ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Stellar Musical, Theatrical and Comical Performances Coming This Season To The Bay
Award-winning productions, scores and performers, comedies to dramas, musical theater to orchestral concerts and exceptional entertainers revered worldwide are among the highlights and headliners slated to step into spotlights throughout Tampa Bay this season.
Expect sold out shows and standing-Os during what may be the most diverse, dazzling and dynamic slate of performing arts events to storm stages on both sides of the bay to date.
Recipients of Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards are on the program. Some productions and entertainers are here for return engagements, while others are making their bay area debut. But all promise to leave audiences with lasting memories.
Among the upcoming shows, and showstoppers, headed here are an acclaimed stage version of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” featuring Emmy Award winning actor Richard Thomas, the internationally revered Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman.
The Florida Orchestra, at The Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
Crowds will also be queueing up for Opera Tampa’s new season and The Florida Orchestra’s always highly anticipated classical to contemporary symphonic selections. So much to celebrate and anticipate.
Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts welcomes back two fan favorites for extended runs, Hamilton, Dec. 28 – Jan. 22, and Wicked, March 8 – 26. Those shows are in addition to the Tuesday through Sunday runs for the remainder of the current Broadway series: Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, the signature songs and smooth choreography of Chicago, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – The Life and Times of the Temptations, Jagged Little Pill, based on Alanis Morissette’s songs, and everyone’s favorite orphan, Annie.
Italian tenor Andrea Boccelli will likely sell out Amalie Arena Feb. 16 as part of the romantic singer’s Valentine’s Tour. This Tampa appearance is presented by the Straz Center. Boccelli will be joined at Amalie by members of the Opera Tampa Chorus.
Opera Tampa offers an enticing line-up featuring a “woman scorned to the brink of insanity, a jilted, homicidal clown and a barber who butchers as well” when it presents Norma, Feb. 10 & 12, Pagliacci, March 10 & 12, and Sweeney Todd, April 21 & 23, all accompanied by The Florida Orchestra and all performed at the Straz.
Piano Concerto No. 2 & No. 3 with electrifying pianist Joyce Yang.
Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, downtown St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater and the Straz all welcome The Florida Orchestra to center stage with music that offers mass appeal.
The Florida Orchestra Highlights include the following:
• Gershwin’s An American in Paris at the Straz, Mahaffey and Ruth Eckerd Jan 6 – 8
• Aretha: Queen of Soul at the Straz and Mahaffey Jan. 13 – 14
• Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 Feb. 17 – 19 and
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at all three theaters Feb. 24 – 26
• Harry Potter vs Star Wars March 18 – 19 at Mahaffey and Ruth Eckerd Hall
• Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay at all three theaters May 5 – 7
The Duke Energy Center for the Arts Mahaffey Theater hosts a major celebration, and a major musical talent, when The Florida Orchestra launches its 55th season with a performance by Grammy and Emmy award winner Itzhak Perlman. This one-night-only event features Perlman’s favorite film music, including the Theme from Schindler’s List and As Time Goes By from Casablanca, and more on March 11. Beethoven x Coldplay at the Mahaffey Theater May 25, features The Florida Orchestra merging two musical giants when it melds the music of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony with the melodies and lyrics of Coldplay.
The always robust performing arts roster at Ruth Eckerd Hall includes its own Broadway series that welcomes a 25th anniversary presentation of the traditional Irish-infuenced choreography and musical composition of Riverdance, the quirky comedy of Blue Man Group and productions celebrating the musical couple Emilio and Gloria Estefan as well as the always captivating musical, CATS. M
PHOTO CREDITS: Itzhak Perlman – Jaren Wilkey/© BYU Arts; “Pagliachi” – Courtesy of Opera Tampa; Joyce Yang – Courtesy of The Florida Orchestra; The Blue Man Group – Linsey Best; Courtesy of Blue Man Productions; Andrea Bocelli – by Luca Rossetti
