Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Entertainment for the
Whole Family
For most families, showbiz central
in Chicago is the N orth Loop theater dis-
trict. P articularly along S tate and Ran-
dolph streets, the district is bustling with
energy (ev en after dar k). These glorious
old theaters host the trav eling B roadway
productions that attract families. Thanks
to extensive renovation efforts, performers
have some impr essive v enues wher e they
can strut their stuff.
Chicago is a r egular stop on the big-
name enter tainment cir cuit, whether it 's
the national tour of Broadway shows such
as
Rent
and
Cabaret
or pop music acts such
as U2, the Dave Matthews Band, or Bruce
Springsteen (all of whom sell out multiple
nights at stadiums when they come to
town). High-profile shows such as M onty
Python's
Spamalot
and M el Brooks's stage
version of
The P roducers
had their first
runs here before moving on to New York.
While Chicago's off-Loop theaters, such
as S teppenwolf Theatre, hav e built their
reputations on a gritty style of acting (and
a repertoire geared to adults), Chicago has
plenty of theater companies that ar e less
avant-garde and mor e attuned to the
calendars of upcoming cultural events tar-
geted to kids. You can usually pick up free
copies of the magazine at public libraries,
bookstores, to y stor es, and kids ' clothing
stores. The City of Chicago has cultural
listings on its w ebsite at
www.cityof
chicago.org/tourism
. F or theater , y ou
can't beat
www.chicagoplays.com
, the
website for the League of Chicago The-
atres. The site links you to more than 130
Chicago-area theaters, and pr ovides an
online database of all curr ent and upcom-
ing pr oductions, updated w eekly. ( They
are also categoriz ed so y ou can look up
“children's theater.”) The league's Hot Tix
website (
www.hottix.org
) has twice-daily
posts offering half-price tickets at the
seven Chicago-area Hot Tix locations.
Chicago D ance and M usic Alliance 's
website,
www.chicagoperformances.org
,
provides listings on per formances in these
categories: Cultural Center, Ravinia, Grant
Park, D ame M yra H ess M emorial Con-
certs, J azz, Childr en's, and D ance. The
website also provides a calendar where you
can search for events by date.
For up-to-date enter tainment listings,
check the local ne wspapers and magazines,
particularly on F ridays, when the
Chicago
Tribune
and the
Chicago S un-Times
pr o-
duce special enter tainment sections. The
Chicago Reader
and
New City
are two fr ee
weekly tabloids with extensiv e listings, and
the monthly
Chicago
magazine offers enter-
tainment coverage. The
Tribune
's entertain-
ment-oriented w ebsite,
www.metromix.
com
, is an ex cellent sour ce for r eviews of
cultural ev ents, and the
Reader
's w ebsite,
www.chireader.com
, is kno wn for having
younger set. Even the city's blues commu-
nity sees the wisdom of bringing the next
generation into the fold, with special
nights that are smoke and alcohol fr ee. In
the classical realm, the Chicago Symphony
supports a y outh symphony. Even Chica-
go's opera companies make an effor
t to
reach out to kids—so don
't count any-
thing out!
FINDING OUT WHAT'S ON
Check
out
Chicago Parent M agazine
(
&
708/
386-5555;
www .chicagoparent.com) for
