Arts & Culture in Prospect Heights

If you're all dressed up in chainmail with no place to go, today's deal is an excuse to wear grandma's mail hood and mittens out of the house. Today's side deal to Medieval Times gets you an adult ticket and royalty upgrade to the sensuous four-course feast and live show, featuring horse-mounted combat, falconry, and mace-wielding professionals, for $30, a $65.55 value for adults, including tax. Your royalty upgrade gets you preferred seating in the second and third rows, a banner for cheering on your knight, a behind-the-scenes DVD, and a commemorative program. Though Medieval Times' website offers free royalty upgrades with the purchase of a regular ticket and offers tickets as low as the Groupon price when you purchase multiples, your Groupon combines these deals without requiring you to purchase multiples or limiting the showtimes you can attend.

The Capitol Steps performers draw upon 62 combined years of congressional staff experience for material in their political lampoons. The group, which has recorded 30 albums and puts on four broadcasts every year on NPR, will dish up rollicking numbers from their latest release, Liberal Shop of Horrors. No party or politician—from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, to the Tea Party and Sarah Palin—is spared from the cross-hairs of their razor-sharp satire. Exercise your laughing muscles as the group mocks social issues including prescription drugs and the wobbly economy.

The largest soft-seat theatre in Canada, the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts is perhaps most famous for its overhanging marquee outside. The diagonal canopy and its snake-like rows of lights were restored to their original form in 2010, along with the facility’s wood, brass, and marble accents. Inside the lobby, York Wilson’s mural, The Seven Lively Arts, fills eyes with fractured, panoramic representations of various artistic media, from slanted musical staffs to menacing Greek theatre masks.

Founded in 2011, the Chicago-based American Chamber Opera features an ensemble committed to singing full-length oratorios in English. Its productions resemble concerts more than traditional opera performances: the music takes center stage as the singers belt and emote in settings that evoke the world of the story with just a few well-placed details.

Written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Janet Burroway and based on Euripides's classic Greek revenge tragedy, Medea With Child recounts the tale of Medea unleashing her epic fury on her unfaithful husband. As her vengeance rocks both her family and her country, it becomes less and less certain that any of the characters can escape their fates. As staged by the Sideshow Theatre Company, the experience is like watching a fever-dream version of the worst break-up you've ever had.

The Rosemont Theatre continues to beckon concertgoers and entertainment seekers to its sprawling stage. Disney shows such as Phineas and Ferb share the roster with Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, Elvis tributes, and Johnny Mathis concerts.