The Performing Arts

Chicago is a regular stop on the big-name entertainment circuit, whether it's the national tour of Broadway shows such as Wicked or pop music acts such as U2 or the Dave Matthews Band (both of whom sell out multiple nights at stadiums when they come to town). High-profile shows including Monty Python's Spamalot and Mel Brooks's stage version of The Producers had their first runs here before moving on to New York.

Thanks to extensive renovation efforts, performers have some impressive venues where they can strut their stuff. The Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy., between Michigan and Wabash avenues (tel. 312/922-2110; www.auditoriumtheatre.org), is my pick for the most beautiful theater in Chicago -- and it's a certified national landmark, too. Built in 1889 by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, this grand hall schedules mostly musicals and dance performances. Even if you don't catch a show here, stop by for a tour.

The city's other great historic theaters are concentrated in the North Loop. The Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theater, 24 W. Randolph St., and the Cadillac Palace Theater, 151 W. Randolph St., book major touring shows and are well worth a visit for arts buffs. The Oriental's fantastical Asian look includes elaborate carvings almost everywhere you look; dragons, elephants, and griffins peer down at the audience from the gilded ceiling. The Palace features a profusion of Italian marble surfaces and columns, gold-leaf accents a la Versailles, huge decorative mirrors, and crystal chandeliers. (If you'd like to get a look at these historic theaters for a fraction of the standard ticket price, guided tours of both start at 11am Sat and cost $10 per person; meet in the Oriental lobby.) The LaSalle Bank Theatre (formerly the Schubert Theatre), 18 W. Monroe St., was built in 1906 as a home for vaudeville; today it books mostly big-name musicals and sometimes comedy performers. For show schedules at all three theaters, call tel. 312/977-1700, or visit www.broadwayinchicago.com.

The Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., at Lake Street (tel. 312/443-1130), is a 1920s music palace reborn as an all-purpose entertainment venue, playing host to pop acts, magicians, stand-up comedians, and more. Arie Crown Theater, in the McCormick Place convention center at 23rd Street and Lake Shore Drive (tel. 312/791-6190), books musicals and pop acts; a renovation has improved previously terrible acoustics (Elton John once interrupted a performance to complain about the sound), but this is still a massive, somewhat impersonal hall. Since all these theaters are quite large, the cheaper seats are in nosebleed territory.

Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard (tel. 312/294-3000), is the building that encompasses Orchestra Hall, home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Expanded and renovated a few years back, the building now holds a six-story sky-lit arcade, recital spaces, and the fine-dining restaurant Rhapsody. While the CSO is the main attraction, the Symphony Center schedules a series of piano recitals, classical and chamber music concerts, a family matinee series, and the occasional jazz or pop artist.

Chicago has a few other major venues for traveling shows, but they are not as convenient for visitors. The Rosemont Theatre, 5400 River Rd. in Rosemont, near O'Hare Airport (tel. 847/671-5100), is a top suburban stop for musicals and concerts. The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in the northern suburb of Skokie (tel. 847/673-6300), is home to the well-respected Northlight Theater, the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, and a series of touring acts, including comics, dance troupes, and children's programs.

Classical Music

For current listings of classical music concerts and opera, check with the Chicago Dance and Music Alliance (tel. 312/987-1123; www.chicagoperformances.org).

The Apollo Chorus of Chicago (tel. 312/427-5620; www.apollochorus.org) is best known for its annual holiday-season performance of Handel's Messiah at Orchestra Hall. Founded in 1872, 1 year after the Great Chicago Fire, the oldest all-volunteer civic chorus in the country began life as an all-male group and now includes women. Concerts take place throughout the year at various venues.

The Chicago Chamber Musicians (tel. 312/225-5226; www.chicagochambermusic.org), a 14-member ensemble drawn from performers from the CSO and Northwestern and DePaul universities, presents chamber music concerts at various locales around the city. The season runs September through May, and you can always find the CCM performing free noontime concerts on the first Monday of the month (except Sept and Mar) at the Chicago Cultural Center. The Chicago String Quartet is affiliated with the group.

The Chicago Sinfonietta (tel. 312/236-3681; www.chicagosinfonietta.org), with its racially diverse 45-member orchestra and a wide-ranging repertoire, seeks to broaden the audience for classical music. In the past the group has followed a Beethoven piano concerto with a piece featuring a steel drum. Playing about 10 times a year at Orchestra Hall and other venues, the group often takes a multimedia approach to its multicultural mission, collaborating with dance troupes, visual artists, museums (such as slide shows depicting art from the Art Institute and the National Museum of Mexican Art), rock bands, and gospel choirs.

Music of the Baroque (tel. 312/551-1414; www.baroque.org) is a small orchestra and chorus that pulls members from both the CSO and the Lyric Opera orchestra, and features professional singers from across the country. The ensemble performs the music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, in (appropriately) Gothic church settings in various neighborhoods. The group has made several recordings and has introduced works by Mozart and Monteverdi to Chicago audiences.

Theater

Ever since the Steppenwolf Theatre Company burst onto the national radar in the late '70s and early '80s with in-your-face productions of Sam Shepard's True West and Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead, Chicago has been known as a theater town. As Broadway produced bloated, big-budget musicals with plenty of special effects but little soul, Chicago theater troupes gained respect for their risk-taking and no-holds-barred emotional style. Some of Broadway's most acclaimed dramas in recent years (the Goodman Theatre's revival of Death of a Salesman and Steppenwolf's The Grapes of Wrath, to name a few) hatched on Chicago stages. With more than 200 theaters, Chicago might have dozens of productions playing on any given weekend -- and seeing a show here is on my must-do list for all visitors.

The city's theaters have produced a number of legendary comedic actors, including comic-turned-director Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Postcards from the Edge, Primary Colors), as well as fine dramatic actors and playwrights. David Mamet, one of America's greatest playwrights and an acclaimed film director and screenwriter, grew up in Chicago's South Shore steel-mill neighborhood and honed his craft with the former St. Nicholas Players, which included actor William H. Macy (Fargo, Boogie Nights).

The thespian soil here must be fertile. Tinseltown and TV have lured away such talents as John Malkovich, Joan Allen, Dennis Franz, George Wendt, John and Joan Cusack, Aidan Quinn, Anne Heche, and Lili Taylor. But even as emerging talent leave for higher paychecks, a new pool of fresh faces is always waiting to take over. This constant renewal keeps the city's theatrical scene invigorated with new ideas and energy. Many of the smaller theater companies place great emphasis on communal work: Everyone takes part in putting on a production, from writing the script to building the sets. These companies perform in tiny, none-too-impressive venues, but their enthusiasm and commitment are inspiring. Who knows, the group you see performing in some storefront theater today could be the Steppenwolf of tomorrow.

For a complete listing of current productions playing, check the comprehensive listings in the two free weeklies, the Reader (which reviews just about every show in town) and New City; the weekly Time Out Chicago; or the Friday sections of the two dailies. The website of the League of Chicago Theatres (www.chicagoplays.com) also lists all theater productions playing in the area.

Getting Tickets -- To order tickets for many plays and events, call the Ticketmaster Arts Line (tel. 312/902-1500), a centralized phone-reservation system that allows you to charge full-price tickets (with an additional service charge) for productions at more than 50 Chicago theaters. Individual box offices also take credit card orders by phone, and many of the smaller theaters will reserve seats for you with a simple request under your name left on the answering machine. For hard-to-get tickets, try Chicago Ticket Exchange (tel. 312/902-1888; www.chicagoticketexchange.com) or Gold Coast Tickets (tel. 800/889-9100; www.goldcoasttickets.com).

Half-Price Theater Tickets -- For half-price tickets on the day of the show, drop by one of the Hot Tix ticket centers (tel. 312/977-1755; www.hottix.org), located in the Loop at 72 E. Randolph St. (between Wabash and Michigan aves.); at the Water Works Visitor Center, 163 E. Pearson St.; in Lincoln Park at Tower Records, 2301 N. Clark St.; and in several suburban locations. All branches are open Tuesday through Saturday 10am to 6pm, Sunday noon to 5pm; on Friday you can also purchase tickets for weekend performances. Hot Tix also offers advance-purchase tickets at full price. Tickets are not sold over the phone. The website lists what's on sale for that day beginning at 10am.

In addition, a few theaters offer last-minute discounts on leftover seats. Steppenwolf Theatre Company often has $20 tickets available beginning at 11am on the day of a performance; stop by Audience Services at the theater. Also, half-price tickets become available 1 hr. before the show; call or stop by the box office, or visit www.steppenwolf.org. The "Tix at Six" program at the Goodman Theatre offers half-price day-of-show tickets; many of them are excellent seats returned by subscribers. Tickets go on sale at the box office at 6pm for evening performances, noon for matinees.

Theater for All -- Visitors with disabilities will find that some local theaters go the extra mile to make their performances accessible. The Steppenwolf, Goodman, and Lookingglass theaters offer sign-language interpretation for deaf patrons and audio-described performances for visually impaired audiences. Bailiwick Repertory runs a regular series of plays featuring deaf actors. Victory Gardens Theater, which has a long-standing commitment to accessible theater, schedules special performances customized for audiences with different disabilities throughout the year. The theater even offers deaf patrons special glasses that project captions of dialogue onto the frame of the glasses.

Dance

Chicago's dance scene is lively, but unfortunately it doesn't attract the same crowds as our theaters or music performances. Some resident dance troupes have international reputations, but they spend much of their time touring to support themselves. Dance performances in Chicago tend to occur in spurts throughout the year, with visiting companies such as the American Ballet Theatre and the Dance Theater of Harlem stopping in Chicago for limited engagements. Depending on the timing of your visit, you may have a choice of dance performances -- or there may be none at all. Dance lovers should schedule their visit for November, when the annual "Dance Chicago" festival (tel. 773/989-0698; www.dancechicago.com) is held at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., on the North Side. Featuring performances and workshops from the city's best-known dance companies and countless smaller groups, it's a great chance to check out the range of local dance talent.

The major Chicago dance troupes perform at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St. (tel. 312/334-7777), in Millennium Park. The 1,500-seat theater feels fairly stark and impersonal -- the gray concrete lobby could be mistaken for a parking garage -- but the sightlines are great, thanks to the stadium-style seating. Most of the troupes listed below perform there. For complete information on local dance performances, check the Chicago Dance and Music Alliance information line at tel. 312/987-1123, or visit www.chicagoperformances.org.

Another phenomenon that has enlivened the local scene is the scintillating Chicago Human Rhythm Project (tel. 773/281-1825; www.chicagotap.com), an annual tap-dance festival and nonprofit foundation created in 1990. The organization brings together tap and percussive dancers from around the world for a series of workshops and outreach programs in July and August at locations throughout the city and suburbs.