Fall forward: Can't-miss things to do, see
Midwesterners have long lamented how short our summers seem: Before you've gotten your fill of suburban beaches and barbecues, the weather turns and you're facing fall.
Still, autumn brings some welcome changes. Silly summer movies give way to more serious fare, network TV shows return with fresh new episodes and Oktoberfests provide a good excuse to let loose on a cool fall day.
So here's what we're looking forward to as we celebrate the start of a new season.
'South Pacific' in the suburbs
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "South Pacific" may be 60 years old, but for the past year and a half it has been one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.
Director Bartlett Sher ("The Light in the Piazza") helmed an operatically sized "South Pacific" staging for Lincoln Center Theater in April 2008. Critics swooned and audiences immediately flocked to what was officially (and surprisingly) "South Pacific's" first official Broadway revival.
By the season's end, "South Pacific" raked in seven Tony Awards, sweeping all the musical production design categories and earning nods for Sher's direction, Paulo Szot as the leading man Emile de Becque and for Best Musical Revival.
No doubt, all of the grandeur won't be fully duplicated for its national tour. But the producers are going to do their utmost to try.
As in the Broadway revival, a larger-than-normal orchestra will be deployed on the road, according to Ken Gentry, CEO of NETworks Presentations and one of "South Pacific's" tour producers. The tour also has quite a casting coup with American opera baritone Rodney Gilfry playing Emile de Becque. Hearing Gilfry wrap his voice around standards like "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine" should be an unadulterated pleasure.
The only drawback for "South Pacific's" touring stay at the Rosemont Theatre is that it's far too short - a mere week.
"South Pacific" plays eight performances at the Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Road, Rosemont, Tuesday, Nov. 24, through Sunday, Nov. 29. Tickets are $39.50 to $79.50. (800) 745-3000 or rosemonttheatre.com.
- Scott C. Morgan, staff writer
Grape expectations
Stein-hoisting Oktoberfest celebrations are fun, all right, if you like beer and boisterous men wearing leather shorts.
If you prefer to ogle at lederhosen-clad gams while sipping Riesling, you'd best head to Lynfred Winery for its annual Oktoberfest Pig Roast.
The two-day event signals the advent of the grape harvest and winemaking season and, in true German fashion, includes family-friendly grape-stomping, grape-spitting and barrel rolling contests. Enjoy samples from Lynfred's award-winning cellars and heaps of spit-roasted pork, bratwurst, German potato salad, sweet corn and German chocolate cake. The wine and food can be purchased with tickets available on-site; sing-a-longs, fun and frivolity are free.
The fest is 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 at Lynfred Winery, 15 S. Roselle Road, Roselle. (630) 529-9463; lynfredwinery.com.
- Deborah Pankey, food editor
They're creepy and they're kooky
If you see only one show this year, make it "The Addams Family."
Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth star as Gomez and Morticia in the pre-Broadway tryout of the new musical inspired by the wryly macabre characters created by artist and illustrator Charles Addams.
The show promises to be one of the hottest theater tickets this fall thanks to A-listers Lane and Neuwirth and a creative team that includes composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa ("The Wild Party"), writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (Tony Award winners for "Jersey Boys") and director-designers Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, Broadway newcomers and half of the creative team behind London's Improbable theater company.
It's been a few years since this type of musical spectacle premiered in Chicago but the city's track record is good. Both "The Producers" (2001) and "Spamalot" (2005) went on to critical acclaim and commercial success on Broadway after their Chicago debuts.
The show involves a culture clash between the Addams clan and a normal family whose son is in love with Addams' teenage daughter, Wednesday.
Previews begin Friday, Nov. 13 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St., Chicago. The show runs through Jan. 10, 2010 then transfers to Broadway, where it begins previews March 4, 2010. Call (800) 775-2000 or see broadwayinchicago.com for tickets.
- Barbara Vitello, staff writer
Trip over our rural roots
In daylight, you can pretend you're Ray Liotta fading into the cornfield in "Field of Dreams." Toward midnight, well, try to shake any thoughts of "Children of the Corn."
Don't worry, though. The world's largest (and probably most elaborate) corn maze covers 28 acres in Spring Grove, but the friendly Richardson family that creates it every year will gladly send in a rescuer if you phone them to report you're lost.
Paths are carved in the head-high corn in the shape of Abraham Lincoln and scenes from his life. You can join the preteens racing around the 11 miles of trails and bridges or take on the bigger challenge of locating all of the dozens of checkpoints within the maze.
A separate five-acre maze celebrates the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the truly claustrophobic can amuse themselves outside the mazes with a 50-foot-tall observation tower, a giant slide, an expanded kiddie area, a 700-foot zip line and a smaller kids' version, hay rides, concessions and a wooded picnic grove with free bonfires.
The maze is open until midnight on full-moon weekends, and those in costume get a discount Oct. 23-24. Bring a flashlight and s'mores fixings and check richardsonfarm.com for coupons and group rates.
The Richardson Corn Maze is open Wednesday-Sunday through Nov. 1 at 9407 Richardson Road, Spring Grove. Hours vary; call (815) 675-9729 or see richardsonfarm.com. Tickets are $11.50 for adults, $10 ages 13-18 and $8.50 for kids 5-12 and adults over 65.
- Diane Dungey, assistant managing editor
A horrorama-rama ding-dong!
If you're looking for something to prepare yourself for the Halloween weekend, look no further than the annual Flashback Weekend's Chicago Horror Convention. The event has always been a summer affair, but this year it flies into Rosemont a week before Halloween, and includes a lineup of horror icons, including Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund, Tony "Candy Man" Todd, Lance "Aliens" Henrickson and Chicago mascot the great Svengoolie.
Special attractions include "Texas Chainsaw the Musical," a costume contest and Charles Band's Full Moon Horror Road Show.
Flashback runs Friday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 25 at the Wyndham O'Hare Hotel, 6810 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont. Go to flashbackweekend.com, call (847) 478-0119 or contact flashbackweekend@ameritech.net. Tickets run from $20 per day up to pricier VIP packages costing $135 and $240 for the weekend.
- Dann Gire, film critic
'House' calls
Last May's season finale of "House" had the brilliant but often nasty doctor checking himself into a psychiatric hospital. Good call. But somehow, it's hard to imagine House (Hugh Laurie) getting in touch with his feelings - let alone kicking his addiction to pain pills. And indeed, Monday's two-hour season premiere had Laurie meeting his match in the form of a doctor played by Andre Braugher. How long before fans start clamoring for the old cantankerous House? We'll just have to see.
I got hooked on Fox's hourlong medical drama, which entered its sixth season this week, just this summer through reruns on USA and other networks. I like the crazy diagnoses. (No, "it's not lupus.") I like the characters, including House's long-suffering pal Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and sensitive Dr. Cameron (Arlington Heights native Jennifer Morrison). I even like House himself (although you'd have to be on your deathbed to put up with him).
So "Grey's Anatomy" fans can have their Dr. McDreamy. Come Mondays, I have an appointment with Dr. McMeany.
"House" airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on WFLD-TV Channel 32.
- Lisa Friedman Miner, Time out! editor
Hot diggity dog!
Sometime in November, the village of Wheeling will allow two dogs to reside on a rooftop.
But there's no need to be shocked.
The dogs will actually be the 14-foot tall, smiling, papier-mâche and fiberglass Superdawg characters, "Maurie" and "Flaurie," on the rooftop of the highly anticipated, soon-to-be-open Superdawg hot dog drive-in at 333 S. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling.
At long last, the wait will be over.
"We are looking at a November opening - closer to the middle or end of November," said Laura Berman, manager of the Wheeling Superdawg.
It was 1948 when Berman's grandparents, newlyweds Maurie and Flaurie (Florence) Berman, opened their famous Chicago Superdawg at 6363 N. Milwaukee Ave.
At the new Wheeling Superdawg, 75 parking spaces will be available for guests to pull up in their cars and dine, Berman said. Car hops will deliver the food.
There will also be some seating for guests in a small indoor dining room.
The famous Superdawg hot dog itself - "100 percent beef dog, no filler with mustard, relish, onion, pickle and pepper - no ketchup," Berman said, is a bit larger than a regular hot dog and a little spicier.
Along with the hot dogs, guests can fill up on piping hot french fries fries and cold milkshakes.
"We are all about family and the neighborhood," Berman said. "We have the perfect Chicago-style hot dog, served in a family-friendly atmosphere. My grandparents started back in 1948, and 61 years later, I want to continue serving Superdawg to the next generation."
- Laura Stewart, staff writer