Black comedy doesn’t get any blacker than The Death of Stalin, which mines laughs from one of the most brutal and frightening regimes in modern history. Adapting a graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, British writer and director Armando Iannucci dramatizes the night in March 1953 when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin—who had killed 20 million people, sent 18 million to the gulags as slave labor, and exiled ten million more—keeled over of a cerebral hemorrhage, his subsequent death setting off a power struggle between the Communist Party, led by Nikita Khrushchev, and the state apparatus, led by Stalin’s first lieutenant and head of secret police, Lavrenti Beria....

Hands-down the funniest moment of 2016 happened at Riot Fest, during the insanely hyped reunion of Misfits members Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. In the middle of an uncomfortably long stretch of between-song banter, while the front man explained how he thought the giant glowing pumpkins on the stage were “cool as shit,” someone behind me cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Shut up, Danzig!...

The late 50th Ward alderman Bernard “Berny” Stone was a colorful character. Elected in 1973 under Mayor Richard J. Daley, he presided over the far-north-side West Ridge community for nearly four decades. Throughout his career Stone was famous for his feistiness. Earlier this month, Silverstein showed good sportsmanship when she joined Emanuel and members of Stone’s family to cut the ribbon on Bernard Stone Park, a memorial to her former foe....

By definition, all theater is some sort of cosplay, and by golly does this stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 1996 BBC Two series and subsequent novelization lean into the LARP-iest version of it. Ilesa Duncan’s adventurous revival of Robert Kauzlaric’s play (originally directed for Lifeline by Paul S. Holmquist in 2010) showcases both the merits and drawbacks of fantasy onstage—but it’s inarguably one hell of a visual trip. A moderately successful and majorly bored office drone (Jose Nateras) upends his whole universe when he crosses paths with a magical being (Samantha Newcomb) on the run from a pair of wisecracking interdimensional bogeymen (John Henry Roberts, LaQuin Groves)....

The Block Beat multimedia series is a collaboration with The TRiiBE that roots Chicago musicians in places and neighborhoods that matter to them. When Tink performed at Adrianna’s for the first time, it was summer 2012, and the Chicago rapper and R&B artist was just 17—not even old enough to get into the Markham nightclub and banquet hall. But she had a chance to open for Future at one of the underground rap world’s answers to Harlem’s Apollo Theater, and she wasn’t going to pass it up....

Sun-Times Media CEO Edwin Eisendrath released the following statement this evening: “I am announcing today the departure of Mark Konkol from the Reader. Mark came to the publication bringing great hope for a new direction and a new life to a storied brand. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. A tumultuous ten days culminated in the publication of a Reader cover that we believe was not in line with either our vision for the Reader or that storied history....

I can only imagine how revolutionary the first season of The Bachelor must have been. Back then the premise was: regular guy with a normal job looks for love with a regular girl with a normal job, and the entire nation gets to watch the romance unfold. It was a simpler time (2002), and not every date needed to start with a helicopter ride and end with a private concert. Even the finale was pretty calm: Alex Michel gave his final rose to Amanda Marsh and asked her to be his girlfriend....

If nothing else, the events of 2016 have proven that vast numbers of our countrymen are all too happy to eat shit. In Chicago, of course, we have a higher standard—at least when it comes to restaurants. So even as the rest of the world obediently trundles toward oblivion, at least the city’s restaurateurs have been good enough to provide plenty of estimable places to eat and drink the dread under the table....

Avoid the cold with the shows, exhibits, and fairs taking place this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 11/18: Both A Charlie Brown Christmas and the story of Rudolph are affably spoofed at the Annoyance Christmas Pageant—an annual yuletide tradition that takes place, fittingly, at the Annoyance Theatre (851 W. Belmont). 7 PM, $20, $12 children under 12

The Nutcracker—the 1892 ballet based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffman, set to a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and originally credited to choreographer Marius Petipa—has always had a fantastically thin plot. A young girl, born with a silver spoon in her mouth, rides the magic coattails of a mysterious godfather to the Land of Sweets, where the child who already has everything is given still more. The stakes have rarely been so low for a character or an audience....

G.K. Chesterton’s 1908 satire about the battle between order and chaos gets a spirited and beautifully staged production at Lifeline. Though the extreme verbosity of the piece becomes tiresome by about the halfway point of the two-hour-plus show, there are enough visual touches to keep one interested beyond the chatter. The shaggy-dog plot involves a poet recruited by Scotland Yard to infiltrate a supposed anarchist cell. After quickly gaining entry into the inner sanctum, he becomes involved with the anarchists’ various plots to blow up, assassinate, and otherwise disrupt good bourgeois society....

On Saturday, March 10, the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Grand Boulevard hosts an extravaganza to celebrate Chicago rapper Twista and his “25 years in hip-hop.” Would it be obnoxious to point out that his debut album, Runnin’ Off at da Mouth, actually came out in 1992? And that its single “Mr. Tung Twista” dropped in ’91? In any case, Twista is well worth celebrating, and Saturday’s jam-packed lineup includes more than a dozen rap acts, four of whom will perform full sets: PsychoDrama, Phor, the Boy Illinois, and the man of the hour himself!...

Keith Srakocic/AP Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto wanted “jagoff” to be included in the dictionary. Journalists are obliged to report what people do. What people say is another matter. If I shoot you, my act of aggression will be described as it occurred. If I insult you I’ll be paraphrased. The American press thoroughly covered the Charlie Hebdo massacre—except it refused to publish examples of the cartoons the Islamist killers claimed to be avenging....

Peter Frampton’s got a right to sing the blues. The versatile guitarist recently revealed he has a degenerative muscle disorder called inclusion body myositis, which means his fingers might eventually stop letting him play his treasured instruments, including his iconic Les Paul. The diagnosis is a cruel blow for Frampton, who while still a teenager played in several 60s British rock bands, joining the Herd and cofounding Humble Pie, and then launched his solo career in 1971; at age 69, he’s still writing music and touring....

On the cover of her 2008 self-titled debut album, Santigold vomits glitter. The image—a black-and-white portrait of the artist with gold sparkles spilling from her mouth—is part photo booth and part DIY craft project, and it immediately demands attention. Now, Santigold is on the road celebrating the album’s tenth anniversary with her 10 Years Golder tour. The album made an immediate impact: Santi gives off a vibe that echoes other artsy weirdos of the era, such as M....

For the record, I’ve never cheered for a team on which LeBron James has played, on account of the fact that I’m a die-hard Chicago Bulls fan and he’s broken my heart far too many times for me to count. No, by and large, LeBron James joins a long list of superstars—from Wilt Chamberlain to Larry Bird to Isiah Thomas—who have used their mind-blowing talents to beat my beloved Bulls....

Chicago has plenty of rappers with distinctive styles, but none is quite like Valee. As he became a national phenomenon last year, several marquee names tried to replicate his nimble, staccato flow, including Nicki Minaj, Smokepurpp, and Tyler, the Creator. But mere imitation can’t capture Valee’s charm and skill—or his alchemical combination of nonchalance and boastfulness. Valee Fri 7/19, 3:20-4:10 PM, Red Stage “Two 16’s” Verse: Hope you don’t run up, bitch, I’ll toe-tag you / Shoot you five times, Christian Louboutin sneaks / Five racks, lean was gone, refill that / Flow mad sticky, spill that Louis Vuitton print wallet, hanging / From my garment bag, Cuban link...

“Boa b/w Cold” This is the time of year during which I play catch-up, perusing year-end lists to see what albums I might have overlooked last year. Thanks to British avant-music magazine the Wire I revisited Earth’s Primitive and Deadly (placing at number 11 in a top-50-albums list), which I initially wrote off as too cheesy only to find upon another listen is perhaps the band’s most humorous and colorful album to date....

In 1998, New Jersey guitarist and vocalist Steve Poponi started a band called Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start—yes, that whole thing is their name (it’s a Konami cheat code). Emo’s second wave was in full swing, and its influence makes itself felt on UUDDLRLRBAS’s early recordings—they’re filled with eruptions of tension-shattering guitars and unrestrained vocals that overwhelm Poponi’s otherwise serene singing. As third-wave emo dragged the genre through the mud in the 2000s, Poponi guided his group through an evolution, slowly shedding the convulsive bursts in favor of mellower, more pop-centric songs that fit right into the melancholy indie-rock milieu of the mid-aughts....

Heidi Zheng never had plans to run a bookstore. In fact, neither she nor her husband, Peter Hopkins, had any retail experience when they were approached to take over the Dial Bookshop. But still, it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up. “What a story!” Zheng says. “That’s the thing about people who grow up reading too many books, I simply cannot refuse because it’s such a good story.” “They met and married in a bookstore, so I don’t need to tell you that they love books,” Gibbons says....