The NDG branch of the Royal Canadian Legion is hosting a breakfast celebration and viewing party for the Coronation of Charles III. RSVP at seanfrankham@hotmail.com. Breakfast is provided, with a cash bar. Donations accepted. At the Legion, 5455 de Maisonneuve O, Saturday from 6 to 11am. If you're watching from home, here is the offiial, controversial coronation quiche recipe we discussed with Kelly Albert on Friday morning.
Our colleague Jason Devine hosts his annual Kentucky Derby Party for the first event of the Triple Crown. Prepare like you’re going to the actual Derby - there will be prizes for the best-dressed! Indulge in a mint julep and Kentucky-inspired menu and enjoy the peals from a bugle player. Saturday, 4 to 7pm at Bishop & Bagg Pub.
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
Friday’s music picks: British electro group Metronomy, MTelus at 8pm. Prog rockers Coheed and Cambria visit Corona at 8pm. Quebec singer-songwriter Paul Piché at Salle du Pavillon de L’Ile, Chateauguay, 8pm. The Wheel Club in NDG hosts Superfly, a R&B-Motown dance party band. Dumplings and nachos for the hungry, pinball machines and pool for the restless. Friday, 8:30pm.
Saturday music picks: Nashville-based indie artist Annie DiRusso, L’Escogriffe at 8pm.
English progressive metal outfit Haken at Corona, 8pm. Country vibes at Salle Claude Léveillé with a double bill of guitarist Tomy Paré and duo Alex et Caro, 8pm.
Experimental, electro-rock indie outfit Yves Tumor with openers Pretty Sick and Frost Children, at MTelus, Sunday, 8pm.
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 May 14.
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 May 14.
Two pals land an easy job: painting a basement. But the client is a woman whose husband happens to have recently died from an “accidental fall” in the very same basement. Intrigue, romance and comedy follow in Canadian playwright Norm Foster’s latest creation, A Clean Brush. The Canadian premiere of the play is also a fundraiser for Hudson Village Theatre. Until Sunday.
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 May 13 Théâtre La Comédie de Montréal, 1113 de Maisonneuve E.
Quality, free theatre at the New Words Festival, which spotlights graduating students at the National Theatre School. Adjani Poirier’s flight of fancy, hold me close tracks the rise of a hot new reality show, Public Apologies, in a world obsessed with remorse.. Friday, 9pm and Saturday, 1pm. Nora Vision’s Sycophant is equally timely: a tech billionaire who wants to save the world with an A-I-generated virtual reality fantasy. Friday 6:30pm and Saturday, 3:30pm. Both shows at Monument-National.
Les Grand Ballets’ contemporary program Ultraviolet spotlights four choreographers in a mixed bill that explores our subconsciousness at the individual and collective level. At Théâtre Maisonneuve until Saturday.
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.
Explore the seven deadly sins in immersive dance show ənrəpen(t)ənt. Choreographed by Lynsey Billing and performed by Scream Dance Project, at MainLine Theatre, Saturday, 7:30pm.
Montreal Youth Symphony Orchestra puts on Mahler's Symphony No. 2 Resurrection, with conductor Louis Lavigueur overseeing nearly 250 musicians and singers, including soprano Karina Gauvin. At Maison symphonique, Saturday, 8pm.
Very funny Filipino-Canadian Ron Josol (Just for Laughs, Comics Unleashed) headlines at the Comedy Nest with support from Eddy King, Hadi Kuba, Kyra Carleton and more. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 and 10pm.
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! Sketchfest hosts local and outta-town acts, including Hot Raw Fire, Seeking Validation and Cam Wylie, Friday, 10pm at Theatre Sainte-Catherine, where most of the action is going down. Montreal Improv also hosts this weekend, with Cheap Wine, Sproink and Oink & Try-Racial, Friday at 10pm. Until May 13.
Also on the bill at Montreal Improv in St Henri, veterans of the improv stage team up with rising newbies in Circuits, Saturday, 7pm. And enjoy a Special Edition of Indie Night, with five local acts experimenting with comedy, including Nameless Heroes and Cobra! Sunday at 8pm,
Dr Sketchy Montreal presents a live drawing session, with model Sarah taking on the theme of Cyberpunk. Sunday 2pm at MainLine Theatre.
Energy is the theme at The Wiggle Room. On the bill, Bon Bon Bombay, The Foxy Lexxi Brown, A’Slayna Von Hunt and Miss B. LaRose. Hosted by Wiggle owner, Frenchy Jones. Friday and Saturday at 9pm.
Sing and strip at Bareoke: Strip Kareoke at Café Cléopatra, Saturday at 9pm.
Peruse books, clothing, vintage items, toys and more at the rummage sale at the Church of St John the Baptist. Saturday 9am to noon, at 233 Ste Claire Avenue Pointe-Claire.
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 presents 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 with 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 presents Parall(elles), a look at the influence of female designers from the mid-19th century to today.