Your weekend arts forecast: New Orleans cabaret

Tickets aren’t cheap, but Saturday’s Dirty Dozen Brass Band performance might be the event of the month.

That’s because the venerable New Orleans outfit – 40 years old and counting – is playing in the cabaret theater, Ruth’s expansive lobby venue, and patrons will be seated and spaced-apart tables. Which means up to four people can sit together (or two people, or three people, or just you) for $100. Which means it’s rather exclusive. There’s a charcuterie tray included – hey hey – and tableside food and beverage service.

As for the band itself, listen up for a gumbo-tastic blend of R&B, funk, Dixieland, bebop and Afro-Caribbean rhythms – spicy, intoxicating, as diverse and as splendid as New Orleans itself.

“It ends up being like a pot of gumbo – you drop in a little okra, drop in a little shrimp, you drop in some crabs. Before you know it, you’ve mixed in all these different ingredients and you’ve got a beautiful soup,” founding trumpeter and vocalist Gregory Davis told me a few years back. “That was our approach to music early on and it still is today.

“We’ve never been the norm, even though we started out as a traditional New Orleans brass band. In the beginning we weren’t getting work of any kind, so we thought it was okay to explore other music. That allowed us as individuals to bring ourselves into the rehearsals and that’s where we started to experiment.”

Details and tickets here.

The other stuff

Carrera and Rifino do Bernstein at freeFall. Photo provided.

Leonard Bernstein’s New York, the current drive-in musical production at freeFall Theatre, has been getting rave reviews. Julia Rifino and Emanuel Carrera sing and act out classic numbers from On the Town, West Side Story and others. Tickets and info here.

Notices for Jobsite Theater’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, onstage this weekend in the David A. Straz Center’s roomy (and properly spaced) Jaeb Theatre. Tickets and info here.

Beacon Dance returns to the Palladium Friday – in the virtual, livestreaming sense. Details and tickets here, and in this video interview Beacon co-founder Helen Hansen French discusses the program.

American Stage has put tickets on sale for its return to live performance: A Night of Song and Laughter … Together “Uncaged,” May 14-16 at The Factory, featuring a cast of favorites doing sketch comedy and songs. Tickets and info here.

Standup comedian Brian Regan is at the Mahaffey Theater Friday. Yours truly has been binge-watching Loudermilk, the comedy in which he has a small role, on American Prime, and here’s our interview with him from earlier in the week: Big laughs despite the pandemic? Brian Regan is here to help

Latin jazz/funk percussionist Gumbi Ortiz, the bay area resident who’s been gigging with Al Di Meola (and everybody else, for that matter) for decades, performs with his band New Groove City Saturday on the Straz Center’s Riverwalk stage. Tickets are free, but required in advance (click here). Check the Catalyst Friday for more with Gumbi.

Daniel Black conducts The Florida Orchestra Saturday for Fly Me to the Moon, a concert performance of swing, jazz and big band music, with trumpet soloist Charles Lazarus and singer Tonia Hughes. Showtimes at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets and info here.