Check out Blanket Fort and bring your pillow
Passing Strange Watch this if: You don’t have tickets to Hamilton yet.
In 2008, playwright Stew’s rock-musical hybrid Passing Strange went up against Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-musical hybrid In the Heights at the Tony Awards While the latter took the major prize and became the bigger contemporary musical theatre phenomenon, the lesserknown Passing Strange continues to draw comparisons to it for its radical form and breaking the white actors and stories mould on Broadway. To capitalize on the production’s rock ’n’ roll roots, Obsidian Theatre and Acting Up Stage Company are bringing Passing Strange to the Opera House, giving lauded director Philip Akin his first crack at a musical. Jan. 24 to Feb. 5, the Opera House, 735 Queen St. E. Blanket Fort Watch this if: You want to go out, but you also don’t want to get out of your pyjamas.
This is guaranteed to blow all of your childhood sleepovers out of the water. For six days, the art collective Art Is Hard is inviting Torontonians to join them in their blanket fort set up inside the Theatre Centre. Complementing the installation is a lineup of performances, from shadow puppets and a jamboree on Thursday to storytelling on Friday and a dance party on Saturday night. ’Tis the season for cosiness, so grab a pillow and join in. Jan. 24-29, the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W. Kid Koala’s Satellite Turntable Concert Watch this if: Your inner DJ needs an outlet.
Eric San (a.k.a. Kid Koala) is not only one of Canada’s most celebrated hip-hop artists (known for his solo work as well as the trio Deltron 3030), but one of the most innovative when it comes to live performances. Once, at the Luminato Festival, he performed an outdoor concert that was audible only through headphones. Now his “satellite concerts” invite the audience to collaborate with him as he goes. Concertgoers will be set up at stations with a turntable, colour-coded records and an effects box so they can follow Kid Koala and create an “ambient vinyl orchestra.”
Jan. 26-28, the Rivoli, 334 Queen St. W.