Weekend stage forecast: Give it up for ‘Bert Aid’
That frequently shirtless party animal Bert Kreischer is back in town Friday, for a benefit performance at Ruth Eckerd Hall. All proceeds are being assigned to Metropolitan Ministries, for local aid to victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Kreischer, one of the top-grossing touring comedians in the country, was born in St. Petersburg, grew up in Tampa and graduated from Florida State University in 1998. He began doing standup in Tallahassee clubs while he was studying creative writing.
He’ll head back there Nov. 22 to serve as the Grand Marshal for the university’s Homecoming Parade.
This show was originally scheduled for Oct. 12, as a Helene relief event. Milton arrived Oct. 9 and changed everything. “Anything that happens to the state of Florida, I always feel like happens to me,” the comedian said in a prepared statement. “I think all Floridians feel this way. Florida defined me and the bay area is family. I will do anything to help family.”
Kreischer filmed his sixth Netflix special in July at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Pete.
Tickets for Friday’s performance (dubbed “Bert Aid”) are available here.
The kid with the nose
St. Petersburg Opera Company’s annual presentation of Pinocchio is on for Saturday and Sunday, and again Nov. 23 and 24, at Opera Central (2145 1st Avenue S.). Accompanied by a seven-piece orchestra, professional opera singers tell the classic children’s story, to music from the likes of Mozart, Offenbach, Verdi and Donzinetti.
With its elaborately costumed characters and storybook set, this 60-minute Pinocchio is both a way of introducing opera to children, and giving them a fun lesson about being good and telling the truth.
For showtimes and tickets, visit the SPO website.
A little knight music
The Florida Orchestra concert Music of the Knights – two performances Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater – is a symphonic program of tunes by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney. Chelsea Gallo conducts. Find tickets for the shows (2 and 8 p.m.) here.
Concerts
Mexico’s Ana Gabriel: Friday at Amalie Arena. Photo: Facebook.
Tonight at the Baycare Sound: Country music neo-traditionalist Dwight Yoakam, with the Mavericks in the opening slot. Tickets.
Friday at Amalie Arena: Ana Gabriel, Mexico’s best-selling female artist (more than 40 million records sold worldwide). Tickets.
Friday at the Capitol Theatre: Blues singer/songwriter Tab Benoit. Tickets.
Friday at the Baycare Sound: O.A.R., with Ripe and Tampa’s Ries Brothers. Tickets.
Saturday at the Baycare Sound: The semi-annual bay area appearance by the Avett Brothers. Tickets.
Saturday at The Studio@620: The first in director Erica Sutherlin’s new “one person, one microphone” series, with Clearwater singer/songwriter Dani Marie Eyermann. Tickets.
With John Popper still out front singing and playing melodic harmonica, Blues Traveler stops at Jannus Live Sunday. In fact, it’s almost entirely the same band (same musicians) that made the platinum Four album in the mid ‘90s, with “Run-Around” and “Hook” charting high as singles. Tickets.
Performing Sunday (3 p.m.) at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Cabaret is jazz singer and saxophonist Valerie Gillespie; the show, Lush Life: A Tribute to Coltrane & Johnny Hartman, also includes the incomparable La Lucha playing behind Gillespie, as well as guest vocalists Bryan J. Hughes and Lorri Hafer. Find tickets for this one here.
The annual WQYK Guitar Pull visits the Mahaffey Theater Sunday. It’s a semi-circle of country music singer/songwriters, playing tunes acoustically and swapping stories. This year’s participants are LOCASH, Corey Kent, Matt Stell, Chayce Beckham and Chris Janson. Find tickets here.
1990s alt-rock faves Better Than Ezra will be at the Capitol Theatre Sunday. Tickets.
Karen Fix Curry’s dark comedy “Crazy Quilts” opens tonight at LAB Theatre Project in Tampa. Photo provided.
On theater stages
Tampa’s LAB Theatre Project has a new one debuting this weekend. Crazy Quilts, a dark comedy by Karen Fix Curry, is directed by the company’s Owen Robertson. Curry, who’ll participate in an after-show talkback Friday, describes it thusly: “This play is about the real struggles of physically and emotionally traumatized people, but the comedy makes it relatable without being so dark it would be tough to sit through.” Quilting, she adds, “is a huge hobby in the Pacific Northwest, and quilters are a close-knit group who support each other artistically and personally, and are meticulous, with amazing attention to detail and incredibly creative. What better support group could there be?” Find details and tickets here.
Also in Tampa, Jobsite Theater is entering the final weekend of its macabre “neo-gothic cabaret” Gorey Stories, based on the writings and illustrations of Edward Gorey. Tickets are here.
ThinkTank’s “Number the Stars” closes Sunday. Image: Ashley Ermick Photography.
Number the Stars, the ThinkTank drama onstage at the JCC Cohn campus (Tampa), has final performances tonight, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets.
A national touring production of Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (say that three times fast) runs daily through Sunday in Morsani Hall, the big theater in Tampa’s Straz Center. Tickets.
In St. Petersburg, all three professional theaters are firing on all cylinders this weekend. With The Sound Inside at the Off-Central and The Mountaintop at American Stage, the market is cornered on full-throttle dramas.
And freeFall Theatre is breaking records again with Ken Ludwig’s fast-paced adaptation Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure.
The latter show’s Eric Davis and Matthew McGee guest on Friday’s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast.
Your weekend stage forecast appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
Please add us to your mailing list – send all press releases and event info to bill@stpetecatalyst.com.
You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.
