July in the arts: Hot fun in the summertime
Never let a little oppressive summer heat get in the way of a good old-fashioned concert experience. This month’s column will start with the scheduled outdoor shows:
Country’s Luke Combs is the latest music superstar to tackle multiple performances at Tampa’s mammoth Raymond James Stadium. With Lainey Wilson, Brent Cobb and Gary Allen, the big days are July 7 and 8.
At The Sound: Dave Koz & Friends (tonight); Peter Frampton (July 2); Sad Summer Festival (July 7); Comedian and political commentator Greg Gutfield (July 15); Michael Franti & Spearhead (July 21); Goo Goo Dolls and O.A.R, (July 21); John Fogerty (July 29).
At Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre: Matchbox Twenty (July 8); Foreigner with Loverboy (July 9); Dierks Bentley (July 14); Boy George & Culture Club, Berlin and Howard Jones (July 17); Mudvayne (July 21); Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top (July 22); Fall Out Boy (July 25); Lil Durk (July 28); Nickelback (July 29).
We’ll let you figure out the math on Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd, neither of which includes a single original member (before you bring it up, guitarist Mick Jones no longer tours with Foreigner).
Christian music performer Steven Curtis Chapman performs July 12 at the Mahaffey Theater.
Seals & Crofts 2: Brady Seals and Lua Crofts.
July 13 in the Palladium Theater’s Hough Hall, Seals & Crofts 2 features Little Texas co-founder Brady Seals (a cousin to James Seals of Seals & Crofts), and Lua Crofts, Dash Crofts’ daughter, performing (with their band) the best-known songs of the 1970s duo, and more.
Also at the Palladium: The annual multi-artist Boogie Woogie Piano Stomp (July 15). In the downstairs Side Door Café: Swing Guitars with Nate Najar, Carl Amundson and Dominic Walker (July 16); Jeremy Carter and James Suggs (jazz, July 22); Blues artist Doug McLeod (July 23), Blues artist Damon Fowler (July 28); Trace Zacur Quintet (jazz, July 29).
At the Capitol Theatre: Buckcherry (July 20), Maddie & Tae (July 28).
Concerts at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center are Staind (July 13); Ted Nugent (July 16); Hunter Hayes (July 27).
July in the theater
Carmen Rivera’s La Gringa, opening July 19, will be the first bilingual production in American Stage history. Tatyana-Marie Carlo directs the drama about a young Puerto Rican woman in America. Some of the characters will speak in English, some in Spanish, depending on the character’s backgrounds “and the emotional nuances of each scene.”
Jobsite Theater’s season rolls into summer with a revisitation of Lizzie, the rock musical about the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, starting July 12. Lizzie was a smash in 2016, with Coleen Cherry in the lead role (she’s back for the 2023 edition).
Sarasota-based musical theater veteran Anne Morrison is back at freeFall Theater July 15 with her one-woman cabaret memory play Merrily From Center Stage.
‘Works in the sky
Here’s our story about 4th of July celebrations, with fireworks, in Pinellas County.
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