Weekend arts forecast: Maybe a play for Mother’s Day?

It’s another good weekend for local theater (take Mom to a play, why don’t ya? There are many choices).

The official title is Jobsite’s Alice, because the musical opening Friday in the Straz Center’s Shimberg Playhouse, billed as a “cabaret spectacle,” was conceived, written, scored, art-directed and built by the creatives and artistic associate team at Jobsite Theater.

The source material was Lewis Carroll and his trippy children’s stories about young Alice and her adventures in Bizarro World. It unspools like a manic, mushroom-fueled Muppet Show.

Tickets for opening weekend (including tonight’s preview) are very close to being sold out; the show will run through June 4. Info and tickets here.

American Stage’s full-throttle production of the musical Ragtime, under the stars in Demens Landing Park, has four remaining performances (tonight, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There are, needless to say, no matinees). Tickets.

It’s also the final weekend for Jane Martin’s Talking With at Stageworks Theatre (read all about it, and find tickets, here).

Kathi Grau plays opera legend Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s drama Master Class, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at thestudio@620, plus a Sunday matinee. This weekend only. Tickets here.

Featuring more than 30-some performances, from one-person comedies to burlesque to just plain weird stuff, the eight annual Tampa International Fringe Festival is hot to trot through Friday in Ybor City – in the Kress Building, and at the Hillsborough Community College Ybor campus. Read everything you could possibly learn about it here, including where to find tickets.

Also in Ybor is LAB Theatre Project, where previously-unproduced plays are put onstage. The company’s current show is the mythological drama Fire Thief, by Laura Hirschberg. Details here.

Actors who sing, and singers who act come together Saturday at freeFall Theatre for Both Sides of the Bay Cabaret, from ThinkTank Theatre. Find details and tickets here.

At The Off-Central in St. Pete, it’s David Mamet’s comedy for kids The Revenge of the Space Pandas. Find tickets here.

Concerts

Chelsea Gallo conducts The Florida Orchestra’s annual Pops in the Park concert, Sunday (7:45 p.m.) at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park in Tampa (take Mom to an orchestra concert, why don’t ya?) Bring a blanket for an admission-free evening of film scores, Broadway hits and symphonic favorites.

Blues guitar legend Anders Osborne pulls into The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing (Ybor City) for a solo acoustic show tonight (Thursday, May 11). Tickets.

Comedian Brian Regan makes his semi-regular stop at the Mahaffey Theater Friday. Tickets.

Rock ‘n’ roll singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge and her band play Ruth Eckerd Hall Sunday. Tickets.

Oh, the horror

The good people who put on St. Pete’s comic, cosplay and other collector conventions are behind the city’s inaugural Horror Con, Sunshine City Scare, Saturday and Sunday at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. Dealers, cosplayers, voice actors and various creepy types are scheduled to attend. Find details at the website here.

The write stuff

Bookish types might want to venture over to the Side Door Cafe, downstairs at the Palladium Theater, for Friday evening’s Sunlit After Dark event. It’s co-sponsored by Keep St. Pete Lit and St. Petersburg Press, and numerous authors and writers will be there talking, and conspiring, and the second annual Roy Peter Clark Literary Award will be handed out. Admission is free, and there’s a cash bar.

The Weekend arts forecast appears every Thursday in the Catalyst. 

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