Show tunes, a star-crossed sing-along and music to float away on, all in Ottawa, all this weekend.
No business like show business
The best of Broadway's show tunes have plenty of heart and memorable melodies. They're the kind of anthems that lift your spirit and leave you humming as you leave the theatre.
Pops conductor Jack Everly and the NAC Orchestra have invited a gang of Great White Way veterans to deliver the goods from such notable musicals as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun.
Where: Southam Hall, National Arts Centre, 1 Elgin St.
When: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
Cost: Tickets start at $50 and can be purchased here.
Sing along with Sondheim
The lyrics are brilliant, the melodies sublime and the love story oh so tragic.
It's West Side Story, an update on Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, set to music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The action is relocated to 1950s Manhattan, and the feuding families have been replaced by rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks.
Join in and sing along to America, Tonight and I Feel Pretty, as Rita Moreno and George Chakiris scamper across the screen in their Oscar-winning roles.
Ottawa theatre troupe A Company of Fools is screening the 1961 movie as a fundraiser to support its summer productions.
"We give the audience an instruction card with ways they can participate and sing along, boo, hiss and make siren sounds," said Catriona Leger, the company's artistic director. There will also be prizes.
Where: The Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank St.
When: Sunday at noon. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.
Cost: $15 dollars for adults, $10 for those 17 and under.
Beautiful dreamers
They've been dubbed the "masters of rural Zen," and the four musicians behind New Brunswick's The Olympic Symphonium certainly know how to cast a peaceful spell with their dreamy acoustic sounds and beautiful harmonies.
"I feel like the music is really patient," said Graeme Walker, guitarist and bass player with the band.
"There is a focus on textures and tones, but the overall thing for me is it's music that's not going anywhere in a hurry."
On Saturday, the musicians will perform in the cozy confines of the Record Centre, among the stacks of LPs, as audience members perched on an assortment of stools and chairs crowd around.
Where: The Record Centre, 1099 Wellington St. W.
When: Saturday at noon.
Cost: Pay what you can.