Weekend performance forecast: What’s on and what’s not

Here’s a quick inventory of the performances that have been scrapped or postponed because of Hurricane Helene’s churning presence off the Gulf Coast. Canceled: Melissa Etheridge and Jewel (tonight at the Baycare Sound), The Florida Orchestra’s Mahler chamber concert (tonight at New Tampa Performing Arts Center) and previews of Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at American Stage, What the Constitution Means to Me at Stageworks Theatre, both scheduled for tonight, tonight’s scheduled performances of POTUS at Jobsite Theatre and The Light at The Studio@620.

Postponed but due to be rescheduled: Shrek The Musical (tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall), Friday’s Yngwie Malmsteen concert at the Capitol Theatre, the Graham Bonnet concert Friday at Central Park Performing Arts Center, Friday’s Clearwater Latin Jazz Fest at the Baycare Sound, and the Friday and Saturday projectALCHEMY dance concerts at The Studio @620.

It’s testament to the strong state of the performing arts in Tampa Bay that once all those shows are taken out of the equation we still have a busy – and varied – weekend of stuff from which to choose.

POTUS and The Light (both of which are in their final weekends) will continue Friday through Sunday, and both Ring of Fire and What the Constitution Means to Me will open, on schedule, Friday.

Kehlani stops at the Yuengling Center Saturday. Publicity photo.

Concerts

Kehlani, the platinum-selling neo-soul R&B singer and songwriter, is in concert (with Flo and Anycia) Saturday at the Yuengling Center, on the University of South Florida Tampa campus, touring behind the new Crash album. Find tickets here.

Scrappy, soulful singer/songwriter Ray LaMontage is onstage Sunday at the Mahaffey Theater, with the Secret Sisters (moved from its original Sept. 26 date). Tickets.

There’s a show by Darius Rucker’s “other band,” Hootie and the Blowfish, with the Blowmen’s longtime pal Edwin McCain, Sunday at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre. Tickets.

Beat (from left Levin, Belew, Vai and Carey) play Ruth Eckerd Hall Saturday. Publicity photo.

Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, a supergroup including guitarists Adrien Belew and Steve Vai, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Danny Carey play music from three well-loved 1980s King Crimson albums (Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair). The adhoc group is called BEAT, and tickets are here. Belew and Levin were actually in Crimson at the time, of course, and Levin appeared in St. Petersburg earlier this year with another prog project, Stickmen.

Saturday’s Violent Femmes show at Jannus Live has been sold out for months.

Friday’s scheduled show from comedian/actor Marlon Wayans was canceled this month.

World music guitar virtuoso and mood-creating PBS showman Benise is back Friday for his annual Mahaffey Theater concert. This edition, called Fiesta!, includes Benise, his band and dancers interpreting rock ‘n’ roll classics along with flamenco delights and more. Tickets.

Featuring dancers from Argentina and Uruguay, the company Tango Lovers makes its annual Mahaffey appearance next Wednesday (Oct. 2), with a show called Volver. This show was recently moved from its original Sept. 29 date. Tickets are here.

Friday at the Yuengling Center: Blues/R&B artists King George, Tucka, Pokey Bear, onetime Tower of Power singer Lenny Williams and others. Tickets.

Country Hits: Songs From Nashville is Saturday’s program from The Florida Orchestra at the Mahaffey Theater. The 2 and 8 p.m. concert includes orchestrated arrangements of classics by Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Dolly Parton, Martina McBride, Kacey Musgraves, Reba, George Strait, Johnny Cash and June Carter … you know, the gang. (Spoiler alert: The Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell great “Wichita Lineman,” which came with its own killer string arrangement back in ’68, is on the menu). Bob Bernhardt conducts; find tickets here.

Jazz caliente

Monday at the Mahaffey: It’s Afro-Cuban heritage to the nith degree, as Buena Vista Social Club trombonist and arranger Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos fronts the Buena Vista Orchestra, which includes other veterans of the legendary Buena Vista Social Club, and the Cuban Jazz All-Stars: “Betun” Luis Mariano Valiente Marin (congas, bongo), Emilio Senon Morales Ruiz (keys) and Fabía Garcia (bass). Tickets.

St. Pete Opera’s “Samson & Delilah” opens Friday at the Palladium Theater. Photo: Jim Swallow/Packinghouse Gallery.

St. Pete Opera

St. Petersburg Opera Company’s fall production, Samson & Delilah by composer Camille Saint-Saëns, is onstage – in a full production, with orchestra – at the Palladium Theater Friday (8 p.m.), Sunday (2 p.m.) and again Tuesday, Oct. 1 (7:30 p.m.). It’s sung in French with English translations. All tickets are here.

Your weekend performance forecast appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section. 

Please add us to your mailing list – send all press releases and event info to bill@stpetecatalyst.com.

You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.