Weekend spotlight: A whole lotta Diamonds

Good times never seemed so good!

Neil Diamond is 84 years old, and his pop music legacy is secure. The singing/songwriting legend stopped performing live in 2018, after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

Close your eyes, and it’s almost as if Mr. “Sweet Caroline” was in the room. Keep them open, and you might see somebody who looks a lot like him.

But it’s not Neil Diamond. More like Neil Cubic Zirconia.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical is this week’s entry in the Straz Center’s Broadway season. It’s the national tour of the 2022 jukebox musical, telling Diamond’s story through his hit songs. The show is onstage in Morsini Hall through Sunday. Mr. D. is played by Nick Fradiani (early days) and Robert Westenberg (later era).

And for reasons not entirely clear, tribute artists seem to love Neil Diamond as much as they love Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand or Cher.

To wit, also on tap is Friday’s Neil Diamond Legacy Concert Starring Jay White, at the Mahaffey Theater.

Then there’s I Am, I Said, coming to the Capitol Theatre March 1 (“This is not a tribute show,” says bandleader Tommy Vee. “This is a celebration of an amazing musical icon, one we all love and respect.”)

Look out for Solitary Man – A Tribute to Neil Diamond, March 13 at the Central Park Performing Arts Center, with David Jericko, who previously spent 15 hip-wiggling years playing Elvis in tribute shows.

Showtimes and tickets for A Beautiful Noise are here. Tickets for the Jay White Mahaffey performance are here.

Onstage today (Thursday, Feb. 13)

Whitney James sings at the Palladium Theatre’s Side Door tonight. Photo provided.

Jazz vocalist Whitney James, a longtime favorite local performer, returns to the Palladium Side Door tonight with Michael Clement on piano; LaRue Nickelson, guitar; and Alejandro Arenas, bass. The “Jazz Valentine” show starts at 7:30, and tickets are at this link.

Opera Tampa is the promoter for tonight’s concert by the great Andrea Bocelli at Amalie Arena. Find tickets at this link.

New York’s Jon Lehrer Dance Company is in performance tonight at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center. Find tickets at this link.

Friday (Feb. 14)

Friday at Skipper’s Smokehouse: Blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland, daughter of blues guitar legend Johnny Copeland and winner of the 2021 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, and her band. Tickets are here.

Comedian Paula Poundstone had to cancel her Capitol Theatre performance in January, due to the Los Angeles fires. She’s rescheduled for Friday; find tickets at this link.

Saturday’s Amalie Arena show from comedian/actor Katt Williams is nearly sold out. Publicity photo.

Onstage Saturday, Feb. 15

With the strength, will and determination of the Energizer Bunny, Willie Nelson continues, at 94, to be ever on the road again. Catch the country music superstar Saturday at the BayCare Sound amphitheater. Find tickets at this link.

Comedian Katt Williams is onstage Saturday at Amalie Arena. Tickets are here. At press time, the show was almost sold out.

Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall: The annual bay area show from jazz trumpet player Chris Botti. Find tickets here.

Savannah’s Victor Wainwright, named the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year Award from the Blues Music Awards, multiple times, performs at the Palladium’s big room (Hough Hall) Saturday with his band the Train. For the first set, he’ll play “A Tribute to the Greats,” from Sunnyland Slim to Dr. John, and for the second set, he and the band (with horns) will tear through rock ’n’ blues ‘n’ more from their albums. Find tickets for the 8 p.m. performance here.

Saturday (7:30 p.m.) at the Safety Harbor Art & Music Center: The harmonious Americana duo Moors & McCumber. Find tickets at this link.

Irish comedian and author David Nihill has two shows Saturday in the Straz Center’s Jaeb Theatre. The 7 p.m. “Shelf Help” show sold out, but tickets remain for the 9:30 edition; find ‘em here.

The dance/acrobatic troupe Cirque Zuma Zuma has two shows Sunday at the Central Park Performing Arts Center. Photo provided.

Onstage Sunday (Feb. 16)

Sunday’s Palladium Theatre One City Chorus concert, consisting of Beatles music, is sold out.

Onstage Sunday (shows at 2 and 7 p.m.) at the Central Park Performing Arts Center is Cirque Zuma Zuma, a high-energy “African-style” cirque troupe with dance, music acrobatics and aerobatics. Here’s the company’s website; tickets are at this link.

Sunday at Amalie Arena: Comedian Jo Koy, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are here.

Folk music’s Judy Collins is at the Capitol Theatre Sunday night at 7:30. We spoke with her earlier this week.

Mackenzie Aaryn is a “park ranger” in American Stage’s “Don’t Feed the Animals.” Photo provided.

On theater stages

Road Show, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, opens Friday and runs through March 16 at freeFall Theatre. Read more, and find tickets, at this link.

Ongoing through Feb. 23 is American Stage’s “Tales By Twilight” production of Don’t Feed the Animals, a comedy by Anthony Gervais. It’s an “on the move” show, on the walking trails at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Tickets and info are available at this link.

In its second weekend at Stageworks Theatre is the comic drama The People Downstairs, from local playwright Natalie Symons. Find info and tickets here.

The classics

There are two performances of the Tampa Bay Symphony’s Scandinavian Romance concert (with works by Grieg and Sibelius): Friday, 8 p.m. at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center), and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Ferguson Hall, Straz Center. Find all tickets at this link.

Stuart Chafetz conducts The Florida Orchestra for this weekend’s concerts built around the music of five-time Academy Award winner John Williams (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, the Harry Potter series, E.T. et cetera). It’s at 8 p.m. Friday in the Straz Center’s Ferguson Hall (tickets), and at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater (tickets). At press time, both concerts were close to sold out.

Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section. 

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