A bumper crop of Broadway and painters

Here’s a toast to October, the month of pumpkin-spiced everything. It’s also the time when theaters, art galleries, and concert halls return to what might best be described as “the season of autumnal high energy.” So take a look at the following sampler of some of the many seasonal treats that are the work of Jewish artists.

The sounds of musicals

Let’s start with pure zaniness by way of Mel Brooks, the multi-talented comedian, actor, filmmaker, and songwriter who is now 97 years young.

His musical,  Young Frankenstein , which opened on Broadway in 2007, is a reworking of his highly successful 1974 film of the same name. A madly comic riff on Mary Shelley’s iconic tale of a scientist and the “creature” he creates, the musical features a score by Brooks–and a book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan–that spins the tale of a respected New York doctor who happens to be the grandson of the mad scientist known as Victor von Frankenstein, the fabled “re-animator of the dead.” Although the doctor wants nothing to do with his heritage, he learns that he has inherited the madman’s castle in Transylvania. And once he arrives there to handle business, his ancestor’s notes are not all he finds.

It is worth noting that in  Mel Brooks, Disobedient Jew , Jeremy Daubers’ biography of Brooks (published earlier this year as part of the Jewish Lives series of Yale University Press), we are reminded that in 2009 the comedian was presented with a Kennedy Center Honor. President Obama even quoted Brooks’ famous observation that looking at Jewish history’s “unrelieved lamenting would be intolerable–so, for every ten Jews, God designed one to be crazy and amuse the others… by the time I was five, I knew I was that one.”  Young Frankenstein  runs Oct. 13-Dec. 31 at the Mercury Theatre Chicago. For tickets, visit mercurytheaterchicago.com.

Now, let’s talk about other “horrors.” Running through Oct. 15 at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora is  Little Shop of Horrors , the musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Set in a Skid Row florist, it follows the adventures of Seymour, the shy shopkeeper who must deal with a strange, bloodthirsty plant he names Audrey II after his unattainable love interest. For tickets, visit paramountaurora.com.

For a more classic sound there is  Brigadoon -the haunted and haunting 1947 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe–which spins the story of two New Yorkers (Tommy and Jeff) who go game-hunting in the Scottish Highlands, get lost, and find themselves in a hexed village that can appear for only one day every 100 years. Things become only more complicated as Tommy falls in love with a woman there. The show, that runs Oct. 20-Nov. 12, is being produced by Music Theater Works at Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets, visit musictheaterworks.com.

And now, on to Mandy Patinkin, the enduring, award-winning, Chicago-bred star of Broadway musicals, television, and film who hardly needs an introduction. On Oct. 12 and 14, he will perform his solo show,  Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive , and will be accompanied on piano by Adam Ben-David. The program–to be held at the McAninch Arts Center on the campus of the College of DuPage–will feature Patinkin’s favorite Broadway songs and other classic American tunes, ranging from Stephen Sondheim to Randy Newman, Harry Chopin, Rufus Wainwright, and more. For tickets, visit AtTheMAC.org.

Finally, on Oct. 6, there is the one-night-only  Evening with Audra McDonald  at Lyric Opera of Chicago, with the Lyric Opera Orchestra conducted by Andy Einhorn, who has collaborated with McDonald since 2011. Among Einhorn’s many credits is his role as musical supervisor for Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, a Peabody Award-winning Great Performances special on PBS in 2013. For tickets to this concert, visit lyricopera.org.

Painters & paintings

On the main floor of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, you will find “Grounded,” a beautiful exhibit of 10 large, richly colored oil-on-canvas paintings by Nina Weiss (no relation) that capture her love for the Midwestern prairie, which began when she moved from New York to Wisconsin for graduate school.

As she explains: “I was completely drawn in by the vastness, beauty, and peace of open spaces and endless horizons.” Only one of the canvases in the show–which runs through Feb. 4, 2024– has a hint of anything man-made: a silo far in the background of a massive field full of flowers in the painting titled “Weston Prairie.”

The paintings in “Grounded” reflect Weiss’ recent research into the endangered prairies throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on those in Illinois. “I wanted to capture the feeling of belonging and stability that the natural world affords us when we stop, look, listen, and absorb,” Weiss explains. “I wanted to celebrate our ‘roots’ in that world.”

Another exhibit, “Alex Katz: Autumn”–running through Oct. 28 at the GRAY Chicago gallery at 2044 W. Carroll Ave–explores a similar theme to “Grounded.” Still productive at the age of 96, Katz–also a New York-born artist, who has often been described as a precursor to the Pop Art movement–has painted 11 monumental canvases “depicting the vibrant foliage, sweeping fields, and windblown trees of the changing season.” He is quoted as saying that he started to think about his vividly colored landscapes as “being an environment that wraps around you. There is no narrative. You’re dealing with perception.”

On view alongside these paintings are 16 new portraits on paper that reference Katz’s friends and family members as well as poets, dancers, and other artists.

Hedy Weiss, a longtime Chicago arts critic, was the Theater and Dance Critic for the  Chicago Sun-Times   from 1984 to 2018, and currently writes for   WTTW-TV ‘s website and contributes to the  Chicago Tonight  program.