Seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton seems especially appropriate in this year of our nation’s 250th birthday. The musical is a celebration of the United States that acknowledges the contradictions between glorious ideals and less-glorious reality. Aug. 6 is the 10th anniversary of the musical’s Broadway premiere. Hamilton returns to Morsani Hall Oct. 21 - Nov. 8... Continue Reading →
On June 25, Anthony Bourdain would have celebrated his 70th birthday. Nearly a decade after his passing, his influence continues to reach far beyond restaurant kitchens and television screens. He changed the way people think about food, travel, culture and most importantly, one another. Bourdain had little interest in presenting food as something precious or... Continue Reading →
Douglas Love-Ramos joined Patel Conservatory as its chief arts education officer on April 1. He has been at the forefront of performing arts and education for more than 20 years. Douglas Love-Ramos, Patel Conservatory's chief arts education officer. Photo by Daniel Reichert He brings with him a wealth of experience covering multiple disciplines, media and... Continue Reading →
Pink likely wasn’t on anyone’s short list of potential Tony Awards® hosts, having never been in a Broadway production. https://youtu.be/5KelfPXHNg0?si=xflo3bVxdnR924Mx She is, however, a lifelong fan, mom to a theater kid, and a performer whose concerts show the influence of Broadway. And she proved to be an excellent choice. Her energy and enthusiasm infused the... Continue Reading →
Manhattan’s Theater District keeps summoning that troublemaking ghost in the shabby suit. The musical, based on director Tim Burton’s 1988 film, Beetlejuice, made its Broadway debut April 25, 2019. Some initial reviews were less than enthusiastic, but the show built a healthy following through word of mouth and social media. The COVID pandemic shut down... Continue Reading →
When hip-hop began crashing pop culture’s party in the 1980s, Broadway didn’t seem like one of its potential destinations. Hip-hop’s South Bronx birthplace was 11 miles and a cultural world away from the theater district. https://youtu.be/10C-Q3NIlzU?si=_qkxFl8rrFT9cffY However, as hip-hop began infiltrating the mainstream, and eventually becoming the mainstream, it was perhaps inevitable that beats and rhymes would reach the Broadway stage. By the time Hamilton blew... Continue Reading →
The musical The Notebook, like the novel and film that preceded it, is renowned for its unabashed romanticism, its ability to warm hearts and jerk tears unmatched in contemporary theater. The Notebook. Bank of America Broadway at Straz Center. Underneath the drama, though, is a condition that affects the daily lives of an estimated 19... Continue Reading →
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, presented by Jobsite Theater and running through May 31 in Shimberg Playhouse, tracks a courtship that’s profane, violent but also tender. It shows two bitter, guarded people, each finding something in the other that lets vulnerability slip through. A rom-com this isn’t. Danny (Alex Teicheira) and Roberta (Georgia Mallory... Continue Reading →
Straz Center is bringing you an evening of illusion and sleight-of-hand, one where a magician might just lay their cards on the table. Your table. Your table, one of 12 at The Magicians Table, will seat a dozen guests at a celebration of life. The honoree is Dieter Roterberg, famed carnival owner and magician. Jaeb... Continue Reading →
There’s an old saying about acting: Drama is easy, comedy is hard. If that’s true, it must be doubly hard if the comedy is a ballet. Comedy is hard for dancers as well as actors, concedes Gabriella Yudenich, principal faculty for Next Generation Ballet®. However, she adds, “It’s fun because we don’t have too many... Continue Reading →
An Exclusive from INSIDE Magazine Do you know the first-time rock ’n’ roll was on Broadway? Easy. Mott the Hoople played six shows in the Uris (now The Gershwin) Theatre May 7-11, 1974. Queen opened. The first time rock ’n’ roll was on Broadway? As a musical style considered wholly legit by theater audiences and professionals?... Continue Reading →
Take a walk down West Fortune Street in Tampa, in front of the Barrymore Hotel. You’ll encounter a figure cast in bronze, stationary, but with an expression so focused and a gait so purposeful you half expect him to blow right past you. "Lennon Walking Into the Future” the statue is called, and it portrays,... Continue Reading →
Congratulations, millennials. Your past has become nostalgia. Case in point: High School Musical turns 20 this year. Those fictional East High students now are in their mid-30s with careers, mortgages and kids of their own, as are many of the Disney Channel movie’s real-life fans. Case in point: Natasha Herrera Brown, Straz’s media relations manager,... Continue Reading →
There is something inherently beautiful about human beings making music together. Differences and divisions dissolve in the warm glow of musical camaraderie. It follows then that gathering 15 grown-ups to play an instrument most people haven’t touched since elementary school is a noble effort. Further, getting that group to play the beloved traditional folk number,... Continue Reading →
What can you say about a performer who willingly takes on 23 roles in a one-person show? If you replied, “probably the same sort of performer who would run a marathon followed with a stand-up comedy set, every day for a month” that would be oddly specific. But you’d be correct. Eddie Izzard ’s acclaimed... Continue Reading →
Queen of the Night (Disambiguation) Queen of the Night may refer to: “Queen of the Night,” Whitney Houston jam with Living Colour’s Vernon Reid on lead guitar; from The Bodyguard (Original Soundtrack Album) Queen of the Night, villain in Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Her aria in the second act has become known as the... Continue Reading →
An Exclusive from INSIDE magazine Listening to jazz vocalist Samara Joy sing, it’s a struggle to equate her voice and her age. Samara, who turned 26 in November, sings with the authority of someone twice her age – and with twice her experience. Her voice has a depth and richness of tone that ordinarily comes... Continue Reading →
An Exclusive from INSIDE magazine Opera Tampa turns 30 this year and it’s definitely making the most of it. Its expanded season features four works instead of the usual three. Plus, there was a preseason production of Tom Sivak’s very darkly humorous Love v. Death, a two-part chamber opera about, well, love and death. Part One of... Continue Reading →
Bob Dylan’s 2006 album, Modern Times, kicked off with a track called “Thunder on the Mountain” which contains these lines: I was thinkin’ ‘bout Alicia Keys, couldn't keep from cryingWhen she was born in Hell's Kitchen, I was living down the lineI'm wondering where in the world Alicia Keys could beI been looking for her... Continue Reading →
The name Blue Man Group tells you who you’ll see – three men with skin painted blue – but doesn’t tell you what you’ll see, which would require a much longer name. Art, music, comedy and non-verbal communication are among the tools the cerulean trio use in a performance that celebrates connections with people and... Continue Reading →