Your weekend arts forecast: It came from the ’80s!

It’s not exactly a Stop the Presses moment, but all four original members of A Flock of Seagulls, one of the first new wave “video bands” of the early MTV era, are still with us – and are still in the band and presumably still playing “I Ran.” That has to be a record. Some bands – even those more than one hit – have no original members left.

But the Flockers – Mike Score, Ali Score, Paul Reynolds and Frank Maudsley – will be present and accounted for when the Lost ‘80s Live! Tour visits the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall Saturday.

Most of the freaky hairstyles are long gone, however. Mike Score, of the yellow comb-over, is bald.

Lost ‘80s Live! also includes sets from the English Beat (with founding co-singer Dave Wakeling), Missing Persons (with founding lead singer Dale Bozzio), Wang Chung (with founders Nick Feldman and Jack Hues), Naked Eyes (with founding co-singer Pete Byrne), Musical Youth (with co-founding singer Dennis Seaton) and Stacey Q.

Find tickets – and song titles – here.

Works by Nick Davis at thestudio@620 Saturday.

Art attack

Soft Water Studios’ artist common room has been transformed into a freestanding art gallery, directed by the estimable Lisa Lippincott, longtime St. Pete resident and former gallery owner. Carrie Jadus: Blue Nudes III opens with a reception tonight from 6 to 9 (here’s our interview with the artist from earlier this week).

Opening Saturday at Soft Water (6-9 p.m. reception) is In the Abstract – Nonrepresentational paintings by Steph Gimson; sculptures by Kenneth Charles Lichtenberger.

­­Saturday happens to be the day of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s monthly Second Saturday ArtWalk, during which more than 40 studios and galleries (including Soft Water) will be open and welcoming visitors from 5 to 9 p.m. Here’s the September map and guide.

New at Woodfield Art Gallery: Painting and photography by Lance Rodgers (The Premonition’s Purpose), opening with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Friday brings Arthur Wesley Dow, His Beloved Ipswich and American Arts and Crafts Woodblocks to the Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Read all about them here.

The new Mize Gallery exhibit, Deja vu, opens with a 6-9 p.m. reception Friday.

In Loving Color, an exhibition of works by St. Pete digital artist Nick Davis, opens with a Saturday reception, 5-9 p.m, at thestudio@620.

“Green Day’s American Idiot” opens Friday at American Stage. Catalyst photo.

On theater stages

It’s the battle of the Broadway musicals! There’s big drama and big tunes on both sides of the bay, as American Stage (in St. Pete) opens the rock musical Green Day’s American Idiot Friday (there’s a preview performance tonight). Read about it here. Meanwhile, the lauded musical adaptation of The Color Purple is in its debut weekend at Stageworks, in Tampa’s Channelside District. Read about it here.

The puppet musical Avenue Q is on hold this weekend at the Straz Center, as a member of the cast had a positive Covid test. In best “better safe than sorry” mode, all shows through Sunday’s matinee are canceled. Avenue Q will return Sept. 14.

At LAB Theater Project, in Ybor City, co-founder Owen Robertson’s original historical drama Creating Monsters, the story of gothic novelist Mary Shelley, ends with Sunday’s 3 p.m. matinee. Read about it here.

Monday at Creative Pinellas headquarters: A staged reading of No No Box, by Cuban-Jewish-American actor and playwright Hannah Benitez, of New York via South Florida (she was in the 2019 production of Pippin at freeFall). The co-production with American Stage is free but registration (here) is required.

Comedian and actor Amy Schumer has shows tonight (Sept. 8) at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center, They’re at 6:30 and 9:30. Tickets here.

Saturday at freefall: Sea Wall and Travelogue: An Autobiography in 7 Little Dances, two separate solo works for theater and dance respectively, performed by Douglas S. Hall and Michael Foley. At the University of South Florida, Hall is head of Musical Theatre and directs the Theatre in Paris program, while Foley, a Professor of Dance, is director/creator of the USF Dance in Paris program. Tickets for the freeFall event are here.

Bright Light Social Hour plays the Palladium Saturday.

Mo’ music

British composer/pianist Simon Lasky performs Friday at the Palladium Theater Side Door, with a hand-picked handful of many of Florida’s – and the bay area’s – finest jazz players. Learn more, and find tickets, here.

Saturday brings the WMNF Birthday Bash to the Palladium’s big Hough Hall stage. The Tampa community radio veteran is turning 43, and the evening’s festivities include a concert appearance from the Bright Light Social Hour from Austin. Tickets here.

The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg’s Marly Music Series continues with a Sunday afternoon concert from jazz keyboardist and composer Ted Rosenthal. He is, among many other cool things, winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Tickets here.

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