BURLESQUE | Dance Dance Evolution: Fundraiser for the Toronto Burlesque Festival
Leading ladies (and a few leading boys) of Toronto's burlesque scene come together tonight for a huge show to raise fund's for this summer's Toronto Burlesque Festival. A who's who of the city's pastie-clad peelers will be performing in a journey through the history of Toronto's erotic dance scene, including Skin Tight Outta Sight, Boylesque, Les Coquettes, Coco Framboise, Glamour Puss, and Starlight Burlesque. Some sexy prizes will be up for grabs in a silent auction and performances will be followed by a dance party with DJ Serge. The event's hosted by fringe mayoral candidate Keith Cole, who is, for now at least, the only person running in the municipal election to have urinated onstage. Don't get any ideas, Smitherman!
The Great Hall, 1087 Queen Street West, $20 advance, $25 door, 8 pm

FILM | Hidden in Plain Cite
Buddies in Bad Times theatre has been the home of queer experimental theatre for 31 years, so it only makes sense that in its first year participating in the Inside Out Film Festival, Buddies is hosting the queer fest's most experimental films. Hidden in Plain Cite is a program of 9 short films and one live performance piece that explore reenactments as an art form and cultural phenomenon. For the Lucky and the Strong is a funny bad somewhat sad sychronized montage of Youtube users singing a Bette Midler tune, while PYT (Pretty Young Thing) is a salute to the pre-adolescent gender roles in Peter Pan stories. Feminist performance artist Allyson Mitchell will seek to dispel the persistent but very untrue rumour that Mama Cass choked to death on a ham sandwich by reenacting a mock funeral held for Mama in 1974 by the Fat Underground activist group. I'm not making that up.
Buddies in Bad Times, 12 Alexander Street, PWYC, 8 pm

FILM | Mid-August Lunch
In 2008's stellar Gomorrah, screenwriter Gianni di Gregorio introduced the world to the brutal culture of organized crime in Southern Italy. For his directorial debut Mid-August Lunch, he's chosen a much lighter subject and made a comedic vignette about a man who must plan a holiday meal for his landlord's family or risk getting thrown out of his apartment. It may sound like a Italian remake of a bad American sitcom, but the film's won prizes all over the world and critics are calling it one of the best first films in years. Filled with deadpan humour, Italian food, and Roman holiday celebrations, it's a what they call a feast for both the eyes and soul.
The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street, Friday 7 pm, Saturday and Sunday 5:45 and 7:30 pm, Monday to Wednesday 7 pm and 9 pm

PARTY | Edumacation
DJ Fase brings his classic hip hop, reggae, and r n' b party back to the Drake Underground tonight. Fase is no bedroom DJ who throws parties in between working a day job; he's been a producer for 8 years and performed alongside massive names like the Roots and De La Soul. Usually the Edumacation party features a guest DJ, presumably so Fase can go grab a beer and take a leak between sets, but since nobody gets a crowd moving like he does anyway he's scrapping the guest and manning the tables all night long. I guess he'll just have to hold it.
The Drake Hotel Underground, 1150 Queen Street West, $5, 11 pm

GALLERY | We Are Wild, Up and Atom, and Intangible and the XPACE Cultural Centre
A trio of shows open today at XPACE, one of our favourite galleries here at blogTO. We Are Wild is a exhibition by five photographers about the need to get back in touch with nature, even if it means getting naked and crawling into a hole. Up and Atom unfortunately has nothing to do with Radioactive Man, but is a collection of screen prints that Becky Ip created, and then shot up with her .45 pistol, which I must say is pretty bad ass. Installation artist Dany Pen's Intangible looks at the Cambodian genocide using digital and experimental photography. All three shows run til June 12 and open with a reception tonight.
XPACE Cultural Centre, 58 Ossington Avenue, Free, 7 pm

THEATRE | Mamma's Boy and Larger Than Life at the Factory Theatre
Everyone's parents tell their children they love them all equally, but what if it's not true? Sure, you're an unemployed drug offender and your sister's a human rights attorney, but they're proud of you just the same, right? Mamma's Boy, a play written by and starring Ghost Light Projects artistic director Randie Parliament, sends up sibling rivalry in a story about an effeminate son's attempts to become his mother's favourite. The play is one of two local productions that begin previews tonight, along with Larger than Life: the Musical, the story of five plus-size women the highlight of which is the song "This Ain't Your Mamma's Tits." Writer and drag performer Sky Gilbert makes his return to acting to play the father in Mamma's Boy. Runs til June 12.
Factory Theatre - Studio, 125 Bathurst Street, $15 - $37.50, various times, check schedule for full details

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Photo: "3 Elements" by mikehutch711, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.