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Weekend spotlight: Three at the Cap; Shen Yun returns

Iconic jazz guitarist Al Di Meola is back for his annual show at Clearwater’s Capitol Theatre tonight, with an electric band that includes, as always with Mr. D., Pinellas County’s own percussion-playing wizard Gumbi Ortiz. Find tickets at this link.
Friday’s Capitol Theatre show features blues guitarist and storyteller Keb’ Mo’ (aka Kevin Moore), a roots music artist virtually without peer. Find tickets at this link.
That Capitol Theatre is humming right along this weekend. Saturday brings country/bluegrass stalwart Marty Stuart and his crackerjack band the Fabulous Superlatives. Find tickets at this link.

Shen Yun. Publicity photo.
Shen Yun returns
Shun Yun, the long-running celebration of traditional Chinese dance, music and pageantry, is back in St. Petersburg for its annual extended run at the Mahaffey Theater. Show dates are Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 16-19.
Shen Yun is an offshoot of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is banned in contemporary China, and whose followers have been persecuted by the Chinese government.
In November, the New York Times reported that a former Shen Yun dancer had filed a 68-page lawsuit accusing Shen Yun of trafficking vulnerable children to work for little to no pay.
Earlier the newspaper reported that the young performers working for the Shen Yun Performing Arts organization – which tours the show on five continents – had been working under abusive conditions for years.
The organization has denied the allegations.
Tickets for the Mahaffey performances are available at this link.
More concerts

The Fourth Wall’s at freeFall Friday and Saturday. Publicity photo.
Comedian DC Benny – we introduced him in this story Wednesday – is at the Palladium Theater Side Door Friday, with Kerry McNally (Tampa Bay Tonite). Find tickets at this link.
Saturday and Sunday at freeFall Theater (three shows), St. Petersburg welcomes the performance trio The Fourth Wall, combining chamber music theater, dance and acrobatics. The “hybrid arts ensemble” promises a family-friendly show, titled Fruit Flies Like a Banana. Find tickets at this link.
Saturday on the Hough Hall stage at the Palladium Theater: A concert celebration of the independent jazz label Arbors Records, based in Clearwater. Performers include La Lucha, Diego Figueiredo, Warren Vaché, Wycliffe Gordon, Chuck Redd and others. Find tickets for the 8 p.m. show at this link.
Roots performers with a local connection are playing a show together Sunday (6 p.m.) at the Palladium Side Door: Blues guitarist and master storyteller Roy Book Binder and pianist/boogie man Rev. Billy C. Wirtz. Find tickets at this link.
Sunday at 8 p.m., Texas R&B singer and pianist Marcia Ball plays Skipper’s Smokehouse, with Liz Pennock & Dr. Blues opening. Find tickets at this link.

Katrina Stevenson and Giles Davies appear in Jobsite Theatre’s “Macbeth.” Image: Stage Photography of Tampa.
On theater stages
Ongoing through Sunday at Morsini Hall, the big auditorium in Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts, is the national Broadway tour of The Cher Show – lights, action, glamor, dancing, Bob Mackie costumes and everything from “I Got You Babe” to “If I Could Turn Back Time.”
Three singer/actresses play the pop culture icon at different stages in her life and career. The Catalyst spoke with young Ella Perez, Cher #1, earlier this week (read that story here). Tickets at this link.
Also at the Straz Center: It’s the opening weekend for Jobsite Theatre’s annual Shakespeare production. This time around it’s Macbeth, and it’s onstage in the Jaeb Theatre through Feb. 9. Find MacBeth tickets and info at this link.
Two of the show’s cast members, Giles Davies and Katrina Stevenson, join us Friday on the Arts Alive! podcast.
Guy R. Newsham’s dark comedy Green Cheese – about a life-or-death quandary resolved over a game of Trivial Pursuit – is in its second weekend at LAB Theatre Project in Tampa (you can read all about it in our Tuesday story, and find showtimes and tickets here).
Where’s the orchestra?
The Florida Orchestra salutes Motown Records Friday (8 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) with a concert called Dancing in the Street. Both performances, in the Straz Center’s Ferguson Hall, feature St. Petersburg native Michael Lynche on vocals. Find tickets here.
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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