Weekend spotlight: Reggae Rise Up; country crossover Zach Bryan

Reggae Rise Up returns to Vinoy Park today through Sunday, bringing music, food, bev and that good old Rastaman Vibration, in the words of patron saint Bob Marley. Reggae Rise Up is a lifestyle celebration.

Cypress Hill and De La Soul are new to the lineup this year. The weekend also brings the usual (and most welcome) Rise Up suspects, in Sublime, Iration, Slightly Stoopid, Rebelution, 311, Soja, the Hip Abduction and a dozen more American (and otherwise) reggae bands.

Find the full weekend schedule, and all tickets, at this link.

The big show

Saturday at Raymond James Stadium: Country music hitmaker Zach Bryan, who’s also a major player on the pop charts (his latest album, With Heaven on Top, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200). The Navy veteran’s massive crossover singles have included “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves, “Pink Skies,” “Something in the Orange” and the recent “Bad News,” which was roundly criticized by the Trump administration. Tickets for Saturday’s 7 p.m. show are at this link.

Concert calendar

Jazz vocalist Veronica Swift plays the Palladium Side Door Cabaret tonight (Thursday, March 12). Publicity photo.

Versatile jazz vocalist Vernonica Swift is at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Cabaret tonight at 7:30 with her Trio. Swift has performed or recorded with, among others, Postmodern Jukebox at Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Find tickets here.

Friday at Benchmark International Arena: An “in the round” performance from comedian and actor Matt Rife (Natural Selection and Lucid on Netflix). Tickets are here.

Bay area singer/songwriters Ed Woltil and Kirk Adams team up again for a Friday night performance at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret. Tickets.

Comedian Paula Poundstone returns to the Capitol Theatre Friday. Ticket link.

Friday’s Red Elvises show at the Safety Harbor Art & Music Center is sold out.

At the Capitol Theatre Saturday: 1970s pop crooner Gino Vanelli. Tickets.

The Florida Orchestra will play along to an HD screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Saturday. This is a national tour with its own conductor. Find tickets here.

Young Oklahoma ventriloquist Darci Lynne, who won Season 12 of America’s Got Talent and purportedly has 5 million TikTok followers, will on onstage Saturday in Ferguson Hall, at Tampa’s Straz Center. Tickets.

Saturday at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret: Blues guitarist Sean Chambers and his Trio (former Savoy Brown players Pat De Salvo on bass, and Garnet Grimm on drums). The show’s at 8 and tickets are here.

Progressive bluegrass pioneers the Yonder Mountain String Band have a Sunday show at Central Park Performing Arts Center in Largo. Tickets for the 7 p.m. concert are at this link.

Sunday at the Palladium Theater, the annual Listening Room Showcase concert delivers acoustic performers Daniel Kimbro, Andy Sydow, Hobo Can, and The Honey Badgers. Find tickets for the 3 p.m. concert at this link.

Quinteto Astor Piazzolla, a chamber quintet performing the “nuevo tango” music of Argentinian composer and bandleader Astor Piazzolla, takes the Ferguson Hall (Straz Center) stage Sunday at 3 p.m. Find out more, and find tickets, here.

Sunday brings comedian Gary Gulman to the Capitol Theatre. Tickets.

Sunday afternoon in Ferguson Hall: Quinteto Astor Piazzolla Tango. Publicity photo.

Shakespeare: A different take

It’s the first of two weekends for director Kristin Clippard’s production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at The Studio@620. Roxanne Fay’s adaptation is performed by an all-woman cast. Showtimes and tickets are here. The play opens tonight.

Friday through Monday at the Jaeb Theatre, in Tampa’s Straz Center complex, the very British standup comedian and dramatic actor Eddie Izzard performs Shakespeare’s Hamlet, every character. It is not, repeat not, a comedic performance, as Izzard made clear in this Catalyst video interview. Find showtimes and tickets here.

In “The Drawer Boy” at the Off-Central: Stephen Riordan, left, Michael Menszycki and Lucas Ethington. Photo: Facebook.

More theater

Michael Healey’s drama The Drawer Boy will conclude its run at The Off-Central Sunday. The entire cast – Stephen Riordan, Michael Menszycki and Lucas Ethington – will guest on Friday’s edition of the Arts Alive! podcast. Find weekend show info and tickets at this link.

The Aaron Posner drama My Name is Asher Lev continues through March 22 at Stageworks Theatre, Tampa. Here’s our profile of actor Jaryn McCann from earlier this week. Showtimes and tickets are here.

Last but by no means least is The Shark is Broken at Jobsite Theater. This comedy-slash-drama follows actors Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, and their trials and tribulations during the production of Jaws. Read more at this link; find showtimes and tickets here. The show will run through April 5 in the Shimberg Playhouse (Straz Center).

Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section. 

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