World City Guide

Culture

‘Exceptional’ is the word to describe Chicago’s incredible culture scene, a scene that includes a world-class opera and symphony, plus great jazz, theatre, dance, art and architecture.

To keep abreast, pick up a copy of the free weekly, The Reader (website: www.Chireader.com) or New City (website: www.newcitychicago.com) – both distributed on Thursdays. The city’s dailies, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, have up-to-date cultural reviews and comments, particularly on Fridays. The best online information is at www.metromix.chicagotribune.com or the ‘Things to Do’ section of the city’s website (www.choosechicago.com).

Tickets can be purchased from individual box offices or from Ticketmaster (tel: (312) 559 1212 or at (312) 902 1500 for the arts line). At Hot Tix booths, 78 West Randolph and 163 East Pearson (Water Works Visitors Center) or Tower Record locations, 214 South Wabash and 2301 North Clark Street, half-priced tickets are available on the day of performance. Check the website www.hottix.org for daily availability listings. There is a discount for cash, but a fee of US$3-US$4 per ticket for processing.

Music: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 220 South Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 294 3000; website: www.chicagosymphony.org), is internationally renowned. The symphony box office offers ‘Rush Seating’ - discounted tickets to students and senior citizens (aged 64 and over) on the day of the performance at 1200 for matinees and 1700 for evening performances. The symphony’s outdoor, summer home is Ravinia, 400 Iris Lane, Highland Park (tel: 847 266 5000; website: www.ravinia.org).

Chicago’s notable opera companies are the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 North Wacker Drive (tel: (312) 332 2244; website: www.lyricopera.org), and the Chicago Opera Theater, 205 East Randolph (tel: (312) 704 8414; website: www.chicagooperatheater.org), which always performs in English.

Theatre: The theatre scene pulsates with everything from regional ensembles to elaborate productions, and they can vary from classical to avant-garde. The Loop’s revived theatre district, which include the Cadillac Palace, 151 West Randolph (tel: 312 977 1700; website: www.broadwayinchicago.com) and the Oriental, 24 West Randolph (tel: 312 782 2004; website: www.broadwayinchicago.com) host booming Broadway productions, while the Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn Parkway (tel: (312) 443 3800; website: www.goodmantheatre.com), and the Steppenwolf, 1650 North Halsted, (tel: 312 335 1650; website: www.steppenwolf.com) are renowned for their workings of the classics and contemporary productions. A creative approach to the bard’s works is the focus of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier (tel: (312) 595 5600; website: www.chicagoshakes.com).

Besides the Loop, a multitude of theatres are scattered throughout the city, though many are located on the North Side around Halsted and Lincoln. The League of Chicago Theatres (312) 554 9800; website: www.chicagoplays.com) has a complete listing of current programmes.

Dance: The city has several talented companies that perform regularly. Its top ballet company is the Joffrey Ballet Company of Chicago (tel: (312) 902 1500; website: www.joffrey.com). A daring mix of jazz with classical ballet and contemporary techniques is a specialty of the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (tel: (312) 970 1700; website: www.hubbardstreetdance.com). Pure jazz is performed by Gus Giordano Jazz Dance of Chicago (tel: (847) 866 6779; website: www.giordanojazzdance.com), founded in 1962 and based in the Evanston suburb. Ethnic dance troupes are an example of the city’s diversity. Trinity Irish Dance Co, 6655 North Avondale Avenue (tel: (773) 549 6135), was formed long before Michael Flatley’s Riverdance, and for traditional African rhythms and African-American style, there is Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago (tel: (773) 602 1135; www.muntu.com).

Film: Many of the mainstream cinemas, such as the Water Tower Theater, 845 North Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 649 5790; website: www.watertowertheatre.com), have several screens. Some cinemas, Biograph Theatre, 2433 North Lincoln Avenue (tel: (773) 348 4123; website: www.villagetheatres.com/Biograph), have historical associations. In 1934, gangster John Dillinger was shot by the FBI in front of it. Cheap, cheerful and sometimes rowdy typifies the Brew and View at the Vic cinema, 3145 North Sheffield Avenue (tel: (312) 618 8439; website: www.brewview.com), which screens late-night films, cult numbers and new releases. For a rich mix of the old and the new, there is the Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport Avenue (tel: (773) 871 6604; website: www.musicboxtheatre.com), a 1920s ‘movie palace’ which features independent films, foreign films, classics and silent films accompanied by a live organ. The Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 North State (312 846 2800; website: www.siskelfilmcenter.org) specialises in unusual films, classics and film festivals. Moviefone (tel: (312) 444 3456; website: www.moviefone.com) is the principal source of information and also sells tickets to some cinemas (‘movie theaters’).

Of the many films set or filmed in Chicago, some of the most famous are The Sting (1973), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; the classic John Belushi film, The Blues Brothers (1980); the Oscar-winning Ordinary People (1980); Risky Business (1983), the film that launched Tom Cruise; the John Candy, Steve Martin film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987); Hoop Dreams, a documentary about inner-city kids becoming basketball stars (1994); the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day (1993) and the 1930s gangster dramas, The Untouchables (1987) and The Road to Perdition (2002) with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.

Cultural Events: Dating back to 1935 is the Grant Park Music Festival (www.grantparkmusicfestival.com), which performs in the new Frank Gehry-designed Millennium Park Music Pavilion from June through August. Free performances range from pop, classical, music, opera and blues. The annual Summer Dance Festival, from mid-June to late August, takes place in the Spirit of Music Garden, Grant Park. The festival offers one-hour dance lessons as well as dancing to live orchestras. In October, the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival lasts two weeks and features not only the latest Hollywood offerings but also international films, animation, short films, documentaries, student films and videos. For a list of ethnic festivals throughout the city and the year, check the Mayor’s Office of Special Events (website: www.cityofchicago.org and click on ‘events’).

Literary Notes: The poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was part of the heady ‘Chicago Renaissance’ in the first two decades of the 1900s. In his poem, Chicago (1916), he coined the phrase ‘City of the Big Shoulders’. Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) wrote about the horrors of the meatpacking world of Union Stockyards and the Jewish-Lithuanian ghetto in The Jungle (1903). The book was the catalyst for the changing of food laws in America.

Chicago’s most famous writers are probably Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in the Oak Park suburb (see Excursions), and Saul Bellow (b 1915), who was born in Quebec but raised in Chicago. Bellow has portrayed the post-modern city in many guises, including Pulitzer-Prize-winning Humboldt’s Gift (1975) and The Dean’s December (1982).

The dangerous, frenzied and unscrupulous underside of the Board of Trade was the subject of The Pit (1903), by Frank Norris (1870-1902). James T Farrell (1904-1979) was born in Chicago. His best-known work is the trilogy, Studs Lonigan (1932-1935), depicting the ethnic turmoil of the South Side slums. The clash of races in the slums was also the subject of Richard Wright’s (1908-1960) Native Son (1940). Detroit-born Nelson Algren (1909-1981), as part of the ‘Chicago School of Realism’, continued the unadorned style associated with the city’s portrayal in several of his novels, including The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), a novel about drug addiction, often regarded as his best work.

Theatre has also made its mark in this city, particularly with American Buffalo (1976), by David Mamet (b 1947), the Chicago-born playwright and film director. With Chicago’s gangster tradition, it is fitting that he also wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables (1987). It is also fitting that two writers have based their detective novels in the city. Sara Paretsky’s ‘VI Warshawski’ stories and Andrew Greeley’s ‘Monsignor Ryan’ tales feature Chicago as a major location or, one could even say, character.