Grant Park Music Festival – June 19, 2026 (same performance playing on June 20)

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Prior to the “real” concert, there was a Young Artists Showcase Suzuki event, which I didn’t listen to and mention only on the off chance that the Cubs right fielder, who, as far as I know, does not play the violin, reads my blog and is related to Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, who invented the teaching method.

As is customary, conductor Giancarlo Guerrero received a standing ovation upon entering the stage. I think he’s great and a really nice guy, but nobody ever stood for me when I came to the office (or applauded for that matter), so I remained seated.

The Festival brings in one great pianist after another, this time Canadian Stewart Goodyear playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at a tempo I can only fantasize about, once I finish with all the other fantasies in line in front of it, like my lifelong quest to get on Jeopardy, even though my information retention abilities are fading faster than his hands were moving.

Goodyear gave us a fabulous encore from his own Callaloo Suite composition, the sound of which would have fit wonderfully with the West Side Story music from last week.

After intermission, the orchestra finished with Copland’s Symphony No. 3, which made me wonder about the coincidence of two number 3’s appearing on the same program (and another, by Rachmaninov coming up in July). I loved it except, not being familiar with it, I was faked out several times in the final movement, which kept seeming like it was about to end, only to rise from the dead. Fortunately, as noted earlier, my hands don’t move all that fast, so I didn’t prematurely start clapping before the actual coda.

Summer (Music) in the City – Five Concerts, Four Venues – June 9-14, 2026

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With construction going on at St. James Cathedral, this year’s weekly, Tuesday evening, summer Rush Hour Concerts have moved to Holy Name Cathedral, which I had never before entered, so I figured what the h – – -, oops, sorry, not in church. Very elegant. And the music, Price and Mozart, was good.

Another opening, another show at the 2026 Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park.  I dodged the rain before and after the performance, which affected attendance, but the orchestra also showed up, and the music was excellent, Tower, Bernstein and Barber. The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story made me wonder whether musician auditions include demonstrations of finger-snapping skills.

What a long, strange journey to get to that concert. It took me three and a half weeks of begging, and desperately going over people’s heads, to get my tickets when they didn’t arrive as scheduled because, I was told, of a “unique and quite astounding” software problem that affected only me.

I hadn’t been to the Fourth Presbyterian Church Noonday Concert for a few weeks, and the next time I go will be for the outdoor season, in the beautiful courtyard, but I made it a point to see Jennifer Woodrum (clarinet) and Marianne Parker (piano), who, as I’ve written before, impresses not just with her technical excellence, but also with her performance style. On this day, she also demonstrated her ambidextrous, page-turning abilities, having forgotten her foot pedal at home, which she knew I would razz her about afterward.

The weather that day remained too good to pass up, so I doubled up, heading back to Millennium Park for that night’s Grant Park Music Festival program, featuring Ives and Brahms, before leaving early so as to avoid having to listen to a mass of people making vocal noises from the stage during classical music.

Two days later I made my annual trek to the Old Town Art Fair, not to see the art, such as it is there, but rather to see local blues star Donna Herula and her band do their thing, which I expect to do more of this summer when they appear at Navy Pier.

An Enemy of the People – Time Line Theatre – June 13, 2026

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Henrik Ibsen died in 1906, yet his 1882 play An Enemy of the People seems like it could have been written yesterday, maybe because the version being produced at the new TimeLine Theatre building was rewritten just a few years ago by Amy Herzog.

The disagreements between the characters reminded me in some ways of those displayed in the TimeLine production of Eureka Day, wherein, as here, protection of the health of the community was a topic of heated discussion. I liked that show better.

The lead role of Dr. Thomas Stockman was played by the understudy for this performance, which I think made a difference, but not enough to make me want to go again to see what I may have missed out on.

The issues raised in the original story were predictive of things to come, and, unfortunately, are still relevant, constantly hitting us in the face in every news cycle. Perhaps that’s why the production didn’t come across to me as particularly powerful. Truth is stranger than fiction (except, of course, science fiction). I’m jaded. I didn’t gain any new insights. Perhaps I’d just rather be distracted.

I did obtain a small tidbit of wisdom, however, though it could just as easily have come from a fortune cookie. As stated by Stockman, after being physically attacked, “When you’re fighting for truth and justice, don’t wear your good pants.”

Writing Baseball: The First All-Star Game – American Writers Museum – June 6, 2026

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I wasn’t sure about the logic behind the American Writers Festival pairing journalist and author Randall Sullivan with comedian Joe Kilgallon, but baseball is baseball, and, unfortunately, it’s often funny in Chicago, as witness the Cubs 18-3 loss the day before.

Unbeknownst to me, however, was that the full title of the book was The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroads. Not really a baseball book. In fact, the speakers mentioned Babe Ruth only briefly and then only in connection with his popularity.

They named only two other players, Al Simmons and Bryce Harper, the latter not having been born yet in 1933, when the first all star game was played, but apparently named by ESPN in 2022 as the 94th greatest player of all time, which the gentlemen took umbrage at, particularly given the omission of Simmons (who played in the 1933 game) from the list.

That said, it was an interesting session, with FDR; former Chicago mayor, wrong place, wrong time Anton Cermak; and the Depression being prominent in the discussion, which ended 10 minutes earlier than I thought it would, perhaps to allow time for a nasty phone call to ESPN.

An Evening With Bill Kurtis – American Writers Museum – June 4, 2026

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AWM President Carey Cranston interviewed Bill Kurtis about his new memoir Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News. Kurtis was prone towards rambling and losing his train of thought, but eventually always found his way back to his point.

The only downside of taking the train, instead of Cranston driving, was that Cranston ran out of time to ask about Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (he told me later), instead concluding with a question about “the elephant in the room,” meaning the apparent demise of 60 Minutes. Kurtis was quite frank in his assessment of the damage being done to the freedom of the press.

In regard to his coverage of the Manson trial, Kurtis kept referring to the cult leader as “Charlie,” or I guess it could have been “Charley,” but in either event it seemed a little odd to me.

Kurtis spoke of the advantage of being a lawyer in covering trials (though he never actually practiced law), but I felt like his insights as to gag orders missed the mark.

I liked his insights about television reporting vis-a-vis newspapers, and even early television, especially when he noted editing for time constraints by removing adjectives and adverbs because the viewer themselves could see the video, and thus many of the qualities the reporter might otherwise feel the need to describe.

Kurtis will be on a panel discussing memoirs at the upcoming AWM Festival on Sunday, June 7 at the Harold Washington Library.

Pre-Season Recital – Grant Park Music Festival – May 29, 2026

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The event took place at an undisclosed location, to you, not me. I was not loaded into an unmarked van with tinted windows by Festival agents with ear mics and taken blindfolded through the mean streets of Chicago. But, in the hope that I might someday be invited back to the same location, I’ll be discreet.

I was told that the attendees would be treated to “a performance by acclaimed pianist Clayton Stephenson.” Having seen Stephenson play brilliantly the last two summers at the Festival, that alone would have been enough to lure me in, but we also were promised spectacular views of the Chicago skyline, an impressive personal art collection, curated wines and abundant hors d’oeuvres.

All the promises were delivered upon. Stephenson entertained us with Pictures from an Exhibition and an encore of Take the A Train. The former was particularly appropriate given the massive collection lining the walls of the host’s gigantic four-story home, though I must say, heathen that I am, that I was more interested in the game room that included ping pong and pool tables, especially because none of the pool cues appeared to be warped, a first in my experience.

If you’re anywhere near Ulm, Germany, birthplace of Albert Einstein, in late June, try to catch Stephenson playing Gershwin with the Ulm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Magellan Arts, Made in America Gala – Chicago History Museum – May 13, 2026

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Bernstein, Copland, Ellington, Ives, Joplin, Lerner and Lowe, Price, Rodgers and Hammerstein. Gershwin. Who could ask for anything more?

Another great program assembled by violinist Philippe Quint, his fourth in this new series, this time optimistically celebrating the upcoming 250th anniversary of America, wrapping up a year of these concerts at the Chicago History Museum.

Quint was once again joined by a talented group of musicians, including Matt Herskowitz on the piano, who arranged several of the selections, and still, five months after her last performance at this venue, terrific, 14-year-old violinist Katherine Schafenbuel. If she’s still just 14 years old next time, I’m calling for an investigation.

The musicians were joined, for the Florence Price number, by two young dancers from the Grainger Academy of the Joffrey Ballet. Quint’s wife, Christine Rocas, current rehearsal director and former lead dancer with the Joffrey, who spoke briefly to the crowd, apparently still has some connections there.

We also were graced with the impressive voices of mezzo Angelo Born and baritone Khary Laurent in bringing us the show tunes on the program.

The one thing I was going to ask for more of was these performances, but Quint beat me to the punch by announcing that there would be.

Chicago Sings Broadway’s British Invasion – Porchlight Music Theatre at House of Blues – May 11, 2026

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I’m hard pressed to come up with a logical stream of consciousness regarding this year’s Chicago Sings event, so I will just dive (or diva) into some extremely random thoughts.

I got the chance to have a nice pre-show chat with this year’s Guy Adkins Award recipient, Mark David Kaplan, whom I saw recently as Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors. In addition to his talent, what a nice guy, but I’m afraid, a bit of a close talker.

The room wasn’t as cold as last year, but still not shorts weather.

The British Invasion, as with the Revolutionary War, apparently hasn’t been entirely successful for them, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen less than half the shows that were represented, though only one of them was totally unfamiliar.

One of the shows is coming to Broadway next year – Paddington: The Musical. Seriously?! I think I’ll take a pass, and this is coming from someone who enjoyed SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.

How do you put out a casting call for a singing bear? Well, if I’m reading the West End production website cast list correctly, you find one person to do voice and remote puppetry and someone else to be the on-stage bear.

I lip synched in a show one year and have worn various furry costumes in other shows, but never combined the two disciplines, or, in my case, undisciplined. So kudos to Paddington, but I still won’t see it.

All of Porchlight’s invading performers, including the band, were wonderful, as usual, even though, unlike last year, when there were three, there were no Moes in the group.

One final note – I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t recognize Aja Alcazar, whom I just saw at Northlight Theatre in the Angel Next Door. But, in fairness to me, she was the angel next door, and the door was usually closed, so I didn’t see that much of her.

The Movement You Need: An Evening with Brendan Hunt – Steppenwolf – May 10, 2026

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Once again I’ve managed to see only the final performance of a show. Such are the vagaries of not being a real critic, which its of no help to those of you who might actually be in interested in my opinion when deciding whether to see a show, why(?).  I swear I don’t do this on purpose, most of the time.

Anyway, Hunt was great. If I had seen him earlier in his run, I may well have gone back for an encore. He often displayed a rat-a-tat delivery unlike anything you’ve seen him do as Coach Beard on Ted Lasso and his timing was impeccable. Even when he spoke about serious things in his life, he didn’t dwell and found a way to create a rousing punchline without making you feel guilty about laughing, and there was a lot of laughing and smiling and head nodding and applause.

Word on the street is that the show may go to Broadway, wind up getting filmed and eventually make its way to a streaming service. I hope so.

Come Blow My Horn

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It’s not a typo. I didn’t see a production of Neil Simon’s 1961 play Come Blow Your Horn. They would have to rewrite the entire script before anyone would put that play on again. Inherit the Wind it is not. 

What I did, however, was send an email to TheatreinChicago telling them that they should be ashamed of having posted links to reviews of the 2023 production of Chicago on their website as if they were reviews of the current production, a fact that I pointed out in my blog yesterday after having seen the show.  

When I checked back a few hours later, I saw that they had removed the offending links, so my very positive review from yesterday now appears to be definitive. Maybe I’m on a roll. Perhaps I should try writing some government officials.