Welcome to Theatre Thursday, my new weekly round-up of what’s going on in the world of my other passion, the stage.
Yes, I know every gay and his closeted uncle will be at tomorrow Kylie Minogue concert at the Air Canada Centre, but I’m passing. It’s not that I didn’t love “It’s In Your Eyes,” but if I’m gonna drop $100 to see a show — and on an actor’s salary, that’s about as likely as Stephen Harper rimming Michael Ignatieff — it would be for someone who’s had a top 10 hit since I graduated from high school. Just a personal preference.
This weekend marks the closing of Neon Nightz over at Buddies, Sasha Von Bon Bon’s spectacular memoir of stripping in Montreal in the 90s. I caught this last night and was thoroughly entertained. The whole mainspace has been transformed into a Montreal strip lounge, complete with catwalk, coloured strip lights, mirror wall, and cabaret seating. I took a spot right at the centre of pervert’s row, and even though there was alot more snatch than I usually cotton to on the stage, you can’t beat Sasha’s hilarious stories or Kitty Neptune’s dazzling gymnastics on the pole. Your last chance to catch it is Saturday night.
Also this weekend is True Love Lies at Factory Theatre, by former fab columnist Brad Fraser. Fraser’s written some of the defining queer Canadian theatre of the last two decades, including Poor Superman, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. True Love Lies is a sequel of sorts to the latter play, and has had rave reviews in London and now here in the Globe and Mail. I’ve never had the chance to catch one of Fraser’s plays in production, but one time on a high school field trip to Stratford I picked up a flyer for Poor Superman and got called “faggot.” Thanks, Brad! This is actually where I’m planning to be tomorrow night while all the other fags are doing the locomotion.
In other performance news, Downsview Park announced that Elephant Man had been pulled from his upcoming Champions in Action concert in the National Park and then that Action Promotion has postponed the concert altogether since they couldn’t bring Elephant Man, and all“due to public pressure that arose over the controversial nature of some of the performer’s lyrics contained in his much earlier works.” Passive-aggressive much, Downsview?
The Star ran a whole slew of letters expressing disgust at Rosie DiManno’s column about the suicide of David Dewees, including one from legal scholar Ed Iacobucci. It really is rather nasty, and well deserved.
Why you can trust Xtra
