Redmoon's latest extravaganza, Spectacle '09, runs through Sunday at Belmont Harbor.
QUICK TAKES This week’s highlights include a green-tinged pub crawl courtesy of the Chicago History Museum, Stephen Sondheim live at the Harris, and a screening of William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (above) as part of the second annual CIMM Fest.

THE FIVE

Don’t-miss picks for Wed 03.03.10 through Tue 03.09.10:

 

1

film Chicago International Movies and Music Festival
CIMM Fest returns for its sophomore year of movies, music, and movies about music. Select goings-on combine all three, including the U.S. premiere of the concert flick Robyn Hitchcock: I Often Dream of Trains, followed by Hitchcock himself (Mar 5), and a live closing-night mashup of film and music cuts from DJ Spooky (Mar 7). The fest’s big opening-night reveal, the official Chicago premiere of the documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (Mar 4), is less overtly music-centric but includes postscreening performances by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (of Throbbing Gristle fame) and Penny Arcade, both featured in the film.
GO: Mar 4-7. $30 fest pass. Locations and prices vary; full schedule: cimmfest.org

ALSO THIS WEEK: The Magnetic Fields play the Harris; John Prine plays Rialto Square, plus Old Town School; Chris Thile plays Old Town School, too, with his group Punch Brothers, while his former Nickel Creek bandmate Sara Watkins plays SPACE; and Califone plays Lincoln Hall.
2

theatre Chess
If any theatre company can make a whiz-bang production work on a stage the size of a chessboard, it’s the Jeff Award darling Theo Ubique. We can’t wait to see how the local troupe handles the ABBA guys’ musical about hot board games amid cold war tensions.
GO: Previews Mar 5-6; $15. Regular run continues through Apr 25: $25-$30 play only; $45-$50 with dinner. Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre at No Exit Café, 6970 N Glenwood. theoubique.org
3

theatre Stephen Sondheim
On the other end of the production-values spectrum: Sondheim, a composer and lyricist so iconic he became a lyric himself (see: Rent). Hear the reigning king of American musicals go off-script in a chat with Chicago’s own Tony winner Gary Griffin, one of the nation’s best Sondheim interpreters.
GO: Mar 4 at 7:30. $35-$65. Harris Theater, 205 E Randolph. harristheaterchicago.org

ALSO THIS WEEK: And also at the Harris: On the heels of playing the White House’s recent day of classical music, guitarist Sharon Isbin enlists a fellow Grammy winner, the fiddler Mark O’Connor, for a highbrow hoedown.

4

museums Erin Go Beer!
Talk about luck of the Irish. Chicago History Museum’s insanely popular pub crawls usually sell out months in advance, but in anticipation of St. Pat’s, the museum added two extra nights to its boozy trolley tour of local pubs—and spots are still available. Put down the Guinness and RSVP now.
GO: Mar 9, 10 at 6:45 (Mar 11 sold out). $25. Tour leaves from the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark. chicagohistory.org
5

museums Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age
You’ll be tempted to run straight to Lyuba, the 42,000-year-old baby mammoth discovered by a Siberian reindeer herder in 2007. Fine. Just make sure to browse the wealth of other treasures—skulls, tusks, teeth, even North American mammoth bones collected by William Clark (of Lewis and) for Paleontology Buff-in-Chief Thomas Jefferson—before this exhibition makes like the animals on display.
GO: Mar 5–Sep 6. $12-$28. Field Museum, 1400 S Lake Shore. fieldmuseum.org

ALSO THIS WEEK: Dan Fisher, the U of Michigan prof and American designate to the team that first studied Lyuba’s remains, gives a talk.

FREEBIE OF THE WEEK

galleries The Free Store
If you haven’t browsed the Free Store—a gallery-installation-slash-swap-meet where all goods on display are free for the taking—now’s your last chance. The bazaar features everything from comic books to clothes and wraps Saturday with a reception the artist-organizers promise will be “full of surprises.” We’ll settle for the Northern Exposure cookbook, available as of late Tuesday afternoon.
GO: Thru Mar 6. Gallery 400, Art & Design Hall, UIC, 400 S Peoria. gallery400.aa.uic.edu

ALSO THIS WEEK: The exhibition Fair Use: Information Piracy and Creative Commons in Contemporary Art and Design tackles the issue of artists’ rights at Columbia College, while a new gallery, White Box Space, launches in the Ukrainian Village.

Photography: Courtesy of Yony Leyser