Here’s what’s behind the curtain this week in Tampa Bay theater…
FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, THE MUSICAL: At 8 a.m. on its Friday, March 13 opening day, American Stage’s Gutenberg! The Musical! suddenly found itself without a piano player, an essential component of the two-hander musical spoof. It took all day to scare up a replacement, who rehearsed from 5:45 until the house had to be opened for patrons. The bullet was well and thoroughly dodged until halfway through the first act, when the new pianist’s music light winked out. Despite the inauspicious opening, Gutenberg has played to rave reviews and continues through April 5 or until they run out of piano players, whichever comes first.
FAITH AN’ BEGORRAH, WHERE ARE THE TORTILLAS? FUN FACT: In the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War, a few hundred Catholic Europeans, mostly Irish and German, fought on the Mexican side, along with a handful of American deserters and escaped American slaves. Only a few days late for St. Patrick’s day, Improbable Athenaeum will dramatise excerpts from James Alexander Thom’s novel about the “Saint Patrick's Battalion” in a free reading with dance and sound design this Saturday at 2 p.m. at Tampa’s Seminole Heights Branch Library. The tale is told through readings from the diary of an Irish errand-boy in the Mexican army, because in 1846 even a war-ravaged Mexico was a nicer place to be than Ireland.
BLOOD TYPECASTING: Local actor Adam D. Crain appears in June’s Season 3 opening episode of USA Network’s Graceland as a young man kidnaped for his blood type. Despite the availability of a like-costumed stuntman all ready to go, Crain did all of his own stuntwork for a brawl, finishing up covered in stage blood. Noticing a small boy on set who seemed troubled by the cinematic carnage, a bloodsoaked Crain approached the boy and comforted him with a gentle explanation of what grownups like to do when they pretend.
MAMA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BRAND: Stageworks Theatre has itself a spiffy new logo, created by Tampa marketing consultancy Arcturus Creative. The company is rebranding to put out the word that “it's a whole new world at Stageworks with Producing Artistic Director Karla Hartley,” who took the helm last year.
Got a tip for SCENE BREAKER? Email Scene Breaker in care of A&E Editor Julie Garisto, julie.garisto@creativeloafing.com.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.