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It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Scaramouche, The Gabardine and North 44
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Today in Toronto: Ron Sexsmith, Kim’s Convenience and more
Evgeny Kissin If anyone can breathe new life into Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, it’s the renowned Russian pianist with the Eraserhead hairdo. The program also features a less familiar work: the overture to Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s opera Maskarade. The TSO will take a run at Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan and the suite from his opera, Der Rosenkavalier. Find out more »
Home David Storey is a former professional rugby player who rocketed to notoriety as a playwright in the 1960s, despite having no theatrical experience. Though not as well known here as his compatriots Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, Storey shares their love of humour and surprise twists, as evidenced by this show about two aging gentlemen who aren’t quite what—and where—they seem to be. Previews from May 8. Find out more » Check out more events happening
Today in Toronto: Rent, Swan Lake and more
Miles Perkin Trio Canadian double bass player Perkin, who divides his time between Montreal and Berlin, is renowned for honouring both the improvisational qualities of jazz and a compositional approach. His sound could almost be called chamber jazz. He performs with the highly regarded British trumpeter Tom Arthurs and French pianist Benoît Delbecq, recently awarded the prestigious Grand Prix International du Disque. Find out more »
Rent Living the dream of undergraduate theatre geeks everywhere, students of Sheridan’s music theatre performance program have been invited to take their popular production of Jonathan Larson’s leather-and-lace riff on La Bohème to the Mirvish mainstage. Find out more »
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Today in Toronto: The Shipment
The Shipment Young Jean Lee, a 37-year-old Korean-American and rising star of New York’s theatre scene, has wasted no time since moving from academia to playwriting a decade ago. She takes aim at the self-satisfied notion of post–racial America with a story about being young, black and (arguably) gifted in the U.S.A. Find out more »
Spotlight: John Irving’s new novel In One Person is an epic tale of bisexual bawdiness
(Image: Matthew Tammaro)
John Irving writes big, blustery novels full of larger-than-life characters and sex in all its acrobatic and often scandalous manifestations. His first bestseller, 1978’s The World According to Garp, featured the rape of a dying soldier by his nurse, a cross-dressing former football star and an act of oral sex that ends in accidental castration. His next, The Hotel New Hampshire, had brother-sister incest and a polyamorous woman in a bear costume. No wonder Irving’s books have occasionally been the target of ban-happy religious groups. In One Person, his heartbreaking and comic new novel, is a fictional memoir by Billy Abbott, a writer who realizes very early on that he is prone to “crushes on the wrong people”—as a kid, he is as interested in bedding Jacques, his school’s star wrestler, as he is Miss Frost, the town’s eccentric librarian. Abbot is bisexual, though he rejects the idea that any label can contain the whole complicated mess of a person’s sex life. He witnesses America’s sexual revolutions and counter-revolutions, from the repressive 1950s to our era of militant sexual identities. It is Irving’s most political novel yet, and yet still infused with his signature brand of literary lust. In One Person frequently plunges to near-pornographic depths, though its impact is always felt above the waistline, in the head and the heart.
BOOK
In One Person
by John Irving
On shelves May 12
The Thing: this spring fashion is all about colour, colour, colour
It’s loud and fearless and showy. We like it
2012 is shaping up to be a preposterously fun year. Spring showed up early. Bryan Adams is touring again (woot woot!). And the city’s tastemakers are all wearing super-bright colours. It’s a trend inspired by nostalgia for the sporty vibe of the ’80s and ’90s: neon is back, and while there aren’t any jumpsuits, casual is the thing (sorry, Mad Men). But this time around, it’s more sophisticated.
Click here to check out our colour-crazy spring fashion spread »
Today in Toronto: Pongapalooza, West Side Story and more
Baobab This version of a West African legend uses masks and puppetry to tell the story of a boy born from a baobab tree. The poor kid must find a way to end the drought that has plagued a local village. Remembering to turn off the tap after brushing seems like a snap in comparison. Ages four to eight. Find out more »
How to Disappear Completely Vancouver lighting designer Itai Erdal has created a documentary–style show about the last nine months of his mother’s life, which he recorded through photography and film after moving back to Israel to be with her. Find out more »
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Must-Try: An offbeat dessert (it has foie gras) that’s worth its $25 price tag, from The Black Hoof
Two toast toppers—one lowbrow, one luxurious—come together in the Foie and Nutella, The Black Hoof’s most inventive dessert to date. A seared, darkly caramelized three-ounce slab of duck liver arrives sparkling with Maldon salt. The liver is perched on a slice of banana bread that’s been baked in rich buttermilk custard until it’s as dense and creamy as bread pudding. The plate is streaked with Nutella, sprinkled with crumbled hazelnut shortbread cookies, dotted with sherry-rosemary gastrique and finished with peppery lovage cress. Rich, sweet, salty, sour, creamy and crunchy, the bizarre combination of ingredients is a revelation. $25. The Black Hoof, 928 Dundas St. W., 416-551-8854.
See, Hear, Read: our experts pick the movie, music and book release of the month
They love it. We want it. Three red-hot releases
“Ed Burns has two careers going on. He’s an actor in big Hollywood movies like Man on a Ledge, and he’s an indie filmmaker who creates romantic comedies that feel like early Woody Allen. His newest is about two marriages—one just starting out, and one that appears to be going down in flames. Burns shot it over 12 days for only $9,000. It’s frank, intimate and honest.”
—Andrea Elizabeth Mitchell
Staffer at Videoflicks
Newlyweds, directed by Edward Burns (May 22)
Friday Night Bites: tables for two at Table 17, Fabbrica and Marben
Read the rest of this entry »It’s 4 p.m. on Friday, and you don’t have a dinner reservation. Still, there’s no need to fret (or waste your night waiting for a table). We just called some of the city’s hottest restaurants and found three that can squeeze in two for dinner tonight. Now it’s up to you to get dialing and snag a table before they’re all gone. Today: Table 17, Fabbrica and Marben.
Toronto Life nominated for 24 National Magazine Awards
“The Truth about Tim Hudak” was nominated in the Magazine Covers category
The nominations for the 35th annual National Magazine Awards were announced this week, and we’re very pleased to report that Toronto Life was recognized in 16 written, four visual and three integrated categories, as well as the special Magazine of the Year (Digital) category, for a total of 24 nominations. The awards will be handed out on June 7 at a gala at the Carlu. Check out all of our nominations, along with links to the stories, below.
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Today in Toronto: Adi Nes, Bryan Adams and more
Adi Nes A group of soldiers recreating da Vinci’s Last Supper is this Israeli photographer’s most famous work, but he has courted controversy more than once, focusing on the fraught relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, referencing scenes from the Bible and adding a distinctly homoerotic flavour to his images. Find out more »
Bryan Adams CanRock stalwart Adams is now better known in fashion circles as a photographer, but fans of his power balladry needn’t despair: despite the artsy leanings, he’s still the denim-wearing, guitar-slinging guy who, in his quieter moments, wants to know if you’ve ever really, really ever loved a woman. Find out more »
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New Reviews: Don Don Izakaya, Pachuco Modmex and Hopgood’s Foodliner
A Japanese izakaya to rival Guu Maritime comfort food and more haute tacos
DON DON IZAKAYA 
130 Dundas St. W., 416-492-5292
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Taiko drums and a chorus of Japanese greetings welcome diners as they walk into Toronto’s latest izakaya. Don Don is great fun, if you can get in—on weekends, wait times soar to 45 minutes or longer. Chef and co-owner Daisuke Izutsu, whose restaurant Kaiseki Sakura closed last year, works the floor with charisma, chatting with diners at the long communal tables opposite the open kitchen. His menu is fantastically adventurous and confident. For example, Hopetta-Yaki—mashed potatoes topped with chicken confit, gremolata, pickled ginger, shaved bonito, salty-sweet bulldog sauce and a squiggle of mayonnaise—is as addictive as it is unusual. Mackerel sashimi, charred tableside by a blowtorch-wielding showman of a server, is smoky and delicate. Desserts include velvety caramel flan and intense green tea mousse. Over 70 sakes are available, as well as 13 shochu cocktails. Small plates $5–$8.
