Weekend spotlight: Three days of jazz; LAB Laughs loudest
Jazz is king this weekend. And queen. And everything in between.
That’s because there are five – count ‘em – five jazz events on stages between Friday and Sunday, every one of them in Pinellas County.
Friday and Saturday brings the third annual Clearwater Smooth Jazz Jam to Ruth Eckerd Hall; Day One features Dave Koz & Friends Summer Horns, Peabo Bryson and Peter White, while Day Two includes performances from Brian McKnight, Jonathan Butler and Keiko Matsui. Showtime is 7 p.m. each day, and all tickets can be found at this link.
At Largo’s Central Park Performing Arts Center, Saturday’s 5:30-9:30 p.m. Ultimate Summer Jazz Jam brings together many of the bay area’s leading musicians (to name but a few: John Lamb, Mark Feinman, Belinda Womack, Fred Johnson, James Suggs, Simon Lasky and David Manson). Table seating is free, although VIP tables-for-four are for sale as a Clearwater Jazz Holiday fundraiser. Click on this link for additional info.
Tampa saxophonist Jeremy Carter and his group stop in at the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret Saturday. The evening is titled This is It, and Jeremy and the guys pay musical tribute to the Jackson family – including the J5, the Jacksons, solo Michael and solo Janet. Tickets are at this link.
American Stage’s summer lobby cabaret series with an intimate – and very sold out – Saturday concert from St. Pete’s bossa nova royalty, Nate Najar and Daniela Soledade.
Back at the Palladium, Sunday’s Al Downing Honors is an annual celebration of the bay area’s jazz community. Erica Sutherlin hosts the 4 p.m. program on the Hough Hall stage, with a performance by the local ensemble Le Jazz. Locate info and tickets at this link.
Darius Rucker plays the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center Sunday. Photo: Live Nation.
Concert calendar
Pure Prairie League, Firefall and Pablo Cruise celebrate ‘70s soft rock tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Tickets are here.
Friday at The Studio@620: Singer/songwriter Ryan Hill, who also happens to be a member of the Dirty John’s sketch comedy crew. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are here.
R&B/hip hop artist Keyshia Cole performs at Tampa’s Amalie Arena Saturday (it’s the 20th anniversary of her debut album The Way it Is). Tickets are at this link.
Guitarist Steve Lukather is at the Mid Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre (Tampa) Saturday, fronting a re-configured version of his band Toto. Also at this show: Christopher Cross and Men At Work. Tickets.
Darius Rucker, aka Hootie (of Blowfish fame), performs Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center (Tampa). As a country music artist, Rucker has scored eight No. 1 singles. Find tickets here.
Sunday brings Counting Crows to Clearwater’s BayCare Sound, with The Gaslight Anthem opening. The Catalyst spoke with Head Crow Adam Duritz this week; read that interview at this link.
The gang’s all here for the 2025 edition of “LAB Laughs.” Photo provided.
LAB Laughs again
Tampa’s LAB Theatre Project, the only bay area play company that produces just original work, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with LAB Laughs, the annual summertime anthology of short comedic plays. There are nine vignettes this year.
Founder and chief producer Owen Robertson says LAB Laughs – because it’s not a big production with elaborate sets and other massively moving parts – was “meant to be a fundraiser, take a break, give us a chance to breathe for a second” when it began five years ago. “And each time, it’s become a bigger and bigger audience draw, and we’re getting top ticket sales. So we decided to make it a full thing.”
The cavalcade of funny shorts began as a single weekend. Last year, it expanded to two. In 2025, it’s up to a full three-weekend run (opening Friday and running through Aug. 3).
LAB Laughs is getting a reputation – submissions come in year-round. “This show, I’ve got one from Singapore, one from Australia, one from Dunedin, one from a Florida playwright that had one in the show in 2023,” Robertson reports.
Tonight’s fundraising bash (“LAB Laughs and Libations”) comes with food, drink, a silent auction and a full production of LAB Laughs. Find all details here.
More theater stages
Broadway singer and actress Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde, Wicked, Rock of Ages, Hairspray) performs Friday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Pete. She’ll be joined in part by students from the theater’s musical theater summer camp. We spoke with Bundy a few days ago – read that interview here.
Winding down with this weekend’s performances is the Powerstories production of the comic drama Witch Hunt, at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa (tickets are here).
The Merry Wives of Windsor at Clearwater’s TheatreFor runs through July 27 (tickets are here).
Ticket sales have been brisk for Jobsite Theatre’s new comedy Puffs or, Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic. The Harry Potter parody is onstage through Aug 3; cast member Katherine Yacko and director David M. Jenkins are Friday’s guests on the Arts Alive! podcast. Find Jobsite (Tampa) tickets at this link.
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