2021 retrospective: the best shows seen this year

They made us laugh, think, dance or even travel. But above all, they gave us unforgettable moments this year. Here are the 10 shows that marked our team.

• Read also: 2021 retrospective: the 20 songs that marked the year

• Read also: Review in the world of culture: the highlights of a year 2021 to forget

• Read also: 2021 retrospective: Quebec albums of the year

THOUSAND BAD CHOICE by Louis-José Houde

Louis-José Houde succeeds in reinventing himself without distorting himself with A thousand bad choices, a fifth one-man-show more intimate, deeper, but also more saucy. The comedian leaves his embarrassment in the locker room to approach with great skill and sensitivity his last heartbreak, the vagaries of celibacy and his desire to be a father. (BL)

BIG DISORGANIZED TRIP by Patrice Michaud

This show at MTELUS will be remembered for a long time. Despite the cabaret formula and the sanitary measures, we had the impression of dancing until the end of the evening as each piece of this new album seems to have been created to be delivered on stage. Sometimes energetic, sometimes a poet, Patrice Michaud took us on a beautiful big disorganized journey. (SEN)

THE LAST DOMINO? by Genesis

Even with a physically diminished Phil Collins, Genesis gave a great performance, filled with emotion, for what is akin to the last two visits of the group to the Bell Center in Montreal. Great songs, quality lighting and a great atmosphere. It was all there. (YL)

HALF MOON RUN IN OSHEAGA

How good they were, this Osheaga reunion last October! True to form, the group Half Moon Run invited us to a candy party. Accompanied by a string quartet, the trio delighted a crowd of great admirers by performing a suite of pieces known from their excellent repertoire. (SEN)

JOKES PIANO MAGIC HAT by Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais

Acclaimed as a rock star, charismatic, energetic and brilliant, Pierre-Yves Roy Desmarais demonstrates 312 well-counted gags in his first show Jokes Hat Mum Magic Piano, that he is now one of the heavyweights of Quebec humor. Unknown two years ago, it is a rare ray of sunshine to have pierced the gray sky of the pandemic. (CB)

WEIRD ONES by Matt Holubowski

Last August, when the theaters had just reopened their doors, we could not have asked for better than an evening full of sweetness and skin-deep emotions in the company of Matt Holubowski. Very talented singer-songwriter, his voice and his spirit have done us a lot of good after a period of great darkness. (SEN)

COURVILLE by Robert Lepage

Once again, Robert Lepage deploys his magic at Le Diamant with ingenuity and efficiency in this show about adolescence, which takes place in the 1970s near the Montmorency Falls. A story well told, scenographic finds and damn good music. From the great Lepage. (YL)

OUR LADY OF THE SEVEN SORROWS by Klô Pelgag

At the heart of a Summer Festival presented in an unprecedented intimate format, Klô Pelgag’s concert was a happy reminder that the stage can be the place of all the sweet follies. Supported by seven musicians and choristers, she brought the pieces from her acclaimed album to life Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows with an exuberance beautiful to see. (CB)

NUI PIMUTEN. I WANT TO WALK by Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

Although Natasha Kanapé no longer has to prove the quality of her pen, we knew very little about her on stage. Chaining poignant texts and odes to her native north on soft instrumentation, the Innu poet and singer gently leads us to recollect and appreciate the richness of Aboriginal cultures. (FD)

SOLO INCARNATE by Ariane Moffatt

The Outremont theater was the perfect location for this first solo show by the great Ariane Moffatt. In front of a magnificent setting – a field of windswept pampas – she offered us the beautiful pieces of her album Crimson and some memories in three stages: alone on the piano, rock with her guitar and electro while dancing behind her synthesizer. (SEN)