The New Year isn’t so new anymore—but as the calendar turns from January to February, there’s a brand-new lineup of shows coming to Halifax. And from weekend jams packed with surprise guests to some of the best in Canadian theatre, there’s plenty on offer that’s worth venturing out into the cold for. As always, The Coast has you covered at what’s happening in town:
Rankin’s Winter Warmers
Rankin MacInnis’s annual winter concert series is back for another year at the Marquee Ballroom, with a rolling list of surprise weekly guests from Heather Rankin to Jah’Mila to the Baha Men’s Dyson Knight. The Mabou-raised, Halifax-based singer-songwriter’s Winter Warmers series kicked off with a pre-Christmas show on Dec 21 and runs every Saturday until Mar 15.
Every Saturday in February, The Marquee Ballroom, tickets $25 in advance, $30 at door [Music]
Controlled Damage
This Neptune Theatre show tells the story of civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond, who fought against entrenched racial divides in the mid-1940s when she refused to leave a “whites-only” section of a New Glasgow movie theatre. (The main floor seats were ten cents more expensive; Desmond offered to pay the difference, but was refused. She was jailed and charged with tax evasion.) Award-winning director Cherissa Richards “highlights Desmond’s legacy as a trailblazing Black businesswoman and community leader, and how her courage to fight racial segregation came at a deeply personal cost.”
January 14-February 2, Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Stage, tickets $33 and up [Theatre]
Resurrection: A Queer History Cabaret
Michael Callen moved to New York in the late 1970s. A “small-town boy” from western Ohio, Callen had dreams of becoming a musician. He was also gay—and as the AIDS epidemic surged across New York, he contracted the disease. It turned him into an activist. Queer podcaster-slash-playwright Dane Stewart’s Resurrection tells the story of Callen’s life and impact, weaving together his music and advocacy amid one of his era’s defining challenges. It’s a co-production with fellow Nova Scotians Andrew Morrisey and Andrew Boudreau that’s “part-podcast, part-cabaret and fully gay.”
February 3, Joseph Strug Performance Hall, tickets $22.63 [Music/Theatre]
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Steph Tolev
Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based stand-up comic Steph Tolev has done a little bit of everything. One of the founding members of sketch-comedy troupe Ladystache, she has won “Best Female Stand Up” at the Canadian Comedy Awards and earned a JUNO nomination for “Comedy Album of the Year.” In 2022, Tolev appeared in Bill Burr’s Netflix special, Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill. She visits Halifax on her Canadian Filth Queen Tour.
February 7, Light House Arts Centre, tickets $30.87 and up [Comedy]
Chayce Beckham
Winner of the 19th season of American Idol, California country crooner Chayce Beckham released his debut album, Bad for Me, in April 2024. His single “23” reached number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart—and has since been certified platinum in Canada. Northern Irish country singer Gareth joins Beckham on his Bad for Me Tour, which stops in Halifax in early February.
February 8, Light House Arts Centre, tickets $36.96 [Music]
Eliza Rhinelander
Nineteen-year-old singer-songwriter Eliza Rhinelander crowdfunded the release of her debut EP, Good Old Days, recorded and produced in friend Silas Bonnell’s home studio. It caught our ears enough that we listed it as one of the 10 best albums and EPs from Halifax artists in 2024. The young country/folk artist celebrates the release of her new album, The Precipice, with a sold-out show at The Carleton on Feb 9.
February 9, The Carleton, sold out [Music]
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Josephine: A Musical Cabaret
Josephine Baker lived a life of intrigue. Born in St. Louis, MO, in 1906, the African-American actor, dancer and singer found fame in France, where she became a film star in the 1930s, performed in drag and spied for the Resistance in World War II, eavesdropping on diplomats at the Italian and Japanese embassies and later hiding refugees in her chateau southwest of Paris. Neptune Theatre’s new offering follows Baker’s “incredible exploits that were groundbreaking for her time and still incredible nearly a century later.” Actor Tymisha Harris plays the role of Baker and co-created the show with director Michael Marinaccio and writer Tod Kimbro.
February 13-16, Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall Stage, tickets $33 and up [Theatre]
The Irish Rovers
Brothers and Irish expats George and Will Millar met Jimmy Ferguson in Toronto in the early 1960s. It was destiny: The three became the nucleus of a band that has, in the 60-odd years since, included some 22 members and—depending on who you ask—recorded the definitive version of the shanty “Drunken Sailor.” Will and Jimmy aren’t in the group anymore (Will left the band in 1995 to pursue painting, and Jimmy died on tour in 1997) but the Irish Rovers still know how to throw a party. Their 2022 album No End in Sight earned the band a Canadian Folk Music Awards Nomination for “Single of the Year.”
February 25, Light House Arts Centre, tickets $59.50 [Music]
The New Canadian Curling Club
Mark Crawford knows how to write comedy. His first play, The Birds and the Bees—the story of a divorced turkey farmer who moves back in with her beekeeping mother—was called “thoroughly charming” by the CBC and “satisfying on every level” by the Sudbury Star. His latest, 2018’s The New Canadian Curling Club, follows a group of new arrivals to Canada who join a learn-to-curl class, only to be paired with a reluctant coach with “strong opinions” about immigrants. The show has toured across Canada, from Winnipeg to Drayton to Antigonish. It makes its Halifax debut at the end of February.
February 25-March 23, Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Stage, tickets $33 and up [Theatre]
SonReal w/ Sunsetto
Nearly 20 years after his debut mixtape Trapped in the Streets, West Coast rapper/singer SonReal comes to Halifax as a four-time JUNO nominee with a fanbase stretching from Germany to Australia. The “Everywhere We Go” emcee’s latest release, 2024’s All Things Aside, is his fourth studio album and a return to his origins, of sorts: After 2016’s One Long Dream showcased a more melodic side to SonReal, the Vernon, BC-raised artist describes his newest work as “me rapping my face off.” He’s joined by Cape Breton’s Sunsetto (Kyle Mischiek) for his cross-Canada tour.
February 26, Seahorse Tavern, tickets $34 and up [Music]
Rum Ragged
St. John’s folk rockers Rum Ragged earned a JUNO nomination for “Traditional Roots Album of the Year” for their 2020 release, The Thing About Fish. The band’s fifth studio album, Gone Jiggin’, came out last year—and they’ve been a hit in Halifax: The Newfoundland group with “striking vocal harmonies, staggering musicianship and captivating storytelling” sold out three straight shows at The Carleton last spring.
February 28, Light House Arts Centre, tickets $30 [Music]
Will Clarke
A producer, DJ and podcaster from Bristol, UK, Will Clarke started playing shows in Ibiza as a 17-year-old. Since then, the Grammy-nominated producer’s dance remixes of Rüfüs du Sol and Dom Dolla have garnered millions of streams—and now, he’s got a debut album, Midnight Mass. He plays the Marquee Ballroom at the end of February.
February 28, Marquee Ballroom, tickets $29.02 [Music]
This article appears in Dec 19, 2024 – Jan 31, 2025.