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Bat Boy: The Musical swoops into town at last
A strong production by Griffin Theatre gives life to the macabre half bat, half boy invented by the Weekly World News. It's been nearly 20 years since Bat Boy: The Musical had its world premiere on...
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Two new documentaries reveal cycles of cruelty and control
In Tickled and Pervert Park, shame is a powerful weapon. By coincidence, two of the more provocative documentaries I've seen this year arrive in Chicago on Friday. Pervert Park, screening for one week...
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Before New Yorker covers, there was Puck
A new show at the Driehaus Museum presents some of the finest satirical illustrations of late 19th-century America. Named after the devilish sprite in A Midsummer Night's Dream and established in New...
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Leña Brava is another triumph for Rick Bayless
The Frontera chef summons fire and ice at his Baja-inspired seafood spot. Two years ago, when Rick Bayless devoted the entire eighth season of his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time to the...
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All the virtues of religion, minus the ‘religion’ part
In Grace Without God, local author Katherine Ozment searches for a meaningful life that doesn’t require theism. While peering out the window at a procession of Greek Orthodox faithful on Good Friday,...
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Free State of Jones turns a Civil War legend into a plea for racial equality
In Gary Ross’s drama, a 19th-century deserter becomes a hero for today. When the word emancipation turns up in the narrative titles of Free State of Jones, a new Civil War drama, it's enclosed in...
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Frank Zappa was so left, he was right
A documentary profile of the avant-garage musician reveals his political conservatism. I'm a conservative," Frank Zappa told Washington Times columnist John Lofton when they debated each other on the...
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Intuit celebrates 25 years by going back to the beginning
“Post Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980-2016” revisits the exhibit that first inspired the gallery’s founders. Upon its opening in 1982 at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., "Black Folk Art in...
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Chicago comic Sarah Sherman makes audiences squirm
Helltrap Nightmare embraces the grotesque through comedy As a high schooler in Long Island, Sarah Sherman was given the nickname "Squirm" because she was "really skinny and gross and squirmy." The name...
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Getting high (on butter) at Beacon Tavern
Billy Lawless's new seafood-focused restaurant is intoxicating. We had reasons for feeling giddy after dinner at Beacon Tavern, Billy Lawless's new restaurant in a former McDonald's behind the Wrigley...
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In Our Little Sister, three grown siblings reckon with their late father’s...
Hirokazu Koreeda (Like Father, Like Son) directed this Japanese tale of a family trapped by melancholy. Jars of fermenting plums are the most enduring image from Hirokazu Koreeda's intimate family...
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Comedian Megan Gailey comes home: ‘We’re so annoying about being from Chicago’
The stand-up headlines the upcoming Comedy Exposition. In the two years since she left Chicago, Megan Gailey has boosted her recognition with shows across the country, a spot on Conan, and a starring...
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Before #BlackLivesMatter, there was Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison
Two lost photo essays, now on display at the Art Institute, go beyond racial stereotypes to reveal the real life of Harlem. The 1943 Harlem riots broke out on August 1, just a few days after the...
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Chef Cameron Grant’s Animale instincts are sharp
The folks behind Logan Square’s great Osteria Langhe get gutsy with Italian at Animale. Just about a year ago Logan Square's Osteria Langhe emerged as a unique specimen among an overwhelming and...
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Are you happy? Inquiring nuns want to know
A 1968 documentary from Kartemquin Films explores the nature of fulfillment. Nearly 50 years ago, Chicago documentary makers Gordon Quinn and Gerald Temaner recruited a couple of Dominican nuns,...
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In the Dept. Q Trilogy individual goodness triumphs over rampant evil
Nikolaj Lie Kaas stars as a damaged cop reopening the coldest of cases. The Dept. Q Trilogy, based on three best-selling crime novels by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, draws comparisons with Stieg...
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The Bughouse Square Debates: Come for the used books, stay for the fringe...
The annual Newberry Book Fair tie-in celebrates its 30th anniversary with the best of anti-lamestream stances. Between Bernie Sanders's endorsement of Hillary Clinton and the conference Socialism...
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The petcoke problems of the southeast side hit the MoCP
A new exhibit, “Petcoke: Tracing Dirty Energy,” features various artists’ responses to the environmental problem. As far back as Ecclesiastes 3:20—"All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to...
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Don't Think Twice explores the collective challenge of improv comedy
Mike Birbiglia follows his debut feature Sleepwalk With Me with an incisive showbiz comedy. Got your back! Got your back!" a troupe of improv actors chant to each other as they prepare to hit the...
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The southern drama Byhalia, Mississippi remains essential viewing
Steppenwolf's 1700 Theatre revives Evan Linder's searing play. Steppenwolf's new 1700 Theatre works perfectly for an early remount of this past winter’s world premiere of Byhalia, Mississippi, a...
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