CHICAGO — 50ish is a whole museum takeover and art party celebrating the
Chicago Reader’s 50th anniversary and Chicago’s best arts and entertainment.

Where: The Museum of Contemporary Art220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611

When: Wednesday, November 30 6-7 PM: VIP Reception7-11:30 PM: Main Event

Dress: Free and freaky / creative cocktail / you-do-you, but make it fabulous

Tickets: $15 – $1,000 ($250 and up are invited to the VIP reception)

With:

Three levels of entertainment and fun
A VIP reception with a private viewing of the MCA’s new show: Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today, passed hors d’oeuvres, special cocktails, and Reader anniversary swag
Performance art and entertainment curated by the Reader arts team
Two stages with music, live art, and dance
Raffles with amazing prizes
Photo booth by GlitterGuts
50ish Anniversary merch
10% off at the MCA store (open until 8:00 PM.)
And much more!

Emceed by: Scott Duff, Stand-Up Comedian and Host of Out Radio

Featured Artists:

Angelique Monroe – performance
Batty Davis – drag artist
Blue Alice – dance and performance
Chad the Bird – puppetry
Cristal Sabbagh and Shalaka Kulkarni – butoh, performance, and movement
Debbie-Marie Brown – alternative emo soul
DJ Flores Negras – cumbia dance
DJ Scary Lady Sarah – goth
Heavy Crownz – hip-hop
Lucy Stoole – drag artist
The Neo-Futurists – performance art
Ratso – puppetry
AJ Sacco – magician
Shawnee Dez – alternative R&B and soul
Sildance/AcroDanza presents Ellas y Yo Mexicanas – dance
Smarty Pants – balloon artist
Stylin’ Out Crew – hip-hop and breakdancing
DJ Velcro Lewis – old school R&B

Presenting Sponsor

Sponsors

Koval
Epic Gourmet Popcorn
Half Acre
The Darrell R. Windle Charitable Fund and Polo Inn
CFL Workforce and Community Initiative
Miriam U. Hoover Foundation
Quarterfold LLC
Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation
Elevate
Fifth Third Bank
Borst Accounting Solutions
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Cann

Event Committee

Chairs

Christie Hefner
Kenneth W. O’Keefe and Jason Stephens
Bill Rossi and Dan Earles
Darrell R. Windle and Dave Samber

Co-chairs

Evette Cardona and Mona Noriega
Michael Leppen
Gigi Pritzker
Bob Reiter
Eileen Rhodes
Adele Smith Simmons
Julia Stasch

Host Committee

Roxanne Decyk and Lew Watts
Eve L. Ewing
Janice Feinberg, PharmD, JD
Vanessa Fernandez
Rena Henderson Mason
David Hiller
Simone Koehlinger and Lora Branch
Reese Marcusson
Michael Mock
Sharon Mylrea
Diane Pascal
Bruce Sagan and Bette Cerf Hill
Nan Schaffer and Karen Dixon
Lilly Wachowski

###

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Hansol Jung’s 2016 play, Among the Dead, now in an intriguing, surprisingly funny, and sometimes quite moving production with Jackalope Theatre, occupies a bit of the same surreal territory and narrative lines as Mia Chung’s You for Me for You (produced by Sideshow Theatre in 2018) and Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band (produced at Victory Gardens in 2019). As in the former (the story of two sisters separated while attempting to escape from North Korea), the lines between what’s “real” and what’s imagined or remembered become blurry. As in the latter, an Asian American woman returns to the land of her parents (well, at least one of her parents) to unravel some mysteries rooted in the chaos of war. 

Among the Dead Through 12/11: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 11/28 7:30 PM, no performances Thu 11/24 or Fri 11/25; Broadway Armory, 5917 N. Broadway, 773-340-2543, jackalopetheatre.org, $35 (students/industry/Edgewater residents $15, limited access)

But in Jung’s story, Ana (Malia Hu) has very little to go on, other than that she’s supposed to do something with the ashes of her white American soldier father, Luke (Sam Boeck), in Seoul. It’s clear that she doesn’t know much about the man who mostly left her to be raised by her white grandmother in Kansas while he bounced from war to war in southeast Asia (his career encompassed WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam).

It’s February 1975, and the South Korean capital is filled with students protesting the repressive government of Park Chung-hee (who would be assassinated by his own security chief over four years later). Jesus (Colin Huerta), the hippie-ish American bellboy, drops off a package for Ana, which is weird because nobody knows she’s in Seoul. (He also leaves her with some potent weed.) It turns out that Jesus, despite his distracted pothead persona, knows a lot of things. It also turns out that the package contains her father’s journal from his WWII experiences, and as she reads about his attempts to survive behind Japanese enemy lines with the help of a woman who calls herself “Number 4” (Jin Park), the 1940s version of Luke manifests in her room. He seems to confuse her with the woman who (spoiler alert!) turns out to be Ana’s mother—who was abandoned at the end of the war by her dad. 

“Number 4” got that appellation because she and her younger sister were kidnapped by Japanese soldiers as so-called “comfort women”—forced into brutal sexual servitude. Jung’s script doesn’t spare us the anguished details of that chapter of the war (one that many survivors feel Japan has never been held fully accountable for). She too finds herself seeing Jesus (or as she calls him, “Naked Wood Man,” in reference to how he appears on the rosary Luke carries), particularly at the lowest moments of her life after Luke leaves her.

Time blurs in Jung’s tale, but Kaiser Ahmed’s direction and the cast both stay on point as the story moves back and forth from comedy to terror and (ultimately) a strong hopeful note of redemption. As with Chung and Yee’s plays, there is also a strong sense that telling stories about the overwhelming horrors of war and genocide maybe requires a dive into surreal waters. The nightmarish things people can do to each other never seem believable, no matter how often they happen.

Read More

No matter your views on Christmas and the bulging Santa’s sack of psycho/socio/political/familial drama wrapped up in the sparkle-plenty holiday, this much I know is true: If you aren’t moved to snorts and/or tears of laughter by Lorenzo Rush Jr. weaving a Vatican-worthy tapestry worth of exceptionally innovative cuss words as The Old Man in Marriott Theatre’s production of A Christmas Story, The Musical, check your cold, cold heart. You may be in danger of going full-on Grinch.

Ditto if you remain unmoved by the abject mortification of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Kavon Newman opening night, Keegan Gulledge at some performances) as he’s forced to model a bunny rabbit onesie.

A Christmas Story, The Musical Through 1/1: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 1 and 5 PM; also Tue 11/22 and 12/20 7:30 PM, Thu 12/15-12/29 1 and 7:30 PM, Fri 12/23 1 and 8 PM, Wed 12/28 and Sun 1/1 1 PM only, no performances Thu 11/24 or Sat-Sun 12/24-12/25; Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Dr., Lincolnshire, 847-634-0200, marriotttheatre.com, $59-$64

Based on the 1983 movie A Christmas Story (which in turn was inspired by the autobiographical stories in Jean Shepherd’s In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash), A Christmas Story, The Musical (book by Joseph Robinette, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) takes place in 1940 suburban Indiana. It is 23 days before Christmas when the show opens and Ralphie has but one thing on his mind: the Red Ryder carbine action BB gun he desperately wants to find under the tree.

The plot, such as it is, circles around Ralphie’s march to Christmas morning victory. It’s an uphill climb, requiring careful strategy and laborious homework assignments. The Old Man is preoccupied with the malfunctioning furnace and the neighbors’ cacophonous dogs. Mother (Sara Reinecke) holds fast to the iconic  “you’ll put an eye out” argument. Santa, in residence at the local department store, is drunk and hates kids more than Crumpet.

Ralphie soldiers on because the Red Ryder is a portal to greatness. With gun in hand, he will no longer be Ralphie the bespectacled elementary school wimp, target of playground bullies like the dreaded Scut Farkus (Braden Crothers). With the Red Ryder, Ralphie will transform into a hero capable of taking down enemy hordes, be they pursuing his family or his teacher Miss Shields (Jenna Coker-Jones) across the wild kitchens and classrooms of suburbia.

Director Scott Weinstein’s funny, full-hearted production puts the light on more than Rush’s orchestral cursing capabilities or an adorable ensemble of children that fully embody the slightly manic, rambunctious joy that ramps up in grade-schoolers in the final days before Santa’s arrival.

While Ralphie plots and pines for the present that will transform his life, The Old Man does the same—albeit via different methodology. The Old Man constantly enters mail-in contests. When he finally wins one, he celebrates like he’s been awarded the Nobel Prize. “The Genius on Cleveland Street,” led by Rush flying fleet-footed through Tiffany Krause’s choreography, is the show’s musical highlight.

The yearnings of both Ralphie and The Old Man make for great comedy as well as great commentary on the absurd insidiousness of commercialism and the false promises of advertising. Both father and son have pinned their very identities on objects that they believe will not just improve those identities, but change their very lives.

As it was in 1940, so it is today: At one point or another, we all believe that something we can only buy will make us better—more interesting, more heroic, sexier, smarter, safer. It’s a marketing strategy that works with everything from toys to eyeliner to real estate.

At Christmas, maybe all we really need is a turkey destroyed by the neighbor’s frickinfrackinforkmuthatuckinggourdamdagnibitty dogs and the company of people who love us.

Read More

Hansol Jung’s 2016 play, Among the Dead, now in an intriguing, surprisingly funny, and sometimes quite moving production with Jackalope Theatre, occupies a bit of the same surreal territory and narrative lines as Mia Chung’s You for Me for You (produced by Sideshow Theatre in 2018) and Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band (produced at Victory Gardens in 2019). As in the former (the story of two sisters separated while attempting to escape from North Korea), the lines between what’s “real” and what’s imagined or remembered become blurry. As in the latter, an Asian American woman returns to the land of her parents (well, at least one of her parents) to unravel some mysteries rooted in the chaos of war. 

Among the Dead Through 12/11: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 11/28 7:30 PM, no performances Thu 11/24 or Fri 11/25; Broadway Armory, 5917 N. Broadway, 773-340-2543, jackalopetheatre.org, $35 (students/industry/Edgewater residents $15, limited access)

But in Jung’s story, Ana (Malia Hu) has very little to go on, other than that she’s supposed to do something with the ashes of her white American soldier father, Luke (Sam Boeck), in Seoul. It’s clear that she doesn’t know much about the man who mostly left her to be raised by her white grandmother in Kansas while he bounced from war to war in southeast Asia (his career encompassed WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam).

It’s February 1975, and the South Korean capital is filled with students protesting the repressive government of Park Chung-hee (who would be assassinated by his own security chief over four years later). Jesus (Colin Huerta), the hippie-ish American bellboy, drops off a package for Ana, which is weird because nobody knows she’s in Seoul. (He also leaves her with some potent weed.) It turns out that Jesus, despite his distracted pothead persona, knows a lot of things. It also turns out that the package contains her father’s journal from his WWII experiences, and as she reads about his attempts to survive behind Japanese enemy lines with the help of a woman who calls herself “Number 4” (Jin Park), the 1940s version of Luke manifests in her room. He seems to confuse her with the woman who (spoiler alert!) turns out to be Ana’s mother—who was abandoned at the end of the war by her dad. 

“Number 4” got that appellation because she and her younger sister were kidnapped by Japanese soldiers as so-called “comfort women”—forced into brutal sexual servitude. Jung’s script doesn’t spare us the anguished details of that chapter of the war (one that many survivors feel Japan has never been held fully accountable for). She too finds herself seeing Jesus (or as she calls him, “Naked Wood Man,” in reference to how he appears on the rosary Luke carries), particularly at the lowest moments of her life after Luke leaves her.

Time blurs in Jung’s tale, but Kaiser Ahmed’s direction and the cast both stay on point as the story moves back and forth from comedy to terror and (ultimately) a strong hopeful note of redemption. As with Chung and Yee’s plays, there is also a strong sense that telling stories about the overwhelming horrors of war and genocide maybe requires a dive into surreal waters. The nightmarish things people can do to each other never seem believable, no matter how often they happen.

Read More

No matter your views on Christmas and the bulging Santa’s sack of psycho/socio/political/familial drama wrapped up in the sparkle-plenty holiday, this much I know is true: If you aren’t moved to snorts and/or tears of laughter by Lorenzo Rush Jr. weaving a Vatican-worthy tapestry worth of exceptionally innovative cuss words as The Old Man in Marriott Theatre’s production of A Christmas Story, The Musical, check your cold, cold heart. You may be in danger of going full-on Grinch.

Ditto if you remain unmoved by the abject mortification of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Kavon Newman opening night, Keegan Gulledge at some performances) as he’s forced to model a bunny rabbit onesie.

A Christmas Story, The Musical Through 1/1: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 1 and 5 PM; also Tue 11/22 and 12/20 7:30 PM, Thu 12/15-12/29 1 and 7:30 PM, Fri 12/23 1 and 8 PM, Wed 12/28 and Sun 1/1 1 PM only, no performances Thu 11/24 or Sat-Sun 12/24-12/25; Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Dr., Lincolnshire, 847-634-0200, marriotttheatre.com, $59-$64

Based on the 1983 movie A Christmas Story (which in turn was inspired by the autobiographical stories in Jean Shepherd’s In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash), A Christmas Story, The Musical (book by Joseph Robinette, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) takes place in 1940 suburban Indiana. It is 23 days before Christmas when the show opens and Ralphie has but one thing on his mind: the Red Ryder carbine action BB gun he desperately wants to find under the tree.

The plot, such as it is, circles around Ralphie’s march to Christmas morning victory. It’s an uphill climb, requiring careful strategy and laborious homework assignments. The Old Man is preoccupied with the malfunctioning furnace and the neighbors’ cacophonous dogs. Mother (Sara Reinecke) holds fast to the iconic  “you’ll put an eye out” argument. Santa, in residence at the local department store, is drunk and hates kids more than Crumpet.

Ralphie soldiers on because the Red Ryder is a portal to greatness. With gun in hand, he will no longer be Ralphie the bespectacled elementary school wimp, target of playground bullies like the dreaded Scut Farkus (Braden Crothers). With the Red Ryder, Ralphie will transform into a hero capable of taking down enemy hordes, be they pursuing his family or his teacher Miss Shields (Jenna Coker-Jones) across the wild kitchens and classrooms of suburbia.

Director Scott Weinstein’s funny, full-hearted production puts the light on more than Rush’s orchestral cursing capabilities or an adorable ensemble of children that fully embody the slightly manic, rambunctious joy that ramps up in grade-schoolers in the final days before Santa’s arrival.

While Ralphie plots and pines for the present that will transform his life, The Old Man does the same—albeit via different methodology. The Old Man constantly enters mail-in contests. When he finally wins one, he celebrates like he’s been awarded the Nobel Prize. “The Genius on Cleveland Street,” led by Rush flying fleet-footed through Tiffany Krause’s choreography, is the show’s musical highlight.

The yearnings of both Ralphie and The Old Man make for great comedy as well as great commentary on the absurd insidiousness of commercialism and the false promises of advertising. Both father and son have pinned their very identities on objects that they believe will not just improve those identities, but change their very lives.

As it was in 1940, so it is today: At one point or another, we all believe that something we can only buy will make us better—more interesting, more heroic, sexier, smarter, safer. It’s a marketing strategy that works with everything from toys to eyeliner to real estate.

At Christmas, maybe all we really need is a turkey destroyed by the neighbor’s frickinfrackinforkmuthatuckinggourdamdagnibitty dogs and the company of people who love us.

Read More

Anthony Rizzo left the Chicago Cubs a couple of years ago because they were never able to get an extension done together. He clearly didn’t have a preference on whether or not he stayed but he probably would have preferred to stay.

It was clearly a good decision to leave tho as he was put in a very nice situation. The Cubs made the decision to trade him to the New York Yankees which was one that clearly worked out well for Rizzo.

On Tuesday, it came out that he has chosen to make that his MLB home for the second straight free agency bid. He is there now on a multi-year deal after declining the qualifying offer that was extended to him a little bit ago. Rizzo is going to make a lot of money well into his 30s with them.

Instead of playing on this rebuilding Chicago Cubs team, he gets to play with the New York Yankees who are going to be perennial contenders in each of his seasons there. They needed a full-time first baseman in 2021 and they went out and got one. He happened to love it there.

The New York Yankees are in agreement with Anthony Rizzo on a contract.

Of course, the Yankees are far from done. Aaron Judge is the big free agent fish following a historic season in which he hit 62 home runs for the American League record. He is sure to make a lot of money. The Yankees definitely want to keep the face of their franchise.

They are known to spend good money and they have with Rizzo. Rizzo and Judge have become good friends over the last few years so this move might be a good pro for Judge staying with New York. That is surely going to be an interesting story to follow until something breaks.

Rizzo deserves this type of treatment. He is one of the greatest players that the Chicago Cubs have ever had. His time was done and he handled it with grace. Now, he is living it up with the Yankees.

If he can keep putting up seasons with 30+ home runs, 75+ RBIs, and an OPS over .800, he will bring great value and leadership to this Yankees team that is so close to being championship caliber. This is a great situation for him.

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