Overextended? Crunched for time? Bogged down? Maybe you flip through the entertainment listings every week and think, “I’d love to see some of this, but when can I find the time?”
We can help. From morning to noon to late night, we’ve got you covered. We also have some parking tips, but why not make it easy on yourself and go with the CTA (stop laughing!), cabs or even a hired car? (Hey, if you’re not getting out that often, you deserve the break.) Most limo services begin at $70 per hour for a Town Car to more than a c-note per hour for a stretch limo, and require at least a two-hour minimum (sometimes three hours for weekend reservations). But if you get some of your overworked cronies in on the action, the price could be right. From museums to theater, here’s where you can take your limo.
Art Institute of Chicago
Take advantage of the Art Institute’s guided tours, ranging from collection highlights to themed talks about a specific artist or movement. Senior lecturer Annie Morse suggests that new (or long-absent) visitors acquaint themselves with one of the daily Gallery Talks, which run 45 minutes to an hour and generally focus on a specific artist, theme, or school of art. These are also a good way to get a taste of galleries you’ve just zipped by in the past in your rush to tried-and-true favorites. The museum also offers 30-45 minute Express Talks at noon on Wednesdays, and 2 p.m. on Fridays. These sometimes focus exclusively on one piece in the museum’s collection (Oct. 10 features Jules Breton’s “Song of the Lark”), or on a handful of pieces by one artist. There are also 30-minute, Thursday evening (during the museum’s free period from 5-8 p.m.) tours that focus on the museum’s best-known pieces. Check ahead of time at the website to find out the day’s offerings, or pick up a weekly calendar at the museum. The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., 312-443-3600, www.artic.edu.
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Goodspeed, culture vultures
We’re fast. We want it all now. We have cell phones, BlackBerries and other devices that allow us to compress time. These needs argue against the time commitment of culture, but fit right in with this story. Here are more lickety-split ways to get some culture.
MUSEUMS
Museum of Contemporary Art
Looking for something offbeat? Consider the Museum of Contemporary Art’s 45-minute Exhibition Focus tour, or an even quicker Highlights tour (20-30 minutes). Check the MCA website for times and details. The Exhibition Focus tour gives you the best of current exhibitions (which includes “Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967,” so you can get your ya-yas out in a classy setting). The Highlights tour offers a “best of” approach to the collections. The MCA also offers an occasional one-hour lecture series, “People Who Shape Our World,” about contemporary artists and arts movements. And because you’ll want to keep moving, Puck’s Restaurant at the MCA has an express counter.
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave., 312-280-2660, www.mcachicago.org.
Chicago Cultural Center
Besides its galleries, gift shop and visitors’ center, the Cultural Center is downtown’s best one-stop shop for time-friendly, high-quality — and free — entertainment. The center hosts the “Lunchbreak” music and theater series at 12:15 p.m. daily, so you can return to the office with a spring in your step and a smile on your face. The programming runs from classical to jazz to world music. It’s theater on Thursdays — readings, sketch comedy from groups such as the Cupid Players (Oct. 18), and seasonal specialties such as the Gift Theatre Company’s “Halloween Show” on Oct. 25. The Randolph Cafe is on site.
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., 312-744-6630.
Chicago Architecture Foundation
If you want to stretch your legs while taking in some culture, take a lunchtime tour with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. These 45-minute walks focus on a landmark building and only cost $5. Or you could enjoy the free 45-minute Lunchtime Lecture series. Brown-bagging is encouraged for the latter.
Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Ave., 312-922-3432, www.architecture.org.
Chicago Humanities Festival
The city’s annual extravaganza of art, literature, and social discourse (Oct. 27-Nov. 11) offers many programs in the under-an-hour range in its thick brochure. This year’s theme, “The Climate of Concern,” focuses on global warming. Some of the big names on tap include E.L. Doctorow, recipient of the Tribune Literary Prize, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen, Garry Wills, Diane Ackerman, W.S. Merwin, and writer/activist Bill McKibben. (The staff of the Onion will also be on hand.)
Chicago Humanities Festival, 312-494-9509, www.chfestival.org.
PRIME TIME THEATER
Fall theater, like fall movies, tends to focus on the heavy hitters. But Sarah Ruhl’s three-and-a-half hour “Passion Play” at Goodman won’t cut it for the time-impaired. But there are a few shows that will get you in and out in less than 90 minutes.
Shattered Globe Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ one-act, “Suddenly Last Summer,” clocks in at 80 minutes — not bad for an American classic. Through Oct. 27 at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-871-3000. There is low-cost parking available at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Lincoln Hospital. Several local restaurants also offer discounts with ticket stubs. See www.victorygardens.org for information.
Reduced Shakespeare Company brings in “Completely Hollywood (abridged)” and “The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)” in their local premieres. Each show runs longer than an hour, but considering that you get a crash course in cinema and theology respectively, it works out well. Through Dec. 2 at Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted St., 312-988-9000, www.theroyalgeorgetheatre.com. Valet parking is available for $10, and for a quick bite (quicker than Alinea, for instance), consider Pizza Capri at 1733 N. Halsted St.
The annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival features some of the best fringe artists in the city. The running times vary, but festival curator Beau O’Reilly cites Matt Rieger’s comedy “Trash” and his own “The Boho Dance: Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg” (created and performed with John Starrs) as two under-an-hour offerings. “Trash” runs Wednesdays through Oct. 24 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. “Boho Dance” is at Prop Thtr, 3502-4 N. Elston Ave, on Oct. 8. For dining near Prop, the main event is Chief O’Neill’s, 3471 N. Elston Ave. Parking is plentiful near Prop, and the Belmont bus runs all night (though the Addison line shuts down by late evening). The Athenaeum is trickier for parking, but public transit abounds. For Rhino Fest info and reservations, call 773-267-6660 or www.rhinofest.com.
Quick-handed magicians take the stage the first Wednesday of every month in “Magic Chicago,” which runs no longer than 70 minutes.
City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., 773-334-4192, www.magichicagoshow.com.
LATE NIGHT LAUGHS
Most late-night improv and sketch shows keep it short — face it, they know you’ve been drinking. The granddaddy of Chicago late-night theater is the Neo-Futurists’ “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” which promises “30 plays in 60 minutes.” (No reservations, so add in at least 30 minutes standing in line.) At the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland Ave., Fri-Sat 11:30 PM (Sun 7 p.m.), 773-275-5255. Andersonville offers tons of cheap and quick eats, such as Fajita Grill at 1706 W. Foster Ave., open until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Public transit is readily available.
Charna Halpern of i.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) says most of the company’s late-night shows last 45 minutes max. And the Wrigleyville location is public-transit and cab-friendly.
i.O., 3541 N. Clark St., 773-880-0199, www.iochicago.net.
Annoyance Productions offers many short shows, from “Bad Touch” (Tuesdays, offering 35 minutes of “unsavory” improv) to “Messing With A Friend” on Thursdays, which features longtime Annoyance vet Susan Messing. Parking is tight, but public transit is excellent and nearby Argyle Street restaurants offer fast pho. Or go down the street to Crew (4804 N. Broadway Ave.) for fast pub grub.
Annoyance, 4830 N. Broadway Ave., 773-561-4665, www.annoyanceproductions.com.
Pretty girls in the heart of Boys Town: The Belmont Burlesque Revue offers quickie late-night slapstick fun (they’ve been known to break out the old Benny Hill guy-in-gorilla-suit-chasing-comely-lasses-in-lingerie bit) on various Saturdays at the Playground Theatre, 3209 N. Halsted St., 773-556-8238, www.belmontburlesque.com.
SHORT SHOTS
Short cinema options are on tap with Chicago Filmmakers. The venue presents Reeling 2007: The 26th Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival next month (Nov. 8-18), which will offer several programs of shorts ( www.reelingfilmfestival.org). On Oct. 20, Filmmakers screens Tom Palazzolo’s 40-minute documentary ode to a vanished slice of Chicago, “At Maxwell Street.” And on Oct. 27 is “You’ve Been Warned,” a series of shorts by Sid Davis, the grim auteur behind such classroom films as “Alcohol Is Dynamite” and “The Dangerous Stranger.”
Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., 773-293-1447, www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
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Legitimate options for jittery youth
Hey, the younger generation has places to go and things to do too, you know. Fortunately, most children’s theater in town runs about an hour or less on weekend mornings, leaving plenty of time for soccer, ballet and birthday parties.
Rogers Park is home to two short-attention-span shows. Lifeline Theatre’s KidSeries offers “Half Magic,” based on the book by Edward Eager about a mysterious magic coin, through Nov. 25, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., 773-761-4477. www.lifelinetheatre.com. And Rascal Children’s Theater opens its residency at the Side Project with the sleuth tale, “Guess Who, Gum Shoe?” Oct. 13-Nov. 3, Side Project, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave., 773-655-6494, www.rascaltheater.com. Lifeline has a free parking lot three blocks away from the theater and is also CTA accessible, as well as being just down the street from the venerable Heartland Cafe (7000 N. Glenwood Ave.), where your kid can get a buffalo burger with a side of radical politics. Side Project’s “Jarvis Square” neighborhood has the cozy Charmers Cafe at 1500 W. Jarvis Ave. and is also close to a Red line stop.
Corn Productions, generally known for raunchier fare, cleans up for the sweet kids’ show “Mileep and the Attack of the Jellybean People,” through Nov. 11. Cornservatory, 4210 N. Lincoln Ave., 312-409-6435, www.cornservatory.org. For rib-sticking down-home cooking served fast, check out Smokin’ Woody’s Barbecue, 4160 N. Lincoln Ave.
