Jan. 12
All the Way Home
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, to Jan. 14
Presented by the worthy Electric Company, Tad Mosel’s Pulitzer-winning play concerns a small-town family dealing with an accidental death, and the quiet promise of renewal it brings. As intimate as it is unconventional, the production brings the audience — 140 capacity per night— right onto the stage.
Jan. 12
The TCP Show
Firehall Arts Centre, 8 p.m., to Jan. 14
This dance double bill features a multimedia work that explores solitude by the Contingency Plan and a comic piece about religious iconography by the fearless choreographer Tara Cheyenne-Friedenberg.
Jan. 12
Brazilian Girls DJ Set
Aaron Johnston (drums) and Jesse Murphy (bass), the rhythm section for the wildly inventive dance band Brazilian Girls, spin favourite albums and play along with instruments.
Jan. 12
Jill Townsend Big Band
El Barrio, 9 p.m. Vancouver-based arranger/composer Jill Townsend and her smokin’ 17-piece band have twice been nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble by the National Jazz Awards.
Jan. 13
Tenugui: Design Excellence in Japanese Daily Life
National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, to March 24
Yes, it’s an exhibition of tea towels but, no, it’s not going to be dry. The graphics on these multipurpose textiles, used also for wrapping and wearing, range from elaborate to elegantly simple. More than 200 examples on display show the creativity injected into everyday Japanese items.
Jan. 13
Viscera Film Festival
Rio Theatre, 8 p.m.
Curio Media, the new Vancouver-based distribution company that aims to promote female filmmakers in the (decidedly male-dominated) genres of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, presents its first event, a festival of short horror films created by women from around the world. Films range from explorations of nightmares and repressed corners of the psyche, to homages to Japanese splatter films and B-flicks.
Jan. 13
Jacky Cheung
Rogers Arena, 8 p.m.
Ten years after the one-time flight reservations clerk won a 1984 Hong Kong talent contest he was listed in Billboard as the popular singer in all of Asia. Hong Kong’s god of song, Jacky Cheung’s current tour has been compared to a Broadway spectactle and includes an introductory short film, big dance numbers and annimation.
Jan. 13
Steel Panther
Commodore, also Jan. 13
Once again, L.A.’s over-the-top glam metal band sells out two nights at the Commodore, this time on the heels of the release of its second album Balls Out. The CD features cameos by comedian actor Dane Cook and Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger.
Jan. 13
Ian Wallace
Catriona Jeffries Gallery (reception Jan. 12, 7 p.m.)
The venerated Vancouver artist continues his long standing interest in integrating photography and abstract painting in his exhibition Masculin/Féminin, but with a difference: His photographic imagery of male and female leads have been appropriated from emotionally-charged European films of the 1950s and ’60s.
Jan. 14
Giants III: Self Quest
The Cultch, 10 p.m.
Part three of a six-night showcase of Vancouver’s thriving comedy scene features the play Self Quest, written and starring the improv whiz and stage actor Ryan Beil (right), with Charlie Demer and others. The evening also features “News Around Now� with Emmett Hall, “Delicious Things� with Nik Bunting, and videos by Weekend Leisure.
Jan. 14
Snowed in Comedy Tour
Granville Island Stage, 8 p.m.
Mitten-clad applause for five comedians here to beat the winter blues: Arj Barker, who has appeared twice on David Letterman (and plays Dave on the TV show Flight of the Conchords); Dan Quinn, who won best Canadian comic at Just for Laughs; B.C.’s own Glenn Wool, who just won Sydney Comedy Festival’s best-of-the-fest prize; and two England-based Canadians, Pete Johansson, long a fixture on comedy TV shows, and Craig Campbell, nominated for a 2011 best headliner Chortle Award.
Jan. 15
Vancouver Comic Con
Heritage Hall, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
While browsing scores of booths crowded with comic books, consider some numbers. Sales of comics in North America reached $680 million last year, up 20 per cent since 2005. Price of a comic today: $3.99; in the 1950s: 10 cents (90 cents adjusted for inflation). Average age of a comic-book reader today: 27; in the ’50s: 12. And just last month saw the sale of the most-expensive comic ever: $2.16 million for the first Superman comic.
Jan. 15
J.S. Bach’s Musical Offering
St. Philip’s Anglican Church, 7:30 p.m.
An interesting pairing: J.S. Bach at his most mystic/intellectual, and new(ish) work by Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock. Flutist Soile Stratkauskas, violinist Arthur Neele, harpsichordist Christopher Bagain and viola da gamba player
Natalie Mackie tackle Bach’s Musical Offering and Morlock’s Revenant.
Jan. 16
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Orpheum Theatre, also Jan. 14
The VSO combines two ultra-popular works, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, with a glimpse of music by Polish one-hit-wonder Henryk Gorecki: his Three Pieces in an Old Style. Branwell Tovey conducts, and Berlin-based British pianist Freddy Kempf is featured.
Jan. 16
BJ McHugh
Vancouver Public Library, 7-8:30 p.m.
Given our city’s healthy life style reputation, it’s not surprising that the world’s fastest senior runner resides in North Vancouver. At 83, BJ McHugh runs faster than any woman her age (most recently in the October 2011 Chicago Marathon). Her new memoir, My Road to Rome: The Running Times of BJ McHugh, notes that most people over 50 can enjoy fantastic health and fitness and tells the story of how she does it.
Jan. 17
Hank Knox: The Golden Age of the Harpsichord
Cory Weeds’ Cellar Jazz Club, 8 p.m.
Harpsichord at a jazz club? Why not? After all, music for the queen of Baroque instruments requires a certain intimacy plus loads of improvisational insight. Knox, director of the Early Music program at McGill University, plays music from 17th century masters Frescobaldi, Sweelinck, and William Byrd.
Jan. 18
Ladytron DJ set
Venue, doors 9 p.m.
Reuben Yu, who plays synthesizer for British electronic dance band Ladytron, spins indie, electro, ’80s, house, rock, and soul music.
Jan. 18
Glory Days
The Cultch, to Jan. 28
Glory Days, the 2008 rock musical that famously ran for just one performance on Broadway, gets a new life by Vancouver’s Boys Upstairs Equity Co-op. James Gardiner’s script concerns four best who reunite one year after high school.
Jan. 19
The Wailers
Venue, 9 p.m.
The reggae legends from Jamaica are fronted by the bassist Aston “Family Man� Barrett, who has playing with the Wailers for 40 years, and was one of Bob Marley’s rare creative collaborators.
Jan. 19
City and Colour
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 7:30 p.m.; also Jan. 20
This past summer, Dallas Green finally quit his post hardcoare group Alexisonfire to focus on his sensitive folk rock band City and Colour, which over the last couple of years has eclipsed AOF in popularity and mainstream success.
Ahead
La La La Human Steps
Jan. 21-22
Centre for Performing Arts
In his romantic new creation, marking the 30th anniversary of La La La Human Steps, Édouard Lock presents a fantastically complex ballet performed by virtuoso dancers. Inspired by two operas, both love tragedies from Greek myth, Lock’s deconstruction isn’t so much a narrative of these stories as it is a display of the loss they evoke. The score, by former John Cage collaborator Gavin Bryar, is performed live by a quartet.