Arts hot ticket: A Christmas Story, Winterreise, Sex With Strangers, Water, and Monster

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      A Christmas Story: The Musical

      November 2 to 17 at the Michael J. Fox Theatre

      Align Entertainment has made its name with musicals from The Addams Family to Shrek The Musical, making it the perfect company to take on a classic: the beloved 1940s-set story of nine-year-old Ralphie yearning for Santa to bring him a Red Ryder Carbine Action BB gun. (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”) Bob Clark’s 1983 film is a holiday cult favourite; the musical rendition scored three Tony nominations when it debuted on Broadway in 2012.

      Winterreise

      November 2 at Christ Church Cathedral

      To get you into the mood for the colder weather approaching, Early Music Vancouver brings you Franz Schubert’s intensely moving 1827 song cycle Die Winterreise (“Winter’s Journey”). The draw here is fast-rising Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly, accompanied by keyboard star Michael McMahon on a 19th-century fortepiano. Expect it to be as transcendent as the first snowfall.

      Sex With Strangers

      To November 10 at Studio 16

      Lust and love in the digital age: that’s the hot topic Mitch and Murray Productions takes on with this new script by House of Cards writer Laura Eason. In the intimate two-hander, a young sex blogger tracks down an older novelist at a remote writers’ retreat, and sparks fly. But can you ever really know who you’re sleeping with in this era of Internet identity?

      Water

      (November 2 to 24 at the Kimoto Gallery)

      Vancouver painter David Wilson specializes in evocative images of this city’s rain-soaked streets, whether it’s at nighttime, with streetlights bouncing off Gastown’s cobblestones, or in the steely grey daytime, when trolley buses splash through puddles. You’ll recognize a lot of those views, and the feelings they evoke, in this show of new works—canvases custom-made for the Wet Coast.

      Monsters

      (November 8 at the Orpheum Annex)

      Miscellaneous Productions’ 2017 stage show Monsters now has a film version. If you missed the original, check out this local premiere: it’s all about the scary beasts that thrive in our society—like racism and bullying—in a fusion of hip-hop, theatre, and world music. Beforehand, catch Ghost of Productions Past—a feminist satire that brazenly takes on the lack of diversity on the Canadian theatre scene.

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