When dancers take to one of the Straz Center’s stages, they display the skills they’ve honed through hours and hours of practice. They also can offer a glimpse into another culture. “Dance is education as well as entertainment,” said Kelly King, lead contemporary dance teacher at the Patel Conservatory. Case in point: Flamenco Vivo Carlota... Continue Reading →
Wicked will finally appear on the big screen on Christmas day 2024. That’s about 12 years after the film was said to be “in development,” 20 years after the musical’s Broadway premiere and 29 years since Gregory Maguire published Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the novel from whence... Continue Reading →
Before you paint the town and see CHICAGO at The Straz, check out these fun facts and all that jazz about the long-running musical. CHICAGO is the longest-running American musical in Broadway and West End history. The Ambassador Theatre in New York City has been home to CHICAGO since 2003. CHICAGO is the second longest... Continue Reading →
All they wanted was a play that had a role for each of them. The play they created has been running for more than 40 years. It’s probably being staged even as you read these words. It’s an interactive-whodunit-murder mystery-comedy that was first produced before anyone used the word “interactive” to describe a theatrical experience.... Continue Reading →
Opera Tampa favorite Rochelle Bard made her company debut as Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine in 2009 under the baton of Maestro Anton Coppola. She has since graced the Straz Center stages in productions of The Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus and in Coppola’s 2011 Fond Farewells Concert. She has performed leading roles with companies... Continue Reading →
Something familiar. Something peculiar. Something for everyone. AN EXCLUSIVE FROM INSIDE, THE STRAZ CENTER’S OFFICIAL MAGAZINE Jim Gaffigan’s upcoming comedy special will appear to be a single performance, a seamless set of the comedian’s anecdotes and observations. The special, though, which will be taken from Gaffigan’s shows at the Straz Center’s Carol Morsani Hall, likely... Continue Reading →
Ballet. Balanchine. The names are practically synonymous. In fact, it’s hard to imagine the former, in the U.S especially, without the prolific efforts of the latter. It’s also nearly impossible to overstate the importance of Lincoln Kirstein, a wealthy New Englander with a love of the arts. Kirstein provided the framework in which George Balanchine... Continue Reading →
In 1966, Broadway impresario Harold Hecuba stunned critics and audiences alike when he staged Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a musical. Hecuba’s audacious move created a sensation and the Hamlet musical was a hit. The celebration soon was overshadowed by scandal, though, when a group of mostly amateur actors claimed to have not only written the musical... Continue Reading →
The ‘new’ Straz is designed to have something for everyone The Straz’s expansion project will do more than give the performing arts center a bold new appearance. The philosophy behind the project sets The Straz’s direction – outward. Key concept artwork for the redesigned Straz Center campus. The $100 million project is designed to open... Continue Reading →
AN EXCLUSIVE FROM INSIDE, THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE STRAZ CENTER Yana Perrault’s career is soaring. Yana may be soaring herself, soon. She’s been picked to play the coolest Powerpuff Girl, Buttercup, in Powerpuff, a live action reboot of the ‘90s animated favorite. She’ll be at The Straz Dec. 28 through Jan. 22, holding down... Continue Reading →
It’s good that Aaron Castle likes Christmas music. The Tampa Bay Area actor is in the cast of the Straz-produced Plaid Tidings, the holiday-themed sequel to Forever Paid, and will be hearing, and singing, a set full of holiday tunes many, many times between now and Christmas. The cast of Plaid Tidings performing on stage... Continue Reading →
“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Groundbreaking playwright Lorraine Hansberry drew the title of her most famous work – A Raisin in the Sun – from the powerful poem Harlem, written by Langston Hughes about the promise of freedom in the Emancipation Proclamation remaining a... Continue Reading →
If Anais Mitchell chronicles her journey from indie-folk artist to Tony-award winning playwright and composer, she might call it How to Get to Broadway in 15 Grueling, Setback-Filled Years. Mitchell’s work places Greek mythological figures Orpheus and Eurydice in a dystopian world where the lure of stability draws desperate souls to the grim, cruel factory... Continue Reading →
Dirty Dancing was the little movie that could. Made for $5 million, Dirty Dancing grossed more than $200 million worldwide. Released on VHS early in 1988, it became the first movie to sell a million copies. Everyone remembers VHS's right? . . . Anyone? . . . okay, we'll see ourselves out. The movie also... Continue Reading →
The Straz Center’s resident mixologist draws inspiration from the shows in our Broadway series lineup, concocting one-of-a-kind signature highballs to salute and celebrate each production. When the Broadway production plays the Straz Center, the performers onstage aren’t the only ones flexing their talents. Out in the lobby behind the bar, the creative handiwork of Straz... Continue Reading →
Wicked, the phenomenally popular musical about the witches of Oz, returns to The Straz March 8-26. Tickets go on sale, appropriately, on Halloween. Premiering in 2003, Wicked has become one of the longest-running productions in Broadway history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wU3Mw_0rt8 However, those Wicked witches might be getting some company. Elphaba and Glinda will have to make room... Continue Reading →
The Asiatic Black Bear has the longest average lifespan of any bear species. They live between 25-30 years in the wild, more than 40 years in captivity. However, one bear, the only one of his species that we know of, has lived an amazing 96 years. The species, of course, is Pooh Bear, and its... Continue Reading →
The final episodes of Better Call Saul on AMC offered their share of surprises but perhaps none more enjoyable than the appearance of Carol Burnett. The veteran comedienne played Marion, the mother of a small-time hood recruited by our title character for a few heists. Initially charmed by smooth-talking Saul, Marion gradually realizes he isn’t... Continue Reading →
The intellectual distance between Steve Martin’s early, catchphrase-heavy stand-up comedy and his first full-length play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile might seem great. Fear not, though, as fans of his early, funny stuff should recognize the same absurdist spirit that ran through Martin’s early routines in Picasso. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCYzJu12zI “He used a lot of irony. He... Continue Reading →
The final Straz-produced presentation of the season is Avenue Q, and actor Spencer Meyers is going to have his hands full. Literally. Full of fabric and foam. Spencer will have his hand inside the puppet head, puppet heads, actually, of two of the musical’s characters – Princeton, a recent college graduate looking for his purpose... Continue Reading →