November brings the start of Chicago’s holiday season, from the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival to the Goodman Theatre’s annual A Christmas Carol. Stevie Wonder and Yo-Yo Ma lead a strong month for music, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ina Garten take the stage for talks, and holiday light displays open across the city and suburbs.
Tag us in your November plans at @makeitbetter_foundation — we’d love to see where the month takes you.
‘Adirondack Chair Circle’
Through Dec. 6 | Steppenwolf Theatre Company
In Chicago playwright Stephanie Alison Walker’s satire, a world premiere that continues Steppenwolf’s 51st season, a circle of suburban mothers campaigns to pull books from their children’s school library, and their friendships start to crack under the strain. Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon directs, with a cast that includes ensemble member Caroline Neff, David Darrow, and Katrina Lenk, who earned a Tony and Grammy for The Band’s Visit.
Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light
Opens Nov. 7 | Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
What began in 1942 as one tree representing unity during World War II has grown into a long-running Chicago holiday tradition. Volunteers decorate more than 50 trees, each reflecting their own family and cultural celebrations, around a four-story Grand Tree in the Rotunda. The companion Holidays of Light display covers other winter celebrations, and the exhibit is included with general admission.
Jeff Ament and Barry Ament: ‘Since Forever’
Nov. 4 | Metro, Wrigleyville
Pearl Jam’s bassist and his brother Barry, a designer, discuss Since Forever, a photo book that began as an effort to rescue three decades of decaying negatives. Most of its 250-plus black-and-white images have never been seen publicly. Jill Hopkins leads the conversation, and Chicago independent bookshop Exile in Bookville will have copies on hand.
‘Frozen’
Nov. 4–Jan. 3 | Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire
The Broadway version of Disney’s animated hit, which earned three Tony nominations, keeps Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez’s film songs and adds numbers written for the stage. Ashley Rodbro, who was previously resident director of Broadway’s Hamilton, directs Morgan Anita Wood as Elsa and Chloé Nadon-Enriquez as Anna.
‘Mexodus’
Nov. 6–21 | Studebaker Theater
Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson wrote this hip-hop musical and perform it as a duo, building the music in real time through live looping. Their story imagines an Underground Railroad that ran south, toward Mexico. It won four Lucille Lortel Awards this year, including Outstanding Musical, and The New York Times called it an “electrifying theatrical experience.” Both creators have Chicago roots, and early workshops were held here, so the three-week run doubles as a homecoming.
Dave Matthews Band
Nov. 7 | United Center
Dave Matthews Band’s 2026 tour doubles as a tree-planting campaign with The Nature Conservancy. Since 2020, the band, fans, The Dreaming Tree Wines, and other partners have paid for 6 million trees through the conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees program, and the 2026 tour aims to bring the total to 7 million. Fans can add $2 per ticket to fund a tree when buying through Ticketmaster or Warehouse, the band’s official fan association, or donate directly to The Nature Conservancy.
UChicago Arts & Humanities Day
Nov. 7 | University of Chicago
A Chicago Humanities partner event, this annual Saturday on the Hyde Park campus, now in its 46th year, packs in more than two dozen events, many of them free. Jesmyn Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner for fiction, talks with UChicago novelist Stephanie Soileau. Pulitzer winners Hilton Als and David Hume Kennerly also appear, and NPR’s Peter Sagal leads conversations on the nation’s 250th. Harpist Mary Lattimore and Haley Heynderickx play the closing set at Rockefeller Chapel.
Northwestern Football at the New Ryan Field
Nov. 7 and Nov. 28 | Evanston
Two Saturday home games close out the first season in Northwestern’s 35,000-seat stadium. Iowa visits Nov. 7, and Illinois comes to Evanston Nov. 28 for the rivalry game that ends the regular season. The stadium debuted Oct. 2 with a 34–13 win over Penn State, a century after the first game at the original stadium in 1926. Before each kickoff, the Great Chicago Food Festival serves food from Rick Bayless, Stephanie Izard, Gibsons Restaurant Group, and a rotation of Evanston and North Shore restaurants.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Nov. 10 and 12 | Auditorium Theatre
The Hayden Planetarium director, host of StarTalk and Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, brings two evenings of talks to Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. Tuesday’s Astronomy Bizarre tours the universe’s strangest phenomena, from black holes and dark matter to wormholes, multiverses, and whether we’re living in a simulation. Thursday’s illustrated Delusions of Space Enthusiasts looks at why space exploration hasn’t gone as far as many expected, and at the political, cultural, and economic forces that have held it back.
Yo-Yo Ma and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Nov. 11 | Symphony Center, Loop
The cellist returns to Orchestra Hall for Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting. The program also includes dances from Ginastera’s Estancia and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
‘Home, I’m Darling’
Nov. 11–Dec. 13 | TimeLine Theatre
For its 100th production, TimeLine stages the Chicago premiere of Laura Wade’s comedy, which won the 2019 Olivier for Best New Comedy. A couple commits to living as if it were still the 1950s, and the fantasy starts to fray, taking their marriage with it. TimeLine company member Mechelle Moe directs in the company’s new home at Broadway and Argyle.
‘Don Pasquale’
Nov. 12–27 | Lyric Opera House
Donizetti’s comic opera returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago, a Make It Better Foundation 2026 Philanthropy Award winner, for the first time in more than a decade, in director Mariame Clément’s period staging set in 19th-century Rome. When the elderly Pasquale cuts off his nephew Ernesto, Ernesto’s sharp-witted sweetheart, Norina, teams up with Pasquale’s own doctor, Malatesta, to trick the old man into a sham marriage and win the inheritance back. Music Director Enrique Mazzola conducts the Glyndebourne production he led at its premiere. Misha Kiria makes his Lyric debut as Pasquale opposite Ying Fang’s Norina, over six performances.
‘A Christmas Carol’
Nov. 13–Dec. 31 | Goodman Theatre
For many families, the holidays don’t really begin until Scrooge takes the stage in A Christmas Carol at Goodman. Now in its 49th year, Tom Creamer’s adaptation of Dickens has played to millions over nearly five decades, and generations of theatergoers return to it every December. This year brings a new Scrooge: Steppenwolf ensemble member Tim Hopper, with Malkia Stampley back as director, 11-year-old Sanjana Suraj as Tiny Tim, and a newly cast trio of ghosts in Rae Gray, Lachrisa Grandberry, and Gavin Lawrence. Goodman Theatre is a Make It Better Foundation 2026 Philanthropy Award winner.
Lightscape
Nov. 13–Jan. 3, select dates | Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe
This year’s all-new Lightscape path through Chicago Botanic Garden includes several works shown in the U.S. for the first time, among them Infinite Choir, a light-and-sound canopy by UK collective Squidsoup, and 13-foot luminous mushrooms in Lumycena by French artist Pitaya. Returning favorites include Winter Cathedral and Fire Garden are back. Pricing and availability varies by night.
‘Twin Peaks’: Conversation with the Stars
Nov. 14 | Old Town School of Folk Music
Original Twin Peaks cast members Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk), and Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran) join executive producer Sabrina S. Sutherland to trade stories from Mark Frost and David Lynch’s 1990 series. Chicago Humanities co-presents the evening with the Old Town School School of Folk Music.
Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum
Nov. 14–Jan. 2 | The Morton Arboretum, Lisle
The Arboretum’s mile-long after-dark walk, now in its 14th season, pairs light displays and music across its woods and gardens. This year’s additions include a canopy more than 400 feet long modeled on the northern lights, a tunnel of chrome spheres, a hillside of glowing orbs, and a model railway of nearly 1,000 feet inside Firefly Pavilion.
‘Simply Ina’: An Evening with Ina Garten
Nov. 19 | Auditorium Theatre
The Barefoot Contessa stops at the Auditorium Theatre on a tour built around her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
‘Celestia’
Nov. 20–Jan. 31 | St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church
First staged in Denver, this seated show from Paquin Entertainment Group and Normal Studio covers the interior of St. Vincent de Paul in 360-degree projections set to an orchestral score. The 1897 sanctuary, with its historic Lyon & Healy organ and Romanesque Revival lines, is half the show. A live choir sings at select performances. KWGN-TV called the Denver production “absolutely spellbinding,” and OnStage Denver described it as “a novel experience the whole family can enjoy.”
Cleopatra, The Immersive Exhibition
Opens Nov. 20 | EXP Rosemont, Pearl District, Rosemont
After stops in Madrid and London, this production from Madrid-based MAD Artes Digitales makes its North American premiere in Rosemont. The 80-minute walk-through traces Cleopatra VII from her rise to the throne and her alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony to her loss at Actium. Six themed rooms use holograms, wraparound projections, and a seated VR sequence among the sunken ruins of Alexandria. Alongside the technology are more than 20 genuine artifacts from the Hellenistic and late Egyptian periods, including bronzes and previously unpublished papyri.
ZooLights
Nov. 20–Jan. 3 | Lincoln Park Zoo
More than 3 million lights cover the zoo after dark, with a light tunnel on the Main Mall, a Ferris wheel with skyline views, and visits with Santa at the Pepper Family Wildlife Center. Mondays are free with advance registration, except Dec. 21 and 28.
Christkindlmarket
Nov. 20–Dec. 24 | Daley Plaza
Chicago’s German-inspired holiday market marks its 30th year in Daley Plaza, with mulled wine in keepsake mugs (this year’s designs honor the anniversary), handmade gifts, and German food. Entry is free. Two more markets run this season: at Gallagher Way in Wrigleyville, through Dec. 31, and RiverEdge Park in Aurora, Thursdays through Sundays.
Stevie Wonder: ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ Performances
Nov. 21 | United Center
For the record’s 50th anniversary, Stevie Wonder plays his 1976 double album from start to finish, including “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” The album brought him his third Album of the Year Grammy. The tour visits just five U.S. cities: Chicago, New York, Washington, Detroit, and Los Angeles.
Wintrust Magnificent Mile Lights Festival
Nov. 21 | North Michigan Avenue
Now in its 35th year, the Wintrust Magnificent Mile Lights Festival fills North Michigan Avenue with free holiday programming starting at 11 a.m. At 5:30 p.m., grand marshals Mickey and Minnie Mouse, visiting from Walt Disney World, lead the country’s largest nighttime parade south from Oak Street along a round flanked by more than 200 trees, illuminated by more than a million bulbs. Floats, giant balloons, marching bands from around the U.S., and Santa follow, and fireworks over the Chicago River close the night.
Graceful Warrior: An Evening with Gary Sinise
Nov. 24 | Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Years before Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, and CSI: NY, an 18-year-old Gary Sinise helped found Steppenwolf in 1974. He returns for a one-night conversation with Artistic Director Audrey Francis about the company’s history and Graceful Warrior: The True Story of a Son, a Father and a Family Who Carried Each Other Through, his new memoir honoring his son, Mac. Admission includes a signed copy.
Chicago Thanksgiving Parade
Nov. 26 | State Street
Giant balloons, floats, and marching bands head up State Street for the 92nd annual parade, led by grand marshal Charles “Peanut” Tillman, the former Bears cornerback. The route runs north from Ida B. Wells Drive to Randolph Street, stepping off at 7:45 a.m. and wrapping by 10.
Disney’s Encanto in Concert Live to Film
Nov. 28–29 | Lyric Opera House
Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto screens at the Lyric while a live orchestra plays Germaine Franco’s score and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs.
Ongoing
Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection
Through Dec. 19 | Wrightwood 659
Three pioneering women artists come together in Inner Worlds: Visions from the Hirshhorn Collection at Wrightwood 659. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the exhibition features works by Mary Bauermeister, Yayoi Kusama, and Niki de Saint Phalle, who arrived in New York from Germany, Japan, and France by the early 1960s and helped shape the postwar avant-garde. Their distinctive approaches to pattern, repetition, and abstraction offer a focused look at three women who achieved international recognition while helping change the course of 20th-century art.
Pulitzer on the Road: Prize-Winning Works That Inform, Empower & Inspire
Through Dec. 31 | Harold Washington Library Center
Chicago Public Library’s Harold Washington Library Center is the launch site for this touring show from the Pulitzer Prizes and the American Library Association, which moves on to 19 more public libraries afterward. More than 100 years of winners are represented, from the Watergate and Pentagon Papers coverage to Toni Morrison, Robert Frost, Aretha Franklin, and Bob Dylan. Admission is free, and Chicago Public Library branches host related talks, book groups, and tours through Dec. 31.
Theater of the Mind
Through Dec. 27 | Reid Murdoch Building
Theater of the Mind, co-created by Academy, Grammy, and Tony Award–winning artist David Byrne and writer and investor Mala Gaonkar and directed by Andrew Scoville, is an immersive theatrical experience at Goodman Theatre, a Make It Better Foundation 2026 Philanthropy Award Winner, that unfolds as a guided journey through a series of sensory environments. In groups of 16, audiences move through interconnected rooms over 75 minutes, engaging sight, sound, taste, and touch in experiences inspired by neuroscience that challenge how we perceive and construct reality. The run has been extended through Nov. 29.
Learn more about Theater of the Mind in our interview with David Byrne.
Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism
Through Jan. 3 | Art Institute of Chicago
Marking the centennial of Mary Cassatt’s death, Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism examines a pivotal period in the career of the groundbreaking artist — the only American to exhibit with the French Impressionists. The first Art Institute exhibition devoted to Cassatt in more than 25 years brings together more than 75 paintings, pastels, prints, and other works, focusing on the innovative directions she pursued after the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886. The Art Institute of Chicago is a Make It Better Foundation 2026 Philanthropy Award winner.
Pokémon Fossil Museum
Through April 11, 2027 | Field Museum, Museum Campus
Making its North American debut at the Field Museum, Pokémon Fossil Museum pairs beloved Pokémon with real-world paleontology in an exhibition that encourages visitors to see both through a new lens. Interactive displays compare fossil-inspired Pokémon such as Tyrantrum and Archeops with actual prehistoric specimens, including the museum’s iconic SUE the T. rex, highlighting the connections between science, discovery, and imagination. Developed in collaboration with Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science and The Pokémon Company, the exhibition runs through April 11, 2027 and is expected to be one of Chicago’s most in-demand museum experiences of the year. Tickets are limited and subject to availability.
Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience
Ongoing | Fever Hub Chicago
The Smithsonian brings the universe to Chicago with Starstruck, a new immersive experience developed with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and built from real astronomical data from the Smithsonian, NASA, and the European Space Agency. During the hour-long experience, including 40 minutes in virtual reality, visitors travel alongside the Hubble, James Webb, and Chandra space telescopes, moving through thousands of galaxies and encountering exoplanets, dying stars, and a supermassive black hole. The production was selected for competition at Venice Immersive, part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Recommended for ages 10 and up, Starstruck opens Oct. 1 at Fever Hub Chicago at Germania Place.
