By Philip Vidal
The openings for the 2024/2025 season shift into high gear in October with a mixture of the familiar and the new.
The 60th Chicago International Film Festival runs October 16-27 at multiple venues. One of the highlights of the festival is “An Evening with Mike Meyers” on October 19, when the alumnus of The Second City (celebrating its 65th anniversary) receives a Career Achievement Award. Myers is probably best known for his starring roles in the “Austin Powers” movies and his character Wayne Campbell, who he portrayed in the “Wayne’s World” movies and on “Saturday Night Live,” which incidentally is now starting its 50th season and the subject of a new movie to be released on October 11.
The Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 presents Marshall Thompson and The Original Chi-Lites with the Lifetime Achievement Award on October 20. Photo by Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66.
Marshall Thompson and The Original Chi-Lites will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66’s fourth annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Sunday, October 20, at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet. WGN Radio’s Bob Sirott is the Master of Ceremonies. In the artist-performer category, the inductees are: Bo Diddley, Richard Marx, The Smashing Pumpkins, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf. Founder’s Choice Award recipient is country artist Suzy Bogguss, and songwriters include Willie Dixon and Steve Goodman. Bonnie Koloc will appear and perform some of Goodman’s songs.
The Dover Quartet kicks off the inaugural season for Novea Linea Musica at Guarneri Hall, October 23. Photo credit Roy Cox.
Chicago’s newest chamber music series and new music incubator Nova Linea Musica begins its inaugural season on October 23 with “Launch of Celebration of America!,” which features the Dover Quartet at Guarneri Hall, 11 East Adams.
Catch Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio” on the Lyric stage, now through October 10. Photo by Cory Weaver for San Francisco Opera.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 70th season continues with Beethoven’s “Fidelio” through October 10. To coincide with the Lyric’s production, Chicago Opera Theater opens its 2024/2025 season with the North American premiere of Ferdinando Paër’s” Leonora” on October 1, 4 and 6 at the Studebaker Theater. The first opera I ever saw was “Fidelio” at the Lyric. When I was a teenager, friends of my parents invited to join them in their box and I have been hooked ever since.
Cathy Marston’s interpretation of Ian McEwan’s novel-turned-film “Atonement” is the first-ever stage adaptation and will be at the Lyric Opera House, October 17-27. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
The Joffrey Ballet opens its 69th season with the U.S. premiere of Cathy Marston’s “Atonement” at the Lyric Opera House, October 17-27. Mandala South Asian Performing Arts presents “Dancing with Architecture” on October 5 at the intersection of Clark and Devon.
The Chicago Architecture Center’s annual citywide Open House Chicago is a great way to gain behind-the-scenes access to architecturally, culturally and historically important sites. The free festival, which runs October 19-20, is a marvelous mix of the familiar and new, as new sites are added every year.
The Driehaus Museum’s exhibition “Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright” displays Wright’s own photography and those of photographers who documented his work. Photo courtesy by the Driehaus Museum.
I’ve attended and enjoyed historian Julia Bachrach’s courses at the Chicago Architecture Center, and on October 5 she’ll talk about Jens Jensen, the famed landscape architect who had a huge impact on Chicago’s parks, in a program entitled “Jens Jensen: A Scandinavian-American Force of Nature,” at the Swedish American Museum (presented with the Swedish-American Historical Society). Another familiar name, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is the subject of an exhibition at the Driehaus Museum entitled “Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright,” October 24-January 5, 2025. This exhibit invites viewers to take a new look at Wright as a photographer, and how he used the fairly new medium of photography to showcase his work.
The University of Chicago hosts its annual Humanities Day on October 26 featuring a variety performances and locations to explore on campus. Photo by The University of Chicago.
The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago celebrates its 50th anniversary with “The 50th: An Anniversary Exhibition,” through March 2, 2025. On October 26, the university hosts its annual Humanities Day, a series of discussions, lectures, tours, exhibits, and performances that are free and open to the public. The Chicago Humanities Festival continues with conversations, performances, and screenings through December and includes five so-called “Fall Neighborhood Festivals.” Two of them are this month: University of Illinois/Chicago Day on October 5 includes a wide -range of presentations by broadcast journalist Connie Chung, novelist Eric Larson and many others, and Northwestern University (Evanston) Day on October 26 includes presentations by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, and authors John Green and Rebecca Makkai. The Chicago History Museum opens its huge vaults to display over seventy vintage items, many of which have rarely been shown to the public, in its “Dressed in History: A Costume Collection Retrospective“ exhibition, opening October 19. Similarly, thousands of objects from Chicago’s Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of “Ebony’ and “Jet” magazines, will be seen in new ways in artist Theaster Gates’ exhibition “When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive,” at the Stony Island Arts Bank through March 16, 2025.
The new season of WTTW’s documentaries entitled “Chicago Stories” continues in October. New episodes include: on October 11 “Young Lords of Lincoln Park,” about a Puerto Rican social group turned gang turned social activists; on October 18 “The Making of Playboy,” about Playboy Magazine founder Chicago’s Hugh Hefner; and on October 25 “When the West Side Burned,” about the fires and looting after the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I can’t wait to see “Amusement Parks” on October 4, which will recall pleasant memories of Chicago’s largest and longest-lived amusement park, Riverview, which was due west of my home on Melrose Street in Lakeview. I vividly remember maneuvering through the Alladin’s Castle fun house as a child, and getting soaked on the Shoot the Chutes ride. It was likewise a treat when my parents took my sisters and me to Hollywood Kiddieland at Devon and McCormick Boulevard before visiting my grandparents in Lincolnwood.
Don’t miss the 12-day lineup of special events for Chicago Fashion Week® ranging from fashion shows to educational programs, October 9-20. Photo courtesy of Chicago Fashion Week® and Inaara Vishnani.
New collectors and those familiar with Chicago’s exciting commercial gallery scene will be delighted to hear that the citywide Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW), featuring more than fifty galleries, is back and runs from October 3-6. After a ten-year hiatus Chicago Fashion Week® is also back and features events across the city that showcase established designers as well as those new to the scene, from October 9-20. Many of the events are free and open to the public.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater, in collaboration with Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, presents Shakespeare’s “Pericles” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, October 20-December 8. This is a real coup for Chicago — which is the show’s only stop in the U.S.
John Van Druten’s classic comedy “Bell, Book and Candle” will get you in the spooky Halloween mood, October 18-November10. Photo by Saint Sebastian Players.
Offerings this month include a musical based on a movie script. Billy Wilder’s opening scenes in the 1959 movie “Some Like it Hot,” starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, are in Chicago. Broadway in Chicago presents the 2022 musical “Some Like it Hot,” winner of the Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theater Album and four Tony Awards®, at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, October 22-November 3. The 1958 movie “Bell, Book and Candle” starred Chicago native Kim Novak, and Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemmon. Featuring witches, warlocks and a cat named Pyewacket, the St. Sebastian Players open its 43rd season with the perfect play for Halloween, John Van Druten’s “Bell, Book and Candle,” October 18-November 10.
Join the original ‘Brad Majors’ for a screening of the original unedited “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” featuring a live shadow cast at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, October 20. Photo by Broadway in Chicago.
Barry Bostwick, the original ‘Brad Majors’ in the 1975 movie ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” leads the audience down memory lane on a dark and stormy night with a screening of this cult classic on October 20 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Hell in a Handbag Productions’ last performance of its twenty-second season is the world premiere of “The Golden Girls Meet The Skooby Don’t Gang: The Mystery of The Haunted Bush,” at Chopin Theatre, October 10-November 3.
In the news and worth noting, what is now known as “Soldier Field” opened a century ago as the Municipal Grant Park Stadium on October 9, 1924, and was dedicated as Soldier Field two years later on November 27. Will the Chicago Bears get their wish for a new stadium complex along Lake Michigan?
Dates, times, locations and availability are subject to change.
