Seven Days, Seven Nights: Ricky Martin, Deepak Chopra and Aïda among best bets for Oct. 12 – 18

This is your last week to check out the must-see Metamorphoses: In Rodin’s Studio exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The blockbuster exhibition features almost 300 works, including original studio plasters of the masterpieces The Thinker and The Walking Man. Most fascinating and educational are the insights into life in his studio, where Rodin employed dozens of artisans. Normally closed on Mondays, the MMFA has extended its hours this week: Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Wednesday and Thursday when the MMFA will open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibition runs to Oct. 18. Admission: $10 to $20, free for kids 12 and under. Advance tickets highly recommended. Call 514-285-2000 or visit mbam.

Tuesday, Oct. 13

The 44^th annual Festival du nouveau cinéma continues this week with daily screenings of filmmaker and multimedia artist Richard Kerr’s Demi Monde, a “fresco” of images from Hollywood films headed for the dump that Kerr digitized into a series of long-dissolving sequences that celebrate film, cinema and life. Screenings of the 300-minute film begin at 6 p.m. in the Agora du Coeur des Sciences at UQAM (175 President-Kennedy Ave.). Free admission. Meanwhile, Rolling Stones fans should not miss the rarely-screened documentary Cocksucker Blues directed by Robert Frank, chronicling the Stones’s 1972 American tour (Oct. 16 at 9 p.m.); the band kept the doc out of circulation for decades, reportedly because of the film’s orgy scenes (including one on a plane) and depiction of backstage drug use. The FNC runs to Oct. 18 at various venues. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 1-866-908-9090 or visit nouveaucinema.


Must-see concert of the week: Red-hot American soul, R&B, jazz and blues singer Andra Day headlines her first-ever Montreal show at Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent Blvd.) at 8:30 p.m. Admission: $15 advance, $17 day of. Tickets via evenko.

Wednesday, Oct. 14

Puerto Rican pop superstar Ricky Martin always put on a dynamic live show and headlines the Bell Centre at 8 p.m. Opening act: Wisin. Tickets: $79 to $117; call 514-790-2525 or visit evenko.

Thursday, Oct. 15

The play State of Denial, written by Rahul Varma and directed by Liz Valdez, continues at the Segal Centre Studio (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd.): Set in contemporary Canada and Turkey in 1915, State of Denial links the Armenian genocide of 1915 with the 1994-95 genocide in Rwanda when a Rwandan-born Canadian filmmaker travels to Turkey to investigate stories of genocide and hidden identity. State of Denial runs to Oct. 25. Admission: $18 to $26. For tickets, call 514-739-7944 or visit segalcentre.

Another play of note opens tonight: Persephone Productions remounts playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s acclaimed play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, set in 1661 when the most famous portrayer of female roles on the London stage was a male performer named “Kynaston.” The play chronicles Kynaston’s personal and professional life after King Charles II changes the law so that only women can play women’s roles. This production boasts a large cast featuring graduates from several theatre programs in Montreal, notably Thomas Wilkinson Fullerton as Ned Kynaston, and runs at Centre Culturel Calixa-Lavallée (3819 Calixa-Lavallée St.) from Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 21-24 at 8 nightly, plus 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 18 and 25. Tickets: $20 to $25.; call 1-866-967-8167 or via persephoneproductions.

There is a different show nightly at the 7^th annual Montreal Burlesque Festival which runs Oct. 15 – 17 at Club Soda (1225 St-Laurent Blvd.). Prices for general, premium and VIP admission range from $30 to $129. The festival’s official closing show, Gentlemen Prefer Billy, starring Montreal’s “drag burlesque stripper” Billy L’Amour fronting a jazz band, with a special performance by festival founder and Montreal’s Queen of Burlesque Scarlett James, will be held at The Wiggle Room (3874 St-Laurent Blvd.), Oct. 18 at 9 p.m. Admission: $20 advance, $25 at the door. For more information, visit montrealburlesquefestival.

Friday, Oct. 16

Two events of note at the 2015 Canadian International Organ Competition Festival: their gala concert at Notre-Dame Basilica will feature CIOC laureates David Baskeyfield (U.K., 2014), Christian Lane (U.S.A., 2011) and Frédéric Champion (France, 2008) on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. (admission: $20 to $150); and legendary French organist Jean Guillou headlines the Maison symphonique de Montréal on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. (admission: $35 to $65). The CIOC runs to Oct. 25. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 514-790-1111 or visit ciocm.


Discovered while playing in the Paris métro as a penniless busker, British-French singer-poet, pianist and international sensation Benjamin Clementine headlines L’Astral (305 Ste-Catherine St. W.) tonight at 8. Admission: $30 to $34.55. Tickets: 514-871-1881 or visit montrealjazzfest.
Bestselling author and influential thinker Deepak Chopra presents his lecture The Future of Wellbeing at Théâtre Maisonneuve at 7:30 p.m. Admission: $54.75 to $206.25. For tickets, call 514-842-2112 or go to placedesarts.

Saturday, Oct. 17

The Lyric Theatre, one of Montreal’s longest-standing community-theatre companies, celebrates its 50^th anniversary with a one-night-only concert at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall (7141 Sherbrooke St. W.). They will be joined by about 80 performers from the Lyric Theatre Alumni Chorus to create a 120-member ensemble to perform smash hits from such musicals as Hairspray and Beauty and the Beast. Showtime: 8 p.m. Tickets: $17 to $30; call 514-743-3382 or via lyrictheatrecompany.
Montreal soprano Marie-Josée Lord performs a concert version of Verdi’s classic opera Aïda, accompanied by the Orchestre philharmonique des musiciens de Montréal and the Choeur d’Opéra Immédiat, at the Église St-Pierre Claver (2000 St-Joseph Blvd. E.) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $50, via opera-immediat.

Sunday, Oct. 18

American heavy-metal band Danzig headlines Metropolis (59 Ste-Catherine St. E.) with opening acts Superjoint Ritual, Veil of Maya, Prong and Witch Mountain. Showtime: 7:15 p.m. Tickets: $42 in advance, $47 day of show. Call 514-844-3500 or via evenko.

Posted in: Andra Day, Billy L’Amour, Cocksucker Blues, Demi Monde, Gentlemen Prefer Billy, In Rodin’s Studio