Weekend spotlight: True love, the Halloween edition

Anyone remember the video for “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” in which Tom Petty stole Kim Basinger’s corpse, dressed it up and waltzed around the house with it?

Perhaps the most event-appropriate Halloween entertainment, even though it happens Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 1 and 2) and not on the day itself, is Love V Death, a two part opera from bay area composer and playwright Tom Sivak and Opera Tampa.

The first half tells the entirely true story of Key West resident Carl von Cosel (aka Carl Tansler), who stole the interred corpse of the young woman he was obsessed with, and kept it preserved, in his home and undetected by the outside world, for seven years.

The woman’s name was Elena Milagro de Hoyos, and she had died in 1931 of tuberculosis, at a hospital where Von Cosel was employed as an X-ray technician.

“I was told the story by a friend over breakfast one morning,” says Sivak, who’s best known for his historical play Sunshine City The Musical. “I went home and I Googled it, and I fell in love with the story. It certainly was of operatic proportions, you know? The emotion involved and everything.”

“Love V Death” in rehearsal: Director Melissa Misener, left, with vocalists Robert Sherman and Sara Elisa Villa. Photo by Tom Sivak.

An early version was produced in 2019, at the Palladium Theater, with simple piano accompaniment.

For the 2025 edition, the orchestra has been expanded to six pieces (including a string trio), the score was widened and the cast enlarged (from four to 11 singers).

Did we mention that Love V Death is a comedy?

The second act is an entirely new Sivak piece about that lovable scamp Typhoid Mary Mallon, who spread deadly typhoid fever across New York in the early 20^th century.

“It’s two separate stories, but they share a cast, and they share a common theme,” says Sivak. “Both of these people’s lives were filled with conflicts between love and death.

“Carl Von Cosel dug up his girlfriend and lived with her for seven years. That’s pretty strong love.”

Opera Tampa’s Robin Andrew Stamper conducts, at 2 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, at the Jaeb Theater in the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. Find tickets and more information at this link.

On theater stages

At the Straz Center (in Morsani Hall) is the latest entry in the Broadway series. It’s a touring company of the musical interpretation of Sara Gruen’s Water For Elephants, by Rick Elice and PigPen Theatre Co. It continues through Sunday; check this link for showtimes and tickets.

The Shimberg Playhouse, also in the Straz Center complex, is home to the Jobsite Theater production of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. With a book by Stephen King, the play features specially-written songs by John Mellencamp. Showtime and tickets are here.

At Stageworks Theatre, in Tampa’s Channelside District, the wacky splatter-fest Evil Dead the Musical continues (and yes, there’s a designated Splash Zone). Tickets and showtimes.

Another play with nefariousness and goodly amounts of spook in the air is Deathtrap, the classic suspense thriller by Ira Levin. It’s onstage at freeFall Theater in St. Petersburg. Check this link for showtimes and tickets.

St. Pete’s American Stage – the bay area’s longest-serving professional theater company – is in the second weekend of the Off Broadway hit Hundred Days, a musical by Abigail and Shaun Bengson with Sarah Gancher. Tickets and showtimes.

Concerts

Guitar innovator Stanley Jordan and his band play the Grateful Dead’s music Friday at the Palladium. Photo provided.

Humorist David Sedaris is back in town, onstage tonight at the Straz Center’s Ferguson Hall. Tickets are here.

Tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall: Jazz, pop, R&B piano virtuoso Brian Culbertson and his band. Tickets.

Ruth Eckerd Hall welcomes Peter Frampton to the stage Friday. Find tickets here.

Find jazz guitar great Stanley Jordan onstage Friday at the Palladium Theater. The show is called Stanley Plays the Dead, and it finds the touch-tap pioneer and his band paying tribute to the compositional and improvisational talents of the Grateful Dead. Tickets are at this link.

The Sarasota rock band Boyce Avenue has (so they say) over 6.8 billion YouTube views, and over 16.8 million YouTube subscribers. The sibling trio plays the Capitol Theatre Saturday. Tickets are here.

Saturday’s Night of Classic Burlesque at the Palladium Side Door Cabaret has been canceled.

The Florida Orchestra performs Saturday (shows at 2 and 8 p.m.) at the Mahaffey Theater. It’s a program of movie and Broadway acts, along with aerialists and other performers from Los Angeles-based Troupe Vertigo. Find info and tickets at this link.

Saturday at Jannus Live: The Mars Volta. Tickets.

Ace rock guitar players John 5 & Richie Kotzen performs Friday at the Capitol Theatre. Find tickets at this link.

Kasondra Rose performs with the Helios Jazz Orchestra Tuesday, Nov. 4. Photo provided.

Singer/songwriter, musician, aerialist and actress Kasondra Rose is the guest vocalist with David Manson’s 17-piece Helios Jazz Orchestra Tuesday (Nov. 4) at the Palladium Side Door. Tickets.

Tuesday in Ferguson Hall, at the Straz Center:  Tampa Bay Symphony with Fife and Drums: A Veterans Salute. Tickets.

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

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