Weekend arts forecast: Music to stir the savage beast

Film composer John Williams has 53 Academy Awards nominations, a good amount of them for his scores to Steven Spielberg blockbusters (for the record, he also did the Star Wars franchise, the Indiana Jones movies, the 1979 Superman and several in the Harry Potter series).

Curiously, Williams was not Oscar-nominated for one of his most effective scores: Jurassic Park, Spielberg’s 1993 adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel about a remote island “zoo” which a science-minded billionaire populates with real, live dinosaurs, created from fossilized DNA.

He’s quite mad, you know.

Jurassic Park, toned down though it was from Crichton’s bone-chilling book, was a massive success – until James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic, it was the highest-grossing film of all time. Numerous sequels followed – and, as with the first Spielberg/Williams juggernaut Jaws, each was worse than the one before. So goes Hollywood.

A company called Film Concerts Live tours a high-definition video of the original Jurassic Park around the world, along with an orchestra conductor (Jacob Joyce, in this instance) and myriad copies of Williams’ full score. This way, orchestras in each designated city can perform the music – all of it – live, as the movie is playing.

The Florida Orchestra has put on this kind of concert before, with other movies. And this weekend, Jurassic Park is up at bat. (It’s what’s known as playing “live to picture”). The performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater. Tickets are here.

(Film Concerts Live in also in Jacksonville this weekend, with the Jacksonville Symphony performing, live to picture, Williams’ score to E.T.)

Friday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.), Opera Tampa will pay respect to Hispanic Heritage Month with a program called Spanish Nights, with music from Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. It’s in the Jaeb Theatre, at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, and tickets are here.

Concerts

Friday brings singer/songwriter SZA (aka Solana Rowe) to Amalie Arena. Ms. Rowe went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April with “Kill Bill”; her most recent, “Snooze,” reached No. 7 a few weeks ago. They’re from the album SOS, which topped the album charts, and is at No. 6 this week. SZA scored hits with Kendrick Lamar (“All the Stars”), Doja Cat (“Kiss Me More”) and Maroon 5 (“What Lovers Do”), among others. Tickets for Friday’s show are here.

New Jersey perennial Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes are here to rock the Capitol Theatre Friday; tickets to see and hear the legendary Mr. Lyon and the Sons of the Jersey Shore are here.

Friday’s Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre concert by rapper Trippie Redd (aka Michael Lamar White IV) has been canceled.

Blues guitarist Matt Schofield visits the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Café Friday. Tickets.

Saturday at Mid-Florida: Singer, songwriter, producer (and actor) Ne-Yo, the three-time Grammy winning purveyor of eight platinum albums and a baker’s dozen chart hits. Mario and Pleasure P are also on the bill; tickets are here.

Guitar shredder Yngwie Malmsteen headlines a Saturday show at the Capitol Theatre, after an opening set from veteran rock singer/bassist Glenn Hughes. Tickets.

On into next week, Monday’s Lana Del Rey concert at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre has been sold out for months, but you can still grab a seat or two to see Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band Tuesday at The Sound (Ringo tix here).

Saturday at the Palladium Side Door: Hot Tonic Orchestra. Photo provided.

All that jazz

Jazz hit #1: The bay area-based Sokołowski Trombone Project, a jazz ensemble consisting of four ‘bones and piano, bass and drums, performs Saturday at thestudio@620. Fronted by composer and arranger Filip Sokołowski, the group recently appeared at the 2023 International Trombone Festival at the University of Utah. Tickets.

Jazz hit #2: From Tampa, the Hot Tonic Orchestra (Saturday at the Palladium Side Door) is an eight-piece “high energy” jazz outfit fronted by vocalist/bassist Victoria Woods and guitarist Josh Hindmarsh. They got horns! Tickets. 

Jazz hit #3: British pianist and composer Simon Lasky returns to the Palladium Side Door Sunday, with a local jazz who’s who: Ona K, vocals; Peter Mongaya, guitar; Elias Tona, bass; Jonathan Thomas, drums; James Suggs, trumpet; Aaron West, alto sax; Jack Wilkins, tenor sax. Find tickets here.

Theater

“Dirty” John Huls and his sketch comedy mob are back at thestudio@620 Friday with Don’t Quote Me On That, described as “a wacky biography of Claire Bear, your favorite neighborhood lesbian.” Tickets.

It’s your last weekend to catch the world premiere of the family-farming drama Drift at LAB Theater Project. This story will tell you all about it, and includes a link for tickets.

Saturday at the Off-Central: Comedians Leslie Norris Townsend and Michelle Krajecki. The 8 p.m. show is called Boomer Broads, and tickets are here.

Jobsite Theater’s typically bizarro take on Tom Stoppard’s Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead enters its second weekend at the Straz Center (tickets here); stars Katherine Yacko and Nicole Jeannine Smith are Friday’s guests on our Arts Alive! podcast.

The Weekend Arts Forecast appears every Thursday in the Catalyst. 

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