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Weekend spotlight: ‘Hair’ is here
The weekend’s biggest news is the launch of American Stage’s production of the 1968 musical Hair at Demens Landing Park, which will remain on the outdoor stage for multiple nights for just about a month.
The park’s on the downtown bayfront, Bayshore Drive and 2nd Ave. SE.
There is a preview performance of the “American Tribal Love/Rock Musical” tonight, with the opening proper happening Friday. Opening night also serves as the traditional dinner-and-drinks, table-seating gala – the tickets that remain are available here.
Friday is also significant because American Stage’s artistic director, Helen R. Murray, will announce the Demens Landing Park show for 2026.
That will be the one that got away, as Murray issued a warning last year that the park show was in danger of plug-pulling, due to the deletion of state funding aid from Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis.
American Stage admins report that the community rallied behind the “park” tradition immediately, and they are closing in on their $500,000 goal. And, to coin a phrase, that oughta do it.
Director Kenny Moten combed through Hair with the Catalyst this week; read that story here.
All information, and tickets, can be found at this link.
Also on theater stages
A touring production of Mean Girls the Musical is onstage tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. performance can be found at this link.
Paula Fell’s comedy Trust Me – profiled here in the Catalyst – is entering its final weekend at LAB Theatre Project. Find tickets here.
Martin McDonagh’s unnervingly dark comedy The Pillowman continues this weekend at Jobsite Theater (tickets). Two members of the play’s cast, Georgia Mallory Guy and Troy Brooks, will guest on Friday’s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast.
Where’s the orchestra?
The Catalyst interviewed classical saxophonist Robert Young Wednesday, in advance of his performance with The Florida Orchestra Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. He’s the guest soloist on the jazz-inspired concerto A Kind of Trane, by French composer Guillaume Connesson. The 7:30 p.m. concert, conducted by Young’s brother Joseph, also features Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Tickets are available at this link.
To dance
The dance company projectALCHEMY is in residence at The Studio @620 tonight through Saturday with With Love, a piece choreographed by Alexander Jones, in collaboration with Bob Devin Jones. Find out what it’s all about in this Catalyst story from Tuesday (there’s a ticket link in there, too).
Nejla Yatkin, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography, is at Stageworks Theatre at 2 p.m. Saturday with a performance program called Ouroboros. Presented by Art2Action Inc., it “weaves personal storytelling, contemporary and Middle Eastern dance, cabaret-style song, and finger cymbal/zill play through English, German, Turkish, and ASL, inviting audience participation.” Sound design and live musical accompaniment by Sathapat Sangsuwan. Find details and tickets here.
Concert calendar
Southern funk/rock icon Randall Bramblett, who played the Safety Harbor Art and Music Center in January (read our interview here), is onstage with his band Friday in the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Cabaret. Tickets are here.
Jam band hero (and longtime frontman for Phish) Trey Anastasio is on a solo acoustic tour, and you can catch him onstage at Ruth Eckerd Hall Friday. Or can you? It’s sold out.
A slew of sold-out shows between Friday and Tuesday at Jannus Live: Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Niko Moon and both nights of Violent Femmes.
Band or brand? Australia’s Little River Band (original members: 0) is onstage Saturday at the BayCare Sound amphitheater. And no one in this lineup is even Australian. Go figure. Rock legend John Waite (who’s definitely the original) opens. Tickets.
Sunday brings comedian Eliza Schlesinger to the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center. Find tickets at this link.
Friday at the Tampa Theatre: Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley from the long-running parenting comedy podcast #IMOMSOHARD. Tickets for the live performance are available here.
Cabaret singer and Broadway veteran Melissa Erico sings, with combo, Saturday at the Central Park Performing Arts Center (the show is called Life and Loves of a Broadway Baby). Her husband Patrick McEnroe, former tennis pro and ESPN sports commentator, will introduce the concert, and the pair will conduct an audience Q&A afterwards. More info, and tickets, can be found at this link.
Vocalist Alexis Cole, onstage with conductor David Manson and the Helios Jazz Orchestra. Photo by Larry Feldman.
And … jazz
Clarinetist Ken Peplowski and pianist/composer Ted Rosenthal are together again at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret, Sunday at 8 p.m. Tickets.
The St. Petersburg Jazz Festival returns Monday (March 31) through Thursday (April 3), with a series of intimate shows at the Palladium Side Door, and a finale concert at the Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement. It’s the 17th SP Jazzfest from David Manson and his EMIT organization. For tickets and additional info, visit the festival website at this link.
Here’s the schedule:
Monday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m.:
Tal Cohen Trio, Palladium Theater Side Door.
Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.:
Alexis Cole & Helios Jazz Orchestra, Palladium Theater Side Door.
Wednesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.:
Uri Gurvich-Rodolfo Zuniga Quartet, Palladium Theater Side Door.
Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m.:
The Pershounin Quartet, Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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