December is on our doorstep, and with it comes a packed slate of holiday concerts. But that’s far from the only thing coming to town, with enough sweet offerings to fill a Quality Street tin—including shows from Jenn Grant, Reeny, Joel Plaskett and Adam Baldwin. As always, The Coast has you covered with what’s happening.
Frozen
The Broadway spin on Disney’s hit musical Frozen continues its run at the Neptune Theatre all December. Led by Neptune’s artistic director Jeremy Webb, the show stars Hamilton-raised actor/dancer Kaleigh Gorka as Elsa and Vancouver-based actor/singer Synthia Yusuf as Anna. Never saw the movie? Brace yourself for a kingdom in peril, trolls, reindeer and snowmen, and plenty of winter.
December 1-29, Neptune Theatre (1593 Argyle Street), tickets from $40 [Theatre]
Swollen Members w/ Moka Only
One of Canada’s most influential rap groups pays a visit to The Dome to kick off December. Juno and MMVA-winning wordsmith Moka Only joins his former West Coast bandmates onstage on their cross-country Bury the Hatchet tour, which wraps in Halifax.
December 1, The Dome (1739 Grafton Street), tickets from $52.75 [Music]
Symphony Nova Scotia: Christmas with the Celtic Tenors
Celebrated Irish singers James Nelson, Matthew Gilsenan and Daryl Simpson have sold more than a million albums worldwide as the trio The Celtic Tenors. For one last night, they join Symphony Nova Scotia in concert at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium for an evening of “classic carols, magnificent music and beloved Celtic favourites.”
December 1, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue), tickets from $53 [Music]
Kyle Gillis & Becca Guilderson (Kenny & Dolly’s Christmas to Remember)
Forty years after Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton recorded the “seasonal blockbuster” Once Upon a Christmas, Halifax singers Kyle Gillis and Becca Guilderson are teaming up—once again—to perform the holiday classic from front to back. It’s become an annual tradition for the two: This marks the third year of the popular show at The Carleton. “It’s such a staple in people’s Christmas repertoire,” Gillis told Halifax Presents. “We’ve had folks come back year after year.”
December 2-4, The Carleton (1685 Argyle Street), sold out [Music]
The Dead South
Juno Award-winning bluegrass rockers The Dead South are in town for two nights to start the month. The band behind the Platinum-selling “In Hell, I’ll Be in Good Company” arrive on the heels of a worldwide tour in promotion of their latest album, 2024’s Chains & Stakes. Indiana blues trio The Reverend Payton’s Big Damn Band opens the pair of shows at the Light House Arts Centre.
December 3-4, Light House Arts Centre (1800 Argyle Street), tickets from $66.30 for Dec. 4 (Dec. 3 show sold out) [Music]
Tim Baker
Former Hey Rosetta! frontman Tim Baker has a new album in time for the holidays. The cheery, 12-track Full Rainbow of Light arrived Nov. 15 via End Times Music, along with a just-released music video for its third single, “Light the Light.” December and Halifax seem to be an annual affair for the St. John’s-based Baker, who chatted with The Coast ahead of a pair of sold-out solo shows at The Stage at St. Andrew’s last year. This time around, he’s bringing his full band, All Hands. Cape Breton folk rockers Villages join Baker for the show (and his Canadian tour).
December 5, Light House Arts Centre (1800 Argyle Street), sold out [Music]
Music for the Girls: A Live Concert in Support of Adsum
Catch some of the East Coast’s burgeoning talents on Thursday, Dec. 5 when NSCC’s Music Business students host a “night full of unique female voices,” with performances from Cuban-Canadian multi-instrumentalist Ali Enriquez, Halifax singer-songwriter Quoia States, St. John’s singer Madeline Salter and psych rockers Lizard the Bird. The event—held in observance of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women—will raise funds for local women and children’s shelter Adsum House.
December 5, Gus’ Pub (2605 Agricola Street), tickets $10 [Music]
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens’ classic returns to Neptune for its 21st year. Artistic director Jeremy Webb’s version brings the audience into the one-person show, as Ebenezer Scrooge meets the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
December 5-29, Neptune Theatre (1593 Argyle Street), tickets from $40 [Theatre]
Reeny’s Family Christmas
North Preston’s own Reeny brings her “spiritually uplifting” holiday show back to The Carleton on Friday, Dec. 6, with an evening of yet-to-be-announced special guests. Get in the mood with her 2022 EP, Where You At, Santa?
December 6, The Carleton (1685 Argyle Street), tickets $34.50 [Music]
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HOLY FUCK
The Toronto-by-way-of-Yarmouth electronica band visits Halifax on Friday, Dec. 6. Nearly twenty years after the group burst on the scene with their self-titled debut—recorded, in part, at Halifax’s Idea of East studio (RIP)—the foursome returns to play the Marquee. Halifax “slippergaze” band Not You join them on the showbill.
December 6, Marquee Ballroom, 2037 Gottingen Street, tickets $31.34 [Music]
Natalie MacMaster w/ Donnell Leahy
Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster has toured with the likes of Faith Hill and Carlos Santana and recorded with Yo-Yo Ma. Together with her husband, Donnell Leahy—one of the world’s most accomplished fiddlers himself—she’s touring A Celtic Family Christmas across the country, and demand is high: Their two evening shows and a matinée in Halifax have all sold out.
December 6-7, Light House Arts Centre (1800 Argyle Street), sold out [Music]
Symphony Nova Scotia: The Nutcracker
Symphony Nova Scotia’s holiday favourite returns for another year at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. The stage production of Tchaikovsky’s famous work brings together Halifax Dance, the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia and conductor Greg Burton for a “much-loved interpretation” with “larger-than-life puppets, spirited dancing” and an “enchanted world” of “magical creatures.”
December 6-8, 12-15, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue), tickets from $23 [Theatre]
Joel Plaskett
Beloved Dartmouth-based rocker Joel Plaskett promised a stripped-back sound on his latest full-length album, 2024’s One Real Reveal. “I started recording on my four-track cassette machine,” he told The Coast in May. “Once you have a limitation like that, it sort of helps you rein in the arrangements.” He’s been touring the album—which has seen glowing reviews—across the country, closing out the year with a pair of hometown shows and another in Annapolis Royal on Dec. 10. You’ll have to get road-tripping if you haven’t picked up tickets: Both nights in Dartmouth are sold out.
December 7-8, Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street), sold out [Music]
Adam Baldwin
Speaking of Dartmouth, singer-songwriter Adam Baldwin has a trio of hometown shows in December. He’ll play the Light House Arts Centre on back-to-back-to-back nights, starting Thursday, Dec. 12. Baldwin’s latest album, 2022’s Concertos & Serenades, marked a left turn for the Matt Mays guitarist: Gone were the booming drums and highway-cruising rock numbers of years past (No Rest for the Wicked, No Telling When), in favour of Atlantic-tinged tales that Baldwin himself described to The Coast as akin to “a Dire Straits song in the middle of a Stan Rogers record.” It became his biggest career hit.
December 12-14, Light House Arts Centre (1800 Argyle Street), tickets $44.80 [Music]
Jen Grant
(No, not that Jenn Grant.) Yuk Yuk’s is bringing Ottawa-raised stand-up comic Jen Grant—that’s one ‘n’, not two—to Halifax for a pair of mid-December shows. The veteran comedian has been named one of the five funniest people in Toronto by Toronto Life magazine and appeared on CBC’s The Debaters, as well as on-stage at the Just for Laughs Festival.
December 13-14, Yuk Yuk’s (1665 Argyle Street), tickets $22.50 [Comedy]
Atlantic Boylesque: A Queersmas Carol
Halifax burlesque group Atlantic Boylesque cheekily boast that they “put the dick in Dickens.” Two years after the performing troupe sold out two showings of A Queersmas Carol, a fully-scripted burlesque production of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, the self-professed “Bad Boys of Burlesque” are back with a raunchy, one-night-only show at the Sanctuary Arts Centre.
December 14, Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street), tickets from $32 [Theatre]
Gunning & Cormier Christmas
Local favourites Dave Gunning and J.P. Cormier are back for another holiday season with a busy slate of Christmas shows across the HRM. Starting at Middle Musquodoboit’s Bicentennial Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 8, the two perform a pair of shows at Dartmouth’s Port Wallis Sanctuary on Saturday, Dec. 14, before taking up residence at The Carleton for six sold-out shows from Dec. 15 to 20.
December 8, 14-20, various venues, tickets from $34.50 (Bicentennial Theatre) to $55 (Port Wallis Sanctuary). Carleton shows sold out. [Music]
Miracle on Ochterloney Street 2
Merry Melodramas’ family-friendly musical comedy returns for another year. The band-backed performers weave through holiday tunes of all eras as a “rag-tag team” in charge of the annual Christmas variety show need to “scramble to save the day” when a booking mishap with the star performer means they’re left on their own.
December 16-19, Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street), tickets $31.77 ($10.59 for ages 12 and under) [Theatre]
Choir!Choir!Choir!
Toronto’s Choir!Choir!Choir! does things a little differently from your usual choir: If you’re at a show, you can sing in the choir, too. Started in 2011 by friends Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, what began as a weekly drop-in has since travelled the globe, performing Bowie’s “Space Oddity” at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall, along with “Christmastime is Here” with BadBadNotGood on The Strombo Show. Goldman and Adilman will host a holiday sing-along at their sold-out Halifax show.
December 19, Light House Arts Centre (1800 Argyle Street), sold out [Music]
Jenn Grant
Yes, that Jenn Grant. The Champagne Problems singer-songwriter performs a pair of hometown holiday shows on Friday, Dec. 20 and Saturday, Dec. 21. A portion of profits will support Halifax’s Out of the Cold Community Association. Grant’s Saturday show has already sold out, but you can still nab tickets for Friday night.
December 20-21, Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street), tickets $35 ($20 for ages 12-18) [Music]
The Barra-MacNeils: An East Coast Christmas
Siblings Kyle, Sheumas, Stewart, Lucy and Boyd MacNeil can play it all: Guitar, mandolin, Celtic harp, bouzouki… no problem. Hailing from Sydney Mines, the family musical troupe has been touring and recording for 37 years, performing everywhere from the US to Europe to the Caribbean. On Sunday, Dec. 22, they’ll play two holiday-themed shows at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium.
December 22, Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue), tickets $54 [Music]
This article appears in Nov 7-30, 2024.