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Weekend spotlight: Bohemian opera and hot wing royalty
The Catalyst’s every-Thursday guide to Tampa Bay entertainment and the arts.
Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème, which closes out St. Pete Opera’s 20th season this weekend and next, tells the story of a tight-knit group of artists attempting to survive in a big, largely unforgiving city.
If that sounds a lot like Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical Rent, from the 1990s, that’s because Larson adapted the characters and plot of the Puccini opera for his rock musical saga of struggling New York artists in the AIDS era. Puccini’s Rudolfo, Marcello and Colline became Larson’s Roger, Mark and Collins, etcetera.
(Remember the song that closes the first act of Rent? It’s “La Vie Bohème,” which is French for “The Bohemian Life.”)
La Bohème is set in Paris and sung in Italian, with English translations above the stage. Matt Haney is the stage director, and as always SPO artistic director Mark Sforzini conducts the orchestra.
Performance dates are June 5, 7, 9, 12 and 14 in the Palladium Theater’s Hough Hall. For additional information, and tickets, visit the St. Pete Opera website.
“The Hot Wing King,” new at American Stage, co-stars Lance Markeith Felton. Image: Video screengrab.
On theater stages
Kenny Moten (Beauty and the Beast; Hair) directs The Hot Wing King at American Stage, opening Friday with a preview performance tonight. Katori Hall’s Pulitzer Prize-winning dramedy is about a Memphis family preparing for the “Hot Wang Festival,” when other, more urgent matters materialize. Find showtimes and tickets at this link.
The musical comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change opens Friday at Stageworks Theatre. Directed by Heather Krueger, the play (book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro, music by Jimmy Roberts) includes four actors in multiple roles, in a series of couple-centric vignettes concerning love, relationships and marriage. It’s one of the longest-running shows in Off-Broadway history. There’s a preview performance tonight. Find showtimes and tickets at this link.
Stageworks producing artistic director Karla Hartley guests on our Arts Alive! podcast Friday.
Concert calendar
Today’s Dali Museum performance by pianist Raquel Garzás is sold out.
Stewart Copeland, one-third of the iconic rock group The Police, is onstage Friday at the Capitol Theatre. It’s not a musical show; accompanied by a moderator (to keep him on track, he says), Copeland will tell stories from his long and illustrious career. Find info and tickets here.
The Catalyst spoke with the witty and verbose Copeland via Zoom a few days ago. Check that out at this link.
Hank Williams Jr. opens his summer tour Friday in Tampa. Publicity photo.
Friday at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre: Country music’s controversial Hank Williams Jr., who hasn’t released any new music since Rich White Honky Blues in 2022. Joe Nichols and Spencer Hatcher open the 6:30 p.m. concert. Find tickets here.
Straight outta the ‘80s, the contemporary editions of Quiet Riot and Vixen co-headline Friday at Fergs Pavilion. The Catalyst spoke with Vixen founding member Roxy Petrucci here. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are here.
The St. Petersburg Sax Quartet plays Friday at 5 p.m. at the Imagine Museum. Tickets are at this link.
Chelsea Gallo conducts The Florida Orchestra in a free concert, Symphony by the Sea, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the BayCare Sound Amphitheatre. The program includes Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, John Williams movie music, Broadway hits and “classical crowd-pleasers.”
Sunday at 2 p.m., The orchestra is engaged in Morsani Hall (at the Straz Center) for Defying Gravity – The Music of Stephen Schwartz, honoring the composer of Wicked, Godspell, Enchanted and more. Chelsea Gallo conducts. Tickets are here.
Coming soon
June 10-21 Tampa International Fringe Festival, Ybor City
June 9-14 Broadway Series Beetlejuice Morsani Hall, Straz Center
June 9 Lucy Darling at Ruth Eckerd Hall
June 10 “An Evening in New Orleans” at Central Park Performing Arts Center
June 11 Steve Earle at the Capitol Theatre
June 12 Evanescence at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
June 11 Passing Strange opens at The Studio@620
June 12 Bash of the Titans opens at freeFall Theatre
June 13: Kalis Uchis at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
June 13 Chris Stapleton w/Lainey Wilson at Raymond James Stadium
June 14 Ne-Yo, Akon at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
June 16 Mad Beach Band at Palladium Side Door Cabaret
June 19 Josh Groban, Jennifer Hudson at Benchmark Arena
June 19 Vince Gill at Ruth Eckerd Hall
June 20 Billy Currington at the BayCare Sound
June 20 The Florida Orchestra Music of Studio Ghibli at Ruth Eckerd Hall
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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