelle Moe’s cripplingly shy Laura Wingfield sobs and staggers to the door to meet her gentleman caller, it’s like a death march–tragic and funny both. The production is nearly hobbled by a misjudged, droning sound design, but Donna McGough’s Amanda, in particular, keeps the youthful cast barreling along; through March 6 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave.; $15-$20; 312-409-5578.
`LAVENDER LIZARDS AND LILAC LANDMINES: LAYLA’S DREAM’
A poet, haunted by the memory of a vicious former lover, struggles to find solid ground with the help of her spirit-world allies (and a little alcohol) in Ntozake Shange’s genre-scrambling effort. A lot of the writing is so intensely poetic and thickly atmospheric, you start losing track of the metaphors and obsessions — but thanks to a splendid lead performance from Monifa Days, director Chuck Smith’s smartly paced production makes the most of the material. Days is the hardest working woman in Chicago show business at the moment, handling both this Congo Square Theatre Company production and February weekend matinees of the Steppenwolf Arts Exchange show, “The Bluest Eye”; through March 6 at Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts, 1001 W. Roosevelt Rd.; $22-$25; 312-421-7800.
`THE LAST TWO MINUTES OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HENRIK IBSEN’
Greg Allen’s latest, sweetly ridiculous and admirably complete Neo-Futurists show delivers 26 playlets in 26 different styles, all inspired by the dramatic climaxes of the Norwegian dramatist. These range from the familiar, “Hedda Gabler” and “A Doll’s House” among them, to such early obscure-os such as “The Vikings of Helgeland.” Allen shrewdly varies the game, and when he chooses to play Ibsen’s codas seriously, as in “Hedda” or “Peer Gynt,” it works. Yet the best bits belong to Steve Walker and Merrie Greenfield, especially funny in dead-serious mode, or when rolling around the floor in agony in “Cataline”; through March 5 at Neo-Futurists, 5153 N. Ashland Ave.; $10-$15; 773-275-5255.
`PERMANENT COLLECTION’
The debate: If a distinguished private museum (modeled on the Philadelphia Barnes Foundation), famous for its collection of Impressionist masterworks, contains within its storage facility a hidden trove of African treasures, should the new museum director be allowed to show them? Harry Lennix plays the director, an African-American who becomes the ideological enemy of the museum’s beleaguered, then disgraced, white education director. Lennix leads an excellent cast in director Lisa Portes’ production. Even when playwright Gibbons sidelines his most intriguing character, Lennix makes sure you remember him; through March 6 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie; $34-$52; 847-673-6300.
`QUARTET’
In 1981 Heiner Muller adapted “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” for two actors, distilling a novel’s worth of nihilistic seduction into an hour. Now, Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, those fox-in-the-henhouse libertines, are getting a bracing, wittily bizarre interpretation from director JoAnne Akalaitis in a Court Theatre production. Steven Rishard and Karen Kandel enact Muller’s role-playing roundelay in what appears to be a Days Inn motel room. It sounds mundane, but thanks to a splendid design team the universe we see and hear carries unsettling undercurrents. Unlike anything else in town; through Feb. 27 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; $26-$50; 773-753-4472.
— Michael Phillips
`CURSE OF THE CRYING HEART’
Despite lots of straight faces and much intense faux-Japanese acting, the House Theatre’s typically fearless and inventive new excursion into theatrical pulp ends up as a thoroughly campy and totally engrossing Samurai-style cross between “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Mikado” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” “Curse of the Crying Heart” is the super samurai sequel to last year’s “San Valentino and the Melancholy Kid,” written by and starring the redoubtable Nathan Allen; through Mar. 12 at the Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $10-19; 773-251-2195.
`FROM FEAR TO ETERNITY’
The27th revue at the zesty, zippy Second City e.t.c. stage has many future rock stars of comedy. Director Sue Gillan’s immensely enjoyable show is a jovial, nicely cynical romp through these dismal days for progressives and liberals; open run at the Second City e.t.c., 1608 N. Wells St.; $17-$19; 312-337-3992.
`INTIMATE APPAREL’
Now getting a Chicago premiere at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company under the clear-eyed direction of Jessica Thebus, this wise play from Lynn Nottage, a newly prominent African-American theatrical voice, pretty much cleaned up all the major theatrical awards last season in New York. It’s not hard to see why this poignant depiction of the romantic struggles of a seamstress in 1905 New York has caused such a stir–Nottage’s work combines a vibrant feminist sensibility with an ability to cut to the emotional quick with striking veracity, poignancy and intimacy. Beautifully cast and acted, this is an involving, moving story with universal appeal; through Mar. 13 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.; $20-$60; 312-335-1650.
`LOOKINGGLASS ALICE’
We’re happy to announce the Lookingglass Theatre Company’s family-friendly rescue of Alice from the customary cutesiness. Worry not. Adapter-director David Catlin and Chicago’s Lookingglass have kept the dress. And it’s all still the black kitten’s fault. Entirely. Oh, and the White Rabbit has the usual trouble with his cue. But in the shape of the remarkably talented Lauren Hirte, the Lookingglass Alice is a bona-fide, rope-loving acrobat, sitting atop a fun, smart and sophisticated circus-oriented adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic; through March 27 at Lookingglass Theatre in the Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave.; $20-$58; 312-337-0665.
`OF MICE AND MEN’
The splendid Brian Pudil is the centerpiece of a very solid and exceptionally intimate “Of Mice and Men” from the neophyte director — and longtime Chicago actress — Eileen Niccolai. In terms of innovation, pacing and staging, the show is a notch below Shattered Globe in its glory days in the late 1990s. But this is a play that rewards the viewer regardless of one’s familiarity with the text. And Pudil and a decent supporting cast offer a right-headed production. It’s replete with the necessary integrity, and sufficiently engrossing, that any youngsters studying the book in school now would get a very thorough and arresting experience in the diminutive Victory Gardens studio; through March 19 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; $10-$25; 773-871-3000.
— Chris Jones