“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller wrote in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”

The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”

See photos from the blue carpet.

Over the weekend, Trump accused other countries of “stealing the movie-making capabilities” of the U.S. and said that he had authorized the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of implementing this new import tax on all foreign-made films. But further specifics or dates weren’t provided. And the White House confirmed that no final decisions had been made as of Monday.

Trump later said that he would meet with industry executives about the proposal but a lot remains unclear about how an import tax on complex, international productions could even be implemented.

If imposed, experts warn that such a tariff would dramatically hike the costs of making movies today. That uncertainty could put filmmakers in limbo, much like other industries that have recently been caught in the crosshairs of today’s ongoing trade wars.

Unlike other sectors that have recently been targeted by tariffs, however, movies go beyond physical goods, bringing larger intellectual property ramifications into question. Here’s what we know.

Why is Trump threatening this steep movie tariff?

Trump is citing national security concerns, a justification he’s similarly used to impose import taxes on certain countries and a range of sector-specific goods.

In a Sunday night post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that the American movie industry is “DYING to a very fast death” as other countries offer “all sorts of incentives” to draw filmmaking away from the U.S.

Trump has previously voiced concern about movie production moving overseas. And in recent years, U.S. film and television production has been hampered between setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Incentive programs have also long-influenced where movies are shot both abroad and within the U.S., with more production leaving California to states like Georgia and New Mexico — as well as countries like Canada.

But unlike other sectors targeted by Trump’s recently-imposed tariffs, the American film industry currently holds a trade deficit that’s in the U.S.’s favor.

In movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelmingly dominate the domestic marketplace. Data from the Motion Picture Association also shows that American films made $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023 — with a recent report noting that these films “generated a positive balance of trade in every major market in the world” for the U.S.

Last year, international markets accounted for over 70% of Hollywood’s total box office revenue, notes Heeyon Kim, an assistant professor of strategy at Cornell University. She warns that tariffs and potential retaliation from other countries impacting this industry could result in billions of dollars in lost earnings and thousands of jobs.

“To me, (this) makes just no sense,” she said, adding that such tariffs could “undermine otherwise a thriving part of the U.S. economy.”

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers across the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement Monday that Trump had “correctly recognized” the “urgent threat from international competition” that the American film and television industry faces today. But the union said it instead recommended the administration implement a federal production tax incentive and other provisions to “level the playing field” while not harming the industry overall.

How could a tax on foreign-made movies work?

That’s anyone’s guess.

“Traditional tariffs apply to physical imports crossing borders, but film production primarily involves digital services — shooting, editing and post-production work that happens electronically,” notes Ann Koppuzha, a lawyer and business law lecturer at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

Koppuzha said that film production is more like an applied service that can be taxed, not tariffed. But taxes require Congressional approval, which could be a challenge even with a Republican majority.

Making a movie is also an incredibly complex — and international — process. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.

U.S. studios frequently shoot abroad because tax incentives can aid production costs. But a blanket tariff across the board could discourage that or limit options, Kim said — hurting both Hollywood films and the global industry that helps create them.

“When you make these sort of blanket rules, you’re missing some of the nuance of how production works,” added Steven Schiffman, a longtime industry veteran and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. “Sometimes you just need to go to the location, because frankly it’s way too expensive just to try to create in a soundstage”

Schiffman points to popular titles filmed outside the U.S. — such as Warner Bros’ “Harry Potter” series, which was almost entirely shot in the U.K. “The cost to have done that would have like literally double to produce those movies under this proposed tariff,” he said.

Could movie tariffs have repercussions on other intellectual property?

Overall, experts warn that the prospect of tariffing foreign-made movies ventures into uncharted waters.

“There’s simply no precedent or sense for applying tariffs to these types of creative services,” Koppuzha said. And while the Trump administration could extend similar threats to other forms of intellectual property, like music, “they’d encounter the same practical hurdles.”

But if successful, some also warn of potential retaliation. Kim points to “quotas” that some countries have had to help boost their domestic films by ensuring they get a portion of theater screens, for example. Many have reduced or suspended such quotas over the years in the name of open trade — but if the U.S. places a sweeping tariff on all foreign-made films, these kinds of quotas could come back, “which would hurt Hollywood film or any of the U.S.-made intellectual property,” Kim said.

And while U.S. dominance in film means “there are fewer substitutes” for retaliation, Schiffman notes that other forms of entertainment — like game development — could see related impacts down the road.

Others stress the potential consequences of hampering international collaboration overall.

“Creative content distribution requires thoughtful economic approaches that recognize how modern storytelling flows across borders,” notes Frank Albarella, U.S. media and telecommunications sector leader at KPMG. “The question hanging over every screen: Might we better nurture American storytelling through smart, targeted incentives, or could we inadvertently force audiences to pay more for what could become a narrower creative landscape?”

AP Writers Jake Coyle and Jill Colvin in New York, Aamer Madhani in Palm Beach, Florida and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

The fictional work debuted in Chicago in 2024 and moved earlier this year from Steppenwolf to Broadway, where it currently plays with most of its original Chicago cast. Directed in New York and Chicago by Phylicia Rashad, it’s loosely based on the family of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

This marks the first time a play first seen at Steppenwolf has won the prestigious prize since Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County” in 2008.

In a joint statement to the Tribune, Steppenwolf artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis said that the “Purpose” win “underscores our company’s time-honored commitment to developing ensemble-driven, new works.” The play was also nominated for a Tony Award last week, along with several members of its cast.

The 2025 winners of the Pulitzer Prizes, presented annually by Columbia University, include nine winners across eight arts categories for books, drama and music. Awards for journalism were also announced Monday.

“James,” by the novelist Percival Everett, won for fiction.

The book, which previously won the Kirkus Prize and a National Book Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, used Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as its starting point, reworking the story from the perspective of Jim, now James, Twain’s escaped slave. It was a risky kind of bestseller from a longtime author and professor of English at the University of Southern California, whose previous breakthrough 2001 novel “Erasure” was later adapted as the Oscar-nominated movie “American Fiction.” Critics felt Everett more than lived up to his source, both honoring Twain and deepening the 1885 original.

Everett told the Tribune last year, “I think people assume because I am revisiting Twain, I am correcting. I love Twain’s novel. It doesn’t arise from dissatisfaction. if anything, I am flattering myself thinking I am in conversation with Twain.”

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

Tribune writer Christopher Borrelli contributed to this report.

2025 Pulitzer Prize winners in the arts

FICTION: “James” by Percival Everett (Doubleday)

DRAMA: “Purpose” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

HISTORY:

• “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War” by Edda L. Fields-Black (Oxford University Press)
• “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America” by Kathleen DuVal (Random House)

BIOGRAPHY: “John Lewis: A Life” by David Greenberg (Simon & Schuster)

MEMOIR: “Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls (MCD)

POETRY: “New and Selected Poems” by Marie Howe (W.W. Norton & Company)

GENERAL NONFICTION: “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement” by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press)

MUSIC: “Sky Islands” by Susie Ibarra

Sitting there at “Wake” on Friday night, I found myself hoping that Terry Guest, the writer-performer behind this world premiere from Story Theatre (in residence at Raven Theatre) would not let the voluminous audience reaction go to his head. Steeped in his own sense of Southern gothic, Guest is a huge Chicago writing talent; I’ve admired his work since I saw “Magnolia Ballet” some three years ago. “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen,” which was first produced even before that, could really be something. But that will take more focus and work, and maybe even Guest giving up his starring role.

Guest has said that his 85-minute piece, a two-hander also starring the phenomenal Paul Michael Thomson, was inspired by the death of Guest’s uncle from AIDS at the age of 35. The show is set in 2004, backstage at a small-town Southern establishment where a drag queen named Courtney Berringers (Guest) holds nightly court. Through the narration of this character, whose “government name” is Anthony Knighton, we learn of struggles and aspirations, as you might expect, but Guest also builds a complex picture of one who has built impermeable personal walls of such solidity that he has rendered himself incapable of accepting the support he needs. Even when proffered.

Therein lies the core of this show, as directed by Mikael Burke.

Thomson’s character, a young man named Hunter Grimes, falls in love with his fellow performer. Grimes performs as Vickie Versailles but off stage he focuses mostly on trying to connect with his friend. Since Anthony is Black and Hunter is white, the two debate issues of race and oppression as they change their gowns, both being outsiders in a sometimes cruel town.

In these moments, “Wake” is very moving. It’s fundamentally a piece about friendship and boundaries and you hardly need to perform in drag to recognize its topography.  Thomson is credible at every single moment. As vulnerable as he is forceful, this actor inhabits a wounded character who is unafraid to deviate from the drag queen cultural gospel, not all of which he even knows. We intuit that Hunter has figured out that love is the only means to salvation.

Truly, Thomson’s work as the second banana in this show is one of the best pieces of acting I’ve seen this year in Chicago. As his friend spirals downwards, this character keeps calling and calling. To say that the audience becomes invested in this relationship is to understate. Burke, the very capable director, clearly focused there.

Guest is very potent and entertaining, don’t get me wrong, although I think if he stepped out of the show for a while in favor of one of Chicago’s many professional drag queens with top-shelf lip synching skills, he’d be better able to see what it now needs. That’s mostly specificity: Of performance, of theme, of time and of location. Ideally, we’d have a better sense of how the performance space separates from the backstage areas and of what a small-town Southern drag club really looked, felt and sounded like in 2004. The set here, from Alyssa Mohn, is rich in symbolism but I found myself wondering about who and what went where and why.

To my mind, the flashback structure also needs more clarity and although Guest clearly started down the road of using the drag performances to mirror the relationship we are watching unspool, it could go much further for a greater sense of unity; as of now, the musical numbers live somewhat uneasily within the whole, lacking the snaps and pops of climaxes.

The show is already attracting and exciting an audience; the remaining challenge, which could make this a show that could live long here in Chicago or even off-Broadway, is to raise the emotional stakes and yet better honor those artists who lived, worked, and sometimes died, all too young, long before RuPaul.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Review: “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” (3 stars)

When: Through May 25

Where: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St.

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Tickets: $25-$45 at 773-338-2177 and thestorytheatre.org

Chamberlain and Zuri Hall were among those who wore sleek, sexy gowns that play on men’s suiting in pinstripes as they walked up the grand steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Zendaya, a co-host last year, wore a perfectly tailored white trouser suit with a matching wide-brim hat from Louis Vuitton,

The menswear vibe for women was frequent and expected, “women wanting to maintain a traditionally feminine dress silhouette while still respecting the theme,” said William Dingle, director of style for blackmenswear.com, a cultural impact agency that focuses on uplifting Black men.

Highlights from Met Gala exhibit: A look at Black style gives prominent voice to emerging designers

Alicia Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, leaned WAY in on the pinstripes in red. She rocked a head of bejeweled braids. He rocked a do-rag.

Doja Cat, always fearless when it comes to fashion, donned a Marc Jacobs bodysuit look with orange and black wildcat detailing and broad-shouldered pinstripes. Taylor went for a stunning Zoot Suit look with a red, feather-adorned top hat and a huge matching cape dripping with flowers and bling. She collaborated with famed costumer designer Ruth E. Carter.

The Zoot was popularized in Harlem in the 1940s.

Madonna, “no stranger to gender-bending fashion,” Dingle said, showed up in a monochrome taupe tuxedo clutching a cigar. It was Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann, the designer who took over when Ford stepped aside.

And then there were the bombshells …

Megan Thee Stallion in Michael Kors and Dua Lipa in black Chanel included. Megan’s look had a high side slit and floral lace embellishment. Lipa was giving elevated flapper in feathers and an “S” curl style for her hair. And Miley Cyrus oozed womanhood in a custom cropped black crocodile jacket and long black taffeta skirt by Alaïa.

Diana Ross, meanwhile, swallowed the carpet in a huge white train, escorted by her son, Evan Ross.

Lizzo debuted blonde hair to go with her pink and black Christian Siriano gown with a plunge at the front. It was so tight at the legs she struggled to walk.

The standouts among the men

As for the men, co-host A$AP Rocky told The Associated Press that Anna Wintour suggested he wear a Black designer.

“So I wore myself,” the musician said of his custom suit designed by his creative agency, AWGE, complete with a black parka and diamond-crested umbrella. “Everything is designed by yours truly.”

Rocky, Rihanna’s partner and dad to their two kids, confirmed to reporters that baby No. 3 in on the way. He spoke about it after Rihanna was photographed walking in the rain with her baby bump out in a blue crop top and skirt.

“It feels amazing, you know,” Rocky said. “It’s time that we show the people what we was cooking up. And I’m glad everybody’s happy for us ’cause we definitely happy, you know.”

He added: “Honestly, it’s a blessing nonetheless. Because you know how like some people in other situations at times can be envious of other people. But we’ve been seeing love for the most part. And we real receptive to that and appreciate that, you know what I mean? That’s love. Love is love.”

This Met Gala is filled with pro athletes — and dressing them is a unique challenge

The dress code explained

What, exactly, was the suggested dress code of the night, “Tailored for You,” is inspired by Black dandyism. And what, exactly, is the Met Gala for? To raise money for the Met’s Costume Institute. The gala raised a record $31 million before it began.

Marie Claire, editor in chief of Marie Claire, noted a few trends done well.

“Top trends from the night: Black and white (Zoe Saldaña, Whoopi Goldberg, Gabrielle Union), pinstripes (Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats), suiting (Lupita Nyong’o, Ego Nwodim), hats (Lupita Nyong’o, Whoopi Goldberg and Teyana Taylor).”

More on the men

Colman Domingo, one of the evening’s hosts, wore a pleated, gold adorned cape over a gray and black suit, his jacket a pearled windowpane design with a huge dotted black flower. His look, including his cape and a dotted black scarf at his neck, evoked the late André Leon Talley, the fashion icon who made history as a rare Black editor at Vogue.

Domingo, in Valentino, arrived with Vogue’s Wintour, dressed in a pastel blue coat over a shimmery white gown by Louis Vuitton, a gala sponsor. Fellow co-chair Lewis Hamilton donned a jaunty ivory tuxedo with a cropped jacket, a matching beret and cowrie shell embellishment.

Hamilton’s look carried deep meaning.

“The color of ivory denotes purity and status; cowries pass from hand to hand, the regal sash turns shamanic,” he wrote on Instagram.

Claire Stern, Elle digital director added: “Known for championing Black designers, the F1 star once again used his platform to celebrate heritage and creativity on one of fashion’s biggest stages.”

Colman has epitomized contemporary dandyism in a variety of looks over the years.

Pharrell Williams, another co-host, was demure in a double-breasted, beaded evening jacket and dark trousers. He kept his dark shades on while posing for the cameras. Williams walked with his wife, Helen Lasichanh, in a black bodysuit and matching jacket.

Williams, the Louis Vuitton menswear creative director, said his 15,000 pearls were arranged in a pinstripe design and the jacket took 400 hours to construct.

Walton Goggins, a guest this year with others from “The White Lotus,” wore a deconstructed suit look with seams out and a pleated skirt he twirled for the cameras.

LeBron James, the NBA superstar, was named honorary chair of the evening but bowed out at the last minute due to a knee injury.

Other Met Gala looks that stood out

Monica L. Miller, whose book inspired the evening, wore a bejeweled cropped cape over a dress adorned with cowrie shells by Grace Wales Bonner. It’s a direct connection to a piece in the gala’s companion Metropolitan Museum of Art spring exhibit that Miller guest curated.

What other women killed the menswear game? Coco Jones in an ivory tuxedo coat with a train over matching trousers, both covered in chunky embellishment.

“Coco Jones absolutely leaned in,” Dingle said. “I love the pearl and gem embellishments here, as well as the long coat, and even the necklace. Because she’s taller, the long coat even further elongates her legs. This is a fantastic look.”

Her look was by Indian designer Manish Malhotra. She said she wanted to honor Black excellence by going all out.

Sarah Snook of “Succession” fame and fresh off a Tony nomination for “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” was successfully on theme as well.

“She’s in a two-button, double-breasted jacket fashioned into a tailcoat-like train in satin fabric for luster, plus crimson lining for a pop of color,” Dingle said. “I like the multiple brooches on the wide lapel.”

Gigi Hadid, on the other hand, went all woman. She pulled up the spirit of Josephine Baker in a shimmery velvet gold halter gown by Miu Miu that hugged her hips, hip hugging being a big trend of the night for the women.

Bad Bunny, ever a fashion rebel, wore a custom black Prada suit. The best detail: his woven hat, which appeared to be a reference to the pava, a straw hat associated with the Puerto Rican jíbaro.

Associated Press writers Gary Hamilton, Beatrice Dupuy, Jocelyn Noveck and Maria Sherman contributed to this story.

Chef Grant Achatz is far from resting on his laurels in Lincoln Park. He and his team are industrious. They’ve retained three Michelin stars since the guide debuted here in 2011.

Yet after two dinners at nearly $500 each, I was left wondering why so many dishes were so salty or so sweet or left the aftertaste of so much black truffle.

Full disclosure: I staged, or apprenticed, at Alinea under Achatz many years ago. The chef was not at the restaurant when I went recently.

I spoke with Achatz later at length by phone. The real-life chef is not always the enigma he portrayed in the comedy-drama series “The Bear.”

So what is Alinea?

“That’s a question that we haven’t really been able to answer for 20 years,” said Achatz, laughing.

He opened the restaurant on May 4, 2005, with co-founder Nick Kokonas. Achatz now owns Alinea with Jason Weingarten.

“What the name represents is not in the moment,” said Achatz. “It is the ethos of constant evolution and prioritizing creativity.”

While some dishes have been on the menu for a while, like the Explosion, Hot Potato Cold Potato and the Balloon, for the most part, “it’s a constant churn of new concepts and ideas and techniques,” he said.

So I wanted to learn more about the lore, too, after two dinners upstairs, the 12-course Salon menu, including the vegetarian variation.

Osetra

Your server will hand you a small black bowl. The caviar comes from Regiis Ova, they’ll say, a company co-founded by Thomas Keller, chef and owner of The French Laundry. Achatz worked at the legendary restaurant in Napa Valley, after famously leaving Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.

Below the caviar, you’ll find Arbequina olive oil two ways, your server will say, as a mousse and gelée, and a garnish of lemon zest. They’ll instruct you to spoon through the layers while holding the bowl, custom-made by Ignite Glass Studios in West Town.

When you do, every tiny pearl of osetra will burst into a minuscule seaside star, falling into the beautiful buttery horizon below.

But there’s something else: a touch of BLiS Elixer, an XO sherry vinegar made by chef Steve Stallard in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

It speaks to a continuous connection to Stallard, the first chef Achatz worked for out of culinary school.

“There is a subconscious narrative that runs through the whole menu, and it’s not exclusively mine,” Achatz said. “That one in particular is, because Steve was such an important figure in my professional life, and his products are so amazing.”

That all synergizes, said Achatz, with their own innovation, creative thinking and storytelling.

Charred

Arctic char has indeed been charred black. But the petite fish fillet was first marinated for five days, your server says, in a barrel-aged maple syrup.

The blackened, crackling, smoky skin gives in to tender orange flesh, delicately sweet, hinting at hidden Asian flavors.

So what was the origin story of the charred course?

That was really about BLiS, Achatz said, and trying to find a dish where they could incorporate a lot of Stallard’s products.

“We use the maple syrup, we use the barrel-aged fish sauce, we use his barrel-aged soy sauce,” the chef said. They also use the char roe with carrot on the flip side of the dish.

They essentially burn the skin until it’s reminiscent of burnt marshmallow.

The vegetarian variation substituted carrot for the Arctic char. I expected a similar exploration of complex culinary nostalgia. But it was just a carrot, cooked with the same process, but not crispy at all, and sticky instead.

Fire

In a teacup, your server will say, you’ll find a warm compote made from roasted hen-of-the-woods mushroom mixed with dried fig and toasted walnuts. They’ll pour broth that’s been boiling in a live fire bowl on your table. You’re advised to first take a bite of the salsify stick, dipped in fig jam and a crumble of brioche and toasted walnuts, then nibble on a teeny chicken liver tart. A tiny and sweet caramelized onion tart is on the vegetarian menu.

The woodland fairy flavors were overpowered by a mushroom soup clearly reduced by the fire.

Was this like a palate cleanser? Was the soup intentionally salty?

“It could have been just oversalted,” Achatz said. When you’re cooking for 100 people a night for seven days a week, he added, all who have “very, very, very different preferences” and you’re trying to make it delicious for everyone, sometimes it’s hard.

Fossilized Humita Bone

The next course comes with a nearly four-minute explanation by your server. Inspired by Argentina, its region of Patagonia — and Achatz’s shared interest in archaeology with executive chef Douglas Alley — you’re given a toolkit and instructed to dig. Brush away an edible powder to uncover a compressed prawn head attached to a rock with chile honey. Use the palette knife to pry it off. Pick it up with your fingers like a chip, and dip it into chimichurri sauce with the cassava root puree, parsley and garlic.

What looks like a boulder is actually an empanada filled with red bell pepper and provoleta, an Argentinian provolone-style cheese. Cut through that with your fork and your knife. The bone marrow, though, with rice and sweet potato, garnished with cashews and edible flowers, requires a narrow marrow spoon. And the fire bowl is back, but extinguished, after secretly cooking an Argentinian-inspired humita, similar to a tamale, wrapped in grilled plantain leaves and corn husk and tied with twine. Use shears to open the humita, then dip it into your red sauce, a blended chimichurri with Fresno chile and Australian prawn.

The paper-thin prawn head is the most interactive element in the course. But I was curious if it was supposed to be a bit chewy rather than crispy.

“That is a big debate,” Achatz said. They’ve served it both ways to see how diners react, but it’s not decisive. “We kind of flip-flop back and forth on that one, and now we’re doing it crispy. And I think we’ll probably just stay there, but in the kitchen, that’s been a hot debate.”

I had hoped for a crispy Japanese-style fried shrimp head, possibly with the intense umami of chewy Chinese dried shrimp. It was neither, but sharp and catching in my throat instead. The edible dust, however, a powdered white bean puree and breadcrumbs, was just delightful.

The vegetarian cauliflower fared far better, golden brown and crisp with deep brassica flavor.

Socarrat

To the kitchen, the heart of the restaurant, for your next course. A chef scrapes socarrat, the coveted scorched rice in paella, into a small bowl with softly shredded rabbit leg and aromatic sofrito aioli, plus a fantastically crunchy bomba rice cracker. A lovely surprise beverage pairing spikes Michigan cider from Seedling Farms with brandy, manzanilla, orange and saffron.

Traditional yet reimagined, this is an exquisitely delicious course, especially the cider, served hot one visit, then iced as the weather changed.

Service was overall excellent, so evident during the kitchen visit, which involved wrangling multiple parties at different stages in our progressions. You’ll see about 20 chefs in the kitchen. They’re among 70 people — including porters, plus the service and host teams — working to serve up to 68 diners. And there’s two turns of tables.

They did try to rush me out of the kitchen, though, while I was still eating with spoon in hand.

Explosion

An iconic dish at Alinea, the black truffle explosion holds a truffled broth in pasta, topped with Parmesan cheese and a rounded slice of truffle. It’s a simply perfect, earthy yet ethereal, single bite soup dumpling.

Hot Potato Cold Potato

Another iconic dish, presented now in a small glass bowl, rather than the original wax. Your server will ask you to gently lift that bowl off the table, then pull the pin to drop more black truffle and Parmesan, plus a hot potato ball into cold potato soup. It’s a little messy, but tasty, though I’m not sure we need this dish and its similar flavors on this menu.

Wagyu

Australian wagyu beef short rib, braised for 24 hours with mirin, soy sauce, ginger and scallion, gets coated in panko to add a crisp. A pool of plum barbecue sauce with yuzu brightens the intense meat. Roasted Japanese eggplant glazed in a puree of Okinawan sweet potato and red miso finds contrast in a crumble of masago arare, or rice cracker pearls, nori seaweed, toasted pine nuts and fried onions. Your server will grate more Okinawan sweet potato, dehydrated and seasoned, for aroma. A separate small bowl holds Tokyo turnip, more Japanese eggplant and more plum with a Tosaka seaweed garnish.

It’s a stunning and sophisticated play on meat and potatoes, but again a bit sweet, and the separate bowl was awkward and unnecessary.

The vegetarian variation with morel may have been my most anticipated dish, and a black crunchy crust elevated the elusive wild mushroom to new heights.

Squashed

A mysterious object has been hanging over your table from the beginning. It’s butternut squash, your server explains, dipped in jamón ibérico fat with rosemary layer by layer. They’ll smash it in a searing hot cast iron bowl at the table, adding black pepper and a cheese sauce of Italian robiola and its French cousin, Camembert. A brown spice cracker topped with white cheddar powder hides a slice of robiola and Medjool date puree. A spoonful of the squash and cheese mixture is finished with roasted fairytale pumpkin seeds and black truffle elixir. It’s clearly a thoughtful and labor-intensive dish, but dulled with its repetitive flavors in the progression.

Italian Ice

Now we’re transitioning to the actual sweeter side of the menu. A distillation of pear juice, pear brandy and vinegar fills a bottle with a pear inside, a classic poire prisonnière, or imprisoned pear, painstakingly grown by Seedling Farms for Alinea. You might be tempted to sip the Italian Ice, but your server just made it at the table with liquid nitrogen, so they’ll warn you to use the spoon. I was tempted after my first bracing taste.

From bloom to bottle to a house-made “super pear brandy” aged six to seven months, it’s quite a process, said Achatz, laughing. And it’s coming off the seasonal menu soon.

Paint

The signature dessert, when served upstairs in the Salon, starts with a silicone mat. A chef then spoons, paints and shatters elements directly on the table. Aerated white chocolate ice cream. Orange and lemon and chocolate syrup infused with Buddha’s hand fruit and black licorice. A bite-size liqueur bonbon, lime tart and round calisson are carefully placed before the chef drops a crispy meringue ball, spilling licorice candies, with a final dusting of lime glitter.

It looks like so much fun. Alinea offered a takeout version for its 15th anniversary during the early days of the pandemic in 2020 with an Instagram demonstration by Achatz.

“The components are constantly changing,” he told me. They’re based on seasonality, and they try to change them about six times a year.

The current components, though, were relentlessly sweet, with enrobed licorice that was so hard I feared for my teeth.

“Yeah, we want crunch,” said Achatz. “But we don’t want people to chip a tooth.”

Balloon

The famous balloon is filled with real helium, your server will say, so if you let it go, it will fly away. And it’s very sticky, so tuck your hair away.

The green apple sugar balloon and apple fruit leather string appear so wondrous, but the single-note flavor left me deflated.

They also make a banana and a strawberry balloon in the rotation, but lime was a polarizing flavor.

“I don’t consider lemon tart or Key lime pie dessert,” Achatz said. “I think they’re far too acidic. And to me, that acid pushes it away from dessert. I want my dessert sweet and satisfying at the end. I want it to be a massive stretch out of savory.”

He thinks what people want with the balloon is “cotton candy” and “Jolly Rancher.”

I’m shocked, and the sweetness makes sense then, but I thoroughly disagree. Even sugar itself can be more than sweet, with the complexities of caramel.

“They don’t want stuff that is kind of dessert, they want dessert,” he added. “They want birthday cake, you know?”

So why did Achatz decide to take Alinea on tour for its 20th birthday, rather than having guest chefs come in?

“I think a lot of people over the last 20 years have never experienced Alinea,” he said, then explained the three main reasons behind the decision to go on tour.

Most people think that the style of food they do, the chef said, is not delicious. And Chicago is not the East or West Coast, so there’s not enough direct tourism coming in. Plus, he just felt there was no better way to celebrate than to do what they do best and bring Alinea to the people.

What they do best is constant culinary world-building, but that’s not what they’re doing. Alinea needs to let go of the Balloon — and Paint and Hot Potato Cold Potato and even the Explosion — and we need to let them. Also, when I say dishes are so salty or so sweet, that’s not my preference, but according to their own sensory language and culture.

So is Alinea worth the splurge?

If you have the money to spend freely, then of course. But if you’re watching your budget, like most of us, for a bucket list experience, you might want to wait.

In Chicago, we live by the mantra, there’s always next year.

At Alinea, I’m still looking forward to the next 20 years.

Alinea

1723 N. Halsted St.

alinearestaurant.com

Open: Daily 5 to 10 p.m.

Prices: Per person, $325 to $395 (The Salon, parties of one to six), $435 to $495 (The Gallery, parties of two to four, waitlist for one available by email), $495 (The Alinea Kitchen Table, parties of three to six, occasionally, but rarely, available for smaller parties), $155 (standard wine pairing), $245 (reserve wine pairing), $395 (The Alinea wine pairing)

Sound: OK (55 to 75 dB)

Accessibility: The Salon is not wheelchair accessible on the second floor with stairs only; The Gallery and Kitchen Table are wheelchair accessible on the first floor with a restroom on same floor

Tribune rating: Very good, two of four stars

Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.

lchu@chicagotribune.com

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.

The mega group (comprised of band members Blau, Hasani Cannon, Rahila Coats, Scott Daniel, Carmani Edwards, Willfred Farquharson, Alejandro Gallardo, Aliyah Jones, Max Lazarus, Jonah Lazarus, Zach Lazarus and Clarence Young) should probably be a little bit more amorphous. But the group’s distinct point of view and commitment to each other make their extra-large experiment both unique and successful. The fruits of their labor can be heard on their debut EP “Did you tell the bees?” out May 9. On May 10, the group will play a release show at Constellation.

During our conversation on an unseasonably warm recent Sunday, Family Junket mentioned inspirational touchstones like Sly and the Family Stone, Sault and Stevie Wonder. They also take inspiration from each other.

“In many musical spaces, where you have to make a lot of adjustments with your character, your personality, even your values, sometimes it’s very painful,” added Blau. “So the fact that I have been able to be a part of this family, this mishpacha, has been almost one of the easiest things. It’s seamless.”

Max Lazarus and Coats cited an Adrienne Maree Brown quote, “We move at the speed of trust,” as a foundation for the group.

“I do feel like in that process, when we feel something that is good collectively, we’re usually on one accord about it,” said Edwards.

“Yeah, yeah,” Daniel added. “Ideas that I’m maybe not 100% on, I’ve learned to trust that if other people in the room are really stoked, then that energy will kind of carry and that’s fertile enough ground for the idea to grow.”

That trust in each other helps fuel a trust within themselves individually. Music is their passion, but the members all lead different lives outside of the group, from jobs in academia to engineering to farming and teaching. But when it comes to the band, it is their choice to lean into each other’s instincts (as well as their lack of egos) that has led to a collection of sonic triumphs. This is music as it should be made and creativity in its purest, brightest form.

Many of the tracks from “Did you tell the bees?” were created over the course of more than two years. During that time, band member and mixing engineer Max Lazarus encouraged the others to keep playing. New members joined the group, allowing more room for growth and development with older songs.

The eight-song collection is a rich project rooted in the heart of the late ’90s and early 2000s neo-soul movement, but it is not a cheap retread. Songs brush against other moments in time as well, like the early murmurings of the psychedelic soul of the late ’60s or the funk-laden R&B of the mid-to-late ’70s.

I immediately thought of Rotary Connection, one of the most underrated Chicago-born groups from that time — not only because of their multicultural past, but also because of their openness to experiment and challenge notions of what they should be making as a group.

“It’s really important that we capture the energy in the room and all of the things that we’re talking about, like the love that we share for each other and the comfort, but also the rage and the anger,” said Max. “Life is full of so (many) rich experiences.”

They are not focused on the past. Lyrics touch on the lived realities of today, both the strife and the joy. Vocalist Coats said “Time is What I Need” was written in the emotional aftermath of 2020 activism and examines feelings of grief, sorrow, and rage as the world moves through such moments without time to pause.

“What do I do if I know the system is broken? What am I going to do about it?” Coats asked. “We were all grasping for time and a moment to just breathe, but the train keeps chugging along. That is exhausting, and it’s going to leave people behind.” It is the sort of music that lulls you in, then wallops you over the head with its profound truths.

Yet, not all of their music is so heavy. One track, “Buzz,” is about the experience of flying on a malfunctioning bee. “It reminds me of funk music like Parliament in the ways that they can tap into the deep belly of pain, but then pull it up with joy and color,” said Coats.

Some music fans in Chicago have heard their music at live performances at spaces like the jazz-forward cocktail club Lemon, but this will be a first time for songs off of an album.

“A lot of the music feels so close to home and feels connected to our histories,” Coats said. “It will feel really special to have people listen to it.”

Britt Julious is a freelance critic.

Family Junket and Akenya is 8:30 p.m. May 10 at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.; tickets $15 at constellation-chicago.com

That photo was taken on Dec. 1, 1958, by Steve Lasker, a young Chicago American photographer, and it would appear in that paper, in Life magazine, and in hundreds of publications across the globe.

Lasker would have a pioneering, prolific and distinguished career, filling his 94 years of life with millions of compelling images. He died Wednesday, April 30, in home hospice care in Lincolnwood, where he and his wife, Fran, had lived since their marriage in 1965. It was the end of his long battle with bladder cancer.

“It wasn’t the hardship one might imagine. He was a wonderful patient,” Fran said. “And a wonderful man. He was such a mensch.”

The two had met when Lasker arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo to photograph its president, Marlin Perkins. Perkins was not there so Lasker spent time with his assistant. “That was me,” Fran said. “It was brutally hot and so the two of us spent three hours in Mr. Perkins’ office, the only place that was air-conditioned, just talking. He asked me out and we had drinks the next night.”

They were married three months later and would have three children, daughter Stacey and sons Scott and David. “He was a wonderful husband and a great dad. We always said that for him it was the job that came first, children second and me third,” said Fran, with a chuckle.

Lasker came to photography early. His parents owned and operated a dry cleaning store on the North Side before relocating south. When he was 13 years old he was shooting photos of World War II aircraft at Midway Airport. As a student at Hyde Park High School he shot for the school paper and also for the neighborhood’s Hyde Park Herald.

He was a frequent visitor to local firehouses, and the firefighters grew fond of him. They taught him to play poker and would often let him ride along and take pictures on emergency calls, such as the one that occurred on May 25, 1950, when a gasoline truck crashed into a streetcar, bursting into flames and killing 34 people.

Lasker was the first photographer on the scene and his photos were purchased by and displayed in Life Magazine and on television’s Channel 5.

So impressed were the bosses at the television station that they formally began Lasker’s career by hiring him to shoot stills for newscasts. After five years with the WMAQ, he was hired as a photographer at the Chicago American, and only months later was the first photographer to arrive at the Our Lady of the Angels fire on the West Side.

He had been on his way to an assignment that day when he heard a call come over a radio tuned to the police frequency: “They’re jumping out the windows!” He recalled what he saw at the school, talking to the Tribune in 2008: “Mayhem was going on and they started pulling kids out of there left and right. To this day I still have dreams about that horrible scene.”

But he and the photo would be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, launching a career that would earn him nearly 40 awards for his work.

In 1970, he moved to WBBM-Channel 2 and became a news and documentary cameraman. Over the next quarter century, he would be known as “the man with the golden eye” as he travelled the world and the city, working on hundreds of stories and documentaries, many in collaboration with esteemed producer Scott Craig. He also worked often with anchorman and reporter Bill Kurtis.

““He led our stellar stable of photo masters. Quiet. Respectful. A privilege to know. And he really did have a ‘golden eye’,” Kurtis said. “But that’s just part of what makes a great photographer. The eye is connected to the brain and an uncanny third eye that is able to anticipate what’s going to happen before it happens. It’s like Steve was waiting for the great shot. That always came.”

Kurtis told a story: “We were in Horicon Marsh north of Milwaukee to cover the migration of thousands of Canada geese. I saw some hunters in a nearby rowboat. I said to Steve, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get a shot of them in action?’ When I turned back to Steve he was pointing the camera to the sky above the hunters as if that was where the birds would fly over. Before I could say a thing, a shot went off and a bird was falling from the sky and Steve was following it all the way to the water. He won an Emmy for that one.”

Lasker retired in 1995 but kept shooting. If there was an event — a block party or parade — in or around Lincolnwood, Lasker was there with his camera, later supplying photos to organizations or local publications. He also served as a member of the suburb’s Fire and Police Commission.

In addition to his wife and children he is survived by a grandchild.

Services are scheduled for noon Monday, May 5, at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd., Skokie

The Brooklyn-based fashion designer had only been in the business for five years. Now, one of the world’s top museums was asking for two of his designs to be shown in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the exhibit launched by the starry Met Gala.

“I was just floored with excitement,” Agbobly said in an interview. “I had to check to make sure it was from an official email. And then the excitement came, and I was like … am I allowed to say anything to anyone about it?”

Agbobly grew up in Togo, watching seamstresses and tailors create beautiful garments in part of the family home that they rented out. Studying fashion later in New York, the aspiring designer watched the Met Gala carpet from afar and dreamed of one day somehow being part of it.

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is the first Costume Institute exhibit to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years devoted to menswear. Unlike past shows that highlighted the work of very famous designers like Karl Lagerfeld or Charles James, this exhibit includes a number of up-and-coming designers like Agbobly.

“The range is phenomenal,” says guest curator Monica L. Miller, a Barnard College professor whose book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” is a foundation for the show.

“It’s super exciting to showcase the designs of these younger and emerging designers,” says Miller, who took a reporter through the show over the weekend before its unveiling at Monday’s Met Gala, “and to see the way they’ve been thinking about Black representation across time and across geography.”

Defining dandyism

The exhibit covers Black style over several centuries, but the unifying theme is dandyism, and how designers have expressed that ethos through history.

For Agbobly, dandyism is “about taking space. As a Black designer, as a queer person, a lot of it is rooted in people telling us who we should be or how we should act … dandyism really goes against that. It’s about showing up and looking your best self and taking up space and announcing that you’re here.”

The exhibit begins with its own definition: someone who “studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionably.”

Miller has organized it into 12 conceptual sections: Ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, champion, respectability, jook, heritage, beauty, cool and cosmopolitanism.

How clothing can dehumanize, but also give agency

The ownership section begins with two livery coats, worn by slaves.

One of them, from Maryland, looks lavish and elaborate, in purple velvet trimmed with gold metallic threading. The garments were intended to show the wealth of their owners. In other words, Miller says, the slaves themselves were items of conspicuous consumption.

The other is a livery coat of tan broadcloth, likely manufactured by Brooks Brothers and worn by an enslaved child or adolescent boy in Louisiana just before the Civil War.

Elsewhere, there’s a contemporary, glittering ensemble by British designer Grace Wales Bonner, made of crushed silk velvet and embroidered with crystals and the cowrie shells historically used as currency in Africa.

There’s also a so-called “dollar bill suit” by the label 3.Paradis — the jacket sporting a laminated one-dollar bill stitched to the breast pocket, meant to suggest the absence of wealth.

How dress can both disguise and reveal

The disguise section includes a collection of 19th-century newspaper ads announcing rewards for catching runaway slaves.

The ads, Miller notes, would often describe someone who was “particularly fond of dress” — or note that the slave had taken large wardrobes. The reason was twofold: the fancy clothes made it possible for a slave to cloak their identity. But also, when they finally made it to freedom, former slaves could sell the clothing to help fund their new lives, Miller says.

“So dressing above one’s station sometimes was a matter of life and death,” the curator says, “and also enabled people to transition from being slaves to being liberated.”

The contemporary part of this section includes striking embroidered jackets by the label Off-White that purposely play with gender roles — like displaying an ostensibly “male” jacket on a female mannequin.

Views of an emerging Black middle and upper-middle class

Stopping by a set of portraits from the early 19th century, as abolitionism was happening in the North, Miller explains that the subjects are Black men who were successful, well off enough to commission or sit for portraits, and dressed “in the finest fashions of the day.” Like William Whipper, an abolitionist and wealthy lumber merchant who also founded a literary society.

They represent the beginnings of a Black middle and upper middle class in America, Miller says. But she points out a group of racist caricatures in a case right across from the portraits.

“Almost as soon as they are able to do this,” she says, referring to the portraits, “they are stereotyped and degraded.”

Projecting respectability: W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass

W.E.B. Du Bois, Miller points out, was not only a civil rights activist but also one of the best-dressed men in turn-of-the-century America. He traveled extensively overseas, which meant he needed “clothing befitting his status as a representative of Black America to the world.”

Objects in the display include receipts for tailors in London, and suit orders from Brooks Brothers or his Harlem tailor. There is also a laundry receipt from 1933 for cleaning of shirts, collars, and handkerchiefs.

Also highlighted in this section: Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist, writer, and statesman and also “the most photographed man of the 19th century.”

The show includes his tailcoat of brushed wool, as well as a shirt embroidered with a “D” monogram , a top hat, a cane and a pair of sunglasses.

Designers reflecting their African heritage

One of Miller’s favorite items in the “heritage” section is Agbobly’s bright-colored ensemble based on the hues of bags that West African migrants used to transport their belongings.

Also displayed is Agbobly’s denim suit embellished with crystals and beads. It’s a tribute not only to the hairbraiding salons where the designer spent time as a child, but also the earrings his grandmother or aunts would wear when they went to church.

Speaking of family, Agbobly says that he ultimately did tell them — and everyone — about his “pinch-me moment.”

“Everyone knows about it,” the designer says. “I keep screaming. If I can scream on top of a hill, I will.”

All eyes had been on whether “Thunderbolts” — a team-up of antihero rejects similar to “Avengers” – could restore the Walt Disney Co. superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results – similar to the debuts of “The Eternals” ($71 million) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” ($75 million) — suggested Marvel’s malaise won’t be so easy to snap out of.

Some had expected a bigger opening for “Thunderbolts” because of the film’s good word-of-mouth. Unlike most recent MCU entries, reviews (88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) have been excellent for “Thunderbolts,” directed by Jake Schreier and starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Sebastian Stan. Audiences gave it an “A-” CinemaScore.

That kind of response should power the movie to strong business in the coming weeks. Though bigger MCU films — including 2024’s “Deadpool vs. Wolverine” (with a $211 million opening on the way to $1.34 billion worldwide) — have monopolized movie screens immediately, “Thunderbolts” could gather steam more steadily. Or, it could go down as another example of Marvel struggling to rekindle its golden touch.

Marvel spent about $180 million to produced the movie, which added $86.1 million in overseas sales. The film also teases the next MCU chapter, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” due out July 25.

“Marvel set the bar so high for so many years that a $76 million opening may seem to some like it should have done $100 million or something like that,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “This is a great reset. They’re hitting the reset with ‘Thunderbolts.” The great reviews and the word-of-mouth should hold it (in) good stead.”

The Walt Disney Co. also might not have expected such stout competition from Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” The Warner Bros. release, which had led the box office the last two weeks, continued to hold remarkably well. In its third week, it grossed $33 million, a dip of only 28%.

“Sinners,” a 1932-set vampire movie about bootlegging brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) who open a juke joint in their Mississippi hometown, has proven a spring sensation in theaters. It has collected $179.7 million domestically and $236.7 million globally thus far.

Warner Bros. also nabbed third place with “A Minecraft Movie,” the smash-hit video game adaptation. In its fifth weekend, it rung up another $13.7 million to bring its North American gross to nearly $400 million. Worldwide, it has totaled $873.4 million. Warner Bros. added “Block Party Edition” screenings over the weekend for a sing-along and “meme-along” experience. The film has seen some rowdy screenings from TikTok-inspired moviegoers.

More than three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set, the Alec Baldwin western “Rust” arrived in theaters. Its release brought some closure to one of Hollywood’s greatest tragedies. Distributor Falling Forward Films didn’t report box office, but estimates suggested “Rust” grossed approximately $25,000 in 115 theaters.

Following Hutchins’ death, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was sentenced to prison for involuntary manslaughter. First assistant director David Halls was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon. Involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin, a co-producer on the film, were twice dismissed, in 2023 and again in 2024.

As part of a wrongful death settlement, Matt Hutchins, Hutchins’ husband, was made an executive producer on the film.

Also opening over the weekend was “The Surfer,” starring Nicolas Cage as a man trying to surf a “locals-only” Australian beach. The Madman Films release collected a modest $674,560 from 884 theaters.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Thunderbolts,” $76 million.

2. “Sinners,” $33 million.

3. “A Minecraft Movie,” $13.7 million.

4. “The Accountant 2,” $9.5 million.

5. “Until Dawn,” $3.8 million.

6. “The Amateur,” $1.8 million.

7. “The King of Kings,” $1.7 million.

8. “Warfare,” $1.3 million.

9. “Hit: The Third Case,” $869,667.

10. “The Surfer,” $674,560.