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Weekend spotlight: New plays, Buffett’s boys and sellouts
As the curtain goes up on three new plays – one in St. Petersburg, two in Tampa – one of the most unusual theatrical productions of recent times is entering its second and final weekend.
There are just 43 seats at the Off-Central, on 1st Avenue S. in St. Pete, and so there’s no “nosebleed” section for Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries.
The blood stays on the stage.
It’s about two lifetime friends (played by Sarah Beth Saho and Troy Padraic Brooks) who discovered, as children, a kind of visceral bond: They’re both fascinated by injury and pain, both the physical and emotional kind.
There’s a lot more to it than that, of course, but this production (directed by Anthony Gervais) is strangely intriguing, due in large part to the chemistry between the two actors.
Gruesome Playground Injuries has four performances remaining, tonight through Sunday. Find showtimes and tickets here.
Robert Logan Mays, left, and Luis Rivera appear in Stageworks Theatre’s “Touching the Void.” Photo provided.
Opening Friday (with a preview tonight) is Touching the Void at Stageworks Theatre, Tampa. It’s the high altitude true story of mountain climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and their near-fatal 1985 Andes expedition. Find showtimes and tickets here.
It’s January, a.k.a. Shakespeare month for Tampa’s Jobsite Theater. The Straz Center’s resident theater company opens The Comedy of Errors Friday (with a preview tonight); it’s a wildly colorful adaptation (by director David M. Jenkins) packed with pratfalls and comedic choreography, and buzzing with frenetic energy. Find showtimes and tickets here.
A Wednesday Catalyst story introduced Story Keepers, a new St. Pete theater company, and the one-woman show The Pink Unicorn. The play, with Samantha Marti Parisi as a conservative Christian mom (in small-town Texas, no less) dealing with her daughter’s coming out, is being performed inside private homes this week and next. Find tickets and showtimes at this link.
The boys from Buffett-land
Mac McAnally was Jimmy Buffett’s onstage right-hand man for nearly 30 years. Publicity photo.
Mac McAnally, the singer/songwriter who served as Jimmy Buffett’s onstage right hand man for almost 30 years, is back in town tonight for another Coral Reefer Band show. Along with McAnally, others from Mr. B’s semi-legendary backing group are Robert Greenidge (steel drums), Doyle Grisham (pedal steel) and keyboardist Mick Utley, son of the CR Band’s longtime music director Michael Utley. Songwriters Will Kimbrough and Scotty Emerick are also part of the unit.
Here’s a 2025 Catalyst interview with McAnally, and you can find tickets for tonight’s show at this link.
Sold out
Tonight’s Surreal Films Night at the Dali Museum is sold out.
Friday’s freeFall Theatre cabaret from Raleigh Mosely II and Jazzmin Carson is sold out.
Saturday’s all-jazz John Lamb Birthday Concert at the Side Door Cabaret is sold out. Lamb, 92, guests on Friday’s Arts Alive! podcast, along with vocalist (and even organizer) Bryan J. Hughes.
Great guitars
Friday in the big room at the Palladium Theater: It’s an intimate guitar concert, “by candlelight,” from world music artists Benise and Pavlo. Benise talks about the show in this Catalyst interview, which includes the link for tickets.
Friday at the Capitol Theatre: Acclaimed Canadian jazz and flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook. Tickets.
Jazz guitarist Al Di Meola (with his acoustic trio) returns to the Capitol Theatre Saturday. Tickets.
Where’s the orchestra?
This weekend’s big concert from The Florida Orchestra, The Billy Joel Songbook, is presented Friday at Ferguson Hall (inside Tampa’s Straz Center) and Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Pete. A couple of rock instruments will join the orchestra, as you might expect, and the spotlit singer and piano man (the erstwhile Mr. Joel) is Tony DeSare. All tickets are here.
More concerts
Tig Notaro is at the Tampa Theatre Friday. Photo: Funny Or Die.
Blue Man Group has five shows in Morsani Hall (Straz Center) Friday through Sunday. Tickets.
Standup comic Tig Notaro is onstage Friday at the Tampa Theatre. Ticket link.
Standup comic Kevin James (late of TV’s King of Queens) returns for his annual bay area concert, Friday at the Capitol Theatre. Ticket link.
Also back at the Cap (Saturday): Folk music icon Judy Collins. Tickets.
Jazz vibraphone legend Chuck Redd, who recently made headlines by canceling a scheduled date at New York’s Kennedy Center for the Arts, plays the New Tampa Performing Arts Center Saturday, with La Lucha. Find tickets (and info) at this link.
Saturday at the Tampa Theatre: Bored Teachers “Is It Friday Yet?!” Comedy Tour. Tickets.
Sunday brings Americana artist Gregory Alan Isakov to the Mahaffey Theater. Tickets are here.
Assuming he shows up, British singer Morrissey will be at the Mahaffey Theater Tuesday (Jan. 20). This is a makeup date, as he postponed the last one (in May) with two days’ notice. The ex-Smiths frontman is notorious for such things. Here’s the ticket link.
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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