Jersey Boys. This winner of four Tony awards, including Best Musical, is about the rise of the Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. Chronicling their transformation from blue-collar palookas to pop music superstars (with over 175 million records sold), the Broadway blockbuster features hit songs "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Oh What a Night" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Feb. 15-March 15, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, 813-229-STAR.
The Taming of the Shrew. The BRIT Program at the USF School of Theatre and Dance offers Shakespeare's politically incorrect story of a mean and nasty woman and the man who sets out to woo and wed her. Petruchio craves Katherina's dowry — and wants his friend Hortensio to marry Kate's younger sister Bianca. His methods might not be called torture by the Bush administration, but they aren't pretty. Feb. 21-March 2, University of South Florida, Tampa, 813-974-2323.
One Nation, Under Blog. The celebrated Second City improvisation troupe comes to Tampa to aim their satire at everything from politics and religion to blow-up dolls and gay Shakespeare. The Chicago performers are especially famous for interacting with the audience as they create, in only seconds, unique comedy routines on the most outrageous subjects. Feb. 23, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, 813-229-STAR.
Hamlet. Poor old Castle Elsinore! If that trouble-making ghost had just stayed in Purgatory where he belonged, eight dead Danes might still be wassailing into the wee hours. Alas poor Hamlet, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Claudius. Come see them reach their storied ends when Shakespeare's most famous prince weighs his options a few blocks from Tampa Bay. To be or not to be? You had to ask? March 7-30, American Stage, St. Petersburg, 727-823-PLAY.
Spamalot. Even if you've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this theatrical version is hilarious and worth your time. They're all here: the fearsome Knights of Ni, who can only be bought off with shrubbery; the Black Knight, who won't stop fighting even after all his limbs have been hacked off; and the ingenious Trojan Bunny. Add a tribute to Finland and a parody of Phantom, and you've got what may be the silliest show ever staged. March 18-23, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, 727-791-7400.
Bach at Leipzig. Itamar Moses' fugue of a comedy features six ruthless 18th-century egomaniacs, all in search of the job of Organ Master at Leipzig. There's dazzling wordplay, a crowd of men all named Johann or Georg, a radical, a traditionalist, a cross-dresser and the second-best organist in Germany. Bach is nowhere to be seen, but Moses, still in his 20s, is an intellectual comic with talent to spare. March 27-April 13, Gorilla Theatre, Tampa, 813-879-2914.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Tom Stoppard's first great success has become one of the best-loved plays of the British 20th century. It's about Hamlet's two hapless childhood friends, caught up in an intrigue that they can't control, and terribly worried about that thing called death. Does free will exist? Does fate make sense? And what if we're all subsidiary characters in someone else's drama? Jobsite Theater asks the questions. April 3-20, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, 813-229-STAR.
The Pirates of Penzance. American Stage in the Park brings us Gilbert and Sullivan's celebrated comic opera (1879) about Frederic, a young man who has been apprenticed to kind-hearted pirates because his nurse misunderstood the word "pilot." Freed from the buccaneers because he has finished his 21st year, Frederic re-enters polite society, and falls in love. But a loophole may mean that he has to return shipside. April 11-May 4, Demens Landing, St. Petersburg, 727-823-PLAY.
Tosca. Torture, suicide, murder, betrayal — no, it's not this week's issue of the National Enquirer. It's Giacomo Puccini's melodramatic opera about the painter Caravadossi, his lady love the singer Tosca, and the wicked, loathsome police chief Scarpia, who wants Tosca for his own easy-to-guess purposes. But Tosca doesn't want the nasty man's hands on her. And if she can't have Caravadossi, well, she doesn't want anything. April 25 and 27, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, 813-229-STAR.
Sweeney Todd. Johnny Depp may not be involved, but live performance is what Stephen Sondheim intended when he wrote (music and lyrics; book by Hugh Wheeler) this inspired musical about a murderous barber and his pal in crime, Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney wields the razor, the Missus takes the remains and uses them to fill her tasty pies, and no one's the wiser. Tony award-winner John Doyle's "reinvention" features Judy Kaye and David Hess. Skip the pastries at intermission. May 6-11, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, 727-892-5767.
Mark E. Leib
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2008.