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In a bare six weeks you’ll be getting your heart warmed by Scrooge and Rudolph and the rest. Right now, though, it’s time to contemplate getting it pulled out through your rib cage and eaten by some ungodly beast. Below you’ll find reviews of seven Halloween shows. We’ll be seeing a lot more soon, so check back next week. —Tony Adler Camp Psychopathways Danny Galvin and Brad Pike aim for camp and hit wacky in this satirical musical (with songs by Galvin, Pike, and Robbie Ellis) about a dysfunctional summer camp for psychopathic girls: one is a sadist, another a wannabe arsonist, the third a narcissistic cell-phone addict, etc....

The rise of Albert, Duke of York, from stammering puddle of self-doubt to global champion in the fight against Nazis is a story with all the right stuff. There’s a scandalous royal romance, a world on the precipice of disaster, and in “Bertie,” an underdog who’s easy enough to root for. In director Michael Wilson’s staging of David Seidler’s drama for Chicago Shakespeare Theater there are also Downton Abbey-worthy period costumes by David C....

On July 15, 1974, as President Nixon was being driven from office, a 29-year-old TV journalist in Sarasota, Florida, interrupted her morning talk show for a dramatic announcement. “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, we bring you another first,” Christine Chubbuck told her viewers. “Attempted suicide.” She then pulled out a .38 revolver and shot herself in the back of the head....

Not Too Fancy Productions brings this musical comedy to Chicago after previous runs in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Written by Ben Budick, Steve Mackes, and Dave Ogrin, Wild Women of Planet Wongo takes up two spaces in the Chopin basement: a bar/lounge area where Wongotinis are served and game shows are played and a standing-room-only space where the plot plays out. After a crash, astronauts Ric and Louie find themselves marooned on all-female Planet Wongo, known for its population of warrior wonder women....

Ever since Michelin deigned to start reviewing Chicago restaurants back in 2010, its name has been the one most associated with print guides to local establishments, for better or worse. Last year Mike Gebert, editor of the Web publication Fooditor (and videographer for the Reader‘s Key Ingredient series), entered the fray with the Fooditor 99, subtitled “Where to eat (and what to eat there) in Chicago—right now! From the acclaimed local food site....

As I write this, there are still several hours left for people to vote—so greetings from the distant past, when people still didn’t know who the next president would be! To calm my nerves, I’ve turned to Willows Weep, the latest album from Chicago garage punks Flesh Panthers. They first got my attention with unhinged songs that sounded like they’d burst into flames before their final choruses, but since last year’s NGC 2632 the band seem to have gotten a grip on themselves....

I’m a late adopter of celebrating the annual National Coming Out Day in October, but two years ago, after moving back to Chicago and ending a relationship, it seemed like a good time to “wave at the people.” I was careful to use a smiley face emoji when letting people know “Yep, pretty sure I’ve always been this way,” because I wanted to convey positivity. It’s great. It’s a positive thing....

Last year, writing in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and the Republican platform calling for the elimination of federal funding for Amtrak, mass transit, and other sustainable forms of transportation, I predicted that, on that front, 2016 would likely be the best year Chicago saw for a while. Also annoying was the further delay of the $60 million-plus Navy Pier Flyover bike overpass project, which has already taken longer to complete than the Golden Gate Bridge....

Earlier this week Chance the Rapper announced he’d take over U.S. Cellular Field in September with Magnificent Coloring Day, a single-day festival packed with high-profile musicians: Skrillex, John Legend, Lil Wayne, Tyler the Creator, Alicia Keys, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, and Lil Uzi Vert are on the bill (not to mention the “special guests”). Magnificent Coloring Day is the latest example of Chance using his pop-star power for the benefit of his hometown—and specifically for the benefit of kids on the south side....

The impressive 2016 debut from this superb young string quartet suggested they might be paragons of orthodoxy: Tribute—Dover Quarter Plays Mozart (Cedille) not only focuses on the composer’s final two string quartets along with his String Quintet in C Minor, it pays homage to the venerable yet forward-looking Guarneri String Quartet in the process. The group’s musicians had studied under three of Guarneri’s members at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, and timed their release exactly five decades after their mentors made their recording debut with interpretations of the same two Mozart quartets....

Local electronic production duo Flosstradamus, aka Curt “Autobot” Cameruci and Josh “J2K” Young, rose to fame in the late aughties by forging EDM’s propulsive power with trap rap’s percussive ingenuity. In 2013 Young reminisced with former Reader music writer Miles Raymer about the creative freedom he found during the group’s nadir: “No one was watching. You know how people say ‘dance like nobody’s looking?’ It was like ‘produce like nobody’s listening....

Andrea Bauer The Map Room’s tap handles are exactly what you won’t be able to see on Sunday. Earlier this month I got a reminder of just how thoroughly the human brain conditions its sensory input. At an Andersonville restaurant, a friend was served the wrong beer, and it took me three samples at the bar to figure out what was actually in her glass—even though she’d been poured the same thing I’d been drinking not ten minutes before....

In Deadpool, heroism gets a bad rap. “You’re my hero!” a teenage girl tells the loutish mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) in an early flashback, to which Wilson ripostes, “That I ain’t.” After undergoing a mutation that turns him into the costumed Deadpool, Wilson weighs the pros of being a superhero—getting your own movie, for one—against the big con: “They’re all lame-ass teacher’s pets.” Over a shot of Wilson spearing one of his enemies, his cheeky voice-over belabors the point: “I may be super, but I’m no hero....

For peace of mind, you may want to consider LifeVac. LifeVac is known as a life-saving device that can help in choking emergencies in adults and children alike. But is LifeVac the device for you? Today, we’re going to dive deep into LifeVac. We will be taking a look at what LifeVac is, what it isn’t, how it works, plus so much more. By the end, you will be able to make an educated decision on whether or not to buy this potentially life-saving invention....

Aimee Levitt “I want food,” my friend complained. Aimee Levitt Peter the Rabbit Finally, our drinks arrived. Mine was not what I had asked for. But they let us keep it. Unfortunately, it tasted too medicinal for either of us to enjoy. (It was made primarily from Grey Goose vodka and Chareau aloe vera liqueur, spelled “liquor” on the menu. I’m a reporter and my friend is an editor. Noticing these things makes us feel superior....

You don’t have to know Ernest Hood’s 1975 album Neighborhoods to understand what’s going on in the new compilation New Neighborhoods, but it doesn’t hurt. Born in 1923, Hood was a Portland jazz musician who kept up with new recording and production techniques throughout his life, and in 1964 he cofounded the listener-supported Portland radio station now known as KBOO. In the early 70s, he assembled and edited field recordings he’d captured around the city in the 50s and 60s, augmenting them with new original music made primarily with zither and synth....

Staged in the coach house of a Chicago Park District facility on the shore of Lake Michigan in the Edgewater neighborhood, Hannah li-Epstein’s comedy-drama about a family of Hawaiian marijuana growers labors mightily to be an investigation of mental illness masquerading as a mellow good time. Whether one buys what she’s selling depends a lot on one’s attitude toward weed and the lifestyle connected to it. Before the actual play begins, the audience is asked to participate in a karaoke session with the cast....

At Parachute, the term “family meal” can be taken literally. Chef-owners Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark are husband and wife, but it’s a family affair in other respects as well. On a recent Thursday at 4 PM, before the Avondale restaurant’s 5 PM opening, Kim’s aunt came in with a bag of fresh herbs from her garden, which she handed over with a tender look at her pregnant niece. And it’s been so from the start; when the couple opened their dream spot on a relatively shoestring budget, they helped defray expenses by doing much of the work themselves, transforming a taqueria into their sleek but inviting space with DIY projects such as handweaving the seats of the stools that line the long bar and crafting the banquette out of the sort of furniture padding used by movers....

English-language remakes of popular foreign films are becoming more common as Hollywood studios hope for a sure thing at the box office and stars look for leading roles. With the buddy comedy The Upside, in current release, Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart attempt to surpass the original 2011 French hit The Intouchables (in terms of U.S. grosses, they already have). Bart Freundlich has remade Susanne Bier’s Danish love story After the Wedding (2006) as a vehicle for his wife, Julianne Moore (it opens next month)....

With anti-Semitism on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, it might make perfect sense to revisit Shakespeare’s most nakedly anti-Semitic work. Yes, Shylock gets that “hath not a Jew eyes?” speech, but anyone who is moved by the suggestion that a Jewish man is human like everyone else is probably not a trustworthy ally to begin with. To say the least. Charles Askenaizer’s intimate staging of The Merchant of Venice for Invictus Theatre Company sets the story in 1938 Italy, the same time frame as Vittorio De Sica’s 1970 film about the rise of Italian fascism, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis....