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Wm. Bullion directs Sid Feldman’s update of a 1970 Dario Fo comedy about a chameleon-like character who exposes police hypocrisy and corruption. By changing the setting from 1960s Italy to present-day Chicago and the victim from an anarchist to a Black motorist, Feldman and company are able to lob dozens of topical zingers, and the subject couldn’t be more relevant. But is it funny? The answer will depend on how you like your laughs....

Bad Bunny not only helped Latin trap cross over in the U.S., he also established a new beachhead for Spanish-language hip-hop here— and the spike in visibility of these genres undoubtedly helps artists such as Chicago’s Ryen get a little closer to their dreams of mainstream success. He started out as a member of local pop-rap trio the A.S.A. Project, and since going solo in 2017, he’s been polishing a pristine pop style that borrows from EDM, synthy indie-pop, frictionless rap, and any other glistening sound that aims to pluck the heartstrings of the masses....

Lakefront Art Institute of Chicago Finalists: Millennium Park, Wrigley Field, Navy Pier

Matter Dance Company matterdance.com Runner-Up: Joffrey Ballet

Green Mill Andy’s Jazz Club Finalists: Winter’s Jazz Club, Jazz Showcase

Amalea Tshilds is a familiar face to anyone who’s ever enjoyed a meal at Logan Square’s beloved Lula Cafe, but in the past few years she’s also raised her profile as a singer-songwriter. It’s a decided shift from running the neighborhood restaurant she’s co-owned for more than two decades, but her musical pursuits are hardly new. Tshilds has trafficked in warm, homespun Americana for years, singing and strumming around town with Girls of the Golden West and Pollyanna Vox (and before that with Jim Becker’s Paulina Hollers)....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, December 26, 2017. Jesse Jackson gives annual Christmas sermon to Cook County inmates Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered his annual Christmas sermon to Cook County Jail inmates Monday despite his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. “Our mission is to get you out of here and not return,” Jackson told the inmates. “Jail is not a hotel.” The civil rights leader has not let Parkinson’s slow down his life but he is traveling less....

JIMMY KATZ Anat Cohen Over the last decade reedist Anat Cohen has been the face of the bustling community of Israeli jazz musicians working in New York. (For those curious about this inspired scene, the third annual Israeli Jazz & World Music Festival has just been announced—it happens during May 14-22, and features several great bands led by bassist Omer Avital and Cohen’s trumpet-playing brother Avishai.) She’s demonstrated a voracious curiosity, juggling a strong feel for hard-swinging post-bop and a serious affinity for Brazilian choro, an instrumental cousin of samba that feels a lot like jazz in its spirited improvisational ethos....

Publican Quality Bread Bungalow by Middle Brow Finalists: Lost Larson, pHlour Bakery & Cafe, Hewn

Bird Trouble birdtrouble.com Runner-Up: Reuse First

Mia Francesca Pizzeria Uno Finalists: Funkenhausen, Iguana Bistro & Cafe, Travelle at Langham

Brown Elephant Village Discount Outlet Store Finalists: Ragstock, Unique Thrift, Thrift and Thrive, Alex’s Attic

There are those particular places—in my case, the house belonging to my grandmother—that in many ways have never left the 70s. When you step into this sort of place, your feet might sink into a beige shag carpet. You find yourself in a kind of alternate universe, pristine if somewhat dusty. This universe is not quite hermetically sealed—there weren’t televisions glowing with DVR’d episodes of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday in the 70s—but what matters is that it is sealed enough....

Back in 2007, New Yorker theater critic John Lahr dismissed Theresa Rebeck’s play Mauritius, about a woman getting involved with petty thieves, as “Mamet for girls.” I remembered that while watching Rebeck’s 2018 Broadway comedy, Bernhardt/Hamlet, now in its local premiere under Donna Feore’s direction at the Goodman—and not just because a sexist critic plays a supporting role and decries an actress’s ambition with “You are a freak.” Though Rebeck has written many essays on sexual discrimination in theater, she’s now put those thoughts in a play about theater....

At Mister Kelly’s For more almost two decades, 1957 to 1975, Chicago’s Mister Kelly’s was a springboard for talent. From Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow to Bette Midler and (trigger warning) Bill Cosby, the iconic Rush Street supper club and cabaret was a rotating door for emerging comedians and musicians. Time, taste, and technology have eroded these institutions, but in this immersive experience, created as a valentine to the era by Jason Paul Smith, with music and arrangements by Gary Gimmestad, you can put on your pinup best or Mad Men attire to enjoy a night within Three Cat Productions’ imaginative time capsule....

Best known for the cult psychodrama Possession (1981), writer-director Andrzej Żuławski made his feature debut ten years earlier with The Third Part of the Night, and it shows him already at the height of his powers. A sustained nightmare about societal and personal breakdown, it presents one man’s descent into madness during the Nazi occupation of Poland, though the story is hard to follow (perhaps by design). Żuławski divulges important information about the characters in short, unexpected bursts, and the plot moves sinuously between the hero’s present, past, and dream life....

ARTIST: Ryan Duggan SHOW: Melkbelly, HSY, and Earring at Empty Bottle on Wed 11/9 MORE INFO: ryanduggan.com