I was pleasantly surprised when I awoke to find a full fledged street market 1/2 a block from my hotel where there is usually loads of traffic. The street of Division was shut down for a few blocks and local farmers, chefs and gardeners were out selling their wares. It was really neat.
The next thing I did was go to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I was incredibly let down by the MCA. The best part of this adventure was that I saw Tom Hanks and his wife rushing into a blacked out van with a bunch of other folks while walking to the museum. I was in Chicago about 15 years ago and the MCA blew me away with its exhibits. On Saturday, there were limited exhibits (one had ended earlier this week and two were slated to open on 6-29-13 and the museum was a complete letdown. Usually I am excited to see what types of weird installations a museum has and occasionally and I've been known to be inspired by that artwork and it has helped me create on my own. Not today. Here are two pictures of an artist's installation.
Wow, they're Christmas lights, really....................and you got paid to do this???????
A series of glasses glued to the wall. Maybe that means we are putting our glasses up against the wall because we are nosy (we want to hear through the wall of our neighbors) and we are a product of the 'Kardashians' TV reality show society. Who really knows what it means, but it means boring to me. There were also bits of confetti glued to the floor.
There was an interesting group dance (seen below) taking place in front of the museum, but as far as things inside the museum, the best things in there were in the museum store.
After the mundane stroll through the museum and a lunch I attended one of the funniest plays ever produced.
This play was outstanding. Although I've built my life around theatre, I've not always been a huge fan of musicals. However, the creators of South Park hit a homerun with this one. It is NOT for the faint of heart. There are enough curse words in this play to make someone have a minor stroke. This play was brilliant from top to bottom. The songs were hilarious, the actors were pitch perfect, the dancing was magnificent and it told a wonderful story. All I can tell you is that if you're not too uptight, go see this play at your first opportunity. If you are made uncomfortable by some strong language, you better go to something more predictable. If you notice the quote under the sign 'So good, it makes me angry', I wonder why it would make someone angry when I came out of the theatre nearly crying with joy. I guess someone could be angry because these two guys have never written a musical and have taken Broadway (and anywhere else it has played) by storm. It won 8 Tony Awards and will surely be touring soon to a theatre near you.
The night concluded with IO's presentation of Whirled News Tonight which turned out to be one of the greatest performances I saw in Chicago. You enter the space and there are loads of newspapers on a table on the stage, along with pairs of scissors. The house manager tells you to go cut out some articles and put them on the billboards on stage. The improv actors will build scenes from these articles. About 8 actors come onstage. One of them pulls an article down from the board and reads it to the audience. As soon as the article finishes, the group starts an improv about that article. It might be 2 actors onstage or 4-5. Anytime someone wants to step in, they come and wave their hand at the person they are replacing and continue on. They can start a new scene, or build on what is happening, but it still is focused on the article at hand. These guys (and one girl) were brilliant, fast-paced, relaxed, open, confident, intelligent comedic actors. They were just so fast, it was thrilling to watch. They did that for about an hour, took a small intermission and the second part of the show was also all improv and would based on a question from an audience member that they needed help answering. Examples were, "Should I get married?", "Should I get Lasik eye surgery?", "Should I let my 18 yr. old daughter go to beach week?" Once again the members of IO were tight and thorough and keep the audience rolling for another hour.
These were definitely the funniest shows I saw this week. One completely scripted and choreographed and sang and one flying without a net. The art of improv is young, but it is alive and well in Chicago.
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