Arts & Culture in Wilmette

Got a case of Mary Poppins malaise? This $5 Groupon is a spoonful of sugar for the medicine: tickets to Girls vs. Boys ($10 value). The play, a musical by the creative team behind The House Theatre of Chicago's sold-out show The Sparrow, is an extremely loud, fast-paced show about a brother and sister who find themselves thrust into a perilous, modern-day Lord of the Flies. High-stakes relationships turn into all-out war of the sexes. The director says it's like a rock concert, so the best way to experience the sound and fury is with a spot in the pit. This Groupon gets you in standing room and on the ground floor of the action (guaranteed swears, awesome music, violent themes, and partial nudity).

Dennis PaSamba Dance Company's instructors believe that dance is a universal language, and that all bodies can become fluent in the art of storytelling with a little practice. They educate both first-time and practiced dancers, building on what students already know while emphasizing passion and perseverance in the toe-tapping arts. During group classes, students learn hip-shaking combinations and suave Latin dance styles such as salsa, cha-cha, and bachata. Men’s and women’s styling classes help students to master alluring arm, shoulder, and nostril movements. In addition to group instruction, the studio also offers private lessons to help dancers to vault the learning curve with one-on-one attention and special classes for engaged couples looking to make a lasting impression during their first twirl as husband and wife.

Under the baton of maestro Giancarlo Guerrero, the Grammy Award–winning Nashville Symphony sets air particles to vibrating with a program that features both classical masterworks and world-premiere performances. Music-making commences with Anton Webern's “Passacaglia,” op. 1, before his lush textures and angular melodies melt into the world-premiere performance of Richard Danielpour's Darkness in the Ancient Valley, which draws on the composer's Iranian heritage. Joining the orchestra for Danielpour's visceral tone romp is Grammy Award–winning soprano Hila Plitmann, who will lend her dulcet tones to the composer's musical text and glare at audience members who clap between movements. The program rounds out with master symphonist Gustav Mahler's Symphony no. 4, a highly accessible piece that signifies lost childhood innocence through high flutes, sleigh bells, and the mournful squeak of broken Matchbox cars.

Victory Gardens Theater, a Tony winner for Outstanding Regional Theatre, produces world premiere productions. Since its multimillion dollar renovation of the Biograph Theater and its surrounding ectoplasm in 2006, Victory Gardens has called the historic landmark its home. One of the theater's 2010 premieres went on to become a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Theater is devoted to artistic excellence and creating a vital and contemporary American Theater that is accessible to all people through its productions of fresh and challenging plays.

The Murder Mystery Company sends temporary detectives down trails filled with clues, laughs, and imaginary murther most foul. During each crime-riddled event, participants work together to solve a perplexing homicide, combining their interrogative skills, keen eyes, and collections of fake mustaches to crack the case and apprehend the culprit. To further set the scene, The Murder Mystery Company encourages investigators to don costumes according to detailed themes, which range from the gangster-run speakeasies of the nineteen-twenties to the totally boss parties of the nineteen-eighties. The company's troupe of actors tailors the show to a wide range of functions, including team-building exercises, private get-togethers, and children's parties, but definitely excluding any of Professor Plum’s candlestick-filled dinner parties.

Pickwick Theatre, home to one of the Chicago area’s largest theaters, showcases the latest Hollywood blockbusters inside a historic, registered-landmark building. Patrons flood their visual and aural receptors with the theater’s current list of films displayed on one of three screens, including an expansive main auditorium that seats 1,000 people or mannequins comically brought to life. Popcorn and soda keep bodily hungers sated throughout films' airtime and prevent stomach growls from interrupting key dialogue.