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Weekend spotlight: Music and more on bay area stages
The Catalyst’s every-Thursday look at what’s happening in entertainment and arts.
Spontaneity is the key to the performances of The Fractal, not quite a jazz band and every bit something else altogether, first assembled in 2023 and onstage Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the ArtsXchange outdoor stage, 515 22nd Street S. (on the Warehouse Arts District Association campus).
Woodwinds player David Pate, bassist Robert Strickland and drummer/percussionist Jim Stewart are skilled improvisational musicians, and the fourth Fractal member is dancer Helen French, who brings quite another artistic discipline into the mix.
French, the executive director of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, happens to be a Juilliard-trained dancer with many years’ professional experience.
Joining the Fractal for this completely improvised, “in the moment” performance will be Ohio guitarist Rex Sheppard. Eric Mullins opens.
Find tickets at this link.
Tonight, and again Friday, at Benchmark Arena: Hot-as-a-pistol standup comedian Nate Bargatze. Tickets for both shows are here (floor seats for both shows are sold out).
New Orleans’ legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band will be onstage tonight at 8 at Skipper’s Smokehouse. Find tickets at this link.
Greensky Bluegrass, which blends string band versatility with rock ‘n’ roll energy (and jam band light shows), appears tonight (7 p.m.) at the BayCare Sound amphitheater. Tickets are at this link.
If your like your holiday music loud and synthesized, and your lights and effects bright, the annual Mannheim Steamroller bay area concert is your ticket. The show’s at Ruth Eckerd Hall tonight at 7, and tickets are at this link.
Tonight at 7:30, at the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret: The Tampa R&B band Sugar and Spice Revue, with sisters Myra “Sugar” Glover and Velma “Spice” Glover. Tickets for the show are here.
Bay area jazz trumpeter James Suggs and band play the Side Door Friday, with an all-Miles Davis program. The show is sold out.
The horror classic Evil Dead is screened Friday at the Capitol Theatre, with a live ensemble performing composer Joe LoDuca’s entire revamped original musical score. Tickets are here.
Phil Rosenthal, whose comic travel documentary series Somebody Feed Phil is in its fifth season on Netflix, is onstage at the Mahaffey Theater Friday. The Emmy-winning creator of the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond will tell stories and take audience questions.
Rosenthal will be on TV Nov. 24 for the Everybody Loves Raymond cast reunion on CBS. Without, of course, Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who memorably played Raymond’s parents, because they’re both dead.
Tickets for Rosenthal’s Mahaffey appearance are here.
Standup comic and podcaster George Janko is at the Tampa Theatre Friday. Find tickets here.
Bluegrass icons the Del McCoury Band have a Saturday show at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are at this link.
Saturday at the Palladium Side Door is Tampa blues guitarist Damon Fowler, a frequent (and most welcome) performer on that stage, with his band. Fowler’s most recent album is called Barnyard Smile. Find tickets here.
Friday at the BayCare Sound: Tennessee country music singer Russell Dickerson (“Happy to Me,” “Yours”). Tickets are here.
All Time Low (“Dirty Work,” “Future Hearts”) headlines Saturday at the BayCare Sound. Publicity photo.
Saturday at the BayCare Sound: Punky popsters All Time Low, with Mayday Parade, The Paradox and Four Year Strong. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. concert are here.
Saturday in the Morsani Theatre, Straz Center for the Performing Arts: Comedian Ali Siddiq. Tickets.
Saturday in the Jaeb Theatre, Straz Center for the Performing Arts: Comedian Shayne Smith. Tickets.
America (consisting of original member Dewey Bunnell and some other guys) is back in the bay area Saturday, for its annual concert appearance. The show, at Ruth Eckerd Hall, is sold out.
Sunday delivers A Magical Cirque Christmas to Ruth Eckerd Hall. Yes, it’s a holiday-season family show, with acrobats, contortionists and aerialists doing their stuff as the carols play. Tickets are here.
Singer/songwriter Fran Snyder, the founder of Listening Room Concerts, has an acoustic event Sunday (starting at 3 p.m.) at the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret. Performing alongside Snyder for Song Connections are troubadours Madelaine, Michelle Ingrham and Dean Johanesen. Tickets are here.
The classics
Chelsea Gallo conducts Disco Inferno: A ‘70s Celebration, Saturday’s contribution from The Florida Orchestra, at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Mahaffey Theater. It consists, as the title implies, of music by the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Abba etcetera, with four guest vocalists. Find tickets at this link.
The annual St. Petersburg Opera Company production of the children’s opera Pinocchio opens Saturday at Opera Central, the company’s headquarters on 1st Avenue S. The hour-long production combines the classic story with opera-singing characters (the lyrics follow the plot, with music by Mozart, Donizetti, Offenbach and Verdi) and a small orchestra. Performances will continue through Nov. 23; visit the SPO website for all showtimes and to purchase tickets.
Vera Samuels, left, Debbie Yones and Ami Salee appear in Yasmina Reza’s “Art,” opening tonight at the Off-Central. Photo provided.
On theater stages
In St. Pete, It’s the final weekend for the Civil Rights drama Cadillac Crew at The Studio@620, and for American Stage’s folk/rock musical Hundred Days.
Tampa shows ending with this weekend’s performances are Stageworks Theatre’s Evil Dead The Musical, and ThinkTank Theatre’s modernized for young audiences take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Check the links for showtimes and tickets.
Opening tonight at the Off-Central in St. Pete is Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy Art, running through Nov. 23 (showtimes and tickets here). The cast will guest on Friday’s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast.
The classic thriller Deathtrap, meanwhile, continues at freeFall Theatre. Showtimes and tickets can be found here.
Visual arts
St. Petersburg’s 11th annual SHINE Mural Festival continues through Sunday. Click on this link to see where you can go to watch artists painting, en plein air, each and every day.
There’s a party – the SHINE Origins Finale Celebration – Saturday at FloridaRAMA, from 7 to 10 p.m. Details and tickets are available here.
Alberto Giacometti & Salvador Dalí: Through & Beyond Surrealism opens Saturday at the Dali Museum. It includes paintings, sculptures and archival materials (on loan from Paris) from Giocometti (1901-1966), the Swiss artist whose works were heavily influenced by Surrealism. They’re displayed alongside Dali’s own works from the permanent collection, illuminating the similarities in the artists’ visions, despite their distinct stylistic approaches. Find out more at this link.
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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