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Big Sugar gets Heated

Dec. 27, 8 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre

Tickets start at $29.50 plus fees at Ticketmaster

In 1998, Canadian blues-reggae-rock band Big Sugar released its fourth full-length album, Heated, the follow-up to 1996’s megawatt Hemi-Vision.

It went on to be another juggernaut for the Hugo Boss-wearing, genre-bending band fronted by Gordie Johnson, going platinum in Canada and spawning enduring rock-radio staples in Turn the Lights On, Better Get Used to It and The Scene.

Earlier this month, Big Sugar embarked on its 25th-anniversary tour of Heated, which stops in Winnipeg next week. The band will perform the album in its entirety, and will also debut a new lineup: Ben Lowe, the 22-year-old son of late, longtime bassist Garry Lowe, who died in 2018, has stepped into his dad’s shoes on bass, while drummer Joe Magistro has taken the place behind the kit.

A few tickets are still available for the Dec. 27 show at the Burton Cummings Theatre. Visit Ticketmaster.

— Jen Zoratti

Pyjama Days at the Museum

Dec. 26-Jan. 4

Manitoba Museum, 190 Rupert Ave.

Tickets at box office or manitobamuseum.ca

If the prospect of Boxing Day/week shopping sends you scurrying back under the covers, the Manitoba Museum might just be the perfect escape — and you don’t even have to get out of your PJs.

Starting Dec. 26, the Manitoba Museum is hosting Pyjama Days, a chance to spend the holiday season celebrating winter and maybe just learn a thing or two.

Throw on your coziest flannel jammies and hit the museum galleries for their Spot the Snowman scavenger hunt; while you’re at it, take a tour of the Nonsuch’s cargo hold between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. In the auditorium, all manner of chilly and electrifying science experiments and demonstrations will be taking place involving ice and static. Down at the Planetarium, meanwhile, the Beyond the Sun show debuts Dec. 26, featuring a search of the universe for Earth-like planets.

While showing up in your PJs isn’t mandatory, those who do so between Boxing Day and Jan. 4, 2023 will be entered to win a prize pack that includes a year-long family membership. Increase your chances of winning by completing the Spot the Snowman scavenger hunt.

Tickets for the gallery, auditorium and planetarium are $15 for kids aged 3-17, $23 for adults aged 18-64 and $20 for seniors. Admission is free for Indigenous persons, museum members and children under the age of two. For tickets, showtimes and more information, see Manitoba Museum’s website.

— Ben Sigurdson

Fringe favourites build upon tea for two in holiday show

Friday, Dec. 30, 7:30 p.m.

Centennial Concert Hall

$37.50-$68.50 at centennialconcerthall.com

The Fringe festival comedy duo of James & Jamesy (Alastair Knowles and Aaron Malkin, respectively) promise to break theatre’s fourth wall but none of the china when they perform their show O Christmas Tee Dec. 30 at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Wordplay, physical comedy and interactivity has been James & Jamesy’s hallmark for the past 10 years at comedy and theatre festivals around the world, and O Christmas Tee promises all that — not to mention many cups and saucers — in a story where the duo’s Christmas wish is for enough tea for the entire world.

“The Christmas season is a magical time of year that brings people of all ages together; a time when we are encouraged to dream big, embrace imagination, and celebrate a childlike excitement for merriment,” Knowles says in a release for their Canadian tour.

— Alan Small

CatVideoFest at Cinematheque

Dec. 26 to 29, various times

Cinematheque, 304-100 Arthur St.

Tickets $10 at winnipegfilmgroup.com

Cat videos make the internet a better place. What if cat videos made the world a better place for cats in real life? That’s the idea behind CatVideoFest, an international film initiative that has raised thousands of dollars for local animal shelters.

CatVideoFest is a 70 minute compilation reel of the year’s best cat videos collected from submissions, animations, music videos and, of course, the internet. Billed as a “joyous communal experience,” participating theatres in North America and Europe screen the compilation while collecting money and raising awareness for a rescue organization in their area.

Next week, a percentage of ticket sales at Cinematheque will be donated to the Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter, a non-profit, no-kill shelter on Portage Avenue.

Screenings are at 5 p.m. on Boxing Day and 3 p.m. for the remainder of the festival. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for students and seniors or $6 for members. The experience of watching hilarious videos with a group of fellow cat lovers? Priceless.

— Eva Wasney

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