blog.strazcenter.orgCaught in the

Act Search Search for: Act Menu Home Open Search Artists We Love: Tim Curry Clue, the 1985 film based on the board game, was not a smash hit upon release. Over time, thanks to cable, home video and word of mouth, the quirky black comedy finally found its audience. Its acclaim grew enough for it to make the jump from screen to stage as CLUE, which Straz audiences can... Continue Reading → May 14, 2024 Ballet Life: Float Like a Butterfly, Train Like a Beast Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. If a scorned woman dies of heartbreak, you better hope you aren’t the one who broke it. Your ex might be teaming up with the malevolent spirits of other jilted women and, brother, hell WILL be raised. That’s a very skeletal reading of Giselle, one of classical... Continue Reading → May 7, 2024 Tuba Day Salutes the Big Oom It’s a sound that immediately brings to mind Oktoberfest, or at least Polka Night at the Elks’ Lodge. It’s two sounds, actually – one deep and low, the other notably higher. The latter tone is pah, the response to the former, which is oom. As each yang has its corresponding yen, every pah shares an... Continue Reading → April 30, 2024 You Can Cry If You Want To: The Triumph of Tragedy It might seem odd, doing all the things one does to have a night out – buying tickets, hiring a babysitter, finding parking – when it’s preordained that the evening will end in tears. In some cases, though, tears are part of the package. When the curtain falls on Opera Tampa’s production of La Traviata,... Continue Reading → April 16, 2024 Hit Sci-Fi Series Gets Affectionate Send-Up in Stranger Sings A parody of Netflix’s Stranger Things isn’t just an opportunity to salute and spoof the beloved sci-fi thriller series. It also gave us an opportunity to give fans what they might have wanted, but that didn’t happen in the show,” said Nick Flatto, producer-director of Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical, playing at The Straz now... Continue Reading → April 9, 2024 Artists We Love: Robin Williams In the realm of comedy, there are icons whose brilliance transcends generations, leaving their marks on the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. Robin Williams, the definitive master of improvisation, stands tall among these legends. From his early days in stand-up, as Mork from Ork in the TV show Mork & Mindy to his unforgettable... Continue Reading → April 2, 2024 Dylan’s Music Proves Timeless in Girl From the North Country If the notion of a Bob Dylan musical doesn’t pass your particular sniff test, you’re in good company. Twyla Tharp’s 2006 Dylan dance-musical, The Times They Are a-Changin’, was a critical disaster that limped its way to Broadway, from which it disappeared in less than a month. A Bob Dylan musical is a terrible idea,”... Continue Reading → March 26, 2024 Jobsite’s Love Affair With McDonagh By David M. Jenkins In 2003 we staged our first play by London-bred Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. During that run, Straz Center then-CEO Judy Lisi made us an offer to become their resident theater company and effectively take over programming of the Shimberg Playhouse. Now that our residency is old... Continue Reading → March 19, 2024 Daydreams Are the Stuff From Which MOMIX is Made Moses Pendleton grew up on a Vermont dairy farm and exhibited Holsteins at county fairs as a youngster. MOMIX was a feed supplement Moses fed to his cows. Pendleton appropriated the supplement’s name for the dance company he founded in 1980. He founded MOMIX after almost a decade dancing with Pilobolus, the company he co-founded... Continue Reading → March 12, 2024 Rock Opera Is a Superstar for the Ages 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 → March 6, 2024 Conductor Took Unusual Path to Podium When Noam Aviel began her quest for a career in music, the conductor’s podium wasn’t an end point she’d considered. Noam was a singer and jazz was her music. Classical music didn’t enter her picture until her late teens when she studied with classical singers to bolster her jazz singing skills. The teenage jazz hopeful... Continue Reading → February 27, 2024 Rock & Roll Name Games: It’s as Simple as ABCSN (and Sometimes Y) 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 → February 21, 2024 Meet Roz Parks – The MVP of Intermission Roz Parks does most of her work behind the scenes at The Straz. As an employee of National Building Maintenance, a commercial cleaning and maintenance company, she has worked as a subcontractor at the performing arts center for 15 years maintaining the restrooms and common areas in Morsani Hall. She also manages a staff of... Continue Reading → February 15, 2024 ‘Fast Car’ and Country Music’s Long, Winding Road 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 → February 7, 2024 Moulin Rouge! The Musical: Making a Stage Spectacular 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 → February 6, 2024 The Day the Music Didn’t Die 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 → January 31, 2024 Getting Your Star a Star Will Take Some Effort 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 → January 23, 2024 FIVE FASCINATING FACTS: DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM Arthur (the Man, the Myth, the Legend) Mitchell In 1969, Arthur Mitchell, along with Karel Shook, created Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) in New York City, after making history in 1955 as the first black principal dancer at New York City Ballet. He also was the famed protégé of George Balanchine—the Russian-born dancer, choreographer and... Continue Reading → January 19, 2024 Sharing Spotlight No Problem for Keaton 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...