Your weekend arts forecast: Music, theater … and laughs
Comedian Rob Schneider, whom you’ll remember from four early ‘90s seasons of Saturday Night Live, the “sidler” episode of Seinfeld, the film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and about a dozen Adam Sandler movies, takes the stage Saturday (at 7 p.m.) at the Nancy and David Bilheimer Capitol Theatre in Clearwater.
Spaced seating, social distancing protocols are being observed.
Schneider has a special on Netflix now, Asian Momma, Mexican Kids, and a podcast called See What Happens.
Six degrees of separation: Pop artist Elle King (“Ex’s and Oh’s”) is Schneider’s daughter.
Tickets for the Saturday performance are here.
Things to see and hear
Scott Daniel and Matthew McGee are Scott and Patti.
# Scott and Patti: Get a Real Job, the latest freeFall Theatre “drive-in” experience, opens Friday. Featuring multimedia and a live band, it’s a musical comedy cabaret show featuring Scott Daniel and Matthew McGee in their roles as “mother and son nightclub act” Scott and Patti. FreeFall calls it an “irreverent and topical look at what it takes to make a buck in this day and age,” and tickets can be located here. The show will run through Valentine’s Day.
# Opera Tampa, the resident opera company of the David A. Straz Center, is back in business this weekend with an all-Gilbert & Sullivan revue on the outdoor Riverwalk Stage. There are six performances of the 75-minute Gilbert vs. Sullivan between Friday and Sunday, with ticket and info available here.
Michael Francis conducts The Florida Orchestra.
# Pianist Natasha Paremski playing Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” is just one segment of Saturday and Sunday’s Florida Orchestra concerts at the 25-percent-capacity Mahaffey Theater (here’s our interview with the personable pianist from Tuesday). The program also includes contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst,” and Ravel’s “Mother Goose Ballet” – the latter augmented by a video of artist Geff Strik creating an interpretive painting of the piece. Info and tickets here. You can stream it Saturday night for free if going out to the theater does not work for you.
Roxanne Fay in “Doubt: A Parable.”
# The brilliant Jobsite Theater production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable continues in the Straz Center’s safely-spaced Jaeb Theater this weekend; tickets and info here.
# Likewise, Tampa’s LAB Theater Project has 10 seats available for each live performance of LAB Laughs, with a home-streaming option as well; tickets and info here.
# It’s the second and final weekend for the all-virtual 21st Century Voices: New Play Festival at American Stage; tickets and info here. In other American Stage news, the next livestreamed show (February’s Satchmo at the Waldorf) will star longtime favorite L. Peter Callender, directed by California actor-director Ted Lange (who spent 10 years plays Isaac the Bartender on TV’s The Love Boat).
# The originally scheduled John’s Pass Seafood Festival is not happening this weekend; instead, the City of Madeira Beach is emphasizing masks and social distancing on the boardwalk and in John’s Pass Village as 80 artists and craft vendors will be set up for what they’ve dubbed the John’s Pass Arts Weekend. It’s noon-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
