Happy Mother’s Day! Treat mom or the special female figure in your life with a jaunt to the vast outdoor space at the Botanical Gardens. The tulips, primroses and magnolias are some of the flowers in bloom this week.
La Pizza Week continues with a dizzying array of specialty pizzas on offer all over the city, inviting pizza fans to rate their faves. At Geppetto Pizzeria in Little Burgundy, opt for Reuben, with smoked meat, mustard-garlic cream, cheese and sauerkraut. Try Hang Time Pizza’s Wayne's World Garth Garlic Bacon Pizza with creamy garlic base, downtown near Concordia and at Cote Vertu West. Kahnawake Brewing Company has topped the Big Ol Buffalo Deluxe with Buffalo chicken and banana pepper. Or, head out to BBQ Mirabel for the ‘Fat Boy’ Cheeseburger Pizza, replete with burger meat, pickles, pepperoni and bacon. Until Sunday.
A new experience opens Saturday in Laval: SOS Vortex, the ‘little brother’ to the SOS Labyrinth in the Old Port. Enter the vibrant time vortex of a mad scientist while learning about ecology and climate change. The structure is made of recycled containers, with eye-catching colours and Pop Art esthetic. At the the CF Carrefour Laval parking lot (corner of Daniel-Johnon and Le Carrefour) until October 29.
Les Sommets du cinéma d’animation wraps up this weekend with a myriad of offerings, including a few screenings of feature film No. 7 Cherry Lane, a love triangle set in Hong Kong’s turbulent ‘60s.T ake in a stop motion workshop with your kids (ages 81-12). And the absolute gem Disney’s Fantasia (1940) will be screened outdoors on the terrasse of the Cinémathèque's Café-bar, free admission on Friday 8:30pm. Until Sunday.
Friday’s music picks: pop-punk heroes Blink-182 at the Bell Centre, 7:30pm. The city’s reputedly best country singer-songwriter Lil’ Andy performs at the Rialto in Mile End. R&B singer and Polaris Prize longlister Adria Kain plays the Phi Centre, 8pm. Montreal’s own perreo-pop princess Isabella Lovestory at L’Escogriffe, 8pm. Sacramento-based electronic dance duo Hippie Sabotage, Corona Theatre at 8pm. Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire, Le Studio TD, 7pm.
Saturday music picks: Legendary soul singer Lee Fields, Corona Theatre at 8pm. Rock supergroup Saint Ansonia visits Le Studio TD, 8pm. Guillaume Lafond performs an acoustic set at the Salle Claude-Léveillée, 8pm. Pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin performs Prokofiev’s Concerto no. 2 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, along with selections from Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Wennäkoski, at Maison symphonique, Saturday at 2:30pm.
Sunday: The one-and-only British singer Seal sings Kiss from a Rose and his other hits, at Theatre St-Denis, 8pm. Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil performs Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and What a Wonderful World and other songs that celebrate the seasons, with violinist and conductor Alexandre Da Costa, at a benefit concert, Sunday 3pm at Theatre Maisonneuve.
Opéra de Montréal sets Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Nagasaki, early 1900s. Cio-Cio falls in love with an American general, prepared to forsake her family and heritage for love. At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Saturday, 7:30pm, with showings until May 16.
Master marionettist Ronnie Burkett presents Little Willy, a show (loosely) based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. His Daisy Theatre is a compendium of original, quirky and very Canadian characters, including fading diva Esmé Massengill, a brother-sister act and little fairy Schnitzel. Burkett’s hilarious, outlandish and sometimes risqué schtick reshapes your expectations of marionette work - and leaves you laughing. At Centaur Theatre until Sunday.
Joshua Harmon’s new play Prayer for the French Republic makes its Canadian debut at the Segal Centre. The sprawling show follows separate generations of a Jewish family in Paris, flipping between 1944 and 2016… in the earlier period, the characters brace for the results of the Holocaust, while their descendants worry about a concerning rise in anti-Semitism. Be warned that the show is long - 3 hours - but it is broken down into three bite-size segments running around 45 minutes, with two 10-minute intermissions. Until Sunday.
Also at the Segal this weekend: sign up for showtune karaoke at Broadway Café. This edition, hosted by the talented Dakota Jamal Wellman and David Noel, is themed as “Miscast” - pick a song that you would not be cast for! Saturday, 8pm.
Lizzie: The Musical makes its Quebec debut this weekend - and it ain’t no hatchet job! This four-woman punk rock musical delves into the tale of Lizzie Borden, a Massachusetts woman who in 1892 stood accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother. Saturday and Sunday, 8pm. Until Saturday at Théâtre La Comédie de Montréal, 1113 de Maisonneuve E.
Lakeshore Players Dorval have just launched As Bees in Honey Drown, a satirical fable about fame. Douglas Carter Beane’s story follows “hot new thing” novelist Evan Wyler, who is intrigued by the glamorous celeburante Alexa de Vere. Look for Dorval city councillor Christopher Von Roretz in his debut role - his sister Stephanie, though, is the star as Alea. Until May 20 at John Rennie High School.
Become immersed in a playful wonderscape in Au Jardin des Potiniers. The audience is seated on stools, with your head poking through a colourful environment that will slowly shift and change over the course of the hour-long show. This collaboration between Creation Dans la Chambre and Ersatz is at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, with various times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kids 6 and up welcome.
Two dancers, each in a separate clear container filled with water, will test the limits of connection and space in The Infinite Limits of Skin. This is a new work from choreographer Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, who is eager to explore connections over distance. At Agora de la danse, Friday 7pm and Saturday, 4pm.
Ryan Conner has written for SNL’s Weekend Update and Billy on the Street in addition to his own standup. Catch him in the flesh when he headlines at the Comedy Nest with support from Daniel Carin, Raajiee Chelliah, Darren Henwood and more. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 and 10pm.
There may be a few tickets remaining seats for Sad Witch, the latest show from human rights lawyer-turned-comic (and former Montrealer) Jess Salomon. Sunday, 8:30pm at the Wiggle Room.
A standup show on the spectrum: The Asperger Show will feature performances from comics who are on the autism spectrum or neurodivergent, in their 20s and 60s. Mark Spires hosts, with A-M Papillon, Caroline Caron and more on the bill. Main act Jeff Laurence was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2018 and considers his standup to be a form of therapy. Saturday, 9pm at Café Eevee in La Petite Patrie. (Tickets online in advance $12.50 Paypal to yellowglassescomedy@gmail.com or $20 at the door.)
Get cozy at Hurley’s Bar on Crescent with The World's Smallest Comedy Night. Friday, 8pm.
Montreal’s sole sketch comedy fest celebrates its Sweet Sixteen! Local and outta-town acts are on the bill at Sketchfest, including a spate of acts from Toronto, like former Montrealer Anders Yates, Friday 8pm, Two Draculas, Saturday, 10pm and Joy Provision and Ajahnis Charley, Saturday 9pm. At Théatre Ste Catherine, until Saturday, when everything culminates in a Best of the Fest show at 11pm.
At Montreal Improv in St Henri, 22 artists break into four groups for longform comedy in Buddies, Sunday at 8pm.
Glamour is the theme at The Wiggle Room. On the bill, Lou Lou La Duchesse de Rière, Sucre à la Crème, Miami Minx and Vivian Brass. Hosted by Wiggle owner, Frenchy Jones. Friday and Saturday at 9pm.
Fertilizer for Funds! A Horse’s Tale Rescue is trading *ahem* horse manure in exchange for donations to various charities - oh, and there is bake sale. Email manure@ahorsetale.org to reserve a time slot. Saturday and May 20, 10am to 4pm. 27 Chemin Murphy in Vaudreuil-Dorion.
The Infinite virtual reality experience returns to Montreal at a different location, with new, immersive footage shot from the International Space Station. Over the course of an hour, the exhibit puts you shoulder-to-shoulder with astronauts like David Saint-Jacques, taking you through their day orbiting the Earth. A jaw-dropping V-R treat! At 2 de la Commune Street West in the Old Port, until July 3.
Cirque du soleil has just launched their 20th “big top” show, Echo. Fifty-one artists bring this ode to nature and creativity to life, with thrilling acrobatic acts, controsion and animal-masked antics. Echo is a bit of an esthetic departure from the visual over-the-topness you might have come to expect from a Cirque production. Visually, the bowler hats and blue skies brought Belgian surrealist René Magritte to mind. The stage is dominated by a large, white cube that moves and interacts with performers - with a super-sized, unexpected transformation before intermission. I adored the banquine and human cradle acts with Color Paper People, and the soaring 'fireflies' - a duo that are lifted into the air by their hair. Until August 20 in the Old Port.
Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Old Montreal just launched Egypt: Three Millennia on the Nile. This exhibit traces life both ordinary and royal on the legendary river, dating from the start of human settlement to the Roman conquest. Some 320 items will be displayed in an exclusive agreement with the Museo Egizio in Turin, including jewelry, statues, tools, sarcophagi and more! Until October 15.
Get your hockey fix down at the Montreal Science Centre, where they have just launched Hockey: Faster Than Ever, an action-packed exploration of the science and culture, technology and triumph of the sport. Experience what it is like to be in an NHL locker room and the corridor that leads to the ice, test your slapshot and get acquainted with some of the legendary stars of the Canadiens franchise. Until September 10.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has just launched Parall(elles), a look at the influence of female designers from the mid-19th century to today.