Made a New Year's resolution to go out more? We'll help you out. Here are 17 fantastic events this month that our critics recommend—plus links to see more details and buy tickets before they sell out. For even more things to do, check out our complete Things To Do calendar.

THROUGH JAN 10
The Book of Mormon
"Has there ever been a better time to see a musical send-up of organized religion? Is there anything funnier than watching Mormon missionaries tap-dancing? Do you realize one song is a parody of "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King? This is the third time The Book of Mormon has toured through Seattle, and a whole bunch of people were crying their eyes out when they didn't get in the last two times—including a few Stranger staffers—so if you're one of those people, here's your chance. Pro tip: Praying won't help. You gotta buy a ticket." CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

JAN 4-5
Patti Smith
The punk-rock queen and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer recorded her debut album, Horses, in 1975. She'll honor the album's over 40 years of influence by performing the album in its entirety with two members of the original group, Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty, and bassist/keyboardist Tony Shanahan, who's been part of the band for 20 years.

JAN 8-16
14/48: The World's Quickest Theater Festival
"True to its name, the 14/48 Festival turns around 14 brand-new, theme-based, 10-minute plays in two days. The high-pressure nature of the event produces an evening of surprising theater for the audience, who arrive in their seats charged with expectation and anxiety for the performers. Though there are always a few experiments that don't quite come together, it's endlessly fascinating to see the way one theme filters through the minds of several very different theater artists. On the writing side, this year features festival newbies Julia Griffin (who claims to specialize in "GORE!!!" in her TPS profile) and Mike Murphy, who's been doing improv at Jet City for a decade. Expect shit to get weird." RICH SMITH

JAN 13
Kara Platoni: Making Sense of Human Perception
"Our wetware's glitchy. When you stick a pencil in water, it looks broken. When you smell sunscreen, you remember your summer fling. When you remember that person removing their sunglasses and offering you a Corona, maybe you feel gut-punched by an absent fist. Why? What's "real?" In her debut collection of reports, We Have the Technology, Kara Platoni asks scientists about our senses, looking for answers to questions about how we perceive reality through our seers and hearers and feelers. She also talks with people who are working to tweak our sensory organs, to make eyes that can see a wider spectrum, ears that can hear what dogs hear." RICH SMITH

JAN 14
The Life Model
"What did the 2011 revolution in Cairo look like from the perspective of a young Egyptian leftist? Or an Egyptian video artist struggling with the decision to leave the country? A plastic surgeon from Rio? An American studying Islamic art? Local playwright/actor/professor of drama at UW, Jeffrey Fracé, has teamed up with a group of international artists, including Stranger Genius in Literature Maged Zaher, to create a story that draws on these perspectives. The performance incorporates video, movement, music, and language to create a multi-faceted portrait of Cairo before and during the revolution." RICH SMITH

JAN 15-FEB 1
The Motherfucker with the Hat
"The Motherfucker with the Hat marks the second of two expletive-punctuated productions from the Washington Ensemble Theatre this year. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis, involves a love triangle between a young woman struggling with addiction, a man recently released from prison, and a dried up friend of theirs. The discovery of some motherfucker's hat sets off the action, and a tale of moral relativism (and lots of cussing) unfolds. WET tends to pick strangely affecting dramas shot through with a lot of comedy. This one seems to fit the bill." RICH SMITH

JAN 16-30
The Marriage of Figaro
"Seattle Opera had the same general director—Speight Jenkins, who introduced the company's famed Ring cycle and generally brought the opera into the modern age—for more than 30 years. Then, in 2014, he retired, and Aidan Lang took his place. General directors don't usually act as creative artists, and Lang "doesn't intend to repeat this feat," but this presentation of Figaro, Mozart's best-loved and most commonly produced opera, is Lang's own production." JEN GRAVES

JAN 19
Nick Licata: Take Power, Become a "Citizen Activist"
Local figure and longtime City Council member Nick Licata will speak about his book, Becoming a Citizen Activist: Stories, Strategies, and Advice for Changing Our World, and talk candidly about achieving social activism goals.

JAN 21
Anita Sarkeesian
"Sarkeesian created FeministFrequency.com, a platform she uses to analyze sexism in the culture at large, paying special attention to video games. For her hard work on this issue she endured rape threats, death threats, and doxing during 2014's Gamergate, a controversy led by anonymous misogynists who considered her critiques unfair. Despite near constant harassment, she still travels and gives lectures, like the one she plans to give in Bellevue, titled 'I'll Make a Man Out of You: Redefining Strong Female Characters.'" RICH SMITH

JAN 22
Inside RadioLab with Robert Krulwich
"Krulwich will be bringing his acclaimed podcast to the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, with a live show called Inside Radiolab that promises insight into 'what makes their work examining big questions in science, philosophy, and the human experience so compelling.' Also advertised are interviews with local science specialists and dignitaries, and although I don't know what a local science dignitary is, I cannot wait to find out." MATT BAUME

Constellations
"Playwright Nick Payne's rom-com dramatizes courtship in the era of quantum physics. Within this framework of reality, one where lives and loves play out in many dimensions and universes, Roland tries to seduce theoretical physicist Marianne. The actors' body movements indicate changes in time-space, which, understandably, throws a wrench in many pair-bonding strategies. The short play (under an hour) did well at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and should find a happy home on our tech-y shores." RICH SMITH

JAN 23
Corridor Fest
An all-day festival of music, dance, art, and performance, featuring some of the NW's finest in electronic music, choreography, and sculpture/visuals.

JAN 24-26
National Geographic Live—Spinosaurus: Lost Giant of the Cretaceous
Hear the story of the young paleontologist who made sure that Spinosaurus, a dinosaur bigger than the T-Rex, didn't disappear in the records of history.

JAN 28
Geraldine Brooks
Bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks is a master of building on and adapting existing stories to make new narratives...whether she's writing detailed, heavily researched historical fiction, exploring the lives of her childhood pen pals, or filling out the life of the absent father in Little Women. In this reading, presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures, Brooks will read from her newest novel The Secret Chord, based on the life of The Bible's King David.

Riding on a Cloud
Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué returns to On the Boards with a performance drawing on the experiences of his brother Yasser Mroué’s personal experiences in the Lebanese Civil War, written by Rabih and performed by Yasser.

JAN 29
Timbrrr! Winter Music Festival
Timbrrr! returns to Leavenworth with its trademark stacked lineup (including Hibou, Grace Love and the True Loves, Industrial Revelation, and Bed) and affordable prices.

JAN 31
Sō Percussion
The renowned Sō Percussion ensemble tackles work by John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as Bryce Dessner's Music for Wood and Strings.