Best Bets: Aries Spears, 'When You Wish Upon A Star,' Megon McDonough and John Malkovich

Stand-up comedy

Comedian and impressionist Aries Spears (“Mad TV,” “Jerry Maguire”) headlines the Chicago Improv at Woodfield Mall, 5 Woodfield Road, Schaumburg. $30, plus a two-item food or beverage purchase minimum. (847) 240-2001 or improv/chicago.com. 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19; 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20; and 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22 (Saturday, Oct. 21, shows sold out)

Broadway luminaries

Broadway favorites and Tony Award-winners Sutton Foster and Brian Stokes Mitchell headline Paramount Theatre's fundraising concert and gala at 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora. Proceeds from “An Evening With Brian Stokes Mitchell & Sutton Foster” will help fund Paramount productions, its school of the arts and its community outreach programs. $55-$155. (630) 896-6666 or paramountaurora.com. 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20

Halloween fun

• Experience an alien autopsy, fire dance performances, a zombie maze, magic show, a 15-foot werewolf art installation created by Paul Kuhn and Luke Salvesen, ax throwing, a bug and reptile show and more at All Hallows Eve at Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville. For all ages, and specifically 16 and younger. Howlin' at the Moon, a similar celebration that includes music, food and drinks, is for ages 21 and older. $20. napersettlement.org. All Hallows Eve: 6:30-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 20-21; Howlin' at the Moon: 5-10 p.m. Oct. 27-28

• Prepare for spooktacular fun during the Halloween celebration at Wintrust Field, 1999 S. Springinsguth Road, Schaumburg. In addition to carnival rides, trick-or-treating, kids' activities and a House of Creeps haunted house, the event includes arts and crafts, live music and a bar/lounge. Free; parking is $5. Haunted house is $17.50 online, $20 at the door. wintrustfield.com. 5-10 p.m. Fridays, Oct. 20 and 27; 1-10 p.m. Saturdays, Oct. 21 and 28; 1-9 p.m. Sundays, Oct. 22 and 29; and 6-10 p.m. Oct. 30-31 (haunted house only)

• Mind reader Jacob Mayfield combines magic and mysticism in his Halloween shows at Steel Beam Theatre, 111 W. Main St., St. Charles. $30. See steelbeamtheatre.com.

7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, 27 and Nov. 3; 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, 28 and Nov. 4

• LUMA8 and the city of Chicago host the family-friendly “Arts in the Dark Halloween Parade,” consisting of 90 arts organizations representing Chicago neighborhoods. Puppeteers, dancers, acrobats, circus artists, theater artists and street artists will participate in the parade, which proceeds along State Street from Lake to Van Buren streets. Costumes are encouraged. artsinthedark.com. 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 (candy giveaway starts at 5 p.m.)

At the Mac

• TheaterWorksUSA brings their new show, “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical,” based on Dav Pilkey's “Cat Kid Comic Club” book series, to the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. The family-friendly show centers on Cat Kid and Molly Pollywog, whose efforts to teach baby frogs how to make their own comics go awry when the frogs start bickering. $18, $16. (630) 942-4000 atthemac.org. 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20

• The house band for the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, led by pianist/music director Sean Mason, with vocalists Kim Nalley and Sasha Dobson, perform jazz-infused versions of favorite songs from such Disney films as “The Jungle Book,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Mary Poppins” and others during the “When You Wish Upon A Star: A Jazz Tribute to 100 Years of Disney” concert at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. $50-$65. (630) 942-4000 atthemac.org. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21

‘Icons' exhibition

The Loyola University Museum of Art, 820 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, presents a retrospective of American photographer Steve McCurry's works in “Steve McCurry's Icons,” which spans the photographer's 40-year career that took him from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia to Africa, Cuba, the U.S., Italy and more. It features more than 80 large-format photographs, including McCurry's celebrated 1984 portrait of the “Afghan Girl, Sharbat Gula,” famously featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine. $20.70-$27. feverup.com/m/140002. Timed, dated admission from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct 20, through Nov. 26

At the Raue

• Scholar and commentator Clay Jenkinson portrays the United States' 26th president — statesman, conservationist and historian Theodore Roosevelt — in “An Evening With Theodore Roosevelt” at the Raue Center for the Arts, 26 N. Williams St., Crystal Lake. $45-$55. (815) 356-9212 or rauecenter.org. 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21

• Chicago-area favorite Megon McDonough pays tribute to songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David in “What the World Needs Now,” which includes hits such as “I Say A Little Prayer,” “Walk On By,” “Close To You,” “Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head,” “What The World Needs Now” and “The Look of Love.” $30-$40. (815) 356-9212 or rauecenter.org. 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22

Fairy tale ballet

The Grand Kyiv Ballet, with National Opera of Ukraine principal dancers Kateryna Kukhar and Oleksandr Stoianov, presents “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the ballet based on the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale set to the music of Polish composer Bogdan Pavlovsky. The family-friendly performance takes place at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St., Chicago. $49.50-$95. (312) 334-7777 or harristheaterchicago.org. 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22

Malkovich in Chicago

John Malkovich, charter member of Steppenwolf Theatre and an award-winning actor and director, returns to the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., to star in “The Music Critic,” by writer/composer Aleksey Igudesman, featuring his longtime collaborator pianist Hyung-ki Joo. The show, which “avenges some of the most brilliant pieces of music which were railed and reviled by critics at their premieres,” features music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and others. Igudesman and Joo are joined by cellist Antonio Lysy, violist Hsin-Yun Huang and violinist Claire Wells. $39.50-$90. themusiccritic.com. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26