Here are my choice Montreal arts and culture highlights for April 2018:
MUSIC
Even though Bon Jovi has (due to illness) rescheduled their April 4 and 5 concerts at the Bell Centre to May 17 and 18 (so hold on to your tickets), there are a couple of other big names playing two-nights in Montreal: Justin Timberlake headlines the Bell Centre (April 8 and 9) and The Jim Cuddy Band headlines the Corona Theatre (April 6 and 7).
Other notable concerts this month include David Foster at La Maison Symphonique (April 13); Papa Roach at MTELUS (April 14); and both Dweezil Zappa (April 15) and The Darkness (April 17) at the Corona Theatre.
Two other gigs at the Corona have already sold out – Milk & Bone (April 5) and 1980s teen idol Rick Astley (April 14) – so fans are at the mercy of scalpers.
The Astley sell-out caught me a bit by surprise, though I am delighted to see Rick back in Montreal. Some years ago I asked him what names bullies used to call him in grade school. Replied Rick, “Ghastly Astley!”
We chatted a bit more over a glass of red wine in a MusiquePlus dressing room where Rick told me, “I was never really comfortable with fame, to be honest. I didn’t like the business. In pop music, you don’t really have to be that good to be famous. Whereas in soccer or ice hockey you don’t become famous unless you’re one of the good ones. In pop, people are notorious now more than they are famous.”
Another concert of note is Berlin crooner Max Raabe, a dandy throwback to Noel Coward and Cole Porter. His famed 12-piece orchestra Max Raabe & Palast Orchester make their Montreal debut at Théâtre Maisonneuve on April 16, performing songs popular during the Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933) when Berlin was the gay capital of the world and LGBTQ life flourished and was celebrated – as epitomized by Liza Minnelli in Cabaret.
Recently, when I asked Raabe what attracts him to the music of the 1920s and 1930s, he replied, “I think it is the most elegant pop music we ever had. Pop music is very powerful and has a lot of energy, but in that time irony and humour were a big part of the message. You do not find any irony in pop music nowadays.”
Local shows of note: Following their sold-out production of The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Celebration in November 2016, Billy Bob Productions has assembled a star-studded line-up to pay tribute to the music of The Allman Brothers, STAX, Muscle Shoals, Sun Records and Texas Outlaws for the Southern Soul and Rock ‘n Roll Revue on April 6 at Club Soda.
The stellar line-up includes the Paul Deslauriers Band, Blues Queen Dawn Tyler Watson, Shane Murphy, Jonas Tomalty with his longtime musical partner, guitarist Corey Diabo, Montreal post-indie band John Jacob Magistery, father-daughter combo Derek Falls and his band with Angie Falls, blues mama Angel Forrest, Montreal hip hop star Annakin Slayd and The Stalwarts, the award-winning Ghost Town Blues Band from Memphis, Grammy-nominated producer and drummer Howard Bilerman with another incarnation of his hotel2tango recording studio All-Stars (featuring Chris Velan and others), plus the Shane Murphy-led house band (which includes guitarist Rob MacDonald and Antoine Gratton on Hammond/keys). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This three-hour-plus music marathon promises to be a concert for the ages.
Other local shows worth your hard-earned cash include Canadian cult metal band Sword’s comeback show, April 13 at Club Soda. Formed in 1980 in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Sword toured with Metallica, Alice Cooper and Motorhead in Europe and America. After a 25-year hiatus, the four original members are currently recording their third studio album.
Meanwhile, country crooner Kurt Chaboyer, backed by the Blue Flamingo horns and Salin Babybeats on drums, and Caleb Smith & The North Country Towers, play Club Balattou on April 12; renowned Montreal landscape artist Holly Friesen is hosting a Brazilian music concert in her St. Henri studio on April 20; and Rat-Pack-style Montreal crooner David Marino – a finalist in TVA’s blockbuster vocal competition show La Voix last season – performs at the Gesù with a 17-piece big band on April 14.
Last but not least, Montreal Soul Queen Michelle Sweeney and her band headline the downtown House of Jazz every Friday this month. Showtime: 9:30 pm.
Sweeney has been entertaining Montreal audiences for some 30 years now, and has shared the stage with everybody, including Celine Dion in 1988, when the Quebec pop icon was on the cusp of international stardom.
In fact, Sweeney stole the show when she, Dion and Johanne Blouin (fresh from making waves in Starmania) performed a rousing medley of “The Age of Aquarius” / “Let the Sunshine In” from the musical Hair on a Quebec television show in 1988.
“I remember I was overwhelmed doing that show,” says Sweeney. “I also remember I told Celine Dion that I thought she was going to be a major star in America, and I was glad to be around history. Back then those were the divas of Montreal – Celine, Johanne and myself. But I was a young girl from Cleveland and didn’t know much. We didn’t do live television shows like that from where I came from. So it was a learning experience.”
Though the video quality is a bit spotty at times, watch the incredible video here:
CLASSICAL MUSIC
The OSM’s Nordic Spring Festival is a fun way to (re)discover music from various Nordic countries – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden – under the direction of Finnish conductor John Storgårds. There are three concerts in all (April 24 to 26), notably Tales and Legends of The North, which will pay tribute to Aboriginal and Inuit cultures.
Pro Musica and the OSM co-present Grammy-winning superstar Italian classical pianist Maurizio Pollini at the Maison symphonique de Montréal – his first Montréal concert in almost 30 years, on April 15.
The 23rd edition of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival kicks off with its Rendez-vous au Ritz! series bringing together established artists with outstanding rising stars from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Each Sunday morning event at The Ritz-Carlton Montreal includes a continental breakfast at 10 am followed by a one-hour concert at 11 am, all taking place in the Oval Room at the Ritz. The April 15 event showcases clarinetist and comedian Christopher Hall and the Andara Quartet; and on April 29 cellist Denis Brott joins three young musicians from the Conservatoire, his cello protégé Bruno Tobon, and violinists Isabella Perron and Abby Walsh, for a programme of music by Bach, Ysaÿe, Handel, and Arensky.
ART AND MUSEUMS
The blockbuster Queens of Egypt exhibition opens at the Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archaeology and History Complex on April 10. Visitors will travel back in time to Ancient Egypt where they will meet women whose remarkable destiny saw them become the wives, mothers and daughters of the pharaohs.
The exhibition features some 350 artifacts, including monumental statues, frescos, sarcophagi, a mummy, funerary objects and jewelry related to such legendary queens as Nefertari, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. Developed by Pointe-à-Callière in collaboration with Museo Egizio of Turin (the world’s oldest Egyptian museum, second only to the Cairo Museum), this must-see exhibition runs to November 4.
Meanwhile, the Gabor Szilasi – The Art World in Montreal, 1960-1980 exhibition at the McCord Museum features 43 black and white photographs from the artist’s personal collection. They are an extensive photographic record of the individuals who made up Montréal’s visual arts community, many of whom would shape the history of art in Canada.
Born in Hungary in 1928, Gabor Szilasi settled in Montréal soon after immigrating to Canada in 1957, and is one of Quebec’s best-known living photographers. These photos – 40 of which have never been published – were snapped at exhibition openings and other artistic events held in Montreal between 1960 and 1980, at a time of great social and cultural upheaval in Québec. These images not only chronicle an era, but also capture Szilasi’s longstanding fascination with people—and, in particular, artists.
Gabor Szilasi – The Art World in Montreal, 1960-1980 continues at the McCord until April 29.
THEATRE
Don’t miss the world-premiere of Successions, written by Michaela Di Cesare and directed by Tamara Brown, a comedic family saga about two second-generation Italian-Canadian brothers, one an uptight upwardly mobile lawyer running for office, and his kid brother who’d rather party than work. The play runs at the Centaur Theatre in Old Montreal from April 10 to May 6.
Over at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, I am really looking forward to The Angel & The Sparrow, a 20-song musical based on the true story of the fascinating friendship between showbiz icons Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf. Tony Award nominee Louise Pitre (for her role as Donna Sheridan in the Broadway musical Mamma Mia!) portrays Piaf, and Dora Award Winner Carly Street plays Dietrich. The musical runs from April 15 to May 6.
The iconic novel by Jules Verne, Around the World in 80 Days, comes to life in Geordie Productions’ all-new show featuring incredible physical performances, lightening-speed set changes, razor-sharp dialogue, and … an elephant. Travel across the globe with the clever Phileas Fogg and his astute partner-in-crime Passepartout as they encounter a cast of some 20 characters played by three actors. Around the World in 80 Days runs at the gorgeous D.B. Clarke Theatre downtown, from April 20 to 29.
And for one-night-only, on April 5 at 8:30 pm, check out the live read of Drunk ‘Mean Girls’ at MainLine Theatre where “a group of Montreal pseudo-celebs breathe sweet, alcoholic life back into the most important film of our generation: MEAN GIRLS.”
The terrific ensemble cast features Thomas Wilkinson Fullerton (as Cady Heron), Adam Capriolo (Regina George), Cat Lemieux (Damian), Maxine Segalowitz (Karen Smith), Stef Costa (Janis Ian), Kayleigh Choiniere (Gretchen), Dakota Jamal (Aaron Samuels), Holly Greco (Ms. Norbury) and Steph McKenna (Mr. Duvall). Tix: $10. All proceeds will be donated to the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
DANCE
As part of Printemps nordique, Danse Danse continues its superb season with pioneering Norwegian choreographer Ina Christel Johannessen who has partnered with Swedish composer Marcus Fjellström to present Again at Theatre Maisonneuve (April 5-6-7); and former Finnish National Ballet dancer and legendary choreographer Tero Saarinen’s much-anticipated Breath (with revolutionary accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen) at Cinquieme Salle (April 17 to 21).
Danse Danse also presents a contemporary reimagining of conventional skating shows, with free-skate ensemble Le Patin Libre’s brand new Threshold at the Arena Saint-Louis (April 11 to 22).
Dance artist Andrew Tay, visual and performance artist François Lalumière, and photographer and performance artist Katarzyna Szugajew will attempt to queer spirituality in their multidisciplinary Fame Prayer / EATING at La Chapelle on April 23-24-27 and May 1.
FILM
Montreal’s 34th annual Vues d’Afrique International Film Festival will present 88 films — features, documentaries and shorts — from 33 countries, by filmmakers from across Africa and the African diaspora, from April 13 to 22 at the Cinémathèque Québécoise.
The Festival will present 15 international premieres, 52 Canadian premieres and 15 Quebec premieres, including New York-based photographer and director Daniel McCabe’s critically-hailed feature-length documentary This is Congo which provides an unfiltered look into the world’s longest continuing conflict and those who are surviving within it. By following four compelling characters — a whistleblower, a patriotic military commander, a mineral dealer and a displaced tailor — the film offers viewers a truly Congolese perspective on the problems that plague this nation, which has seen more than five million conflict-related deaths, multiple regime changes and the wholesale impoverishment of its people over the past two decades. A compelling film. Director Daniel McCabe will host both screenings on April 19 and 20 at the Cinémathèque Québécoise.
After winning numerous prizes at film festivals around the world, Montreal filmmaker Arshad Khan’s debut feature documentary ABU opens in his hometown on April 13 at the Cineplex Odeon Forum (both in English with French subtitles, and in Hindi / Urdu with English subtitles).
The film begins as a quest to explore gay-identifying Pakistani-Muslim filmmaker Arshad Khan’s relationship with his father and develops into a journey of self-discovery, brought to life through home video footage, animation and clips of classic Bollywood movies. Made over the course of five years, the film sheds light on subjects that are often ignored.
During the making of the film, when I asked Arshad what kind of impact he hoped his film would have in North America, as well as in Pakistan and South Asia, he replied, “I am hoping that Canadians and Americans will start to see Pakistanis as cultured, intelligent, multi-dimensional, fun-loving, normal human beings. I would like the association of Pakistan with terror to cease to exist. I would like Pakistanis and South Asians to understand how much homophobia and exclusion hurt people. I would like them to remember a time when we were beautiful.”
ABU is a remarkable film. Don’t miss it.
LITERATURE
The Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2018, from April 20 to 29, at HOTEL10. Blue Met will present 262 authors in a whopping 240 events.
Highlights include The Children of Mary Shelley panel which will explore the legacy of Mary Shelley on the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein (April 29); acclaimed American writer Daniel Mendelsohn (An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic) at various events; and Vikas Swarup, author of the novel that became the movie Slumdog Millionaire.
Blue Met will also look back at the legendary career of trailblazing author and Concordia University film and sexuality studies professor Thomas Waugh, in Hard to Imagine: Thomas Waugh on Teaching as Activism (April 28), at Centre Never Apart; and the latest instalment of Montreal’s long-running queer reading series, the Violet Hour will be held in gay-male strip joint Stock Bar on April 27 (during off-hours) and will feature writers Kamal Al-Solaylee, Amber Dawn, Daniel Mendelsohn, Casey Plett and Joshua Whitehead.
In Little Burgundy, renowned Montreal writers H. Nigel Thomas, Horace Goddard and Maguy Métellus co-host Lectures Logos Readings, the monthly bilingual reading series of poetry, fiction and spoken word at the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A. Hall at 2741 Notre Dame St. W.), on April 9 from 7 to 9 pm. Their readers include award-winning authors and beginning writers. The guest readers this month are Karine Constant-Déjean, Claire Holden Rothman, David Bouchet, Svens Telemaque and Clarence Bayne —followed by an open mic. The event is free, but a small donation is welcome.
VARIOUS
Plenty of off-beat stuff this month, beginning with The Harlem Globetrotters at Place Bell on April 5 and the Bell Centre on April 6. After 91 years of thrilling basketball fans the world over, the Globetrotters 2018 “Amazing Feats of Basketball World Tour” also marks the return of their longtime nemesis, the Washington Generals. After a long-standing series which saw the Generals lose over 14,000 times, the team is back from a two-year hiatus to rebuild and refocus around one goal – to beat the Globetrotters.
Then the WWE presents Monday Night Raw on April 30 and Smackdown Live on May 1, both at the Bell Centre.
Since the March 2018 fire on lower Bishop Street, the Comedyworks — while their Bishop Street digs are under renovation — presents its weekly Burnin Down the House comedy showcase each Saturday night at McLean’s Pub on Peel Street.
Over at the historic Cleopatra’s showbar on The Main, there are a couple of really fun monthly shows: The big-hearted and always funny Montreal drag troupe House of Laureen hosts The Rite of Spring (think Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal in drag) on April 14; and Candyass Club Cabaret on April 20 stars drag king Nat King Pole, burlesque performers and Montreal burlesque legend Velma Candyass.
Over at The Wiggle Room on the Main, Montreal stand-up comedians Tranna Wintour and Thomas Leblanc repeat their hugely-successful cabaret show Sainte Céline: A New, New Day on April 5 and 20. This new show also features fab Montreal drag queen Crystal Slippers doing her hilarious Céline impersonation.
Last but not least, Montreal burlesque queen Scarlett James celebrates her 10th anniversary in the burlesque biz with her Scarlett Grande Revue Show at Club Soda on April 28. Scarlett will also appear the PHI Centre’s 4th annual Giornate degli Autori film festival which runs from April 30 to May 5.
Though I am getting ahead of myself a tad here, Scarlett will attend the May 3 screening of the vérité documentary Getting Naked: A Burlesque Story, as well as give an opening performance and post-screening Q&A. Brava, Scarlett!
