Arts & Entertainment
A Pulitzer-Winning Musical and a Film Premiere: 4 Arts Picks for Your Weekend
Dakota Fanning in Joe Swanberg’s “The Sun Never Sets” (Provided)
Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
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Monday marks the end of meteorological summer. While you could complain about the unpredictable weather, the stretches of storms, heat and smoke, you can’t argue that Chicago hasn’t brought the goods when it comes to cultural events. Whether it’s film, theater, music or fine art, WTTW News has you covered for this weekend with this small sampler of recommendations.
Film: “The Sun Never Sets” — Music Box Theatre
Chicago director Joe Swanberg has thrived on quiet dramas and comedies that explore relationships, families and the messiness that transpires therein. Whether it’s movies like “Drinking Buddies,” “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” “Happy Christmas” or his Netflix anthology series “Easy,” Swanberg thrives in homing in on human intimacy, miscommunications and temptations. While most of his films take place in Chicago, his latest charts a course for the Alaskan wilderness. It stars Dakota Fanning, Cory Michael Smith and Jake Johnson, and it premieres Friday at the Music Box. Swanberg will be in attendance for the screenings Friday and Saturday evening. For showtimes and tickets, click here.
Theater: “Sunday in the Park With George” — Chopin Theatre
Written by James Lapine with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, “Sunday in the Park With George” premiered in 1984 and received remarkable critical acclaim. It was nominated for a whopping 10 Tony Awards and earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. While it’s been the subject of multiple revivals over the past few decades, the latest is opening now at Chicago’s Chopin Theatre. The musical is inspired by Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” For tickets, click here.
Art: “Feminism 250: Woman Made America” — Woman Made Gallery
On Saturday, a group exhibition featuring work by 52 women and nonbinary artists will open at Woman Made Gallery in Little Italy. The exhibition is called “Feminism 250: Woman Made America.” Tied to our country’s semiquincentennial, it “looks back at 250 years of feminist thought and action, from early demands for basic rights to today’s movements for gender justice and asks how that history can guide the feminist futures still being built.” There’s an opening ceremony Saturday evening from 4-7 p.m. for the collection that will be on view until Sept. 26. For more information, click here.
Music: “Corridos of the Semiquincentennial: Voices of Courage and Hope” — National Museum of Mexican Art
Head to Pilsen’s National Museum of Mexican Art for “Corridos of the Semiquincentennial: Voices of Courage and Hope.” The event will feature a performance by Juan Díes, co-founder of the twice Grammy-nominated Sones de México Ensemble, which promises “live music, bilingual storytelling and projected visuals.” For those unaware, corridos are traditional Mexican ballads that date back to the 1840s and often focus on heroic tales, history and stories of oppression. For more information on the event that starts at 6 p.m. Saturday, click here.
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
