What’s on in Montreal – Some choice arts and entertainment events for March

What’s on in Montréal courtesy of Tourisme Montréal

DANCE

The acclaimed Danse Danse series presents Message In A Bottle featuring 15 dancers choreographed by Kate Prince and set to classic hit songs by rock and pop icon Sting, including Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Walking On The Moon, Englishman In New York and Fields Of Gold, at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier for five performances (March 12 to 16).

Message In A Bottle

CLASSICAL

Grammy-winning Maestro Rafael Payare conducts the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in Shostakovich’s Awe-Inspiring Symphony No. 8 (March 6-7-10), and the OSM welcomes the Orchestre de Paris led by their eminent conductor Klaus Mäkelä (March 19). All concerts at the Maison Symphonique.

Orchestre Classique de Montréal Maestro Jacques Lacombe conducts the OCM in Musica da Cinema: Morricone & Rota, performing famed movie themes by world-renowned Italian film composers Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, at Salle Pierre-Mercure (March 14).

EXHIBITIONS

The 16^th edition of the contemporary art exhibition Festival Art Souterrain takes place in Montreal’s underground city from March 16 to April 7. This year’s theme is the environment and climate change.

The new Heart and Soul of Saint-Henri exhibition at the Pointe-à-Callière museum explores the vibrant and proud history of the storied Montreal neighbourhood. Runs to May 2025.

THEATRE

After wowing audiences on Broadway and in London’s West End, the smash hit Pretty Woman: The Musical – with direction and choreography by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell, original music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and a book by the movie’s legendary director Garry Marshall and screenwriter J.F. Lawton – headlines Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier from March 5 to 10.

NYC comic superstar-in-the-making Matteo Lane

Emmy-nominated playwright Diane Flacks makes her Centaur Theatre Company début with GUILT (a love story), sharing her personal experience through an erudite, witty and emotionally-charged one-woman show that draws from her Jewish heritage, western philosophy and pop culture (March 12 to 30).

Over at the Montréal, arts interculturels cultural organization – better known as “The MAI” – Infinithéâtre presents their much-anticipated adaptation of Montreal writer Kaie Kellough’s story collection Dominoes at the Crossroads, a poetic ode to the epic and universal search for home and identity (March 7 to 16).

COMEDY

Dubbed the “Joan Rivers of the Drag World” by The New York Times after winning season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race, larger-than-life American drag queen and insult comic Bianca Del Rio brings her new Dead Inside Tour to the Olympia Theatre on March 13, while out NYC comic superstar-in-the-making Matteo Lane brings his Al Dente Tour to the Olympia for four shows on March 23 and 24.

CINEMA

The Society for Arts and Technology – better known as “The SAT” – presents the 42-minute cinematic show Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon in surround-sound to celebrate the album’s 50^th Anniversary, in their Satosphere from March 5 to April 20.

The International Festival of Films on Art  – known as “Le FIFA” and dedicated to the international promotion and distribution of films on art and media arts – returns for its 42^nd edition from March 14 to 24.

Organist Thomas Ospital will accompany Charlie Chaplin’s silent film The Immigrant projected at the Maison symphonique (March 23).

Until April 21, the Cinémathèque Québécoise screens the best of Mel Brooks’ comedies, including his classic gothic horror film Young Frankenstein which launches the retrospective on March 27.

POP MUSIC

There are some 100 concerts presented by Bourgie Hall this season, with half showcasing Canadian artists, such as the spectacular Taurey Butler Trio’s Tribute to Oscar Peterson on March 14. Montreal’s Butler is a gifted jazz pianist and disciple of Oscar.

Other March concerts of note: Quebec rock icon Michel Pagliaro headlines an acoustic show at L’Entrepôt in Lachine (March 9), New Orleans icon Jon Batiste at MTELUS (March 13), Canadian national treasure Alan Doyle (March 14) at the Olympia Theatre, Grammy-winning brothers Damian and Stephen Marley co-headline their much-anticipated Traffic Jam Tour at MTELUS (March 26), and pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo’s two-nighter at the Bell Centre (March 26 and 27).

Dubbed “Mr. Montreal” by the CBC, arts and culture journalist and columnist Richard “Bugs” Burnett knows Montreal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.