Urban Planner: May 14, 2013

In today's Urban Planner: a panel discussion with LGBTQ writers, a Lady Gaga musical, and a little springtime comedy.

By Torontoist

Kimberley Persona bears an uncanny resemblance to Lady Gaga in Of a Monstrous Child: a Gaga Musical. Photo courtesy of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

• Poetry: Help celebrate the life of Canadian poet Daryl Hine, along with the release of his last collection, A Reliquary and Other Poems. Readings of Hine’s work will be provided by various poets, including Norm Sibum, Richard Greene, Blaise Moritz, and Nila Matuk. Ben McNally Books (366 Bay Street), 6 p.m., FREE. Details
• Books: To mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17, the Toronto Public Library is hosting a panel discussion featuring some talented and outspoken young writers from Toronto’s LGBTQ community. Querying the Page includes input from Farzana Doctor, Nancy Jo Cullen, Debra Anderson, and Zoe Whittall, and will be moderated by Vivek Shraya. Toronto Public Library, Palmerston Branch (560 Palmerston Avenue), 6:30 p.m., FREE. Details
• Theatre: Delve into the world of dating, love, and marriage—sans commitment—with Angelwalk Theatre’s presentation of the off-Broadway musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Offered as a series of vignettes set to music, the show focuses on the disastrous, hilarious, and touching aspects of love and dating. Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street), 8 p.m., $25-$45. Details
• Theatre: The 2012-2013 Buddies in Bad Times season goes out with a bang, and a growl, with the world premiere of Ecce Homo Theatre’s Of a Monstrous Child: a Gaga Musical. Bruce Dow plays legendary performer and master of ceremonies Leigh Bowery, with Kimberly Persona as Mother Monster herself. Using the music of Lady Gaga as a backdrop, the show is a crash course in the history of queer performance, celebrating everyone from Yoko Ono to Madonna, and Boy George. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), 8 p.m., PWYC-$37. Details
• Comedy: The weather is finally warm, flowers are blooming, birds are chirping; it’s time to laugh again! Celebrate the death of a particularly treacherous winter with My Spring-A-Ling comedy show. Hosted by Video on Trial‘s Sara Hennessey and featuring stand-up from seasoned pros Amanda Brooke-Perrin, Kathleen Phillips, and Chris Locke. The Ossington (61 Ossington Street), 9 p.m., PWYC. Details

Ongoing…

• Music: The Lula Music and Arts Centre’s annual Lulaworld festival kicks off on May 10 with Ethiopian jazz innovators Jay Danley and Fantahun Shewankochew. The festival travels around the world for the month of May, with performances most nights (and some afternoons) from local world music purveyors Uma Nota, Cuban player Bobby Carcasses, the Ukrainian Telnyuk Sisters, and more. (For a full schedule, prices, and reservations, visit the Lula Lounge website.) Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), 12 p.m., FREE–$25. Details
• Theatre: A fragile young woman obsessed with an old mechanized box containing an ancient (and possibly deadly) artifact calls upon a clairvoyant, a paranormal investigator, and a parapsychologist to assist in unlocking its secrets. No, it’s not a new AMC series, or an upcoming summer blockbuster—it’s Visitations, the new immersive-theatre experience by The Mission Business, creator of last year’s epic bio-horror theatrical extravaganza, Zed.TO.

  As with Zed.TO, the audience is very much at the heart of the action in Visitations, exploring rooms, decoding messages, solving puzzles, and trying to prevent a catastrophe—or perhaps being used to bring one about. The more you bring to the experience, the more fun you’ll have in return. Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West), 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., $40-$80. Details

• Theatre: David Yee examines life’s interconnectivity in Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave. The play follows an escort in Thailand, a housewife in Utah, and a Catholic priest in India, and how their lives are simultaneously brought together and torn apart by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $21-$53. Details
• Theatre: Mick Gordon’s BEA tells the story of a young woman suffering from a debilitating illness that has left her bedridden for eight years. She needs someone to feed her, wash her, dress her. But she still controls her right to live or die; a decision with which she struggles. BEA features performances from Bahareh Yaraghi, Deborah Drakeford, and Brendan McMurtry-Howlett. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street), 8 p.m., $10-$25. Details
• Theatre: Theatre company One Little Goat presents the English-language premiere of The Charge of the Expormidable Moose, an adaptation of Québecois playwright Claude Gauvreau’s story of a embattled poet who may or may not be a prisoner. Gauvreau, a noted figure in Quebec’s radical movement in the mid-20th century, wrote the play in the ’50s while in and out of a mental institution. The show, which was not produced until the ’70s, has become a landmark of Quebec theatre. The seven-member cast includes veterans like Hume Baugh, established indie actors like David Christo, and up-and-comers like Jessica Salgueiro. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $13–$25. Details
• Theatre: If you’ve been paying attention to musical theatre news over the past two years, you know that The Book of Mormon has a passionate and devout following of fans who swear it’s the long-awaited saviour of the artform. The show won nine Tonys in 2011, the cast recording reached number three on the Billboard chart, and tickets for its Broadway run are rare and expensive. Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King Street West), 8 p.m., Prices vary. Details
• Theatre: Videofag, a performance venue in Kensington Market, has played host to a variety of events since it opened last November. It has transformed itself into a cinema, an art gallery, a nightclub, or whatever else has been needed. But its transformation for The Biographer, a new play from Daniel Karasik, is something else entirely. Videofag (187 Augusta Avenue), 8 p.m., $15-$23. Details

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 us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.