Free Irish whiskey for St. Patrick’s Day

If you don’t start in the morning, you can’t drink all day. Binny’s Beverage Depot celebrates St. Patrick’s Day from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 17, with a free breakfast open house featuring Irish scones and coffee made with Feckin’ Irish Whiskey, plus music from the City of Chicago Pipers. The event takes place [...]

Night out: At the Psyche-Out Cafe

There’s no food at his cafe. Chicago mentalist Fred Zimmerman’s “Psyche-Out Cafe” is an evening of mind games, fascinating stories, experiments to test your psychic abilities and demonstrations of ESP that provide a glimpse into the secret world of “psychic” practitioners. The Wednesday, March 3, event is the first of two special March “Magic Chicago” shows hosted by Robert Charles and Benjamin Barnes, with Jeanette Andrews in Edgewater.

Broadway in Chicago’s ‘101 Dalmatians’ a dog of a musical

“Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil, if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will….”
Was there ever a scarier, freakier villain than Cruella de Vil? The scrawny, witchy society dame determined to make dog-skin coats out of Dalmatian puppies is scarier than ever in “The 101 Dalmatians Musical,” playing in a short run at Cadillac [...]

Gung hay fat choy! Chicago Chinese New Year celebrations

With a clash of cymbals and the bang of drums and firecrackers, as well as traditional dragon parades and lion dances, the Asian New Year will explode into the Chicago area on Sunday, Feb. 14, with a variety of events at restaurants and around town.
Chinese legend says the noise and dancing animals chase away evil [...]

Limbaugh lampoon easier to take than the original

“Does Fox News have a theater critic?” I wondered, after viewing Second City Theatricals’ “Rush Limbaugh! The Musical.” Probably not. Live theater may be deemed too effete for their NASCAR- and gun sports-loving audiences.
If they had, I’m sure he’d have panned this show. As a card-carrying member of the Big-City, Blue-State, Liberal Press, though, [...]

10 top spots to spend Super Bowl Sunday in Chicagoland

The New Orleans Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, Feb. 7. You could stay home and watch it on your dinky TV, but then you’d have to fix your own food and drinks. Here are some great alternatives around Chicago and the suburbs.

Murphy’s Bleachers Super Bowl Pig Roast, [...]

Free fish days at the Shedd Aquarium

OK, they’re not fish to eat, but only to look at.
The Shedd Aquarium is open for free on Mondays and Tuesdays all this month, as well the whole of next week, Feb. 15 through 19.
The free admission applies only to the original galleries, and not special exhibits or the Oceanarium, but there are plenty [...]

Night out: ‘Massive Obama-esque post-racial night of colorblind humor’

“Holla, Hola, Heeey (Oy Vey!),” brings together Chicago’s gay, Latina, African-American and Jewish comedy communities for a one-night, cross-cultural show celebrating the city’s diversity at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5 at iO’s Cabaret Theater in Wrigleyville. Tickets are $14.
This one-of-a-kind, major minority evening features:

BlackOut, a variety show by African-American improvisers Sherman Edwards, Darwin Smith, Ramon [...]

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble in Edgewater

City Lit Theater in Edgewater cooks up a gritty, physical version of “Macbeth,” Shakespeare’s spookiest tragedy, boiling with energy and full of sound and fury.
Rebecca Hamlin’s shadowy, cave-like set and Sean Mallory’s eerie lighting set the stage most effectively for this murderous tale, and Branimira Ivanova’s costumes — particularly the three witches’ — continue [...]

Exquisite ‘Private Lives’ worth the perils of Navy Pier

Every time I attend a show at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, I wonder, all over again, who had the bright idea of putting a theater on Navy Pier? To be sure, the theater complex has gorgeous views of Lake Michigan, but who cares about the views outside a theater? It’s slow and awkward to get onto [...]