Bird calls beckon in Lake Zurich

Family Fun: Go adventuring with John James Audobon in Lake Zurich, enjoy Radio Disney in Arlington Heights and have fun with toddlers in Barrington and Buffalo Grove.

Frequently hysterical ‘Hysteria’

HYSTERIA ★ ★ ★ 1/2 The Victorian era is justly famous for many fine developments: railroads, neo-gothic architecture, universal suffrage, the rise of the middle class and inventions such as photography, the phonograph and the telephone. Stuffiness, too. The Victorians developed stiff, stuffy propriety to …

Diversions: 4 picks for the coming week

Looking for fun, fancy or off-the-beaten-path options for the coming week? We present four, for your consideration.

One-woman show tells a hairy tale

Deborah Staples is playing a colorful role at Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe. Actually, she’s playing several of them as “The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead.” Robert Hewett’s one-woman play begins when a redheaded housewife named Rhonda Russell reveals that her husband is moving …

Historic postcards are art in miniature

In England, around the turn of the 20th century, if you thought about greeting cards, Christmas cards and, especially, postcards, you were probably thinking of Raphael Tuck & Sons. The firm began in a small frame and print shop in Bishopsgate, achieved great success in …

Tammy McCann salutes vets with big band

Jazz singer Tammy McCann is adding another genre to her repertoire, and she’ll be showing what she’s made of at the Memorial Day weekend concert at Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights on Saturday. McCann, a Chicago native who has been winning over jazz …

Fighting the good musical fight

If you have a keen sense of reality, or at least an appreciation of the odds against the lightning bolt that picks out the chosen few, a career in pop music can seem daunting, to say the least. Which explains how the Barrington guitar-pop duo …

Breezy take on marriage in ‘Married Alive!”

The state of matrimony is one of high peaks and deep valleys. “Married Alive!” looks at both through two sets of eyes — those of a pair of starry-eyed young newlyweds and the well-grounded, maybe a bit more clear eyes of a middle-aged husband and …

Arts and entertainment calendar for May 24

Stage

“Art” will be presented by Prufrock Productions May 25-June 3 at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., eighth floor, Elgin. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $20 general admission; $15 for students and senior citizens.. Call (630) …

Barrington’s Art in the Park a feast for the senses

Family Fun: Celebrate the arts in Barrington, flip for flapjacks in Palatine, sing with Mary Poppins in Wheeling and enjoy ‘Puss in Boots’ in Schaumburg.

Diversions: 4 picks for the coming week

Looking for fun, fancy or off-the-beaten-path options for the coming week? We present four, for your consideration.

Flawless cast celebrates life, love in ‘Music’

Full disclosure: We’ve seen “A Little Night Music” three times in the past year — twice with leading ladies of serious star wattage writ on bold on the marquee. And while it’s in bad taste and unfair to compare, we’re going to do so anyway. …

Teflons in harmony at Chicago Botanic Garden

Perhaps members of The Teflons should wear petal-pushers when they perform at the Chicago Botanic Garden May 19. After all, they will be the live music act for the annual “A Bloomin’ Festival” with its sales of plants and flowers, gardening demos and tips, and …

Area restaurants, shops, take on WINGS

Eighteen restaurants and another 18 businesses will be serving up sips, samples and shopping during the second annual “Taste Takes Flight,” a fundraiser for WINGS — Women in Need Growing Stronger which provides a safe house, counseling and transitional housing for women and children who …

Play plumbs heart and humor of marriage

Marriage has its rewards and challenges, whether you are newlyweds or have been together a long time. That’s what two couples discover in “Married Alive!,” Sean Grennan and Leah Okimoto’s musical comedy onstage at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre. The musical opens with the wedding of …