Stage Lights and Screen Scares This Week

Your daily guide to what's popping in Chicago

By Raj Singh · Published October 19, 2026.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19

Jekyll & Hyde @ Broadway Playhouse

Kokandy Productions' revival of JEKYLL & HYDE — the 10-time 2025 Jeff Award–nominated staging that sold out and extended last year — makes its Broadway In Chicago debut this week at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. It's the musical's first Chicago production in more than 15 years, built on Robert Louis Stevenson's story of one man and the darker self he can't contain, directed by Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Brenda Didier.

The engagement runs Monday, October 19 through Sunday, October 25, with the curtain around 7 p.m. If you missed last year's run, this is the catch-up.

Let's Sing Folk Tunes @ The Checkout

Host David Meulemans invites you to actually sing along — this is less a show you watch than one you join. Tonight 3 4 The Road and Friends turn The Checkout into what the organizers bill as 'a good old-fashioned hoedown,' heavy on upbeat country and folk: John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High,' 'Back Home Again' and 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy,' backed by a full band with fiddle and banjo.

Doors are at 6:30 p.m., music at 7. Tickets are $10.26, and it's 21 and over.

Film Screening: Poltergeist (1982) @ Sulzer Regional

The Chicago Public Library's Community Cinema series leans into the season with Tobe Hooper's 1982 haunted-house classic Poltergeist (Warner Bros., 114 minutes, rated R), in the Large Meeting Room at Sulzer Regional in Ravenswood. English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing will be available.

It's a 1 to 3 p.m. matinee — a quiet, seasonal way to spend a gray Monday afternoon before the evening plans kick in.

Redacted: Beetlejuice @ Gman Tavern

Redacted is a monthly ritual its makers describe as 'where live lit, improv, and genuine affection for movies of wavering quality collide' — each edition an unrehearsed, unauthorized parody of a film 'that lives in our brains rent-free.' October's target is Beetlejuice, with a script by Julia Starbird, presented by 312unes at Gman Tavern in Wrigleyville.

Doors at 7 p.m., show 7:30 to 9:30. It's a suggested donation at the door, 21 and over — about as low-stakes as a night out gets.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20

Ideas Unbound @ Obama Presidential Center

Three scholars, writers and publishers sit down in the Obama Presidential Center's Elie Wiesel Auditorium to trace the history of censorship and how it shapes public trust — moderated by the president and CEO of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, with an eye on the role libraries and schools play in keeping ideas within reach, and what people can do to protect expression where they live.

Tuesday, October 20 at 6 p.m. in Woodlawn; tickets are $40.

Happy Hour at Big Star @ Big Star Wrigleyville

Big Star's Wrigleyville location runs a weekday happy hour Monday through Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m.: $8 Ranch Water, $8 tequila with your choice of limeade or hibiscus agua fresca, $4 Pacifico, a $2 shot of the day and half-price nachos. One caveat worth knowing before you walk over — it's not available on Cubs home game days.

ON THE HORIZON

Pretty Good Fest @ Chicago Athletic Association

Pretty Good Fest fills the Chicago Athletic Association on Michigan Avenue with more than 100 artists and independent publishers showing limited-edition comics, artist books and zines. The free fair adds exhibitors, readings and programming, plus special guests — acclaimed cartoonists Chris Ware, Michael DeForge and Tara Booth.

It lands Saturday, October 24, from 11 a.m., and admission is free — a rare price for a room holding this much of the comics world at once. Worth putting on the calendar now.