Chicago celebrates Halloween like no other city. Parks, streets and buildings come alive with the decorations of the season and activities are all centered round this very scary and very orange time of year.

Taste of Chicago will have a sneak preview on Daley Plaza, Wednesday, June 10, 11am-2pm. Several of our newest participants will have food booths on the Plaza selling some of their Taste menu items. Plus, we’ll have a live performance from The Eli Story which appears at Taste of Chicago on June 26th at the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage.

Bailiwick Repertory of Chicago presents Bombs Away!, a new musical by the creators of the Jeff Award-winning Dr. Kinsey musical, DR. SEX. Bombs Away! is an evening of musical numbers allegedly dropped from Broadways classic musicals, as presented by Dr. Barry Mishkin, America’s foremost Broadway musicologist.

Peaches Faison, awarded Billboards best New Vocalist for her first solo album Love Fire, is an accomplished soloist and voice-over artist. Inspired by the great gospel singers, her repertoire also includes jazz, opera, and various forms of popular music.

Jeff-nominated actress and singer Suzanne Petri celebrates the words and music of Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973) in honor of his 110th birthday. In a career that spanned two world wars and seventy-five years, Coward was an English composer, lyricist, playwright, screenwriter, actor, Las Vegas cabaret star and more, publishing more than 50 plays and composing hundreds of songs during his lifetime.

Theres no better way to celebrate Bastille Day in Chicago this year than with cabaret artists Elizabeth Doyle and Claudia Hommel, as they reprise the show they originally performed at the Montmartre Museum in Paris.

From remote locations, Lucky Plush Productions (Chicago/Riverside) and Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts (SF/Bay Area) have collaborated to create a thought-provoking and entertaining work through internet-mediated response videos on YouTube.

Hailed as the Best Musical of the Year by the NY Drama Critics Circle, the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony Awards, SPRING AWAKENING has emerged as the most talked about new musical on Broadway.

Joan Curto will make her Auditorium debut with Beckie Menzie on piano. Their brand-new show highlights the best of the American Songbook, with works by esteemed songwriters and entertainers like Berlin, Gershwin, Porter, Lennon and Gold. This show treats the audience to an unforgettable performance from a unique vantage point – the stage. Take a seat on stage, order a drink and enjoy the show!

Inspired by (not based on) Bertolt Brecht’s Man is Man, 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal is an original theater production for adults with music, co-created with composer and lyricist John Fournier. A rocking three-piece band, an alluring Mistress of Ceremonies, and a daring stage crew have everything they need for a night of theatre except for the story, which has gone MIA.

The distinctive practice of Cy Twombly merges drawing, painting, writing, and symbolic gesture in the pursuit of a direct, intuitive form of expression. The more than 30 works in the Modern Wing’s Abbott Galleries inaugural exhibition speak from the artists enduring concern with the natural world, themes that have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.

Part utilitarian and part fine art, the Japanese folding screen has captured the imaginations of those in the West since the 16th century. Compositions of bright mineral pigments painted on gleaming gold-leaf grounds often stretch across their surfaces. This exhibition will bring the scope of the significant permanent collections of Japanese screens at the Art Institute and the St. Louis Art Museum to the public eye.

Wine has played a role at the Art Institute almost since the museum’s inception in 1879. A major European buying expedition in 1889 to acquire classical antiquities for its fledgling collection resulted int he purchase of several pots originally used for storing and serving wine. This exhibition includes works of art by modern and contemporary artists, sculptors and photographers that explores wine as a stimulus and source of inspiration for artistic endeavors.

This panel discussion focuses on why genocide and mass atrocities threaten core American values and national interests, and how the U.S. government can prevent such crimes in the future.