For those who appreciate a song well swung, two noteworthy vocalists will appear on Chicago stages next week. Tony Bennett will perform Monday and Tuesday at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave., an unusually intimate venue for him (312-559-1212), and cabaret singer Ann Hampton Callaway will appear Wednesday through March 22 in one of the citys most appealing new rooms, Le Cabaret at Cite, on the 70th floor of Lake Point Tower, 505 N. Lake Shore Dr. (312-644-4050).
– Howard Reich
THEATER: `BLUES’ YOU CAN USE
Much like the works of August Wilson, Atlanta-based Pearl Cleage’s “Blues for an Alabama Sky” is set in the past, poised between the Harlem Renaissance and the Depression. It’s a story of four friends: a Cotton Club singer fresh out of work; her roommate, a costume designer who dreams of working with Josephine Baker in Paris; a proponent of Margaret Sanger’s family planning clinic; and a physician as dedicated to good times as saving lives. The drama opens Monday at the Goodman Theatre. 312-443-3800.
– Sid Smith
TV: THAR SHE BLOWS
The USA network, usually the purveyor of schlockier fare, is trying its hand at a classic, bringing Melville’s “Moby Dick” to the small screen in a costly, new two-night production. Patrick Stewart plays the obsessive Ahab and Henry Thomas (“E.T.”) invites us to call him Ishmael in the classic tale of a white whale, a dream of vengeance, a prophecy, and a rough voyage. Gregory Peck, from the 1956 John Huston version, shows up as Father Mapple. “Moby Dick” airs at 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on the cable channel.
– Steve Johnson
ART: TIME RUNNING OUT
This is the final week for the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s “Jim Goldberg: Raised by Wolves,” an elaborate installation of photographs, videos and objects on homeless teens in California. It’s not wholly a success – the photographs perhaps rely too strongly on the surrounding stagecraft – but the combination of stimuli seems to point toward the future and is well worth seeing. Closing time is 5 p.m. Saturday, at 600 S. Michigan Ave. 312-663-5554.
– Alan G. Artner
CLASSICAL: AS GOOD AS GOLD
Local piano lovers will get their first chance next weekend to hear the pianist who made off with the gold medal in the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Jon Nakamatsu – until recently a high school German teacher in Mountain View, Calif. – is the first American in 16 years to win the competition, beating out two finalists from Russia and one each from Israel, Italy and Germany. He will make his Chicago-area debut as part of the Rising Stars series at 8 p.m. Friday in Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Hall. His program holds Beethoven’s Sonata in E, Opus 109, along with works by Chopin, Liszt and William Bolcom. 847-266-5100.
– John von Rhein
ROCK: THE ENGLISH BEAT
For a time in the early ’90s, the Hacienda in Manchester, England, was the most famous dance club in the world, in no small part because of the visionary deejaying of Paul Oakenfold. By blending beats from an international, genre-leaping array of artists both famous and obscure, Oakenfold helped create the lexicon of the dusk-till-dawn raves that have swept Europe for the last decade. He’ll make a rare stateside appearance Wednes-day at Metro. 773-549-0203.
– Greg Kot
