Our picks for the top things to do in Toronto on the weekend of April 22-25, including Eugene Levy talking music, Sook-Yin Lee’s home concert and the inaugural AfroWaveTO festival.
Music Of My Life: A Conversation With Eugene Levy
Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy is helping launch the Royal Conservatory of Music’s new on-demand streaming platform, RoyalConservatory.Live. Levy will kick off a new online conversation series in which stars of stage and screen chat about the music they can’t live without. He’ll recount his early music experiences as a high school saxophone player, the movie A Mighty Wind and George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue. Each episode also includes a musical performance filmed at Toronto’s Koerner Hall. New content will be added the platform on Thursdays.
April 22 at 3 pm. Free. RoyalConservatory.Live
TimePlay Live
It’s been a long while since we’ve been able to go to a movie theatre and even longer since we’ve done any of the rituals that accompany it: buying popcorn, sitting through previews and playing TimePlay. Cinemas aren’t back just yet, but TimePlay is. That trivia experience is relaunching tonight with a big game for 10,000 SCENE points. Use your phone and a second screen (a computer or TV instead of a big screen, sadly) and compete against other people for points to spend on some far-off movie, one at home or one of the restaurants you can use SCENE points at.
April 22 at 8:30 pm. Free. timeplay.tv
The Toronto Pigeons
Factory Theatre wraps up its You Can’t Get There From Here series of audio dramas set in Toronto with Luke Reece’s play about three pigeons – yes, pigeons – riffing about the city during a critical June 2019 NBA playoff game between the Raptors and the Golden State Warriors. (And remember you can listen to the previous four audio dramas in the series, including Keith Barker’s Every Minute Of Every Day.)
From April 22. Free. factorytheatre.ca
Sook-Yin Lee… at home
Sook-Yin Lee is celebrating the release of jooj two, her new album with her late ex-partner Adam Litovitz, by performing the songs in the same space they made them. She’ll perform, read some of Litovitz’s creative writing and share stories from her long career in music, film, stage and broadcasting. For more of that, check out our 40 at 40 look-back with Lee at her 1990 NOW cover.
April 23 at 8:30 pm. Free on YouTube.
AfroWaveTO
Toronto-based hip-hop/dancehall artist Lexxicon launches the first AfroWaveTO Festival this weekend. Pre-recorded on March 24, the show is headlined by reggae artist Exco Levi and dancehall singer/songwriter/producer Kirk Diamond. The lineup also includes Toronto singer Desiire, R&B/soul singer/songwriter LeiLa Dey and Afro-fusion artist Shopé, who won CBC’s new talent competition Searchlight in 2019.
April 24 at 7 pm. Free. Register here
BloomCam
It might be snowing in April, but no need to switch on the fireplace channel since the City of Toronto is getting into the slow TV trend with BloomCam. For a second year, officials have fenced off High Park’s three main cherry blossom areas and rigged up a livestream to discourage crowds from gathering to bask in light pink petals. If you’re staying home and need to zone out with something meditative, zone out locally with the BloomCam.
Free. toronto.ca/cherryblossoms
Helen’s Necklace
Tarragon Theatre’s “acoustic” series of plays it’s presented in the past – and hopes to in the future – continues with an audio version of Carole Fréchette’s magnificent two-hander about a woman looking for a lost piece of jewellery in an unnamed Middle Eastern city. Eda Holmes directs Laurence Dauphinais and Antoine Yared.
April 25 to May 9. $12.50. tarragontheatre.com
