Dubbed “Mr. Montreal” by CBC Arts, Richard “Bugs” Burnett is an arts and culture journalist and columnist. He is also a pop culture pundit on radio and television. His pioneering column Three Dollar Bill is the only syndicated LGBTQ column in Canadian publishing history, and is now conserved in The ArQuives, the largest independent LGBTQ archive in the world, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chambre de Commerce LGBT du Québec at their 2019 Prix Phénicia Gala. Bugs has interviewed everybody from Cher to Justin Trudeau, got the last-ever sit-down interview with the late James Brown, and knows his hometown like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter. Tourisme Montréal says, “As Michael Musto is to New York City, Richard Burnett is to Montreal.”
Theatre

The magic of actor Sorab Wadia in Aladdin

The smash hit Broadway musical Aladdin makes its Montreal debut at Place des Arts on March 28, and the sterling cast includes veteran actor Sorab Wadia as the Sultan. Adapted from the animated Disney film, Aladdin sweeps audiences into a world of daring adventure, classic comedy and timeless romance. This new production features a full score, […]

featured Theatre

Come From Away with actor James Kall

The Tony and Olivier Award-winning smash hit musical Come From Away tells the remarkable and now famous true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them on September 11, 2001. Veteran stage actor James Kall costars in the new North American touring production of Come From Away. He was […]

Arts and Entertainment featured Montreal Theatre

CATS the Musical in Montreal

By Richard Burnett Ever since its world premiere in London’s West End in May 1981, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS has been enthralling audiences worldwide. Inspired by Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, a series of poems about cats published in 1939, the musical then debuted on Broadway in 1982, won seven 1983 […]

Arts and Entertainment featured Music

Skinny Bros on The Beginning & The End in the age of COVID

The Cargnello brothers are gifted multi-instrumentalists. Singer-songwriter Paul Cargnello was frontman of 90s punk reggae band The Vendettas before charting with his successful solo career, then with his brother Christopher Cargnello as the Skinny Bros crafting some of the best funk, pop and rhythm & blues to come out of Montreal. A who’s who of […]

Arts and Entertainment featured Film/TV

Carolyn Fe finds new home on Nickelodeon

Carolyn Fe is one of Montreal’s original Renaissance women. She began her career as a contemporary dancer before acting in a variety of theatrical productions, TV and movie spots. Then she found her true voice singing jazz and blues in nightclubs and at festivals across Canada. I like to say blues icon Big Mama Thornton passed the […]

Arts and Entertainment featured Fine Arts Travel

Behind the lens with Eva Blue

I wish I had had the opportunity to introduce pop icon Joan Rivers to Eva Blue. I knew Ms. Rivers very well for many years, she was a true professional who adored a great photographer. And workaholic Eva is quite possibly the hardest-working photographer in Montreal, who has snapped incredible portraits of everybody from Barack […]

Arts and Entertainment featured

Must-See Montreal Events in March 2020

Here are my choice Montreal arts and culture highlights for March 2020: MUSIC The Montreal concert scene heats up again with American folk-rock band The Lumineers at the Bell Centre (March 6); Italian superstar Eros Ramazzotti at Place Bell on March 9; the Subtronics (March 14) and Keane (March 24) at MTELUS; Dweezil Zappa (March 18) and Matthew […]

Arts and Entertainment featured

We Will Rock You! Queen’s Canadian cast conquers North America

It’s a great Canadian story: Calgary’s Annerin Theatricals recruited a superb all-Canadian cast to star in the current North American tour of the blockbuster We Will Rock You musical based on iconic rock band Queen’s greatest hits. Though it initially got mixed reviews when it debuted in 2002, the original West End production ran for […]

Arts and Entertainment featured

Must-See Montreal Events in January 2020

Here are my choice Montreal arts and culture highlights for January 2020: MUSIC Following the holiday season, the Montreal concert scene is starting to heat up again. Highlights include the only Canadian stop of famed American musician and conductor Damien Sneed’s North American tour of We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which […]

Arts and Entertainment featured

Must-See Montreal Events in December 2019

Here are my choice Montreal arts and culture highlights for the second half of December 2019: MUSIC Montreal-born, L.A.-based music legend Andy Kim found fame when he wrote How’d We Ever Get This Way?, the first of nine Billboard Top 40 hits, including the No. 1 songs Rock Me Gently and Sugar, Sugar. Kim headlines his sixth annual […]