Even with the success of acts like Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords, people still tend to view musical comedy with some suspicion, and not without reason. Those high-profile success stories aside, at the club level, musical comedy is too often the province of people who aren’t quite good enough to make it as musicians, but not quite funny enough to make it as comedians.

Two local comics, Robert Keller and Rush Zilla, are out to change that perception with their show, Off Key Comedy, which features a wide variety of acts whose only commonality is that they combine music and comedy in one form or another. The third edition of the monthly show will take place on May 23, at Comedy Bar.

Despite the fact that the last show in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s 2012/2013 season is titled Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical, Lady Gaga herself takes a secondary role. There are no homages to raw-meat dresses and gold-plated wheelchairs here. Instead, writer and director Alistair Newton uses the House of Gaga as a pathway into the history of the notable performance-art stars that came before her in the pantheon of queer iconography, and how she is and isn’t a construct of all of them put together.

It’s entirely possible that an early work by the next Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg will screen on Wednesday night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. With the 2013 Student Film Showcase featuring the best from post-secondary schools around the country and the Next Wave Presents: Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase kicking off the evening with Toronto-area high-school students’ films, the night will be a coming-out party for a new crop of talent. Judging by the polished creativity of some of the entries, it’s safe to say that young people are more prepared than ever to start telling stories on film from an early age.

In a dark, small-ish room with exposed brick walls in the back of the Ossington, a buzzing crowd has already begun to form nearly an hour before the main event. One girl is wearing a white scientist’s smock with a pair of black goggles dangling around her neck. A young gentleman is looking dapper in a classy librarian-esque jacket and tie. Another guy is really pulling off a plaid pyjama set—the silk ones were too expensive, he says.

This last costume-wearer is Evan Munday, co-organizer of the monthly Geek Love screening series, which celebrated its first anniversary on Monday night with a repeat of the event that started it all: a Joss Whedon Singalong. Together with Emma Woolley, these two lovers of all things geek-related planned their first event in 2011, screening the 42-minute-long Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog followed by “Once More With Feeling,” the musical episode of Whedon’s best-loved TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Did we just ignite an internet firestorm of debate?)

“Joss Whedon’s musical episodes provide people with a more readily available way to appreciate [his work] as a group, in that you can sing along,” says Munday. “I think it would be annoying if you were to watch an episode and just recite all of the lines, but singing—that’s an acceptable thing, and these episodes are the perfect way to have audience participation.”

This may be shaping up to be a big year for Whedon: His mystery-shrouded horror movie The Cabin in the Woods (directed by Buffy co-writer Drew Goddard) hits theatres this April, while The Avengers arrives in May. But Whedon’s devoted fans are still just as interested in Buffy and Dr. Horrible, that little internet movie he created during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike with his talented band of brothers and his actor friends Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day.

Munday and Woolley have packed about 80 Whedon-heads into the bar’s back room, including one fan who says she has watched “Once More With Feeling” on all seven continents. Among nerds, Whedon is like a rock star—stories about sightings and near-sightings fly at Geek Love, and a fairly enthusiastic field of swaying hands is not out of place during Captain Hammer’s misguided, macho rendition of “Everyone’s a Hero” in Dr. Horrible’s final act.

Geek Love has been screening different shows every month since last March, from X-Files to Star Trek: The Next Generation to Freaks and Geeks. According to Woolley, the idea was born out of a simple desire to watch Whedon’s work with more people than would fit in her own apartment. They get a solid showing at the Ossington most months, but “Whedonfest gets more people who aren’t our friends,” she says.

By the time we make our way home, after both episodes have been screened twice by popular demand (Dr. Horrible’s re-watching included the full-length musical commentary), we’re not so sure Woolley’s last statement is true. Riding the subway eastbound, debating the merits of the old versus new series of Doctor Who with a guy wearing a T-shirt covered in nerdy movie spoilers, we have sung ourselves hoarse, and feel like we’ve just left a roomful of kindred spirits.

A packed house at Ryeberg Live's recent Vancouver debut. Photo by Christine McAvoy.

LECTURES: Curated video series Ryeberg features writers discussing the YouTube videos that inspire them. Ryeberg had its live West Coast debut last week, and tonight’s hometown edition of Ryeberg Live features contributors Jowita Bydlowska, Sean Dixon, Lynn Crosbie, Nick Mount, and more. The Drake Hotel Underground (1150 Queen Street West), 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, $10 ($12 at the door.)

THEATRE: The second event in Theatre Passe Muraille’s Dancing Without Mary fundraising series—which is helping defray costs incurred by comedy star Mary Walsh’s cancellation of her one-woman show due to hospitalization—is high profile indeed; it’s the first public reading of Michael Healey’s new play Proud. The Globe has an excerpt, and an explanation of the firestorm it’s already created. Advance tickets are sold out, but there may be a small number of rush tickets at the door—we recommend you line up absurdly early. Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue), 8 p.m., $15 (Limited rush tickets available one hour before show.) UPDATE, 3:30 PM: We’re now being told there are no rush tickets but the theatre will start a waiting list at 6 p.m. in the event there are no-shows or cancellations.

MUSIC: Lining up absurdly early may also help if you want to get into the highly touted and sold out bill of buzz acts Grimes, Born Gold, and Moon King at the ‘Shoe tonight. Moon King is scheduled to begin at 8:35 p.m., so if you already have tickets, make sure you don’t miss out. Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen Street West), 8:30 p.m., $8 (but you’ll probably need to pay more to a scalper.) UPDATE, 4:42 PM: Due to Grimes’ illness and Moon King’s car breaking down in Sulphur Springs, Texas, this show has been cancelled.

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

SPORTS: It being the fortieth anniversary of the Juno Awards this year, there are all sorts of related concerts and events happening this week leading up to Sunday’s ceremonies. Juno Hoops is one of the first, and certainly unique: a celebrity basketball game featuring one of Canada’s fastest men (Donovan Bailey); the first Juno-nominated DJ (Skratch Bastid); an award-winning poet (Dwayne Morgan); and many more Canadian public personalities as the guards, forwards, and centres. All money raised (a donation of $5 or more is requested) is going to MusiCounts, a music-in-schools advocacy program. Kerr Hall Gymnasium (31 Gerrard Street East), 7 p.m., PWYC.
SING-ALONG: Joss Whedon, creative producer and writer of seminal TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cult sci-fi film Serenity, and the (not-soon-enough) upcoming Avengers film, has created several musical-based bits of entertainment. Two of them, the online phenomenon Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and that “Once More With Feeling” episode of Buffy, will be publicly screened tonight, with sing-alongs encouraged. We do this from time to time in our own living room, but think how much better it’s going to be with a room full of other people who know all the words (and no irritated neighbours)! The Ossington (61 Ossington Avenue), Doors at 7:30 p.m., FREE.
THEATRE: Cahoots Theatre Company is presenting the premiere of paper SERIES, a new collection of short plays by David Yee. All six of the playlets are based around something written on paper (a fortune cookie slip, a “Dear John” letter, a counterfeit bill, etc.) and examines the importance that notes, documents, and other such slips hold in our day-to-day lives. The Young Centre’s Tank House Theatre (55 Mill Street, Building 49), 8 p.m., $10–$30.