Toronto Life – December 2018

photographs courtesy of mumford and sons, aga khan museum and mirvish

138 toronto life December 2018

A banjo-infused Mumford and Sons show

When Mumford and Sons began releasing singles from their fourth album, Delta,

in August, they faced immediate criticism. The music itself—an experimental

blend of jazz, rap and electronica—received praise from Rolling Stone as a “wildly

experimental” step forward for the banjo-wielding Brits. But after they invited

Jordan Peterson to their London studio, a photo of the band posing with the U of T

professor started making its rounds online, eclipsing buzz around the album and

instead, causing a wave of outrage on Twitter. Now, they’re trying to shift the focus

back to music with a world tour. Onstage, they take an anything goes approach,

jumping from crowd-surfing to intimate a cappella covers. Long-time fans will

also be relieved to hear that the banjo is making a reappearance for a set list that

includes a balance of old and new.

MuSic | Mumford and Sons | Dec. 17 and 18, Scotiabank Arena

A Hindi dance

tribute

A back-to-school rockathon

3

4

dAnce^ |^ The World of Jahanara^

Dec. 1, Aga Khan Museum

tHeAtre^ |^ School of Rock^ |^ Nov. 28 to Jan. 6, Ed Mirvish Theatre

Jahanara Akhlaq’s talent for

twirling made her a force

in Kathak, the classical Indian

dance. She had ambitions

to build a career in Canada,

but in 1999, at the age of 24,

Akhlaq and her father, the

renowned Pakistani painter,

Zahoor ul Akhlaq, were shot

dead inside their Lahore

home. Almost two decades

later, she’s still celebrated as

a timeless influence of Hindi

dance. Award-winning Indo-

Canadian choreographer

Bageshree Vaze is revisiting

Akhlaq’s legacy, combining

dance, theatre and photogra-

phy to reimagine the morning

of her death. The performance

is a bittersweet valedictory

that mourns unfulfilled

creative potential while

celebrating the beauty

of Akhlaq’s life.

2

A decade after the release of Jack Black’s prep-school rock opera,

composer Andrew Lloyd Webber acquired stage rights to the movie

to give it the full-on musical-theatre treatment. He teamed up with

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes to rewrite the script and craft

a new score. The show premiered on Broadway in 2015 before transferring

to London. Webber’s version, featuring a cast of super-talented kids

all under the age of 14, fleshes out the plot to zoom in on the personal

stories of the children as they go amp-to-amp in a live Battle of the

Bands, with a mix of original-film favourite songs and fresh tunes

to sing along to.

CULTURE_SEND.indd 138 18-10-30 4:32 PM