Latest news with #ChicagoHumanitiesFestival
Chicago Tribune
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Hamilton' will return to Chicago in 2026 following Kennedy Center cancellation
The Broadway musical 'Hamilton' will return to Chicago in 2026, the producer Jeffrey Seller announced Sunday at a Chicago Humanities Festival event. The first national touring company of Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash hit will play the CIBC Theatre (18 W. Monroe St.) from March 4 to April 26, 2026. Group tickets are now available; individual tickets will go on sale later this year, presenter Broadway in Chicago said. Those dates roughly coincide with the previously planned dates for the show to play the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Seller had announced the cancellation of those dates after President Donald Trump announced plans to install himself as Kennedy Center chairman and change the arts center's programming to be more in line with his administration's priorities. Beginning in 2016 and concluding in 2020, 'Hamilton' had a dedicated, 171-week run in Chicago, the first city to present the show after its Broadway opening. The Chicago company played to more than 2.5 million people and grossed more than $400 million at the Chicago box office over three and a half years. It was an economic driver in the Loop, with more than half of its audience coming from more than 100 miles away. Updated 'Hamilton' timeline: From Miranda's 'joke' to Obama's White House to Broadway to Chicago and back A touring production of the musical came back in 2023 for a fall run at the Nederlander Theatre. This new engagement will represent a promised return. Seller was in Chicago for an event at the Francis Parker School to talk about his new memoir, 'Theater Kid.'
Chicago Tribune
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
What to do in Chicago: Beyoncé, Vintage Store Day and BADBADNOTGOOD
Beyoncé: Queen Bey is here to set the record straight, as she wraps a three-night stand of the 'Cowboy Carter' tour at Soldier Field. Based on earlier reports from the tour, the three-hour spectacle is not to be missed — but then, who would expect anything less? Mayfest: The summer festival season gets underway with Lincoln Park's Mayfest. In addition to the usual music, food and fun, Mayfest will include a Spring Fine Art Mart featuring artists from across the country. BADBADNOTGOOD: Perhaps best known for their Grammy Award-winning collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Thundercat, Toronto's BADBADNOTGOOD has sold out two shows at Thalia Hall. See them perform their 'Mid Spiral' tour with Baby Rose and Tim Zawada. CHIRP Music Film Festival: Love CHIRP's vibe? This weekend, you can see it reflected on the big screen, in a half-dozen or so movies that make up the CHIRP Music Film Festival. The festival closes Sunday with Sam Jones's Wilco documentary, 'I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.' In the meantime, you can watch 'Save the Children,' a film documenting a 1972 Operation PUSH concert featuring Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and more; 'Angelheaded Hipster,' a documentary about T Rex frontman Marc Bolan; and 'Lifers,' which captures a Local H show at the Metro. Chicago Humanities Festival Lincoln Park Day: Another reminder that the Chicago Humanities Festival continues to chug along, offering a thought-provoking spring lineup. On Sunday alone, you can hear from actor Leslie Odom Jr. ('Hamilton'); Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller ('Hamilton' and 'Rent'); National Book Award-winner Ibram X. Kendi on Malcolm X; New Yorker writer John Cassidy ('Capitalism and Its Critics'); poet Reginald Dwayne Betts ('Doggerel'); a conversation between cartoonist Chris Ware and writer/curator Dan Nadel about cartoonist Robert Crumb; Michigan Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson; and activists Tamika Mallory and Amanda Nguyen. 'The Antiquities': Jordan Harrison's dystopian play offers 'snapshots of the earliest days of techno-danger (such as the AOL dial-up moment) and their connection to his imagined future where humans can no longer find any purpose in their lives,' according to the Tribune review. If you prefer theater that makes you think, get to the Goodman. Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk: This weekend, homeowners in Oak Park, Elmhurst and Oak Brook offer a glimpse of private residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries. See how these historic structures live on as individual homes. Vintage Store Day: April brought us Record Store Day and Independent Bookstore Day. Now we get the inaugural Vintage Store Day, co-founded by two Chicago shops — Lost Girls and Rare Form. More than 100 stores across Illinois will join with 700 or so across the country to encourage vintage shopping. Reduce, recycle, reuse — right? Swing Into Summer: The forecast is looking good to get outside this weekend, so consider heading to Navy Pier to try out some sports. Coaches will be available to help you hone your skills in pickleball, wiffle ball, baseball softball or golf. The Pier Park Mini Golf Course will also host competitions. The Sugar Hole: Summer must be around the corner, because The Sugar Hole opens this weekend. Now in its second season, the Color Club's ice cream stand is one of the city's most delightful experiences. Puppets — Puddles, Moolissa or Jeremiah Carburetor — take your order. Thanks to an expanded menu, that order could now include strawberry soft serve, adult drinks or Bang Bang Pie & Biscuit hand pies. This year's opening day, May 17, will feature a parade, yoga, a puppet show and crafts.
Chicago Tribune
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
What to do around Chicago: Parade in Greektown, ‘La La Land in Concert' and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Rosemont
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: Amy Poehler has a new podcast ('Good Hang'), and Tina Fey has a new Netflix comedy ('The Four Seasons'), but you can see them both live this weekend as they bring their 'Restless Leg Tour' to Rosemont. If you missed them in 2023, you've got a second chance — so take it. 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. April 6 at Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont; tickets from $147.50 at Chicago Humanities Festival: The spring installment continues with Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and author of 'Righting Wrongs.' Hosted by Jerome McDonnell, it promises to be a lively and timely discussion. The festival, which features more than 50 events, runs through June 13. Roth will appear at 7 p.m. April 4 at Francis W. Parker School, 330 W. Webster Ave. (entrance at 2233 N. Clark St.); tickets $20-$35 and full CHF schedule at Chicago Latino Film Festival: Download the program for the 41st annual Chicago Latino Film Festival now, because it's already up and running. But with 51 features and 30 shorts from roughly 20 countries, you still have plenty of options. Chicago's festival is the longest-running devoted to Latino filmmakers in the U.S. and draws titles, and artists, from all over — such as director Tatiana Fernandez Geara, traveling from the Dominican Republic for the world premiere of her documentary 'I am my Grandma's Granddaughter (Nieta de mi Abuela)' on Monday and Wednesday. Through April 14 at Landmark Century Centre Cinemas, 2828 N. Clark St.; special screenings at the Davis Theater in Lincoln Square; tickets from $12 at Greek Independence Day Parade: It's a good weekend to head to Greektown. Each spring for more than 60 years, this colorful parade has celebrated Hellenic culture with traditional costumes, music and dance. 2:30 p.m. April 6 from Halsted and Randolph streets; details on the free event at Franz Ferdinand: So if you're lonely, Franz Ferdinand is back with a new album, 'The Human Fear.' It's hard to believe this band has been around for more than 20 years. See them play live at The Vic this weekend. 8 p.m. April 5 at The Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave.; tickets from $65 at Chicago Musical Theatre Festival: This showcase for new musicals runs through Sunday. 'Man of the People: The Trials of Huey Long' (7:30 p.m. April 4) by Wyatt Andrew Brownell revisits the story of the Louisiana politician. 'Queen Bea' (2:30 p.m. April 5) by Scott Evan Davis and Jason Marks offers a tale of a honeybee, a firefly and a praying mantis. 'The Muses' (7:30 p.m. April 5) by Liam P. Mulligan offers a tale of an opera composer whose best friend and muse marries an electrician. 'Big Wig' (2:30 p.m. April 6) by Jonathan Keebler, Ryan Korell, Bryan McCaffrey and Jonathan Hillman celebrates drag kids from the perspective of a fabulous wig. All shows at The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St.; tickets $20 at 'Dream Devis': A multimedia performance told through drag, dance, music and film celebrating the feminine archetypes in Indian cinema. Part of the LookOut series featuring Chicago artists, the show explores what it means to be worshipped. It's curated by Abhijeet. Friday and April 13 at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St.; tickets $25 at 'La La Land in Concert': The music leaps off the screen this weekend as the Chicago Philharmonic and a live jazz band play Justin Hurwitz's score for 'La La Land' live. The 2016 film stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a charming musical flick written and directed by Damien Chazelle. 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. April 5 at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive; tickets (PG-13) from $69.50 at 'The Past and the Curious' Live: Mick Sullivan brings his kids history podcast to Oak Park's Maze Branch Library. With more than 100 episodes, the show pokes into the nooks and crannies of history to offer chronicles of all sorts of topics — from the stories of the Resolute Desk and H.L. Mencken's 'Bathtub Hoax' to the invention of ice cream and donuts. 11 a.m. April 5 at Maze Branch Library, 845 Gunderson Ave., Oak Park; details on the free event at
Chicago Tribune
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Humanities Spring Festival boasts Leslie Odom Jr., Eve Ewing and Paul Reiser — because culture isn't dead yet
You know how you don't know which end is up right now? Nobody is interested in facts. (So we hear.) Expertise is no longer valued. (So we hear.) Humanities are being yanked out of higher education. (Students would rather join hedge funds.) Just last month, University of Illinois at Chicago announced it planned to close its School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics. The world is on fire, and night is day, and war is peace. And yet, the Chicago Humanities Festival is doubling down. You might even say its Spring Festival, which begins later this week and runs through early June, looks so committed to rallying a defense to the New Reality, it's provocative. How else to read a festival of ideas featuring best-selling historian Timothy Snyder on freedom, plus historian Heather Cox Richardson (of the popular newsletter 'Letters From an American') on the need to revitalize democracy? (Both are part of the festival's Lakeview Day at the Athenaeum on April 27.) Want to hear directly from the front lines? David Rubenstein, always the most interesting person in the room, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, former chair at the Smithsonian, current chair of the board of trustees at the University of Chicago and chair emeritus of the Brookings Institution, will likely talk about being fired by President Donald Trump from his position as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (That's April 21.) Activist Tamika Mallory (May 18) will discuss the creation of the Women's March. Deborah N. Archer (April 24) will talk about what it's like to be president of the ACLU now, and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (May 18) will talk about facing armed protestors in 2020 who insisted that Trump won the election. A single afternoon at Bridgeport Day (May 10, at the Ramova Theater and the Co-Prosperity gallery) plays like its own pointed argument for the importance of the free thinking, featuring an all-star group of 21st-century intellectuals: At 4 p.m., Chicago's Eve Ewing discusses her excellent new book, 'Original Sins,' on the history of how American schools fail Black and Indigenous students; at 1 p.m., Maggie Nelson links personal jaw pain with the current need to connect socially; and at 2:30 p.m., essayist Rebecca Solnit talks a bit of everything — abuse of power, climate change, democracy … In fact, if you're feeling excessively distracted by social media lately, there's also a chat for that: MSNBC's Chris Hayes on March 17. Issues with capitalism? That's the New Yorker's John Cassidy on May 18. Just don't know how to argue with people anymore? University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard makes a case for Socrates on April 27. Thoughtful-palooza? Sanctuary City Limits? Maybe the Chicago Humanities Festival just needs a better name now, a reminder the humanities is the study of culture. For instance, May 18 (Lincoln Park Day, at the Chicago History Museum), you could hear Chicago cartoonist Chris Ware discuss R. Crumb with his new biographer Dan Nadel, then return that afternoon for Ibram X. Kendi ('How to Be an Antiracist') talking about his new young-adult biography of Malcolm X — and a conversation with Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller, of 'Hamilton' and 'Rent.' I almost feel bad for the festival's relatively lightweight opener: Paul Reiser, at the Music Box on Thursday. Speaking of 'Hamilton' — Leslie Odom Jr. (he won a Tony Award for playing Aaron Burr in the original cast) sings at an Art Institute of Chicago Day on June 7. That same day at the museum, there's a chat with cartoonist Alison Bechdel ('Fun Home'), and, apologies to hipsters for burying the lede here: Director Jim Jarmusch (on guitar) will deliver a very rare concert with experimental lute player Jozef van Wissem. Should art for art's sake prove too slight right now, might I suggest comedian Ed Helms, who brings his popular 'SNAFU' podcast to Chicago (May 3) to discuss the history of huge (and quite real) fiascos, from CIA-trained feline spies to Project A119, an United States Air Force plan to detonate a nuke on the moon, as a show of military strength. See? The world has always been full of wackos. The question is, after the chatting, discussing and thinking — are we going to do something? The Chicago Humanities Spring Festivals begins March 13 and runs through early June. For information on additonal events, times, locations and ticket prices, visit
