Chicago

CHICAGO – On the next stop on the book tour, Chicago International Film Festival Founder Michael Kutza will talk about his book “Starstruck: How I Magically Transformed Chicago into Hollywood for More than 50 Years” at Chicago’s Union Club on Tuesday, January 31st, 2023.

CHICAGO – Alamo Drafthouse Cinema … which began 26 years ago as a single screen in Austin, Texas, and has expanded to 38 locations … is opening in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood on January 27th, 2023.

CHICAGO – One the brightest comedies set in Chicago is “South Side,” created by Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle. The series began on Comedy Central and moved to HBO Max, and Season Three began streaming on December 8th, 2022, with the same free-wheeling and hilarious misadventures of Simon and Kareme.

CHICAGO – Ten years ago, an Independent film was released in Chicago, co-written and co-directed by Richard Knight Jr., an entertainment fixture in the Windy City. “Scrooge & Marley” offered a bit more than the previous versions of the familiar “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, it was the first to filter the story through same sex coupling and LGBTQ+ themes. A new staged version of the film, complete with the featured songs, will be presented at Chicago’s Center on Halsted on December 12th, 2022, at 7pm. It’s a FREE event, register for tickets by clicking SCROOGE & MARLEY.

CHICAGO – This year was the 100th anniversary for the birth of the classic movie star/singer/performer Judy Garland. In 1963, as part of her regular CBS-TV variety series, she presented a Christmas episode, featuring her family … including Liza Minnelli. Playwright Desiree Burcum has created a musical comedy about this historic moment in television, appropriately titled “A Judy Christmas.” The show, presented by FAMOUS IN THE FUTURE productions, will have three performances the week before Christmas, December 15th, 16th and 17th, at the Den Theatre in Chicago. For tickets and more information, A JUDY CHRISTMAS.

CHICAGO – The date of November 22nd, 1963, will always have meaning to certain generations of people as to the where-were-they-when-they-heard that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The City of Chicago was not immune to this event, and three odd connections became apparent as the news broke and in the subsequent associations that emerged afterward.

CHICAGO – Karen Cardarelli has a plan. She was named Executive Director of Chicago’s FACETS Multi-Media in February of 2020, and during that time she has overseen its evolution. Currently, the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival is being presented through November 20th. Click CICFF for info/schedule/tickets.

CHICAGO – One of the most prominent Americans musicians in the 20th Century, if not one of the greatest, was Louis Armstrong. The memorable black trumpeter, vocalist and outsized personality found success in the Jim Crow era, and how he did it is spotlighted in Sacha Jenkin’s documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” now streaming on Apple TV+.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Ben Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on October 27th, 2022, reviewing “Till,” a narrative re-telling of the Emmett Till civil rights incident from 1955, in wide release beginning October 28th.

CHICAGO – In this spooky season of Halloween, why not get “Bewitched” by three women Sopranos, under the group name Tres Belle. Marisa Buchheit, Kimberly Jones and Kirsten Leslie will perform an eclectic set of opera, show tunes, the Great American Songbook and even pop at their appropriately entitled show “Bewitched: A Spooky Night of Song with Tres Belle.” Click BEWITCHED for details and tickets.