By Philip Vidal
January is named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces to look into the past and into the future. That’s how I feel about the month of August, when the past, present and future all come to mind. August is when temperatures, including Lake Michigan’s waters, are at their yearly high. At the same time, it’s summer’s crescendo and swan song, with a general refocus of interest to the fall, and all that is coming up.
Many events in August look back or have a nostalgic feel. The website for the 25th annual Retro on Roscoe festival asks “Ever wish you could go back in time?”. The festival, which runs August 9-11 includes an antique and classic car and motorcycle show, food and an oldie or two performed by live bands. They’ll surely play some oldies as well as rock and roll at the free World’s Largest Karaoke Party at the Salt Shed on August 8. I’m not sure I’d want to croon in front of thousands of people, though no doubt others certainly will.
Metallica performs at Soldier Field August 9 and 11: 2 nights, 2 different sets and 2 different opening acts. Photo by Live Nation.
Last month, I attended a lovely dinner party in Highland Park. When I left the party, I could hear the Beach Boys singing their 1964 hit “Fun, Fun, Fun” at Ravinia a few blocks away. Music this month, too, has a definite retro feel with Metallica performing at Soldier Field on August 9 and 11. The Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge perform at Ravinia on August 11.
Celebrating the greatest pop rock music from the ‘60s and ‘70s! “The Happy Together Tour 2024” arrives to downtown Aurora’s Paramount Theatre on August 10. Photo by Paramount Theatre.
The Paramount Theatre presents “The Get Happy Together Tour” with The Turtles, The Association, The Cowsills and more, August 10. Green Day performs with special guests The Smashing Pumpkins, who started in Chicago, at Wrigley Field on August 13. Styx, another band that started in Chicago, performs along with Foreigner and John Waite at Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre on August 24. The next day, the Doobie Brothers perform – another blast from my past. Maybe it’s time to put my “Best of The Doobies” (1976) LP on the turntable? The Blues Brothers Con is back at the Old Joliet Prison site on August 17.
When I think of the present in light of the past, I recall watching the 1968 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on our family’s Zenith TV. On August 29, the Newberry Library’s free (registration required) hybrid presentation “Creating and Preserving Disorder: Royko, Daley, and the 1968 Democratic National Convention” led by Northwestern University Professor Bill Savage.
I attended some of the festivities for the 1996 DNC in Chicago. The DNC returns to Chicago, which has hosted the most political conventions of any city in the U.S., on August 19-22.
The limited run of “44 – THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL” hits Chicago’s Epiphany Center for the Arts right before the DNC arrives to town. Photo credit Mackenzie Hilton.
During the DNC, Stephen Colbert who attended Northwestern University and started his career at Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, IO Theatre and Second City brings his “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” late night TV show to the Auditorium Theatre. The Epiphany Center for the Arts presents “44 – THE unOFFICIAL, unSANCTIONED OBAMA MUSICAL” August 7-17.
Janet Ulrich Brooks stars as Queen Elizabeth II in Drury Lane Theater’s production of “The Audience, an intimate portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the private audiences she held with her prime ministers, August 28-October 20. Photo courtesy of Drury Lane Theater.
Great Britain has a new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. In Peter Morgan’s play “The Audience,” Queen Elizabeth II looks back at some of the ‘audiences’ (aka meetings) with prime ministers during her reign. The brilliant Janet Ulrich Brooks stars in Drury Lane Theater’s production of “The Audience,” August 28-October 20.
A celebration of 1960’s female empowerment! “Beehive: The 60’s Musical” features all your favorite hits, now through August 11 at the Marriott Theatre. Photo by Marriott Theatre.
Brooks performed the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the Chicago premiere of “The Audience” at TimeLine Theatre in 2017. TimeLine Theatre is moving out of its home of 25 years at 615 West Wellington at the end of this month. TimeLine is inviting its patrons to share memories at its “FareWellington” Open House Celebration on August 4. TimeLine will then partner with other theater groups for their 2024/2025 season before moving to their new home at 5035 North Broadway. The Marriott Theatre takes a trip down memory lane with their production of “Beehive: The 60’s Musical” through August 11. Based on the 1985 movie, the musical “Back to the Future” runs August 13-September 1 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre.
It’s the perfect time to enjoy a movie outdoors! Parks across Chicago will play a variety of movies all summer long. Photo by Chicago Park District.
The Rooftop Cinema Club at Fulton Market screens a “Back to the Future” (1985) on August 3 and many other retro gems, including two movies filmed in the Chicago area: “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997) on August 14, and “The Breakfast Club” (1985) on August 26. The final movie in this year’s Millennium Park Summer Film Series at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion is another movie filmed in and around Chicago, “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off” (1986). The 21st season of Movies in the Parks (through September 7) also screens retro gems, as well as family-friendly box office hits to Chicago parks. Two series at the Gene Siskel Film Center look back this month: “Entrances & Exits” series looks back at the first and last films from 10 famous filmmakers, August 1-29 and Chicago International Film Festival’s “Before They Were Big” presents four directorial debuts that screened at the festival August 6-27. For a true blast from the past, watch a movie under the stars at a drive-in movie theater like ChiTown Movies in Pilsen, or the McHenry Outdoor Theater. Congratulations to the Music Box Theatre, which opened on August 22, 1929, where patrons were meant to feel like they were watching a movie outdoors in a piazza with twinkling stars above.
A radio program, movies, a Broadway musical and then a movie version of the Broadway play were all based upon the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” which debuted in the New York Daily News a century ago on August 5, 1924. The comic strip was created by Kankakee native and Lombard resident Harold Gray when he worked at the Chicago Tribune. The exhibit “Leapin Lizards! A Hundred Years of Little Orphan Annie” runs through December 23 at the Lombard Historical Society.
Millennium Park turned twenty this year. Just a few of the events this month include: Broadway in Chicago’s Summer Concert on August 12; Sunday in the Park with Lyric on August 25; and the Chicago Jazz Festival August 29-September 1 (also at the Chicago Cultural Center).
GRAMMY® Award-winning Third Coast Percussion announces its 20th anniversary season beginning with a performance at Ravinia’s Martin Theater on August 27. Photo by Third Coast Percussion.
As this season of the Ravinia Festival, which opened in August 1904, winds down, Third Coast Percussion opens its 20th season with the Chicago premiere of “Archetypes with Sérgio and Clarice Assad” in Ravinia’s Martin Theater on August 27.
Cheryl Corley tells the story of how the blues came to Chicago from the Deep South while Lucy Smith and the Lucy Smith Quintet perform the blues at the last two (free) concerts in the “Chicago Bound: The Great Migration of the Blues” series on August 3 in Ada Park, 11250 South Ada Street, and September 6 in Warren Park, 6601 North Western Avenue.
Art and technology come together for The Wabash Lights, an interactive art installation under the “L” tracks at Wabash Avenue between Madison and Monroe. Photo by The Wabash Lights.
The Wabash Lights art installation puts a new spin on something old, the L tracks along Wabash Avenue between Madison and Monroe. By scanning a QR code, the public can interact with four parallel 50-foot strips of custom-built LEDs installed under the “L” tracks. The activation is set for some time this month.
The last summer fireworks display of the year at Navy Pier, which was voted “Best Place to See Fireworks” in the Nation” by USA TODAY’s readers, is August 31. The Chicago Bears first preseason game is August 1, a sure sign that fall will soon be upon us. I’m looking forward to curating fall events for our Classic Chicago Magazine readers.
Dates, times, locations and availability are subject to change.
