Things to do in Chicago today
Find the best things to do in Chicago today, including parties, concerts, screenings and other can't-miss events.
If you're looking for things to do in Chicago today, you've come to the right place! Whether you're a longtime resident of the city or a first-time visitor, there's always something happening in Chicago that's worth checking out. You'll find events taking place at some of the best Chicago attractions, concerts at Chicago's best music venues and parties that stretch late into the evening at nightlife destinations throughout the city. Our guide to things to do in Chicago today also includes the latest theater shows, museum exhibitions and screenings at Chicago's best movie theaters. Make some plans with our list of the most amazing things to do in Chicago today.
Best things to do in Chicago today
Art on theMART
Every night, a 25-story-tall video installation takes over the side of the Merchandise Mart, filling the building's historic facade with vibrant colors and moving images. Harnessing 34 digital projectors, the show features work by a rotating lineup of artists and is best viewed from Wacker Drive or the Riverwalk, between Wells and Orleans Streets. Art on theMART lights up the night Wednesday through Sunday, with projections beginning approximately 30 minutes after sunset.
wndr museum
Step inside one of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's famous Infinity Mirror Rooms at this pop-up exhibition, which features installations that blend art and science. The latest "chapter" of wndr museum features a lineup of new installations (giving previous visitors a reason to come back), focusing on works that utilize technology. Among the new experiences are a room lined with LED walls that guests can "draw" on with water, a series of abstract shapes that guests can project images onto and an interactive dance station that replicates and manipulates your moves on a screen. You'll also find a two-story rainbow slide and murals by local artists Mac Blackout and Lauren Asta. The latest iteration of wndr museum will stick around for "limited, yet undetermined amount of time," so squeeze in a visit while the current batch of installations is on display.
Hamilton
Let’s not mince words, since we’ve already spilled so many of them: Hamilton, writer-composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda’s biography of Alexander Hamilton as refracted through a hip-hop, pop and R&B lens, is a sprawling, stunning, singular achievement. By filtering the story of the American Experiment’s beginning into modern, meticulously rhymed vernacular and populating the stage with performers of color to play the likes of Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson and Madison, Miranda and his regular collaborators (director Thomas Kail, music supervisor Alex Lacamoire and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler) make the founding fathers feel fresh and, miraculously, human. RECOMMENDED: Our complete guide to Hamilton Chicago Weeks out from the country’s naming its 45th president, Hamilton’s new Chicago company arrives to remind us our democracy has always been messy, political, personal, and worth fighting for. Kail and Blankenbuehler fill designer David Korins’s spare set—which suggests that, like the country, it’s still under construction—with movement as thrilling and dense as Miranda’s lyrics. (The few moments of stillness are also used to great counter effect.) The nearly all-new Chicago cast (ensemble member Emmy Raver-Lampman is the sole transfer) easily lives up to the originals while finding their own new moments and shades. Miguel Cervantes is a rather more grounded Hamilton than the more frenetic Miranda, who originated the role, but Cervantes conveys the man’s vital, fatal
The Irishman
Martin Scorsese pulls off a killer self-own at the top of his overstuffed, frequently electrifying The Irishman. As the Five Satins’ gorgeous “In the Still of the Night” casts its timeless doo-wop spell, the camera creeps forward—not into the bowels of the Copacabana or anywhere near as glamorous, but down the boring carpeted hallway of a nursing home. Is this where all of Scorsese’s gangsters end up? Only the unlucky ones, the film suggests. Too-generously adapted by Steven Zaillian from the 2004 crime memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, the nearly three-and-a-half-hour The Irishman—spanning the decades like an extra-long Cadillac—isn’t about still nights so much as the dying of the light, the end of one’s years and the belated, unarticulated guilt that’s inherent to mob life. Or at least it gets to that guilt. Eventually. When we first sidle up to the wheelchair-bound Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro, building a performance that becomes more interesting as it quiets down), he’s a white-haired oldster narrating his life. Just for a second, you wonder if he’s rambling to himself. He steers us back to the late 1940s, when, as a married WWII vet and union truck driver, he meets mafioso Russell Bufalino (the much-missed Joe Pesci, these days dropping crafty little smiles) on the side of a Pennsylvania road. It doesn’t matter how many times Pesci calls De Niro “kid” (and it’s several): Nothing will fully sell you on Scorsese’s biggest gamble, digitally de-aging his cast so that they c
Art on theMART
Every night, a 25-story-tall video installation takes over the side of the Merchandise Mart, filling the building's historic facade with vibrant colors and moving images. Harnessing 34 digital projectors, the show features work by a rotating lineup of artists and is best viewed from Wacker Drive or the Riverwalk, between Wells and Orleans Streets. Art on theMART lights up the night Wednesday through Sunday, with projections beginning approximately 30 minutes after sunset.
Chicago Architecture Biennial
Every two years, Chicago becomes the center of the world of architecture and design during the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Taking place over the course of nearly four months, the programming encompasses exhibitions, installations, forums and more events that explore the state of modern architecture and urbanism. The Chicago Cultural Center serves as the event's hub, where visitors can explore a large model of a traditional Chicago worker’s cottage, experience a multi-channel video installation and learn about the architecture present in cities such as São Paulo, Vancouver and Johannesburg. Venues like the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the National Public Housing Museum also host Biennial programming, in addition to partner programs at a variety of local institutions. Find a complete list of events and happenings at the Chicago Architecture Biennial website.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Michelle Pfeiffer and Angelina Jolie go head-to-head in an overly elaborate fairytale seque
The Addams Family
This Addams animated adventure is short on both creepiness and kookiness
Zombieland: Double Tap
Aware of its own disposability, the sarcastic zom-com sequel jerks to life only occasionally
Hustlers
Think Ocean’s Eleven with strippers and you’ve got the premise of this Jennifer Lopez flick
Gemini Man
Two Will Smiths aren't enough to save this generic action flick from itself
Ad Astra
James Gray’s space odyssey marries heart and spectacle in a memorable journey to the stars
It: Chapter Two
A grown-up Losers’ Club does battle with its own hang-ups in a superior sequel
Rambo: Last Blood
John Rambo signs off with a grim and eye-poppingly xenophobic kill fest.
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s buzzy alt-history of late-’60s Hollywood puts truth in a bong and smokes it