Culture

Although it's now a cherished holiday tradition, The Nutcracker didn't arrive in Chicago until almost 50 years after its premiere. Numerous favorite productions have visited or made their home in the city, all with their own staunch partisans.

The Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker is set at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. How was the Joffrey's creative team inspired by the epochal World's Fair, and what aspects of the real-life Fair made it into their new production?

In his work at the TODAY show, Mike Leonard says that "not one place I went to or person I met was what I thought it would be. So at a time when so many generalizations are being made about groups of people, it’s important to hear stories of people who aren’t being heard from.”

Articulate with Jim Cotter is a new arts and culture show airing on WTTW Prime that spotlights everything from a maker of extravagant hats to a 92-year-old pianist who studied with Rachmaninoff. Explore some digital highlights from the show. 

Despite difficulties involving its creation and lukewarm reviews at its premiere, The Nutcracker has become perhaps the most popular ballet in North America. Its path to success on this continent runs through Disney, San Francisco, and CBS.

In the Joffrey Ballet's new Nutcracker,  the main characters aren't wealthy but instead are working class immigrants living on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair before it opens. How did the Joffrey reinvent a holiday classic?

November is packed with local productions about Chicago. Check out our highlights, from a new Geoffrey Baer tour to a national show looking inside the creative process of making a new Nutcracker, not to mention three other Chicago programs.

For a brief period, the new Apple Store off the Chicago River looked like a giant Macbook. What other buildings take inspiration from objects, in subtle or outrageous ways? Discover examples from the blatant to the futuristic and inspired.

Chicago Ideas Week wants "to help people process all the tumult in this country by positing questions, giving them ideas, and getting them thinking" by presenting innovative thinkers in conversations and talks, says the director of programming.

The jazz pianist was an iconoclast in his style, playing, and compositions, which explains why he was so progressive and influential (he is the second-most recorded jazz composer). Vocalist and radio host Dee Alexander discusses the master on his 100th birthday.

During Open House Chicago, which is October 14 and 15, you can see things you've never seen before as more than 200 sites across Chicago, Evanston, and Oak Park open to the public for free. So many choices are overwhelming, so we've chosen a few highlights.

Axis Lab seeks to preserve the culture and history of the Vietnamese community centered on Argyle Street in Uptown, as well as support the local businesses, through innovative artistic means. "It's up to us to continue our parents' work," says the executive director.

There’s a huge amount of worthwhile TV out there nowadays, so we have some highlights from WTTW's Dan Soles, who programs WTTW's schedule. This month there's a timely investigation, a charming dramedy, an acclaimed musical, and a spooky profile.

The first Chicago International Latino Theater Festival features eleven plays from companies both local and international, in venues across Chicago. It presents a wide array of Latino perspectives and aims to achieve more visibility for Latino theater in Chicago.