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Looking forward: The month of May in the arts
Warm weather is back, and so is the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater.
The Australian electronic music trio Rüfüs Du Sol kicked off its 2025 American tour Saturday (April 26) with a sold out show in Austin’s Q2 Stadium. Guitarist Tyrone Lindqvist, keyboardist Jon George and drummer James Hunt play dreamy, electronically-crafted pop and dance music. Until 2018, the trio was known simply as Rufus.
Touring on behalf of their third album, Inhale/Exhale, the now California based threesome will inaugurate east Tampa’s outdoor amphitheater for 2025 Thursday (May 1) at 7:30 p.m. This concert is also sold out.
And that’s how the month of May begins.
Next on the agenda for the east Hillsborough outdoor stage: Primus, Puscifier and A Perfect Circle (May 8); Billy Idol (May 10); Breaking Bejamin and Staind (May 13); Pierce the Veil (May 15); Halsey (May 24); Styx, Kevin Cronin and Don Felder (May 31).
The Country Thunder Music Festival rolls into Raymond James Stadium May 2-4 (this Friday through Sunday) with headliners Riley Green, Jelly Roll and Blake Shelton. The “support” acts aren’t too shabby, either – the list includes Ella Langley, Jake Owen, Clint Black, Ashley McBryde, Dillon Carmichael, Kentucky Headhunters and more.
Concert calendar
May 1 (this Thursday). The ageless Welsh pop/soul belter Tom Jones at Ruth Eckerd Hall.
May 1 (this Thursday). Remi Wolf at the BayCare Sound.
May 2 (this Friday). Cynthia Ervio with The Florida Orchestra at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 3 (this Saturday). Cheap Trick at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 3 (this Saturday). Liquid Stranger (EMD) with INZO, TVBOO b2b and others at the BayCare Sound.
May 5. Singer/actress Rachel Prather, with Michael Raabe and Paul Stoddart, The Studio @620.
Craig Ferguson plays the Capitol Theatre May 7.
May 7. Scottish standup comic (and former late night TV host) Craig Ferguson at the Capitol Theatre.
May 8. Canadian singer/songwriter (and Schitt’s Creek actor) Noah Reed at the Capitol Theatre.
May 8. Synia Carroll Memorial Concert (jazz), Palladium Theater.
May 10. Amalie Arena’s got Mike Epps and the We Them One comedy tour.
May 10. Elderbrook (EDM) with Eli, Fur and Jerro, at the BayCare Sound.
May 11. Singer/songwriter Matt Kearney at the Capitol Theatre.
May 11. Lenier at the Seminole Hard Rock Convention Center.
May 13. L.A. Guns at Central Park Performing Arts Center.
May 14. Pianist Richard Clayderman at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center.
May 14: The Damned at Jannus Live.
May 15. Simon Lasky (jazz), Palladium Theater.
May 16. Michael Franti & Spearhead at the BayCare Sound.
May 16. Morrissey at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 17. Hauser at the BayCare Sound.
May 17. Comedian Tom Papa, Ruth Eckerd Hall.
May 18. Drag performer Alyssa Edwards at the Capitol Theatre.
May 18 Comedian Wanda Sykes (two shows) at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 21. Comedian Ron White at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center.
May 21. Ken Peplowski and Diego Figueiredo (jazz), New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
May 22. Comedian (and TV host) Howie Mandel at Ruth Eckerd Hall.
May 22. White Collar Comedy Tour, Palladium Theater.
May 24. International Ballet of Florida Don Quixote at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 28 Rick Springfield, John Waite, John Cafferty, Wang Chung at Ruth Eckerd Hall.
May 30: Happy Together Tour at Ruth Eckerd Hall, The Turtles, Jay & The Americans, Little Anthony, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Vogues, The Cowsills.
May 30. Australian comedian Jim Jeffries at the Mahaffey Theater.
May 30. Sam Hunt at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center.
Coming to the James Museum of Westyern & Wildlife Art: Sarah Kaizar, Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica, 2022, Gouache, pen and ink.
Visual art
Opening May 9 at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art, Rare Air is an exhibition of illustrations of endangered birds, bats, butterflies and bees by artist Sarah Kaizar.
The Shape of Us, an exhibition of work by six Pinellas County artists, opens with a reception May 16 at the Gallery at Creative Pinellas.
At the Dalí Museum May 20: A screening of the film Dalí’s Dream, based on Lisa Monde’s award-winning original play of the same name. May 24 brings Outside In: New Murals Inspired by Dalí, inviting SHINE Mural Festival artists to create murals within the museum’s gallery. Participants will include SHINE founders Tes One, Chad Mize, Palehorse and BASK, along with numerous others.
On theater stages
Proof positive that there’s no Hollywood property that can’t be profitably recycled into a Broadway musical, Back to the Future: The Musical is onstage at Morsani Hall (Straz Center) through Sunday, April 4.
Adapted from the play by Federico Garcia Lorca, The Butterfly’s Evil Spell opens May 7 at Jobsite Theater.
May 8-18 at the JCC on the Cohn Campus, Tampa: Songs for a New World, from ThinkTank Theatre.
A new theater company, Dead Canary, debuts May 15 as the resident company at The Studio@620 with David Ives’ Venus in Fur.
Cooler, a new play by Craig Houk (Syd), opens May 15 at LAB Theatre Project.
American Stage returns with James Ijames’ Fat Ham, a comedic take on Hamlet, opening May 28.
Byron Stripling hosts and conducts “Ragtime, Blues and All That Jazz” with The Florida Orchestra May 30.
The classics
Tampa Bay Symphony’s May concert, spotlighting Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, is May 4 (this Sunday) at the Straz Center Ferguson Hall, May 9 at New Tampa Performing Arts Center, and May 11 at the Palladium Theater.
The Florida Orchestra closes out its season thusly:
May 9/10. Copland’s Symphony No. 3/Gershwin’s Piano Concerto (Straz Morsani; Mahaffey Theater).
May 14. Sing Out Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg Coliseum.
May 16-18. Simply The Best: The Music of Tina Turner (Straz Ferguson, Mahaffey Theater, Ruth Eckerd Hall).
May 24 and 25, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 Featuring The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay (Mahaffey Theater).
May 30 Ragtime, Blues & All That Jazz (Straz Morsani).
May 31 Free Pops in the Park, River Tower Park Tampa.
Websites
Central Park Performing Arts Center
Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg
New Tampa Performing Arts Center
Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
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