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Whether or not you’re familiar with the beloved British humor of the Monty Python universe, Spamalot is guaranteed to be a rollicking good time. Adapted from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the musical version follows King Arthur in his quest to assemble the Knights of the Round Table and find the Holy Grail, and the plot quickly takes a hard left turn into silly “fisch-schlapping” madness. Bawdy, yet never offensive, this jolly show is a comedy master class, combining wit, satire, absurd non sequiturs, lowbrow humor, slapstick, corny puns, and impeccable comic timing into a dizzying madcap great evening....

With his instantly recognizable voice—stark, blustery, and heartfelt—Billy Bragg has always had a no-frills musical style. His innovativeness manifests mostly in his career path. Also a historian and lefty activist, for the past two decades Bragg has often worn all of his hats at once, whether re-creating unfinished Woody Guthrie songs in collaboration with Wilco, Natalie Merchant, and Guthrie’s daughter Nora; writing new lyrics for Beethoven’s Ode to Joy; mastering the Spotify playlist format as a sort of front porch; or collaborating with Joe Henry on an album of old-time railroad songs (recorded at train stations during a cross-country journey)....

This review contains spoilers. Joe’s soldiers—a race of bald-headed, white-painted grease monkeys known as the War Boys—are one of the movie’s most ingenious innovations. Brainwashed into devoting their entire lives to the army, the War Boys power Joe’s fleet of military vehicles literally with their own blood—in this future hell, bodily fluids are used interchangeably with gasoline. (This detail suggests a comic literalizing of the protest slogan “No blood for oil....

This past weekend the Gene Siskel Film Center screened Patrick Wang’s two-part feature A Bread Factory, likely the most original and ambitious American movie to play in Chicago so far this year. (If you missed it, Northwestern University’s Block Cinema is bringing it back on Saturday, May 4.) Part of what makes Bread Factory so daring is how Wang incorporates devices associated with theater—eloquent soliloquies, actors breaking the fourth wall, a chorus that comments on the action—in a manner that feels distinctly cinematic....

Do police belong at Pride? Does the man who mugged me belong at my birthday party? Does my shitty ex-boyfriend belong at my graduation? Is gas station sushi ever acceptable? It’s not a surprise to me that queer police officers want to be in the Pride parades. Pride is a fabulous time. To be honest, who wouldn’t want to be part of Pride? But there’s a particular privilege—and lack of self-awareness—that comes with believing police officers deserve to be in these celebrations, particularly when they, queer as they may be, stand on the backs of the people whose brutality birthed this global movement....

Sharp songwriting and bombastic delivery have made King Von one of fastest-rising stars in drill, the pummeling hip-hop subgenre born in Chicago. Born Dayvon Bennett, the 25-year-old rapper grew up in Englewood, and he’s been filling his verses with crime-fiction narratives at least since his breakout single, 2018’s “Crazy Story.” As he told Genius in a video this spring, he draws on urban novels and on his own experiences for his lyrics—his history of legal trouble includes arrests for firearm possession and attempted murder (he was acquitted of the latter after spending three and a half years in Cook County Jail)....

Chicago is kin to the south. No other U.S. city has more ties to the lower half of the country, specifically the Mississippi Delta, aka the Most Southern Place on Earth. All you have to do is spend ten minutes in the presence of Yoland Cannon to understand this. On the 900 block of North Laramie, Cannon is the Tamale Guy. No one talks about Claudio. Most afternoons, weather permitting, he sells Mississippi Delta-style tamales from a yellow cart parked on the sidewalk: ground-beef-stuffed cornmeal magic wrapped in husks and simmered in an oily, peppery brew that delivers the same immediate sensory impact as a shot of whiskey....

Aimee Levitt A dog desperate for a trip to the dog park and canine companionship Just in time for fine spring dog-walking weather, vets at Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin teamed up to drop some more crappy news on the dogs of Chicago: the outbreak of K9 flu, which has infected more than 1,000 dogs, emptied dog parks and doggy day cares, and given even the most innocent sidewalk butt-sniff the feel of a criminal activity, is even worse than we thought....

On December 14, President Trump promised to liberate free markets, propel the economy, and—what else—”make America great again”—all by cutting federal red tape. Well, apparently, Trump forgot to break the news to the burgeoning medical marijuana industry and businessmen like Joseph Friedman, the chief operations officer for PDI Medical, a dispensary in the northwest suburbs. [content-8] “The bank’s stance is that protecting their customers is paramount,” a Bank of Springfield spokesman told reporters on April 3....

I used to drink so rarely that my doctors considered me a nondrinker. I used to safely estimate my drinking to be around one drink a month. I used to joke that I wanted to drink more, wanted to be able to appreciate fancy cocktails and fine wine. But I’m not alone in this journey. I have friends with eerily similar experiences, friends who have started regularly drinking at 3 PM, others who are nearly constantly stoned during the day....

Caroline Roe Tiki Terrace in Des Plaines It was an announcement to warm any exotica-listening hepcat’s heart: one of Chicago’s hot nightlife entrepreneurs was opening a new tiki bar in a hot neighborhood, where you’d be able to drink classic tiki cocktails that weren’t made out of grocery store-grade mixers. Here was a sign that the midcentury celebration of a South Seas fantasy as a rebellion against the conformist 1950s was coming back and hipper than ever, even as the original wave of such places from the 1940s through 1960s faded into obscurity in malls in second-tier suburbs....

Anonymous case manager for a home for people with developmental disabilities, on quarantine because of the Vaughn High School aide who tested positive for the novel coronavirus I’m on a mandatory 14-day quarantine. I recently got back from a trip, and I have a preexisting condition that makes me susceptible to illness. It’s easy for me to work from home for 14 days, but our direct staff who have more hands-on roles—picking residents up from employment, cooking dinner, administering medications—don’t really have that luxury....

With Mayor Rahm and Governor Rauner both swinging wrecking balls, it’s hard to keep track of who’s done what damage to Chicago’s public schools over the past few days and weeks . . . and months and years. So much damage has already been done. Got you with that one—didn’t I? Without of course mentioning that his private equity firm made millions managing teachers’ pension funds. Emanuel doesn’t deny that he said it....

The Duck Inn is easily the most likable, comfortable, douche-free restaurant ever from Rockit Ranch, the group responsible for Ay Chiwowa!, Sunda, and of course Rockit Bar & Grill. That’s partly because Billy Dec kept his hands off, allowing it to be an expression of someone else’s personality rather than his. And that’s also because it’s safely located miles away from the orgies of River North, on a quiet, half-deserted corner of Bridgeport that used to house the classic Gem-Bar....

These days there’s no shortage of people making art in response to Trump’s xenophobic America and his violent impact on immigrants, but it is rarely the undocumented immigrants themselves whose work is on museum walls. For example, the 2013 exhibition “State of Exception” at the University of Michigan Institute of Humanities Gallery was inspired by anthropologist Jason De Leóns’s “Undocumented Migration Project,” a study of the violent effects of crossing the border....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Monday, October 30, 2017. Pat Quinn, Renato Mariotti join Democratic race for attorney general Former Illinois governor Pat Quinn and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti are joining the crowded field in the Democratic primary for attorney general. Quinn has not run for office since losing the 2014 gubernatorial race to Governor Bruce Rauner. Mariotti has built up name recognition and a large social media following as a cable news legal commentator and frequent critic of President Donald Trump’s policies....

According to a recent NPR story, 12 journalists have been murdered in Mexico so far this year, making it the deadliest nation in the world for reporters. Rebeca Alemán’s two-character play for Water People Theater (presented as part of the third annual Chicago International Latino Theater Festival: Destinos) addresses the crisis through the story of Paulina (played by Alemán), a Venezuelan-born human rights reporter in Mexico trying to regain her memory and speech after being in a coma for several months....

On their new EP, Happy Medium, everyman Chicago rap group Jyroscope reflect on navigating middle age in what remains of the middle class, while the production from fellow local Montana Macks evokes the halcyon hip-hop sounds of 90s crate diggers such as Pete Rock and DJ Premier. IB Fokuz and Collasoul Structure rap about balancing their passion for music with family responsibilities—and with day jobs that will actually pay the bills....

Courtesy of Lupe Fiasco’s Facebook Lupe Fiasco We live in an age where there are a multitude of avenues for you to stick your foot in your mouth, and Lupe Fiasco has suffered for it. The public can handle mercurial musicians—hell, celeb-centric media requires them to stay ahead of the information—but it helps when these artists create work that stirs something in people (see Kanye). That hasn’t been the case for Lupe in recent years....

In Japan, nobility and samurai cultivated orchids as symbols of bravery, and businesses gifted with them would be graced with prosperity and success. In China, orchids have been used for thousands of years as medicine, prized for their fragrance, and revered as a virtuous plant by gentleman scholars. The Aztecs extracted orchid essence and drank it to enhance their physical strength. “Testicle,” thought the Greek botanist who gave the flower the name we call it by for its tuberous roots....