Author: Jodie Jacobs

Holiday gift sources

 

 

Art Institue of Chicago has a great gift shop (J Jacobs photo)
Art Institue of Chicago has a great gift shop (J Jacobs photo)

 

We’re past Black Friday and Cyber Monda but there are still gifts to get so here are some ideas for in person and on line shopping.

In Person

The “One of a Kind Holiday Show is at The Mart this weekend from Thursday through Sunday. The show, which returns in late spring, brings back the fun of shopping without the stress.

There are more than 500 artists (think major art fair plus) that includes clever, hand-crafted, cooking utensils and gorgeous glass items. But it also has food booths of candy, spices and other delectables. Hours: Dec. 7-9, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Dec. 10 – 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

For tickets and more information call 800-677Mart or see Attend | One of a Kind Show (oneofakindshowchicago.com)

The Mart is at the Chicago River between Orleans and Wells Streets. The show is on the 7th Floor.

 

On Line – Museum shops

If downtown Chicago, make the trip a museum destination as a two-for so you enjoy an exhibition and pick up gifts. Many of the Cit y’s top museums have on-line gift stores so you can shop at your best time.

Art Institute of Chicago

Among the best museum stores, at AIC you can find items at many price points from a Pablo Picasso scarf for $190 to cute Georges Seurat “Sunday on La Grand Jatte” socks for $16. For more ideas visit  Museum Shop.

 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 

Jewlery, puzzles, home décor are at all price points ranging from a Frida Kahlo puzzle for $19.99 to a Midnight Crescent Petite necklace for $180.00. For these items and more ideas visit MCA Shop.

 Happy Shopping

Jodie Jacobs

Three holiday shows that change a personality

 

Writers Theatre, Glencoe does Manual Cinema Christmas Carol (Photo by Liz Lauren)

Lots of shows to choose from this holiday season. So if wondering how to whittle them down, here are a few recommendations all based on age appeal and the message of change.

 

For the whole family

 It doesn’t matter if you have seen Goodman Theatre’s production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It’s always a little different each year but the story still is a feel-good message of what is important and that people can change. It’s also a tradition in many Chicago area households with all-age appeal.

The show runs from Nov. 18 to Dec. 31, 2023. For tickets and more information visit A Christmas Carol 2023 – Goodman Theatre

 

For adults and older teens who want something different

At Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Manual Cinema presents a different take on Scrooge and how to present the Christmas Carol story. First, Manual Cinema often uses shadow puppets to tell a story in a somewhat unusual way so give the action and production time to develop its theme. It’s not as chaotic as first appears. Secondly, by the show’s end, audiences realize the woman presenting the story starts out with a Scrooge-style personality.

The show runs Nov. 16 to Dec. 24, 2023. For tickets and more information visit  Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol | Writers Theatre

 

For youngsters

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” at the Cadillac Palace Theatre is yet a third view of how a Scrooge-type character, this time called a Grinch,” developed that way and can change.

The show runs Dec. 19-Dec. 31, 2023. For tickets and more information visit Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical – Broadway In Chicago.

Jodie Jacobs

Old romance conflict revived at Citadel Theatre

 

Recommended

On the one hand it’s hard to review a show that is dated. At least, that is the feeling audience members may get watching “She Loves Me” at Citadel Theatre. The show is a Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick, Joe Masteroff muscial with award-winning revivals that started out in 1937 as “Perfumerie” by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo.

It went on to become the film “The Shop Around the Corner” in 1940 then redone as “In the Good Old Summertime.”

The action takes place as the seasons change but mainly during the holidays. However, this is not a family Christmas show. (except for older teens who may appreciate the more risqué parts in a café and the excekkent choreography by Amanda Schmidt in the Perfumerie.)

By the end of the first act, and it is a long first act, minds can also be changed.

What started out as somewhat stilted workplace activities, conversations and rifts, developed into a romantic confrontation, resolution and possible workplace disasters.

Once we meet and get to know Amalia Balash well-played by Hannah Louise Fermandes and nicely done by Georg Nowack portrayed by Travis Ascione as the verbally dueling couple who start out on the wrong foot, the action, directed by Director Matthew Silar, grows on you until you care about their conflict resolution and those of other characters. Kudos also go to Jake Busse as the café waiter.

Considering how small Citadel’s stage is the scenic design by Eric Luchen is perfect.  It includes an excellent side balcony style space for a quintet led by keyboardist Rex Mayer.  

“She Loves Me” is at Citadel Theatre, 300 Waukegan Rd., Lake Forest, IL from  Nov. 17 through Dec. 17/   Running time 2 ½ hrs. For tickets and other information visit Citadel Theatre.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit  Theatre in Chicago

 

 

Where to spend some holiday time

Chicago is a great place to spend the holidays. But you might want to plan where to go when because there is so much going on in the city and suburbs.

Here are just a few suggestions.

 

 

Lincoln P:ark Zoolights(Photo by Jodie Jacobs)

Lincoln Park ZooLights (J Jacobs photo)

Sitting just north of Chicago’s downtown Loop and on the west side of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Lincoln Park Zoo celebrates the holidays with more than a million colorful LEDs for the annual ZooLights.

Sponsored by Com Ed and Invesco, ZooLights casts a joyous spell on paths past animal homes and food booths from Nov. 17, 2023 to Jan. 7, 2024. The free daytime zoo now is by $7-$10 tickets at night but is free on Mondays. Festival hours: Sunday–Thursday: 4:30–9:00 p.m. Friday–Saturday: 4:30–10:00 p.m. The zoo closes at 3 p.m. for the festival so it can reopen at 4:30 p.m.  

Tip: best plan is to take a bus.  Number 22, 36, 151, and 156 buses stop along the western edge of the zoo.

Brookfield Zoo Tunnel of Light sponsored by Xfinity. (Chicago Zoological Society photo)

Tunnel of Light at Brookfield Zoo (Photo courtesy of Chicago Zoological Society)

At southwest suburban Brookfield Zoo, the season is also celebrated with more than a million LEDs Holiday Magic. Those dates are Nov.  24-26, Dec. 30 and dec 1-3 and Dec.7-10, Dec. 14-17, Dec .21-23 and Dec.26-31.

Get tickets for North or South Gate entry Advance tickets needed for South  entry. The zoo open from 3-9 p.m. on Holiday Magic dates. Entertainment is 5-8p.m. with “Those Funny Little People” and “Juggling Elves.”

North Gate: 8400 31st Street (1st Avenue and 31st Street),
South Gate Main Entrance 3300 Golf Rd. 

 

Christkindl Market downtown Chicago. (Photo by J Jacobs)

Christkindle Market Daley Plaza, (JJacobs photo) 

A fun place to visit during the holidays is the German-style market downtown Chicago at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington St. or its branches at Gallagher Way Gallagher Way 3635 N Clark Street in Wrigleyville alongside Cubs Park or in Aurora at RiverEdge Park, 360 N Broadway.

Filled with food and gift booths, it’s impossible to walk away without a taste treat or gift.  Visit Christkindlmarket.

For more holiday lights visit November Lights

Jodie Jacobs

Beautiful tells how King classics came to be

 

(Kaitlyn Davis as Carole King in “Beautiful” at Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire)

3 1/2 Stars

The audience at the Wednesday Marriott opening of “Beautiful: the Carole King Musical,” are likely familiar with such classic songs as “You’ve Got a Friend,” “So Far Away,” “Up on the Roof,” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”

But I wonder if they know that the person who wrote them started out as a teenage songwriting phenom who had skipped two grades in school and whose mom wanted her to continue her classical piano studies.

Or that she started out as a pop composer whose first husband, Gerry Gofin, did the lyrics while she wrote the music.

Or that the grand piano on stage at the show’s start would actually reappear at the show’s end in Carnegie Hall.

With terrific dance and song examples, “Beautiful’s” long Act I showed  how the music of the King-Gofin partnership was picked up and performed by well-known groups.

(“Beautiful” at Marriott shows how major performers adopted the King-Gofin songs) 

The shorter Act II is about that partnership’s on-off crises and split up that led King to going it alone and her concert at Carnegie Hall. The show could have an Act III about all her awards, more partnerships and more songs plus her award-winning “Tapestry” album.

However, King’s “Beautiful” journey as performed at the Marriott Theatre is in the wonderful, over-the-top hands of Kaitlyn Davis from the national tour of “Beautiful.” BTW, Davis is also an accomplished pianist and songwriter.

Her co-star, Andrew Mueller, who is the brother of the Mueller sisters who performed “Beautifu”l on Broadway and the national tour, has impressive credits in Chicago area theater. He does an excellent portrayal of Gofin.

(Song-writing rivals and friends, Cynthis Weil (Erica Stephan) and Barry Mann, (Justin Albinde) )

A good picture of the song business is the delightfully done inclusion of couple Cynthis Weil portrayed by Erica Stephan, and Barry Mann, played by Justin Albinder. 

Well directed by Jessica Fisch, “Beautiful” is basically a “jukebox” show that will bring back lots of musical memories.  

“Beautiful: the Carole King Musical” is at Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire, Il now through Dec. 31, 2023.

For tickets and more information visit Beautiful/MarriottTheatre

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit  Theatre in Chicago

 

 

 

 

November holiday lights

Light up the night at Lightscape

(Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden)

No sooner does Halloween wave a cold and scary skeleton hand goodby than the Chicago Botanic Garden and Morton Arboretum beckon with  tickets for their light shows.

Lightscape

The word “Lightscape” really defines the Chicago Botanic Garden’s winter transformation of its paths, garden areas and islands.

Open Nov. 10, 2023 through Jan. 7, 2024, formerly familiar Garden sections turn into plots of fire, fantastically large flowers and colorful, bright beacons. 

For its fifth annual holiday light show some displays, such as the popular Winter Cathedral, return like old, familiar friends. Other sections, such as Evening Island, welcome visitors to new vistas. 

What to expect: food and drink in various courtyards plus an enchanting experience of music and light.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is at 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe, IL (847) 835-6801. 

For tickets and more information visit Lightscape | Chicago Botanic Garden

Lightscape 2022 at Chicago Botanic Garden (J Jacobs phto)
Lightscape 2022 at Chicago Botanic Garden (J Jacobs photo)

llumination

Light transforms a one-mile pathway at Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum. Opening Nov. 18, 2023, Illumination continues through Jan. 6, 2024.

 A grove of trees comes alive as color change while you watch and lights  make trees dance. Hug a tree to see it light up. Then see the display’s finale on Meadow Lake.

You can warm up by a fire and roast marshmallows for s’mores or stop in a concession tent for a snack and beverage or dine at the Ginkgo Restaurant in the Visitor Center. Stop at the Arboretum Store to purchase a temperature-activated, color-changing ceramic mug available Illumination.

The Morton Arboretum is 41oo IL Rt 53, Lisle, IL  For tickets and more information visit Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum | The Morton Arboretum.

Jodie Jacobs

 

 

Dinos and fossils now at LCFPs Dunn Museum

 

Lake County Forest Preserves Dunn Museum in Libertyvill, IL ( J acobs hofot)
Lake County Forest Preserves Dunn Museum in Libertyville IL  JJacobs photo)

See the Tully Monster and the Dryptgosaurus Dinosaur plus the duck-billed dinos of the Hadrosaurs group. They are just some of the creatures now on exhibit at the Lake County Forest Preserves’ Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL

If you walk into the exhibit from the front admission desk you see a couple of samples tempting you to see more.  Then you walk through the permanent exhibits on the way to “Dinosaurs. Fossils Exposed.”

However, if you turn into the corridor just past the desk you are in the temporary exhibition space for the dinos and fossils. You can then go on to the permanent exhibits and exit back at the desk.

Touching is permitted.\. Many of the exhibit’s bones are skeletal molds  including a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. The exhibit is interactive.

BTW, Tully monster is small enough to miss if you walk by its rocky fossile too fast.  When it existed it could be a foot long and look like a swimming sausage. The fossil rock was found in Lindenhurst in 1957 and has brachiopods, cephalopods and other ancient sea creatures.

Touching is permitted. The special exhibition is interactive. You can touch six full dinosaur skeletal molds including a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. For photos, stand next to a 6-foot Apatosaurus femur. 

(Dinosaurs: Fossils Exposed was conceptualized by the Arkansas Discovery Network, The Preservation Foundation, the charitable partner of the Lake County Forest Preserves, provided support for the exhibition.)

This special exhibition is up through Jan. 15, 2024.

The Dunn Museum is at 1899 West Winchester Rd, Libertyville IL 60048. For more information call 847-968-3400.

 

 

Brigadoon has reappeared

 

(Conor Jordan and Zachery Linnert)

4 Stars

With such Lerner and Lowe songs as “Almost Like Bein’ in Love” and “Come to Me, Bend to Me,” it would be hard to not put on a fine musical. However, Brigadoon, now presented at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts by Music Theater Works, goes beyond merely “fine.”

Everything, from the voices and acting to dance numbers by Clayton Cross and costuming by Jazmin Aurora Medina, are spectacular. And that is happening, unlike the last Music Theater Works of “Springtime for Hitler” on the large stage. This production is crammed onto the small North Theatre stage.

But it works.

Directed by Sasha Gerritson and choreographed by Cross, the show features a sterling cast of ballet-style dancers and such exceptional singers in the lead as Conor Jordan as Tommy Albright and Sarah Obert as Fiona.

Albright and Fiona fall in love but the catch is the Scottish town of Brigadoon will disappear for one hundred years. Albright, an American who stumbled on it while exploring the country with his friend, Jeff (Zachery Linnert), returns with him to America and his somewhat jaded existence.

What happens next is that Love conquers all. 

As with “Springtime,” the show has a large supporting cast of singers, actors and dancers – Madison Kauffman, Luke Nowakowski, Stan Austin , Will Leonard, Bob Sanders, Susannah Harvey, Kent Joseph, Timothy Wolf, Adam Raso, Delaney Good, Isa Ramirez, Jimmy Hogan, Anna Marie Abbate, Emma Jean Eastlund, Theresa Egan, David Geinosky, Dee Kimpel, Olivia Russell, Alex Villasenor, Chad Gearig-Howe and Renee Dwyer.

Go see it before Brigadoon disappears. The production is at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie, IL through Nov. 12, 2023. For more information and tickets visit Music Theater Works | Great Music. Great Theater. The Works.

Jodie Jacobs

For more shows visit Theatre in Chicago

 

 

Skeletons are not just Halloween figures

 

keletons populatge east side of Highwood ready for Day of the Dead (J Jacobs photo)
skeletons populate east side of Highwood ready for Day of the Dead (J Jacobs photo)

If you drive through downtown Highwood, a tiny northern suburb next to Fort Sheridan (they say they are a city) on the east side of the Metra tracks, you see many skeletons.

They don’t look scary. They look like family members who have gathered for a reunion similar to what may be seen at the National Mexican Museum in Chicago National Museum of Mexican Art, Pilsen, Chicago and Dia de Muertos.

The Highwood skeletons are a good reminder that Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated throughout the Chicago area as a time to pay homage to and reunite family and friends who are still around with those who have passed on.

The Museum of Mexican Art is one place to go but another place, maybe unexpected, is Brookfield Zoo.

Sponsored by Chevrolet, the zoo’s celebration is Oct. 28-29 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The zoo celebration ranges from face-painting (fees) and getting sugar skulls (while supplies last) to taking photos with the catrinas (traditional skeleton characters).

For more information visit CZS.org/DiadelosMuertos.

Jodie Jacobs

Safe way to watch partial eclipse

On Saturday, you might hear “Look up.” But don’t do it unless you have the proper glasses to protect your eyes from the sun

Chicago’s Adler Planetarium is holding Eclipse Encounter ’23, a free, fun, educational and safe way to view a partial solar eclipse this Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Partial solar eclipses occur when the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth but just covers part of the Sun.

WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling will be there along with Adler staff, volunteers and teens who will pass out solar viewers (while supplies last) and help with Adler telescopes fitted with solar filters. The telescopes and event will be outside on the museum grounds.

Large solar glasses will be available to take fun eclipse selfies. The eclipse starts about 10:37 a.m. CDT and lasts until 1:22 p.m .CDT with its peak occurring at 11:58 a.m. CDT. That is when about 43 percent of the Sun will be covered by the Moon as seen from Chicago.

For more solar eclipse dates and locations visit NASA Maps.

Jodie Jacobs