DAYTIME
Come Up To My Room
Call in sick to check out (but not into) a hotel room that has been transformed into one of filmdom’s most iconic bedrooms, the poster-plastered domain of the rascal protagonist in John Hughes’s sweet high-school comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As part of an annual alt-design event involving the whimsical conversions of a Victorian hotel’s rooms and public spaces, the meticulous recreation inside Room 207 includes a want-to-be Matthew Broderick, whose “life moves pretty fast” line can now be attested to by eighties-era kids now deep into adulthood.
Jan. 21 to 24. $5 to $10. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., 416-531-4635 or comeuptomyroom.com.
NIGHTTIME
Hookup
She snorts adorably when she laughs; he has the sexiest spit-take ever. And clearly you both enjoy live comedy. More ha-ha harmony than eHarmony, an improvised production solicits the turn-ons and turn-offs of two random audience members and uses them as inspiration for an off-the-cuff romantic comedy. Improvisers include former Second City stars Nigel Downer and Jess Bryson in an evening that would make a dandy “You’ll never guess how your mother and I met” tale down the road.
Fridays, Jan. 22 to Feb. 26, 10 p.m. $10 to $12. Bad Dog Comedy Theatre, 875 Bloor St. W., 416-491-3115 or baddogtheatre.com.
FESTIVAL
Progress
Back for their second campaign, the Summerworks organizers of this theatre fandango are literally making Progress. Highlights include Century Song (Jan. 19 to 23), a wordless hybrid of song and movement starring the soprano Neema Bickersteth. On Jan. 16, the Lebanese actor-playwright Rabih Mroué and his younger brother Yasser Mroué give the third of three performances of Riding on a Cloud, a personal piece involving the profound, lingering effects of his country’s civil war on sibling Yasser, who survived a sniper’s bullet to the brain in 1987.
Festival runs to Feb. 7. $15 to $25. Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W., 416-538-0988 or thisisprogress.ca.
FOR THE KIDS
Music & Truffles: London Haydn Quartet
The London Haydn Quartet, an ensemble devoted to the complete works of the “father of the string quartet,” use only gut strings, which were the standard in Franz Joseph’s day all the way up to the 1940s. The foursome also rough it without other modern musical comforts, such as a simple chin-rest for violins and violas. Preteen audiences can learn about all this and more at an emceed, interactive performance that includes post-show chocolates that never go out of style.
Jan. 17, 1:15 p.m. $13. (Concert for adults, 3:15 p.m., $20 to $30). Walter Hall, 80 Queen’s Park, 416-922-3714 or mooredaleconcerts.com.
ONE TIME ONLY
Steve Lambke
Some will know him by his musical sobriquet “Baby Eagle,” while others might recognize him as a guitar-playing member of the indie-rock romantics Constantines. For the uninitiated, though, the whispering balladeer Steve Lambke is an elegant lyricist who previously worked in the style of Bob Dylan, but on his intoxicating new album Days of Heaven makes music in the gentle but committed speak-song manner of a Leonard Cohen, an approach that is unfailingly and miraculously intimate.
Jan. 17, 8:30 p.m. $8 to $10. Burdock Music Hall, 1184 Bloor St. W., 416-546-4033 or burdockto.com.
Blues to come
Paul James Band and Friends
The upbeat local hero celebrates his 65th birthday and decades of rocking, billy-ing and doing it like Bo Diddley.
Jan. 16, 8 p.m. Free (by mentioning password “Hey Bo Diddley” at door). Phoenix, 410 Sherbourne St., pauljamesband.com.
Sugar Brown
With one foot in a gut bucket and the other in Chess Studios, the singing scholar Ken Kawashima enthuses a genre.
Jan. 20, 8 p.m. $10. Jazz Bistro, 251 Victoria St., 416-363-5299 or jazzbistro.ca.
Eric Bibb
As much a son of sixties blues revivalist Taj Mahal as the New York folkie Leon Bibb, the likeable American veteran continues his acoustic-roots adventures.
Jan. 20, 8:30 p.m. $25. Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W., 416-531-6604 or hughsroom.com.