Jack Hopewell and the company of the North American Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade. Since its 1971 Broadway premiere, Jesus Christ Superstar has been a Norman Jewison-directed feature film, been staged for live television with John Legend and Alice Cooper in the cast; and been revived, reprised and performed... Continue Reading →
David Crosby’s passing last year ended any chance — slim though it was — of a Crosby, Stills and Nash reunion. Fans craving the live CS&N experience will enjoy Southern Cross, a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tribute band, performing in the Jaeb Theater March 1. https://videopress.com/v/02Yr3VdB?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true (It should be mentioned — and it always... Continue Reading →
Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman became the first Black songwriter to win the Song of the Year award at November’s Country Music Association Awards. Luke Combs recorded a cover of Chapman’s 1988 hit, “Fast Car,” that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=909454330552215&set=pb.100044629680315.-2207520000&type=3 Chapman said she never expected to see her name on the... Continue Reading →
By David Cote Christian Douglas and Gabrielle McClinton in the North American tour of Moulin Rouge! The Musical, photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade In its epoch-hopping score and dazzling visuals, the Tony®-winning Moulin Rouge! The Musical represents the missing link from Belle Époque Paris to Broadway today, from operetta to the modern musical. More... Continue Reading →
On Feb. 3, 1959, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza flying in low visibility crashed north of Clear Lake, Iowa. All four aboard were killed: pilot Roger Peterson and rock & rollers Buddy Holly, 22; The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson Jr.), 28; and Ritchie Valens (Richard Valenzuela), 17. The three were stars of the Winter Dance Party... Continue Reading →
The Mothership has landed at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard. That’s where George Clinton, the original Star Child, got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Jan. 19. Clinton, as every schoolchild should know, is the overlord of the Parliafunkadelicment Thang, a collective of funk outfits such as Parliament, Funkadelic, Bootsy’s Rubber Band and Brides... Continue Reading →
Michael Keaton IS Batman. Doesn’t seem so far-fetched now, does it? Back in the day, though – whew! When Warner Bros. announced Keaton would star as The Caped Crusader in Tim Burton’s Batman, the studio was bombarded with sacks of letters pleading and demanding that Keaton be replaced. https://youtu.be/dgC9Q0uhX70 Imagine: People, lots of them, so... Continue Reading →
Jan. 3 has been declared – by who we don’t know – Women Rock! Day, because on that day in 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – nice, I guess, but hardly a highlight of her career. We’d suggest changing the date to June 3,... Continue Reading →
The would-be Queen of Christmas has been unseated by Little Miss Dynamite. Mariah Carey usually has the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 this time of year with her holiday perennial “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” a song best described as “unavoidable.” This week, though, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has... Continue Reading →
Name-dropping in conversation is annoying. Name-dropping in song is, well, that can be pretty annoying too. We’re looking at you, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” We’ll light the fire if someone will tie this song to a stake. (We won’t even look at Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger.” Die in a ditch, “Moves Like Jagger”!)... Continue Reading →
A struggling actor auditioned for a part as a singer. The director didn’t choose her but did advise her to add “singer” to her resume, a tip that proved prescient. Within a couple of years, the actor was a celebrated vocalist, headlining the ritziest nightclubs around, drawing ecstatic reviews and, whaddaya know, starring on Broadway.... Continue Reading →
The Choir of Man is set in a British pub. The beer the pub is serving is distinctly Floridian. In place of U.K. standbys Guinness Stout and Newcastle Brown is a brew reflective of the Sunshine State and the Tampa-based brewery that makes it. The beer, Sun Runner, was created and produced by Tampa’s highly-regarded... Continue Reading →
The Backstreet Boys at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards. (Photo by Glenn Francis/Pacific Pro Digital Photography) Fun fact: The average age of the Backstreet Boys is 47. For four of the five group members, it’s been 30 years-plus since they were legally boys. The baby of the group, Nick Carter, is 43 and passed into... Continue Reading →
A performance at our Arts Legacy Remix: Hispanic Heritage Celebration in 2022. The impact and influence of Hispanic culture in Tampa is undeniable. Actually, make that Hispanic cultures, since the term Hispanic covers a lot of acreage, physically and socially. The description is applied to people from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and... Continue Reading →
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POrnc_tFPo Deejay Young, a Tampa native and touring cast member of Hamilton at The Straz this past season, sent three chairs turning on NBC’s The Voice Monday night with his falsetto rendition of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” Judges John Legend and Gwen Stefani hit their red buttons less than 20 seconds into Deejay’s performance,... Continue Reading →
Do you remember the 21st night of September? I don’t. I’ve racked my brain trying to remember something significant about 9/21 and I got nothing. The question is the opening lyric of Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1978 hit “September.” According to Allee Willis, who co-wrote the song with Maurice White and Al McKay, EWF’s founder/leader... Continue Reading →
A sensation on London’s West End, The Choir of Man begins an extended stay here at The Straz on Tuesday, Oct. 3. For those who haven’t Googled it yet, The Choir of Man is a theatrical stage presentation that’s structured a bit differently than most theatrical stage presentations. It’s a play – there are characters... Continue Reading →
Due perhaps to the carpet-bombing publicity campaign mounted for the Barbie movie, you may not have noticed that Sunday, Aug. 6, is National Sisters Day. It’s unlikely seeing the movie would jar your memory either, as Barbie’s sisters are barely mentioned. Skipper, you’ll learn, broke through to the real world and it was “chaos.” She... Continue Reading →
The audiences attending the upcoming Patel Conservatory productions of The Little Mermaid Jr. likely will include many youngsters already familiar with the story, either from Hans Christian Andersen’s book or from the beloved 1989 animated Disney film. Disney’s had a good deal of success with stage adaptations of hit animated films such as Mermaid and... Continue Reading →
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Snow and gloom shouldn’t be issues but rain and heat? Hoo boy. Pictured: a typical summer day in the great state of Florida. The Patel Conservatory staff members (“these couriers”) responsible for couriering summer... Continue Reading →