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The month of March in the Arts
Howie Mandel. Publicity photo.
Will Howie Mandel make his scheduled March 10 date at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center?
It’s a reasonable question, as the comedian and America’s Got Talent judge – a notorious germophobe – has postponed this tour, and this performance, three times since the pandemic began in the spring of 2020.
Here’s hoping this extremely funny and personable showbiz figure feels safe enough to make the appearance, the third date on his 2022 swing (from here, he goes to The Villages).
Other comics making their way to the bay area in March include Mike Epps with Sommore and others (March 5, Yuengling Center); Colin Quinn (Straz Center Jaeb Theatre, March 12); Jo Koy (March 12, Yuengling Center); Steve-O (Straz Center Ferguson Hall, March 24); Rita Rudner (Capitol Theatre, March 25).
Music and concerts
The Reggae Rise Up festival is back at Vinoy Park March 18-20.
Country star Eric Church is at Amalie Arena March 5 (this Saturday), and YouTube/Nickelodeon teen singer/dancer JoJo Siwa (D.R.E.A.M The Tour) performs at Amalie Sunday.
The iconic jazz vocal group Manhattan Transfer has two shows at Central Park Performing Arts Center in Largo March 26.
Ruth Eckerd Hall and its little brother, the Capitol Theatre, have another strong lineup for March. In Ruth’s big house, look for the Ten Tenors (March 13), Foreigner (March 14); Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (March 18, 19); Slash (March 25).
Along with Rodney Crowell, who’s at the Cap this Friday (here’s our story from Monday), artists playing the smaller venue include Michael Feinstein (this Thursday, March 3); Lucinda Williams (Saturday), Rick Wakeman (March 8); Graham Nash (March 11); Lyle Lovett (March 12, 13); Chris Botti (March 18); the English Beat (March 12); Jackie Evancho (March 23); Paul Thorn (March 26); Iron & Wine (March 29) and Janis Ian (March 31).
At the Mahaffey Theater: Celtic Woman (Friday); Dream Theater (March 16); Blood, Sweat & Tears (March 17).
At the Palladium Theater: Boogie Woogie Blues Piano Stomp, March 19; Women of Jazz XVI, March 23, with Valerie Gillespie, Judi Glover, Patricia Dean, Michael Ross, Rose Bilal, Lorri Hafer and Belinda Womack; Listening Room March 25 with acoustic performers Danny Schmidt, Mare Wakefield & Nomad, Sam Robbins and The Whispering Tree; Matt Schofield Trio (jazz, March 26).
Opera Tampa brings its oft-postponed Pirates of Penzance to Ferguson Hall in the Straz Center March 11 and 13 (no show on the 12th). Music by The Florida Orchestra.
Theater stages
Actor Chazz Palminteri will perform his iconic one-man show A Bronx Tale at the Capitol Theatre March 20.
Opening this week (Wednesday, March 2, in fact): Jobsite Theater’s take on Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. We’ll go close-up on this production Wednesday in the Catalyst.
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, opening March 25 at freeFall Theatre, stars Karole Foreman as Billie Holiday. The show is coming in straight from the Ebony Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles.
Beginning March 24 at Studio Grand Central, Breadcrumbs is a drama by Jennifer Haley with an impressive two-person cast: Roxanne Fay and Debbie Yones. (This show will also be staged at the Shimberg Playhouse, in the Straz Center, March 14, 15, 20 and 21 – nights when Jobsite’s A Clockwork Orange is not using the space).
The highly anticipated production of Murder on the Orient Express, adapted by Ken Ludwig and with Matthew McGee as Hercule Poirot, opens March 23 at Stageworks.
On March 23, a national tour of Disney’s musical Frozen will begin a two-week run in the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall.
(American Stage is dark for the month of March; work is shifting out to Demens Landing Park, where the spring musical Footloose will debut in early April.)
And the orchestra
The Florida Orchestra will try to out-cool its February Star Wars concerts by presenting Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at Morsani Hall, in the Straz Center, this weekend (evening show Friday, matinee Saturday). WITH the entire film. On March 13, it’s “The Paul Simon Songbook” at Ruth Eckerd, and the March 19 concert at the Mahaffey Theater, America’s Wonders, is a high-def video tour through our national parks, accompanied by the (live) music of selected U.S. composers.
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