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Urban Planner: February 8, 2010
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 [email protected].
Lisa Berry as Mayme and Raven Dauda as Esther in Intimate Apparel, now playing at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Photo by David Hou.
THEATRE: It’s all about love this week—love and the funny/depressing/sexy/kinky stuff that goes with it. Canstage’s latest production includes at least one of those things. Intimate Apparel follows Esther, an African-American seamstress whose financial independence depends upon the elegant corsets and other undergarments she sews for socialites and prostitutes. Amid the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, Esther dreams of opening her own boutique, moves to New York City, and falls for a man halfway around the world. Intimate Apparel was written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Lynn Nottage, and has won several awards, including the 2004 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, and the Canadian production won the 2008 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design. Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front Street East), 8 p.m., $20–64.
MUSIC: The Magnetic Fields are in town tonight playing a show that, as of Sunday afternoon, is not quite yet sold out in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Even these Boston natives can be linked to the theme of love, as their stand-out three-volume concept album, 69 Love Songs (originally released in 1999), is getting a very limited vinyl re-release in April (only a thousand copies will be pressed). They play noise pop and they’ve been doing it for a long time now, and their latest album, Realism, is a leap into folk pop territory (unlike the synth-pop of 69 Love Songs). Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Exhibition Place), 7:30 p.m., $30.50.
ART: We saw her work all around Toronto last summer when the garbage strike brought out Toronto’s rat population, and tonight madame HAIR has some more of her irreverent art to share. “I love you asshole” is a collection of ink-on-watercolour-paper sketches fit for any valentine (there’s a theme of red hearts coming out of bums that just screams “romance”). The show will run until March 7, and tonight is the opening party, which will include an after party at The Press Club. Crooked Star (202 Ossington Avenue), 7 p.m., FREE.
MUSIC: The Associates of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a group of classical music–loving individuals who organize concerts to showcase the extraordinary talents of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra members. Tonight’s show, the second in this season’s Five Small Concerts series, is yet another nod to this romantic time of year, titled “Intimate Letters and Longing: a Concert of Music Inspired by Love.” There will be pieces by Antonín Dvorák, Leoš Janácek, and Felix Mendelssohn, all played by a string quartet featuring musicians Etsuko Kimura, Angelique Toews, Christopher Redfield, and Roberta Janzen of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church (427 Bloor Street West), 7:30 p.m., $18 ($15 for students and seniors).
FILM: Here’s something decidedly unromantic, yet guaranteed to be a good time. The Great Digital Film Festival (which we told you about last week) has a double bill of The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2. Both films are classics, and although there isn’t much romance involved they do star a very young and handsome Al Pacino. The films have been digitally remastered and will be projected on the big screen for cheap. Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond Street West); 6 p.m. (The Godfather), 9:30 p.m. (The Godfather Part 2); $5 for one movie, $9 for the double bill.