Weekend Arts Roundup

By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on May 7, 2007 9:26PM

Now that City Council has banned smoking tobacco on Chicago stages, city actors and audiences will have to get used to that cool herbal cigarette smell. If you're Jonesing for the real thing, you’ll have to head out to suburban Next, Circle, and Northlight theaters.

Architect David Fisher, of “Leonardo da Vinci Smart Bathroom” fame, is hoping city leaders will go to bat for his next idea: a skyscraper whose floors spin slowly and independently, lending a hallucinatory effect to the Chicago skyline. The folks in Dubai love it, but Blair Kamin sees a shallow spectacle.

Last week, Lynn Becker posted pictures and a report on the new Spertus Institute’s construction site. The glass building with the uniquely angular façade won’t open until late November, but from the sidewalk it already looks promising.

Millennium Park’s free Music Without Borders series is back and twice as large as last year. Performers at these free concerts include Toumani Diabaté and Seun Kuti, each man paying tribute to his late father. Concerts run June 24 – July 29. Before, in between and after these shows, the Grant Park Music Festival takes over the Pritzker Pavilion. This summer’s biggest attraction: The Decemberists performing with the Grant Park Orchestra. The rest of the fest features plenty of regulars—Beethoven, Mahler, Ravel, Gershwin—along with two nights of “Musica Latina” and a tribute to “American Icons” completely unrelated to the Independence Day celebration. Complete schedule (as a PDF) is here.

Image via MagnaWave from the Chicagoist Flickr group