Looking ahead: The month of January in the arts

Beth Henley’s heartland drama Crimes of the Heart is the American Stage offering for January (opening on the 11^th). Chicago’s Elizabeth Margolius directs a tradition-shattering BIPOC cast that includes Gina Cielo, AJ Baldwin, Rita Cole, Shelby Ronea, Henian Boone and Xavier Mikal.

Jobsite Theater and director David M. Jenkins return to the world of Shakespeare for their first production of 2023 – Hamlet, opening Jan. 11. It’s a typically impressive cast list, with Giles Davies in the lead role, Katrina Stevenson, Ned Averill-Snell, Jim Wicker, Hugh Timony, Roxanne Faye, Nicole Jeannine Smith … it’s the Tampa Bay Equity A-listers, you betcha.

ThinkTank Theatre for Young Audiences produces the The Wolves – Sarah DeLappe’s drama about a girls’ soccer team – Jan. 11-22 at Stageworks.

Gulfport’s Dorothy Hershman stars in the one-woman play Roshin’s Wake Jan. 19, 20 and 21 at thestudio@620.

Towards the end of the month, Jan. 27, freeFall Theatre will start the new year with The Agitators, an historical drama centering around the enduring but tempestuous friendship of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. Kristin Clippard directs.

And the national touring company of Hamilton will be at Morsini Hall, in Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts, from now until Jan. 22.

Concerts

The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine makes its annual visit to the Mahaffey Theater Jan. 6, with Sleeping Beauty.

The Palladium has a jam-packed January: Jazz pianist Chuck Owen and Resurgence (8^th); American Songbook vocalist, author, activist and actress Nellie McKay (13^th); guitarist Willy Porter (14^th); jazz pianists Shelly Berg and Laurence Hobgood (15^th); bluegrass stars Dailey & Vincent (20^th); bay area singer/songwriters Ed Woltil and Kirk Adams (27^th); bluesman Roy Book Binder (28^th). And a program called Viscera Dimension, combining music, visuals, sound and poetry, with The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, Jinghong Zhang, John C. O’Leary, III, Tihda Vongkoth, Melanie Lavender and Kristopher James (25^th).

Latin jazz from the Adolfo Mendonça Trio Jan. 8 at thestudio@620.

Texas boogie queen Marcia Ball is booked at Skipper’s Smokehouse Jan. 13; Southern Culture on the Skids plays Skipper’s on the 14th.

Jan. 14 at Amalie Arena: Barry Manilow.

John Oates (you know, the guy who’s usually onstage with Daryl Hall) has a show with Guthrie Trapp Jan. 19 at the Mahaffey Theater.

Folk legend Tom Chapin is at the Attic at Rock Brothers Jan. 19.

Tesla plays the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center Jan. 19.

Folk legend Claudia Schmidt will play Craftsman House Gallery Jan. 21.

At Ruth Eckerd Hall: Florida’s country music band the Mavericks (Jan. 13); Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit (Jan. 20); Tedeschi Trucks Band (Jan. 21 and, strangely, Jan. 25, too); Air Supply (Jan. 28); Bronx Wanderers (Jan. 29).

At the Capitol Theatre in January: Marc Broussard (11^th); Geoff Tate of Queensryche (13^th); Manhattan Transfer (14^th); Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder (19^th); Justin Hayward (22^nd); Leo Kottke (24^th); Jaimoe’s Big Band of Brothers (26^th); Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra (27^th); Al DiMeola (29^th).

Comedy

At the Yuenging Center, Katt Williams performs Jan. 13.

Larry the Cable Guy is at Ruth Eckerd Hall Jan. 14.

Kathleen Madigan performs at the Mahaffey Jan. 20.

Eddie Brill, Caroline Rhea and Nick Griffin – postponed because of Hurricane Ian (or was it the other one?) will bring the Comics of Late-Night TV to the Palladium Jan. 21.

Jan. 27 at Amalie Arena: Puppet comic Jeff Dunham.

Russell Peters will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center Jan. 29.

The classics

The Palladium Chamber Players celebrate 10 years of Palladium Theater concerts Jan. 11 with a re-creation of that first show program from 2012. The quartet: Jeffrey Multer, violin; Danielle Farina, viola; Edward Arron, cello and Jeewon Park, piano.

Classic Black, Jan. 29 at the Palladium, is a partnership between the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and St. Petersburg Opera Company. The concert features performances by Black classical artists Jeremiah Abiah, Nia Drummond, Taylor Honor, John Lamb, Gregory Sheppard, Maiya Stevenson, Carlos Walker and Yohance Wicks.

Jan. 31 at the Palladium: The Tampa Bay Symphony, in a program that includes music by Gershwin, Chopin and William Grant Still.

The Florida Orchestra has a lot planned for this month, including a performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris (Jan. 6, 7, 8 at the Straz Center, Mahaffey Theater and Ruth Eckerd Hall), with works by Duke Ellington and Joshua Cerdenia on the program – as well as the rarely-performed Wynton Marsalis Tuba Concerto; an orchestra salute to Aretha Franklin (13^th, Straz; 14^th, Mahaffey), with vocalist Capathia Jenkins; Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Jessie Montgomery’s tone poem Records from a Vanishing City (21^st, Mahaffey; 22^nd, Straz); Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Elgar’s Cello Concerto (with soloist Maximilian Hornung, 28^th, Mahaffey, 29^th, Ruth Eckerd Hall).

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