So you don’t think you can make it to Stratford or Spoleto or the Berkshires this summer. Never fear: You can make your own arts festival right here in Tampa Bay (with maybe a side trip to Orlando). Whatever kinda culchah you’re craving — theater, opera, readings, classical or unclassifiable (we see you coming, Todrick!), it’s all right around the corner, geographically and seasonally speaking.
Last Chance
Sure it’s a holiday weekend, but you better get busy: You’ve only got a few more days to enjoy the following:
May 21-22 and 24: Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Ruth Eckerd Hall’s Murray Studio Theatre. What? You missed Stageworks’ production of the ebullient Fats Waller musical revue — the one that CL’s Keven Renken called “joyous” — during its run in Tampa? Never fear, you get three more opps this weekend to see it on the other side of the bay at Ruth Eckerd’s newly renovated studio theater. rutheckerdhall.com
May 21-24: Annapurna at Jobsite. An inspired pairing of two of our most accomplished local actors, Paul Potenza and Angela Bond, in a two-person comedy/drama about an estranged couple reconnecting after decades apart. CL’s Julie Garisto called the show “a thoroughly rewarding theatrical experience on all counts,” so you’d better try and get tickets if there are any left. jobsitetheater.org/annapurna
May 21-24: Betrayal at Tampa Rep. Harold Pinter’s backwards-in-time portrait of a seven-year extra-marital affair, with acclaimed performances by Emilia Sargent, Greg Thompson and Ned Averill-Snell. tamparep.org
May 21-25: Orlando International Fringe Festival. The festival’s closing weekend is its busiest, so there’s still plenty of comedy, drama, music and general outrageousness to choose from. orlandofringe.org
Just Getting Started
May is going out with a bang, theatrically speaking. Not only are the three shows listed above doing their final weekend, two more are opening.
May 23-Jun 14: The Tempest: Esta isla es mia at freeFall. Prospero meets Cuba meets Eric Davis in a one-man show adapted from Shakespeare. Intrigued yet? freefalltheatre.com
May 29-June 21: Red at American Stage. The Tony-winning play about a crucial juncture in the career of painter Mark Rothko. americanstage.org
America, America
We’re headed full on into patriot season, and these four shows promise to ring multiple changes on the theme of the American Dream.
May 29: Ned Averill-Snell in The Apocrypha of T. Roosevelt at Murray Studio Theatre. The multi-faceted actor and CL SceneBreaker columnist returns from navigating Pinter’s pregnant pauses in Tampa Rep’s Betrayal to his much-acclaimed incarnation of a man of many words, Teddy Roosevelt. In Steve Mountan’s one-man play, set during World War 1, the retired president attempts to learn the whereabouts of his youngest son, Quentin, who has been reported as missing in action. rutheckerdhall.com
June 4-21: The Great American Trailer Park Musical, mad Theatre at the Straz. What could be more American — or to be specific, more Floridian — than a stripper on the run wreaking havoc in a trailer park? As presented by mad Theatre, the award-winning community theater troupe that performs regularly at the Straz’s Shimberg Playhouse, this 2005 Off-Broadway hit sounds like it’ll be a heap o’ summer fun. madtheatre.com
July 8-Aug. 2: Occupation at Jobsite Theater. Writing about a 2013 Off-Broadway production of Ken Ferrigni’s play, one critic called it “a heady cocktail of violence and Bible-bashing humor.” If that’s not tempting enough, consider the plot: The U.S. sells Florida to China for $5 trillion to get out of debt, and when “indigenous Floridians” are ordered to leave, a violent militia prepares to duke it out with their new Chinese overlords in the Everglades. Sounds right up Jobsite’s alley, and the cast (Emily Belvo, Katie Castonguay, J. Elijah Cho. Carlos Garcia, Nathan Jokela, Marlene Peralta) is killer. Chris Holcom directs. jobsitetheater.org/occupation
Lewis Black & The Motherfucker
Two of the flat-out coolest offerings in this year’s theater season.
July 9-26: The Motherfucker with the Hat at Stageworks. Kudos to Karla Hartley and Stageworks for being a) brave enough to choose a show whose title must be asterisked, and b) savvy enough to know that Stephen Adly Guirgis is the playwright of the moment. Motherfucker (aka Motherf**ker), a black comedy described as a “high-octane verbal cage match about love, fidelity and misplaced haberdashery,” was a big ol’ smash on Broadway, and Guirgis’s latest play, Between Riverside and Crazy, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. stageworkstheatre.org
July 10-Aug. 2: One Slight Hitch at American Stage. A “farce about wedding day glitches” by… Lewis Black? Talk about your black comedy. His play has a touch of Neil Simon in it, say critics, and while he’s not in the American Stage production, the cast includes some actors who know how to mine the comedy gold, including Jack Holloway, Brian Shea and Jonelle Meyer. americanstage.org
Local Talent
Promising young playwrights and a few oldsters strut their dramaturgical stuff.
June 11-13, 19-21: TampaWorks 2015: Play Local at Stageworks. Two weekends of original plays about Tampa Bay by local playwrights (including Paul Wilborn, Matthew Ray, Barbara St. Clair and yours truly), presented in a partnership between Stageworks and Gorilla Theatre’s Young Dramatists Project. stageworkstheater.org
Teens Speak
June 11-13, 18-20: Project: Shattered Silence at Murray Studio Theatre. The real lives of teens — their pain, their laughter, their strength — captured in their own words and performed by them under the empathetic direction of Jared O’Roark. This extraordinary project, the subject of an Emmy-winning WEDU documentary, returns to Ruth Eckerd for its seventh production. rutheckerdhall.com
That Big Band Sound
Two more weekends left to bask in the glorious sounds of the Florida Orchestra before they take their summer break.
May 22-24: Let Freedom Ring: An American Salute. "Stars and Stripes Forever," the "Colonel Bogey March" and a slew of other all-American favorites, conducted by Jeff Tyzik. Straz, Mahaffey and Ruth Eckerd on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. floridaorchestra.org
May 29-30: Beethoven & Sibelius. And Rossini, too! Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 and a Rossini overture — what a way to go! Straz on Friday, Mahaffey on Saturday. floridaorchestra.org
Sing Sing Sing
What’s opera, doc? Opera is June in St. Pete and Tampa, that’s what.
June 5, 7 & 9: Turandot: St. Petersburg Opera Company at The Palladium. Glorious voices, theatrical panache and chic Chinoiserie were all in full supply at St. Pete Opera’s gala earlier this month, boding well for its performance of Turandot, the Puccini classic about an imperious Chinese empress that features one of the most soaringly beautiful arias of them all, “Nessun Dorma.” stpeteopera.org
June 12-13: I Am Harvey Milk: Una Voce Florida Men’s Chorale. The Florida premiere of an original song cycle with orchestra by acclaimed Broadway composer Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party, Jon & Jen) that weaves together “the story of Harvey Milk’s life — from boyhood to his rise as the first openly gay man to hold public office in California to his assassination.” An important event for Una Voce, for the LGBT community, and for fans of stirring musical theater. Friday at The Palladium, Saturday at the USF Concert Hall in Tampa. una-voce.org
June 26, 28 & 30: Sondheim’s Putting It Together: St. Pete Opera at The Palladium. OK, Stephen Sondheim’s not an opera composer, though he does create musical theater of supreme sophistication. St. Pete Opera Maestro Marc Sforzini is a proven master of both genres, so this revue of some of Sondheim’s best songs should prove to be a welcome gift. stpeteopera.org
Divas Divas Divas
You know them, you love them, you can’t enough of ‘em.
June 26: Alex Newell at St. Pete Pride. The pioneering performer who won hearts and minds as transgender teenager Wade “Unique” Adams on Glee headlines the free outdoor concert at 7 p.m. on the eve of the St. Pete Pride Parade. 26th & Central Ave., St. Petersburg. stpetepride.com
July 1: Todrick Hall Live! at the Capitol Theatre. His jaw-droppingly hilarious musical parodies (which range from Broadway to Beyonce) have made him a sensation on YouTube. There’s no telling what mischief he and his crew will get up to when they’re live and in person with his touring show, The Toddlerz Ball. rutheckerdhall.com
July 11-August 9: Matthew McGee as Mame at freeFall. The casting is inspired, but not just because the Divine Mr. M. has proven himself, in the guise of Patti the cabaret mom, to be a comically gifted drag artiste. It’s also because he’s got the vocal and dramatic chops to make a grand transformation into the grandest Broadway dame of them all, the fabulous Auntie Mame. We Need a Little Christmas Right This Very Minute, and If He Walked Into My Life Today, I’d buy a ticket immediately. But we have to wait till July. freefalltheatre.com
July 28: Idina Menzel at Ruth Eckerd. Her vocal range defies Gravity, her fans can’t Let It Go, and If/Then you want to spend your Rent money to see the one and only Idina in her solo show, you’re no doubt Frozen in anticipation. rutheckerdhall.com
Sometimes you just need to settle down with a good book — or a good author.
June 10: Adult Spelling Bee. Tiffany Razzano, the tireless organizer of all things literary through her organization Wordier Than Thou, has a panoply of events on tap for the summer, including this fundraiser for the Literacy Council of St. Pete. The Stand-up Librarian is hosting, there will be drawings, food, and music, and teams can still register at $75 a team. facebook.com/WordierThanThou
June 18-25: Lectores: Public Readings at UT. Twice a year, when the University of Tampa brings together students from its Low-Residency MFA program in Creative Writing, the rest of us benefit from a public reading series featuring prominent writers the likes of George Saunders and Miranda July. This year — with the program now in the hands of our very own Erica Dawson (a UT prof as well as a CL columnist), we expect the excitement to reach a Dark & Sinful pitch. Among the guests: Man Booker and MacArthur winner Lydia Davis, acclaimed for advancing the short (in some cases the very, very, very short) story form, and Jeff Parker, a terrific writer (Where Bears Roam the Streets) and the former head of the UT program. ut.edu/mfacw/lectores
July 25: The Lit Crawl. Another Wordier Than Thou event. Several journalists, among them Paul Guzzo from the Tribune, Stephanie Hayes from the Times, Tom Germond of Tampa Bay Newspapers, and myself, read from their work at various St. Pete pubs, including Community Cafe and Sawgrass Tiki Bar. facebook.com/WordierThanThou
This article appears in May 14-20, 2015.