In the second installment of Nathan Allen’s “Valentine Trilogy,” the cowboy/punk Melancholy Kid finds himself in feudal Japan saving princess Sakurako and her government. But despite imaginative writing, an inventive staging, and savvy performances, this show will probably be inaccessible to all but those already infatuated with anime-esque melodrama (or those who saw the first installment). Director Dennis Watkins launches the cast into Allen’s convoluted saga of warlord attacks, mystic prophesy, and unrequited love without first establishing a theatrical language that might unite these disparate strands, and by keeping the script’s deadly serious and glibly ironic elements separate he prevents a coherent point of view from developing....

I passionately loved Danny Barnes’s old band the Bad Livers, a trio of punk-ass bluegrass terrors who tipped all the tradition’s sacred cows and tweaked every whacked-out cracker stereotype with such vicious irony it’d give you whiplash. Once they’d ridden that shtick as far as it’d go, they blasted it to shreds with a mesmerizingly dark and weird hicktronica record, 2000’s Blood and Mood–but though that album should’ve been for the Bad Livers what Colossal Head was for Los Lobos, it tanked instead and the band broke up....

Made for Norwegian TV in 1974, this long but fascinating biopic by Peter Watkins mixes dramatic and documentary techniques to profile the man who painted The Scream. A documentary voice-over in English examines Munch in a calm, academic tone, observing trends in the European art world and citing notable world events to give a sense of the context. At the same time, dramatic scenes are played in subtitled Norwegian by nonprofessional actors who often stare mutely at the viewer like figures in the paintings....

This wholesome, high-energy, Broadway-quality stage adaptation of the Disney Channel’s hit 2006 movie is aimed primarily at preteens and their parents. But it should resonate with anyone who’s suffered the anxieties of adolescence. The plot: high school basketball star Troy Bolton is expected to captain his team to a championship victory, while shy math whiz Gabriella Montez must lead her fellow brainiacs to victory in a science decathlon. But what each really wants to do is try out for the school musical, to the chagrin of the drama-club divas who resent the incursion....

In the preface to Martin Luther, the latest of his more than 50 books, theologian Martin Marty defines his role as biographer as neither “a hanging judge or a flack.” But he admits that his portrait of the 16th-century German priest may not find favor with all of the flock. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “There are a lot of Lutherans who would like a portrait of Luther in which he is not so agonized, so doubting,” says Marty, an ordained Lutheran minister and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The Cubs are not a young team. On the pitching staff we can expect continued improvement for Rich Hill and Sean Marshall, and perhaps Carlos Marmol will move up to closer after looking overworked as a middle reliever at the end of the season. One can expect more consistency from “ace” Carlos Zambrano, and perhaps, just maybe, a full season for Kerry Wood....

Foulmouthed and lascivious as he is, this former Atlanta radio personality is also one of the few best-selling MCs to recognize the fine line between sexy talk and sexist drivel, even if he can’t always figure out which side he’d rather hang on. On his breakthrough single, “What’s Your Fantasy,” Luda pried into the sexual imagination of the ladies–an impressive display of curiosity, considering how many of his peers still seem unaware that women have orgasms too....

Countless classical virtuosos have proven that all the technical brilliance in the world doesn’t guarantee the ability to improvise. Chicago-born cellist Frances-Marie Uitti is one of the few musicians who can walk both walks. Now based in Amsterdam, she’s highly sought after in contemporary music circles, and prominent composers like Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi, and Louis Andriessen have all dedicated original works to her. She’s pushed cello technique forward by developing a twin bowing approach that allows her to play multiple sustained chords, but she downplays her wizardry on her latest recording, There Is Still Time (ECM)....

Why anyone would resurrect this sniggering, tired play 30 years after it was written is a mystery. The sole function of Tina Howe’s 1976 alleged comedy of manners, which eavesdrops on visitors (and one hapless guard) at a contemporary art exhibit, is to underline her incredible hatred of both human nature and art. This Appetite Theatre production, directed by Michael D. Graham, offers little beyond shrill performances based on stereotypes. Most befuddling is the way Howe has her characters shout, completely missing the fact that most people are intimidated, self-conscious, and largely silent in institutions of high culture....

Neil Young Has a Cow Moreover, he wrote, “The 2003 concert earned $1,013,087 through sale of items like tickets, T-shirts and programs,” yet after expenses “generated only $159,254 of net income.” Imagine reading that as you set off to Tinley Park to spend a fortune you’ve justified on the grounds that every dime will land in the pocket of a needy corn grower or dairyman. Wouldn’t you be honked? Best of Chicago voting is live now....

It’s hard to know where to begin with the banquet of delights afforded by New York City Ballet’s return to Chicago after an absence of more than 25 years. Appropriately, two of the three programs are exclusively or partly devoted to George Balanchine, who formed what became NYCB in 1946 and directed it until 1982, the year before his death. Known for his muscular, inventive, highly musical abstract ballets, Balanchine groomed NYCB dancers to achieve the look he wanted: slender, tensile, strong, unaffected....

Chuck Shepherd is on vacation. The following items are reprinted from the News of the Weird archives. In Milwaukee in 1997, Gary Arthur Medrow, 53, was charged with 24 counts of impersonating a police officer in the pursuit of his locally infamous obsession with calling up women and convincing them to physically pick up other women and carry them around. Local police had arrested him for dozens of similar offenses over the previous 30 years....

Last winter a friend and I would come here every Sunday night to chill out. One evening this short, stubby guy dressed like a cowboy came in. He had on the hat, the boots, the whole nine. While chatting up my friend he kept telling us that he had a Jacuzzi in his house. We were drunk by this point, and we wanted to check it out. So we went to his place....

In 1983, armed with a demo tape and Bill Laswell’s phone number, Foday Musa Suso set out to get himself a record contract. He’d seen the video for Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” from a record Laswell produced, and was impressed with the sound and the dancing white gloves. “I thought, I’m going to call this tubab”–a Mande term for white person–“but then I thought, No, he’s a typical tubab, he won’t know anything about African music,” says Suso....

Portugal. The Man’s debut, Waiter: “You Vultures!”, was one of the best experimental pop albums in forever, a blend of taut beats, muscular hardcore, and dreamy keys held together by the emo-ish tenor of front man John Baldwin Gourley. Those elements are all present on the recent follow-up, Church Mouth (Fearless), though they’ve been toned down quite a bit. The band has said that they set out to emulate straightforward classic rock this time–Zeppelin in particular–but more often than not they come off like Kings of Leon trying to be Blonde Redhead, or vice versa....

I could barely find out anything about Eric Christopherson, aka Sleeping With the Earth. He’s a noise artist from Portland, Oregon, and that’s all I know. After listening to the MP3s on his Web site–he hasn’t released anything in an edition of more than 100 copies since 2000–I have to say that’s all I really want to know. Christopherson’s dark, dense, meditative tracks are probably better without a face or a biography attached....

Tracking all the metaphors in Steven Dietz’s allegorical children’s play, inspired by the book Caretakers of Wonder, would require voluminous annotation. The story borrows from The Wizard of Oz and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: a little girl is forced by false benefactors to relinquish her memories, spurring her on a quest–with companions drawn from music and literature–to recover her past and her family. Dietz’s wordplay can be weighty, but the performers heft it with ease, and director Matthew Reeder keeps the pace swift, the characterizations broad, and the spectacle dazzling....

Rock musician Rob Zombie made his feature-directing debut with House of 1,000 Corpses (2003), a gruesome tribute to 70s horror exploitation movies that was spoiled by its campy excesses and self-conscious montage of clips from classics. For this sequel he’s settled down to business, and his story of a family of serial killers (Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon) on the run from a vengeful sheriff (William Forsythe) in 1978 captures the cold, cruel urgency of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre....

Continental Cafe Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » We liked the amenities at the old Little Bucharest: the free limo service, the jazz duo, the alcoholic “holy water” that owner Branko Podrumedic animatedly proffered to one and all. The dark, gloomy atmosphere, however, would have suited an inn under the shadow of Castle Dracula. Continental Cafe, Podrumedic’s new place, is worlds away from that–high ceilinged, airy, and modern....

Depending on what you read, The Tipping Point (Geffen), the seventh album from Philadelphia hip-hop icons the Roots, is either an overt grab for mainstream success or simply uninspired. Neither charge is totally baseless. Measured against the high standard of the Roots’ previous work–particularly Phrenology (MCA, 2002), their most ambitious and progressive effort so far–the new record feels slight. From a group that’s made its reputation by taking chances, a rap about getting paid (“Give it here, Geffen Records, I’m off the handle / Cut the check, yo, it betta be heavy as anvils”) is a letdown....