Your weekend arts forecast: Big shows on small stages

Sometimes the weekend’s biggest fun is likely to be had at a massive concert by some famous person or other, or a music festival that draws thousands.

And then there are the smaller shows, the sort of stuff that often flies under the radar of even the most well-attuned event-o-phile. St. Petersburg’s reputation as a City of the Arts was made on, among other things, performance events of all sorts, including those by massively talented local residents on small stages.

Which brings us not to a stadium or a theater or even a roomy auditorium but to the black box at freeFall Theatre, where there’s a cabaret night planned for Friday (June 10). Coco and Homo’s Super Fierce Slumber and Cabaret Party is, as you might guess from the title, tied in with Pride Month.

Coco and Homo are the noms du stage of actor/singers Colleen Cherry and Zachary Hines. They debuted this left-of-center, interactive cabaret show in 2011, winning a “Best of the Bay” award from Creative Loafing in the bargain.

Ms. Cherry herself, fresh from appearing in Jobsite’s recent The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, penned the following descriptive paragraph for us:

Rumor has it they were last spotted belting Liza Minnelli songs on New Years’ Eve of 2019, and have been in a champagne slumber ever since. Can their brilliant musical director Jeremy Douglass wake them with the sounds of Madonna so they can serenade the audience with everything from Leonard Cohen to ABBA, play rounds of slumber party games like Never Have I Ever and Chubby Bunny, and dance the night away celebrating Pride in St. Pete? Get your tickets to find out.

Yes indeed, those tickets are here.

Ward Smith

Actor Ward Smith, who’s also an accomplished standup comedian, takes to the small stage at Studio Grand Central Saturday for a show called Comedy & Cabaret. Smith, who also happens to be the proprietor of the theater, will also spotlight comedian Sheena Regan. The musical cabaret part will come from Sophie Dushko and Anthony Gervais, who’ll star in the musical The Last Five Years June 23-26, the last play in Studio Grand Central’s current season. Tickets for “Comedy & Cabaret,” a benefit for the grassroots theater company, are here.

Jomil Bell and Keith Marcel’s podcast The American Griot will record Friday at thestudio@620, during the Green Book of Tampa Bay’s second consecutive weekend arts event (the first was in celebration of the art exhibit The Journey to Emancipation, which opened June 4 and is still on view in the gallery). Friday’s evening, with art, poets, music and performing artists, is titled An Anthology of Voices. Find info and tickets here.

Tampa’s ThinkTank Theatre for Young Audiences is doing its second fundraising cabaret both Friday and Saturday at Dark Door Spirits distillery. Boozy Broadway – Summer Lovin’ features singer/actors Nicholas Parez-Hoop, Ryan Sturm, Chris Cordero, Georgia Mallory Guy, Sarah Tellier and others. Find tickets and info here.

With Pride

Big St. Pete Pride events this weekend at the Palladium Theater, of course. Saturday brings Carson Kressley to town for an audience-interactive evening of “Queer-E-Okee” (tickets here). And Sandra Bernhard will talk and sing and talk Sunday night (tickets here). Look for the Catalyst interview with the mighty Ms. B on Friday.

On theater stages

Several of our professional theater companies are currently having great success with well-received shows: At freeFall, the paranormal dark comedy A Skeptic and a Bruja is in its penultimate weekend (remember, there’s no performance Friday night to make way for Coco and Homo); The intense drama The Dreamer Examines His Pillow continues at Tampa Repertory Theatre; and Stageworks’ take on the feel-good musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is packing ’em in.

Concerts

Country comic Bill (“Here’s Your Sign”) Engvall is at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center in Tampa tonight (tickets).

The two English guys who make up Tears For Fears are getting along again; the veteran British pop duo have a new album out – the first in 17 long years – and will perform Friday at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre in East Hillsborough County (tickets here).

Friday brings Kid Rock, with Grand Funk Railroad (minus legendary frontman Mark Farner) to Mid-Florida. Tickets are here.

ArtWalk

It’s Second Saturday ArtWalk time again; along with the studios and galleries staying open to greet you Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. (here’s the list), there are several new exhibitions. These include LIT at Atelier de SoSi Gallery (see a separate story today in the Catalyst), Mize Gallery’s Say Gay (opening tonight with a reception) and the members’ show Something I Love … in the Arts XChange Tully-Levine gallery.

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You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.