Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, November 24 to Wednesday, November 30.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

In Roch Carrier’s 1979 short story “The Hockey Sweater”, a young Roch experiences childhood devastation in rural Quebec. His mother writes a letter to department store owner “Monsieur Eaton” to order a new hockey sweater, rather than filling out the catalogue’s English order form.

Roch is expecting a Montreal Canadiens sweater to arrive in the mail, featuring the name and number of hockey idol Maurice “Rocket” Richard. Roch and all of his friends live for hockey, and are fans of the “Rocket” and the beloved Canadiens. When a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater is delivered instead of a Canadiens jersey and his mother refuses to send it back, Roch is very upset and is shunned by his friends.

On Saturday, December 10th at Showplace Performance Centre, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will present this classic Canadian story as part of the PSO’s holiday concert, “A Nutcracker Christmas”, sponsored by Swish. As a special treat, Montreal Canadiens hockey legend and Peterborough native Bob Gainey will narrate the story while the PSO performs music composed by Abigail Richardson-Schulte to illustrate Roch’s childhood tale. Bob will be wearing one of his jerseys, which will be signed and raffled off in support of the orchestra.

Bob is no stranger to great hockey rivalries. He played in the 1976 Canada Cup, won the Stanley Cup five times as a player, the Frank J. Selke Trophy four times, and the Conn Smythe Trophy once. After his retirement as a player, he worked as an NHL coach or general manager until 2010. Though much of his storied career was spent with the Montreal Canadiens, Bob admits that while growing up in Peterborough, he and many of his friends were fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

When Bob was about the same age as young Roch in The Hockey Sweater, the Leafs were Stanley Cup champions. The team had many strong players, and rather than idolizing one player in particular, allegiances were divided among the young Leafs fans. Bob remembers having a special connection to Leafs captain George Armstrong, although he admired all of the players.

Unlike Roch, Bob grew up with a television at home. He says Saturday nights spent watching Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) on TV were “craved, anticipated, enjoyed.” Those Saturday night games provided all of the inspiration he and his pals needed to become hockey heroes themselves the next time they met to play.

“Rather than simulate every aspect of one player,” Bob says, “we mimicked the most recent exploits viewed on HNIC. A goal by Keon, a save by Bower, a body check by Armstrong, a temper tantrum by Coach Imlach … replayed over and over in the driveway ball hockey game or the outdoor rink.”

Bob and his friends were always trying to get to the rink to play hockey, whether with or without permission from parents. Even when permission was granted, he and his friends often pushed those boundaries and stayed later at the hockey rink than they were supposed to stay. For Bob, the ‘home rink’ was Riverside Park in East City.

“Two sheets of ice, one for pleasure skating, the other for hockey. On Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons everyone you knew was there,” he says.

Bob recalls those happy childhood winters outdoors in Peterborough.

“Living in smaller homes with bigger families, the common refrain from parents was ‘go outside and play.’ So we did,” he says. “The ice was for skating. The snow for sliding, building forts, snowball fights.”

He also remembers just as fondly “the wonderful feeling of warmth, when entirely soaked and spent you would re-enter the home” after an afternoon or evening of playing outside.

In addition to their NHL hockey idols, Bob and his friends followed the players of the Peterborough TPT Petes.

He remembers that this was facilitated “more often via the radio, as Thursday night home games were not an option [to attend] with school on Friday.”

As a teenager, Bob realized that he would likely have a chance to play with the hometown Peterborough Petes. Indeed he starred with them beginning in 1972, and after two seasons with the team he was drafted by Montreal Canadiens general manager Sam Pollock. His 16-year NHL career saw him play 1,160 games, scoring 239 goals and a total of 585 points. In the playoffs, he added 182 games with 73 points, including 25 goals. Bob was a major defensive hockey talent, once called “the world’s best all-around player” by Soviet national team coach Viktor Tikhonov.

Later as a coach and general manager, Bob led the Stars organization to the Stanley Cup finals, winning the championship in 1999, and made major player acquisitions for the Montreal Canadiens including goalie Carey Price. Bob was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992. In 2008 his number 23 hockey sweater was retired and raised to the rafters of Montreal’s Bell Centre. Young Bob grew up to become a famous Canadiens hockey hero just like Roch’s childhood idol, Maurice Richard.

Bob is now an acquaintance of The Hockey Sweater author Roch Carrier. They met through a common interest, their support of the Atwater Library in Montreal. Bob has discussed his participation in the PSO’s performance of The Hockey Sweater with Roch.

“I think he is pleased that his story continues to attract Canadians’ interest, that it still touches people,” he says.

Bob is looking forward to his part in bringing the story to life for its Peterborough debut, although the musical talent in the family is his sister Maureen, who has played the piano and been involved in choral singing for most of her life. Bob says, “My role with the PSO allows me a new experience. To be on stage and participate with a symphony orchestra will be very special.”

Already very familiar with The Hockey Sweater, Bob has a unique perspective when he looks back on his own childhood with the tale in mind.

“Having now been on both sides of this Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens rivalry, I understand better the trauma that young Roch would have gone through,” Bob says. “I can’t claim to have experienced anything that difficult! There were setbacks, disappointments, rink time missed for different reasons. These disappointments mark us in some way, and when similar situations show up again, we have those experiences to use as a guide.”

For young hockey players in the Peterborough area who are training hard and dreaming of pursuing a hockey career like Bob, the hockey legend suggests, “Dreaming about and visualizing our goals is a necessary and wonderful way to project your future. Dreams mixed with work, sacrifice, persistence and discipline can and do come true.”

VIDEO: “The Sweater”

A 1979 short based on Roch Carrier’s story, directed and animated by Sheldon Cohen with script and narration by Carrier, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.

Hear Bob narrate The Hockey Sweater at the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of A Nutcracker Christmas on Saturday, December 10th at 7:30 p.m. Children and adults alike will delight in excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s beloved and timeless Nutcracker. There will be seasonal favourites, a carol sing, and the Kawartha Youth Orchestra will join the orchestra to help get everyone into the spirit of the season.

Update Dec 5 2016 – The show is sold out. Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for students, available at the Showplace Performance Centre box office at 290 George St. N. in downtown Peterborough, by phone at 705-742-7469 or 1-866-444-2154 (toll free), or online at www.showplace.org.

Have you ever heard of the show The Drowsy Chaperone? I hadn’t, but thanks to the students at Lakefield College School, this could be one of my new favourite musicals!

Under the direction of Geoff and Rachel Bemrose, this talented young company recreates the zaniness of 1920s Broadway in one of the cleverest musicals I’ve ever seen. Filled with high energy music and dancing, colourful characters and genuine laughs, this show came out of nowhere, but it’s made such a huge impression on me that I can be bold enough to say it’s one of the top shows I’ve seen in the Kawarthas this year.

Even more astonishing is that this show is open to the public with free performances nightly from November 22nd to 25th.

Despite its success on both Broadway and the London West End, The Drowsy Chaperone has its roots in Toronto, with a unique history. When Toronto-based actors Robert Martin and Janet Van De Graff were to be wed, their friends Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin and Dan McKellar created The Drowsy Chaperone as a wedding present. The show was intended to spoof their relationship and was first performed at a stag party in 1997. Realizing they had something special, the show was rewritten and submitted for the Toronto Fringe Festival.

A huge success, the show caught the eye of David Mirvish who booked The Drowsy Chaperone at The Theater Passe Muraille in 1999 before moving it to The Winter Garden Theater in 2001. There, the show was seen by visiting New York producers and eventually the show opened on Broadway in 2006 where it won five Tony Awards. Since then, productions of The Drowsy Chaperone have opened in London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Melbourne. And now in Lakefield!

The premise of The Drowsy Chaperone is complex one, with many different walls of reality being broken. The show begins in the home of a lonely and mild-mannered Broadway aficionado known only as The Man in the Chair (Braeson Agar). He engages in conversation with the audience about his love for old-time musicals and wants to share a recording of a forgotten 1928 musical called “The Drowsy Chaperone”.

Putting a vinyl record on his turntable, the man drops the needle and his living room becomes the stage for the show. While the audience is listening to the record, the performance of The Drowsy Chaperone unfolds before our eyes. However, at certain moments, the Man in the Chair pauses the record (as well as the performance) to give the audience historical background, gossip, and observations about the actors and the production that the audience is watching. Got it? If you don’t, it will make sense when you see it … and it’s very clever.

The Drowsy Chaperone tells the story of the wedding day of Robert Martin (Kristian Paschalis) to Broadway diva Janet Van De Craff (Madison Sheward), who plans on giving up her acting career for a man she barely knows. With the house brimming with reporters and maids getting ready for the wedding, Robert’s best man George (Liam Kaller) enlists the help of Janet’s alcoholic “Chaperone” (Josie Carr-Harris) to make sure that the groom doesn’t see the bride before the wedding.

Meanwhile, Janet’s producer Feldzieg (Richard Xia) is out to stop the wedding so that he doesn’t lose his leading star. With two gangsters disguised as pastry chefs (Matthew Lovick and Noah Storey) and Feldzieg’s dippy girlfriend Kitty (LJ Simmons) breathing down his neck, Feldzieg enlists the help of Latin lover Aldolpho (Noah Tompkins) to sabotage the wedding.

With all these zany characters together in a massive musical mashup, you get all the hijinks of comedy theatre in a clever spoof of Ziegfeld-era Broadway.

I don’t know if I can find the words to express just how talented the cast and company of The Drowsy Chaperone is. For starters, you have Geoff and Rachel Bemrose at the helm of this show and, when it comes to the Bemroses, you know you are going to get excellence time and time again. What they’ve done is assembled a group of kids who are true triple threats — they can act, they can dance, and they can sing.

I have no problem in saying that the dance numbers in The Drowsy Chaperone are the best I’ve seen on stage in 2016. The large-scale dance numbers featuring the entire company (“Fancy Dress” and “Toledo Surprise”) are professional quality. However, the most surprising dance performance of the show goes to Kristian Paschalis and Liam Kaller for their tap performance in “Cold Feets”.

Equally good are the musical performances, with each cast member delivering perfect performances without missing a note.

Musical highlights includes Madison Sheward’s decent into madness in “Bride’s Lament” (I loved the dancing monkeys), Noah Tompkin’s hilarious over-the-top performance of “I Am Adolpho” (think Ricardo Montalban meets Bela Lugosi, with maybe just a hint of Liberace) and, especially, Josie Carr-Harris’ performance of “As We Stumble Along”.

With the power of Edith Piaf and the flare of Shirley Bassey, Josie gives a hilariously stumbling performance as an old Broadway diva who has seen her day, as the Man in the Chair watches with admiration.

The entire number is charming.

I also want to give a special shout out to Ben Dunk and Kenzie McCallum as Mrs. Tottndale and Underling. Bringing slapstick vaudeville to the stage, the pair is a little out of place in the show, but that seems to be the point. But they are quite charming together, and Ben’s ability to keep a straight face as Kenzie spits water in his face is remarkable. Just watching these two come out on stage together was enough to get an uncontrollable giggle out of me.

But at the centre of this production is Braeson Agar as The Man in the Chair. Rarely leaving the stage, his juxtaposition of warmth and cynicism is wonderful and he manages to take himself in and out of the production, becoming the centre of attention and the quickly fading into the background again. His quips, observations, and gossip keep the show going, but he also often gives uncomfortable glimpses in his own lonely life. It’s a remarkable performance by a wonderful young actor.

VIDEO: Lakefield College School presents The Drowsy Chaperone

With 2016 quickly coming to a close, I feel safe saying that The Drowsy Chaperone could be the best musical I saw this year. The show is just that good and the cast is just that amazing. It’s difficult to give this show enough praise. I laughed until my ribs hurt, was drawn into the multiple levels of storytelling, and was seduced by the amazing 1920s-style costumes designed by Mary Parulski (I honestly wish people still dressed like that on a regular basis).

But most of all, I fell in love with this cast. Their energy, enthusiasm, and professionalism are inspirational. So much talent in one production is uncanny and needs to be seen to be believed. And, with free admission to the show, there’s no excuse not to see a show that I consider to be among the best of 2016.

The Drowsy Chaperone runs from November 22nd to 25th at Lakefield College School in the Bryan Jones Theare. Performance starts at 7:30 pm and admission is free (donations will be accepted at the door for Lakefield College School’s Movember team).

What do church services, circus arts workshops, rock climbing films, and a charity performance by a 158-year-old concert band have in common? They are all events taking place in November and December at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, located at 140 Charlotte Street in downtown Peterborough.

Actually, there’s something else all these events have in common. Each is hosted by a local organization — Peterborough City Church, Peterborough Academy For Circus Arts, Rock And Rope Climbing Centre, and the Peterborough Concert Band — reflecting the Market Hall’s role as a non-profit organization in offering a multi-functional space that supports and nurtures both the performing arts and the community.

Not only can you can show your support for Market Hall by attending the following events, but you can also become a member. Memberships, which start at $25 a year, offer privileges including advance notification and ticket sales for some events and special promotional offers. For more information on becoming a member, visit www.markethall.org

Sunday morning services with Peterborough City Church

When you think of the Market Hall, you probably imagine performing arts rather than religious services. But the latter is one of the more innovative uses of the venue this year, after the formation of Peterborough City Church in January 2016.

Pastors Chad Trivett and Sasha Trivett hold services every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at Market Hall as part of their non-denominational church.

Both Trivetts are ordained with the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, a pentecostal Christian association. They met at Toronto’s Tyndale University College and Seminary and eventually married. Just after getting married, they moved to Tokyo in Japan, where they started an international, interdenominational church.

In 2007, after spending six years in Tokyo (where their son Ari was born), they moved back to Sasha’s hometown in Peterborough to be closer to family, and decided to form another interdenominational church. Peterborough City Church was born.

But the Trivetts needed a location to hold their weekly services, and realized the Market Hall would be an ideal space. There’s also a connection between the church and the performing arts: Chad is in a band that performs contemporary music at the church.

Peterborough City Church offers “inspirational messages and music in an educational and engaging atmosphere where each can worship, pray and learn at their own pace.” For a calendar of Sunday services at the Market Hall, including topics and special speakers, visit www.ptbocitychurch.com.

While there will be no service on Christmas Day (Sunday, December 25), you can join Peterborough City Church for its first annual Christmas service from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, December 23rd. The service will be followed by light refreshments and a cash bar, and child care is available.

Circus Fusion workshops and showcase performance with Peterborough Academy for Circus Arts

Circus skills have been taught for hundreds of years, but it was Canada’s Cirque de Soleil that really brought these amazing acrobatic feats to the public’s attention. If you’ve ever wanted to soar through the air or become a clown, you can learn about these skills and others by enrolling in workshops from the Peterborough Academy for Circus Arts in November and December at the Market Hall.

Led by artistic director Thomas Vaccaro, the Peterborough Academy for Circus Arts (PACA) is a non-profit organization founded in 2015 and dedicated to the teaching and practice of multidisciplinary circus arts. The circus arts aren’t just for professional performers though. Whether it’s aerials, acrobatics, balancing, or objectve manipulation, you can also do it just for fun.

And from Sunday, November 27th to Friday, December 2nd, PACA is offering a series of classes, workshops and performances at the Market Hall called “Circus Fusion” — topped off by the Finale Showcase performance on Friday, December 2nd.

The week of workshops and special events at the Market Hall is open to both performers and the public, with prices ranging from $10 to $20 for individual workshops to $80 for all workshops. There are workshops on aerials, hoops, theatre, clowning, break dancing, and much more. For more information about the available workshops and to purchase tickets, visit www.academyofcircus.org.

If you’re more interested in watching than participating, then you’ll definitely want to go to PACA’s presentation of the Circus Fusion: Finale Showcase at the Market Hall at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 2nd. The finale will feature stunning experimental circus performances and collaborations, and is suitable for the entire family.

Tickets for Circus Fusion: Finale Showcase are $15 for adults, $10 for students, and $5 for children 12 and under (there’s a $3 service fee for all tickets). You can purchase tickets for the Finale Showcase online at tickets.markethall.org or at Moondance Music (425 George St., Peterborough, 705-742-9425), cash only.

VIDEO: Aerial Showcase by The Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts at the Market Hall

Rock climbing films with the Rock and Rock Climbing Centre

If seeing rock climbers hang by their fingertips is more your style, then you’ll want to check out the REEL ROCK Film Tour at the Market Hall at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 3rd.

Hosted by the Rock and Rock Climbing Centre in Peterborough, the REEL ROCK Film Tour brings the best climbing and adventure films of the year to live audiences throughout the world. It’s the definitive annual event for climbing communities around the world.

This year, REEL ROCK 11 features five new electrifying climbing films showcasing the sport’s biggest stories and athletes.

In Young Guns, the new generation of climbers — 15-year-old Ashima Shiraishi and 16-year-old Kai Lightner — are already taking the sport to the next level. A trip to Norway puts their skills to the test, and Ashima attempts to make history on a V15 boulder in Japan.

In Boys in the Bugs, Will Stanhope and Matt Segal are elite-level crack climbers and world-class goofballs. Laugh along as they go for broke on an epic four-year battle to climb a forbidding 5.14 finger crack high in the Canadian alpine wilderness of the Bugaboos.

VIDEO: REEL ROCK 11 official trailer

In Brette, rising talent Brette Harrington goes on a global journey from her hometown granite in Squamish to the big wall proving ground of Yosemite’s El Capitan and onto a landmark free solo in Patagonia.

In Rad Dad, lone wolf Mike Libecki travels to the most remote corners of the globe to find unclimbed walls and establish first ascents. When Mike becomes a father, he has a new challenge: to reconcile his life of adventure with the demands of parenthood, but he may also gain a new partner for his expeditions.

Finally, in Dodo’s Delight, join Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, Ben Ditto, and brothers Nico and Olivier Favresse abourt the good ship Dodo’s Delight as they take a rollicking musical journey across open seas and up unclimbed big walls.

Advance tickets for REEL ROCK 11 are $15 per person, available only at the Rock and Rope Climbing Centre (Unit 16, 280 Perry St., Peterborough, 705-745-2333).

For more information about the REEL ROCK Film Tour, visit www.reelrocktour.com. For more information about the Rock and Rope Climbing Centre, visit www.rockandrope.com.

A festive concert supporting Hospice Peterborough with the Peterborough Concert Band

What better way to get in the Christmas spirit than spending a Sunday afternoon listening to festive music, while knowing you’re helping to support a great community cause?

The Peterborough Concert Band — an award-winning ensemble of more than 40 musicians playing woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments — is staging “Seasonal Sounds for Hospice”, a two-hour concert at the Market Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 11th in support of Hospice Peterborough.

Did you know the Peterborough Concert Band is the oldest performing band in Peterborough? It was originally formed in the 1850s as the Rifle Brigade Band and became one of the finest military civilian brass bands in Ontario. Very early in its history, the band won the Amateur Band Championship for the Dominion of Canada, and in 1904 played at the official opening of the Peterborough Lift Lock. The band continues to honour its legacy as part of Peterborough’s arts community by performing at community events, retirement residences, schools, churches, and parks in Peterborough and surrounding communities.

On the December 11th concert, the ensemble will be performing a variety of seasonal tunes along with some classic concert band pieces, including songs with solo vocals by Peterborough’s Danny Bronson. There will be a reception after the show with complimentary coffee, tea, and confections.

General admission tickets are available for $25 plus fees at the Market Hall box office, by calling 705-749-1146, or online at tickets.markethall.org. Cash-only tickets are also available at Moondance Music (425 George St., Peterborough, 705-742-9425).

Proceeds from this event will support Hospice Peterborough’s “Every Moment Matters” fundraising campaign to build a state-of-the-art facility that will provide a homelike and safe refuge for individuals and their families during the journey through illness, death, and grief.