Chicago City Guide - Culture

'Exceptional' is the word to describe Chicago's incredible culture scene - a scene that includes a world-class opera and symphony, plus great jazz, theatre, dance, art and architecture.

To keep abreast, pick up a copy of the free weekly, The Reader (website: www.chireader.com) or New City (website: www.newcitychicago.com) - both distributed on Thursdays. The city's dailies, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, have up-to-date cultural reviews and comments, particularly on Fridays. The best online information is at www.metromix.com, City Search at http://chicago.citysearch.com or the Things to See & Do section of the city's website (www.choosechicago.com).

Tickets can be purchased from individual box offices or from Ticketmaster (tel: (312) 902 1500 for the arts line). At Hot Tix booths, 72 East Randolph and 163 East Pearson (Water Works Visitors Center) or Tower Records locations, 214 South Wabash and 2301 North Clark Street, half-priced tickets are available on the day of performance. Check the website (www.hottix.org) for daily availability listings. There is a fee of US$3-4 per ticket for processing, so cash is more desirable.

Music: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 220 South Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 294 3000; website: www.cso.org), is internationally renowned. The symphony box office offers Rush Seating - discounted tickets to students and senior citizens (aged 64 and over) on the day of the performance at 1200 for matinees and 1700 for evening performances. The symphony's outdoor, summer home is Ravinia, 400 Iris Lane, Highland Park (tel: (847) 266 5100; website: www.ravinia.org).

Chicago's notable opera companies are the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 North Wacker Drive (tel: (312) 332 2244; website: www.lyricopera.org) and the Chicago Opera Theater, 205 East Randolph (tel: (312) 704 8414; website: www.chicagooperatheater.org), which always performs in English.

Theatre: The theatre scene pulsates with everything from regional ensembles to elaborate productions. Productions can vary from classical to avant-garde. The Loop's revived theatre district, which includes the Cadillac Palace, 151 West Randolph (tel: (312) 977 1700; website: www.broadwayinchicago.com),  the Oriental, 24 West Randolph, (tel: (312) 977 1700; website: www.broadwayinchicago.com) and the LaSalle Bank Theatre (formerly the Schubert) at 18 West Monroe Street (tel: (312) 902 1400; website: www.broadwayinchicago.com),  host booming Broadway productions, while the Goodman Theatre, 170 North Dearborn (tel: (312) 443 3800; website: www.goodman-theatre.org) and the Steppenwolf, 1650 North Halsted, (tel: (312) 335 1650; website: www.steppenwolf.org) are renowned for their workings of the classics and contemporary productions. A creative approach to the bard's works is the focus of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier (tel: (312) 595 5600; website: www.chicagoshakes.com).

Besides the Loop, a multitude of theatres are scattered throughout the city, though many are located on the North Side around Halsted and Lincoln. In 1934, gangster John Dillinger was shot by the FBI in front of the Biograph Theatre, 2433 North Lincoln Avenue. It is now home to the Victory Gardens Theater, an intimate 229-seat venue. The League of Chicago Theatres (tel: (312) 554 9800; website: www.chicagoplays.com) has a complete listing of current programmes.

Dance: The city has several talented companies that perform regularly. Its top ballet company is the Joffrey Ballet Company of Chicago (tel: (312) 739 0120; website: www.joffrey.com). A daring mix of jazz with classical ballet and contemporary techniques is a speciality of the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (tel: (312) 850 9744 or 1 866 535 4732; website: www.hubbardstreetdance.com). Pure jazz is performed by Gus Giordano Jazz Dance of Chicago (tel: (847) 866 6779; website: www.giordanojazzdance.com/), founded in 1962 and based in the Evanston suburb. Ethnic dance troupes are an example of the city's diversity. For dances from the Emerald Isle, there is Trinity Academy of Irish Dance (tel: (773) 774 5961 or 1 877 326 2328; website: www.trinity-dancers.com), while Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago (tel: (773) 602 1135; website: www.muntu.com) teaches and performs traditional African rhythms and African-American style.

Film: Many of the mainstream cinemas, such as the AMC Loew's Cinema, 600 North Michigan Avenue (tel: (312) 255 9340; website: www.amctheatres.com), have several screens. Cheap, cheerful and sometimes rowdy typifies the Brew and View at the Vic cinema, 3145 North Sheffield Avenue (tel: (773) 929 6713; website: www.brewview.com), which screens late-night films, cult numbers and new releases. For a rich mix of the old and the new, there is the Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport Avenue (tel: (773) 871 6604; website: www.musicboxtheatre.com), a 1920s movie palace, which features independent films, foreign films, classics and silent films accompanied by a live organ. The Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 North State (tel: (312) 846 2600; website: www.siskelfilmcenter.org) specialises in unusual films, classics and film festivals. Moviefone (tel: (312) 444 3456; website: www.moviefone.com) is the principal source of information and also sells tickets to some cinemas (‘movie theaters').

Of the many films set or filmed in Chicago, some of the most famous are The Sting (1973), starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; the classic John Belushi film, The Blues Brothers (1980); the Oscar-winning Ordinary People (1980); Risky Business (1983), the film that launched Tom Cruise; the cult comedy classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986); the John Candy, Steve Martin film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987); Home Alone and Back Draft (1990), Hoop Dreams, a documentary about inner-city kids becoming basketball stars (1994); the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day (1993), the 1930s gangster dramas, The Untouchables (1987), High Fidelity and Return to Me (1999), The Road to Perdition (2002) with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, Barbershop (2002), Barbershop 2 (2003) and Amityville Horror (2004). Proof (2005), starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, the story of a devoted daughter coming to terms with the death of her father, a brilliant mathematician crippled by insanity. The Break Up (2006) with Jennifer Anniston, and Beau Jeste (2007), the hilarious story of young woman who falls in love with a man who is unacceptable to her parents, were also shot in Chicago. The 2002 production of the musical Chicago, starring Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere, was actually filmed in Toronto.

Literary Notes: The poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was part of the heady Chicago Renaissance in the first two decades of the 1900s. In his poem, Chicago (1916), he coined the phrase ‘City of the Big Shoulders'. Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) wrote about the horrors of the meatpacking world of Union Stockyards and the Jewish-Lithuanian ghetto in The Jungle (1903). The book was the catalyst for the changing of food laws in America.

Chicago's most famous writers are probably Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in the Oak Park suburb (see Excursions), and Saul Bellow (1915-2005), who was born in Quebec but raised in Chicago. Bellow portrayed the post-modern city in many guises, including Pulitzer-Prize-winning Humboldt's Gift (1975) and The Dean's December (1982).

The dangerous, frenzied and unscrupulous underside of the Board of Trade was the subject of The Pit (1903), by Frank Norris (1870-1902). James T Farrell (1904-1979) was born in Chicago. His best-known work is the trilogy, Studs Lonigan (1932-1935), depicting the ethnic turmoil of the South Side slums. The clash of races in the slums was also the subject of Richard Wright's (1908-1960) Native Son (1940). Detroit-born Nelson Algren (1909-1981), as part of the Chicago school of realism, continued the unadorned style associated with the city's portrayal in several of his novels, including The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), a novel about drug addiction, often regarded as his best work. Defending the Damned (2007) by Kevin Davis is about the murder task force of Chicago's public defender's office.

Theatre has also made its mark in this city, particularly with American Buffalo (1976), by David Mamet (b 1947), the Chicago-born playwright and film director. With Chicago's gangster tradition, it is fitting that he also wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables (1987). It is also appropriate that two writers have based their detective novels in the city. Sara Paretsky's ‘VI Warshawski' stories and Andrew Greeley's ‘Monsignor Ryan' tales feature Chicago as a major location or, one could even say, character.