Deborah Bostock-Kelley - Page 16

In 1987, the sleazy Sunset Strip is hopping and Dupree's Bourbon Room, a hair band bar owned by Dennis (Ryan M. Hunt) is the place to be for Sherrie (Katie LaMark) a Midwestern, hopeful actress who just came to town to find a job and love in a Rockstar-wannabe named Drew (Anthony Nuccio). In Rock of Ages at the Straz Center through June 15, true love is a not a straight and narrow trail. In fact, it veers so much you often wonder how destiny will bring them back together.

Nominated for five Tony Awards, Rock of Ages showcases the iconic era of 80s Hollywood. Featuring the music of hit bands such as Whitesnake, Styx, Poison, Twisted Sister, and others, this tenth-anniversary production promises to get the audience singing along and dancing in their seats.

Seldom does a reviewer get to see 'behind the curtain,' the director's enthusiastic vision of the set carefully sketched in a notepad long before it becomes an actual intricate tiered wooden platform or the director painstakingly folding pieces of paper together that would eventually be black lit painted, lighted and turned into the faces of the animals that would be called the jungle home. On Friday, the painted paper puppets that I saw months ago from director Drew Eberhard came to reality on top of the heads of the actors. Besides Jekyll and Hyde, the set of The Jungle Book Musical at Carrollwood Player is one of my favorites to date.

Under co-direction of Faith Clark and Jake Indano, on June 8 and 9, Florida Drama Kids will bring to stage Disney's The Lion King Jr. & Into the Woods Jr. at Hillsborough Community College, Brandon campus. As the creative arts are being stripped from schools, Florida Drama Kids gives students of all ages the opportunity to showcase their acting talents on stage and behind the scenes while forging lifelong friendships.

On Saturday, June 15, University Area CDC (Community Development Corporation) will present Uptown Music Festival - an Evening of Sax Therapy featuring nationally known jazz artists, from 4 to 10 p.m. Benefiting the center and created to highlight the diverse musical culture, the inaugural festival will also feature an art gallery, a family-friendly Kids Zone, and local vendors, along with the headlining jazz artists.

Unless you were a very young child protected from the brutal images on the TV screen, most can remember where they were on September 11, 2001 when our country became acutely aware of how airplanes under terrorist control were leveraged as deadly history-creating bombs. Now imagine if you were a passenger on an airplane flying to America and finding yourself diverted to a small town in Newfoundland with no knowledge of why.

From September through May of this year, hundreds of high school productions in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee Counties were reviewed by a team of theater professionals, college faculty and industry experts who provided feedback to students and instructors.

Kay Joseph, The Caribbean American National Development Organization (CANDO) hopes that guests will learn about diversity, cultures, food, and music of the Caribbean as a celebration of Caribbean American Heritage Month.

mad Theatre of Tampa will present the classic American musical, Mitch Leigh's five-time Tony Award winner Man of La Mancha, at Shimberg Playhouse on June 6-22.

Featuring Billy Finn, Rose Hahn, James Keegan, Josh Odsess-Rubin, and Janis Stevens, opening May 29 and running through June 30, Long Day's Journey into Night is a story of addiction - from morphine to alcohol - and a family's struggle to love itself.

After the success of Gabe Flores' musical Call It In the Air, the talented local composer/playwright is back with the world premiere of his newest musical Paper Walls at HCC Studio Theatre at Ybor Campus.

Presented by Arts in Motion Community Youth Theatre, on stage March 17-19, Newsies the Musical tells the story of Jack Kelly, Crutchie, Davey and a scrappy group of kids trying to survive by hawking newspapers throughout New York City in 1899.

In a train depot beautifully created and dressed by Chelsie Camaro Smith and props by Shirley Overton, not a detail is missed - from the ornate corners on the ticket booth to the weathered wood and grey concrete interior to the vintage magazines, telephones and stored luggage. Heather Cleveland's costumes add to the feel that the place looks like something that time passed over. And perhaps it has. This way station for the hesitant houses souls unable to make the transition from life to the afterlife, whichever direction the train may go.

Conversations in Bed at Powerstories Theatre was like taking a tape recorder to the audience, me included and writing down the serious, heartfelt and other times furious and ridiculous conversations we've had with our significant others before putting our heads on the pillow. Oohs, ahhs, and groans from the audience – proving just how relatable the mingled storylines were – stayed as a backdrop throughout the run of the 90-minute show.

As a way to honor the diversity in Tampa Bay, The Straz Center created The Straz Arts Legacy REMIX Project, where writers, actors, musicians, singers, and dancers join together to perform for at a free monthly event. On May 3, The Straz Arts Legacy REMIX Project will celebrate global storytelling. Sponsored by Publix and Tampa Downtown Partnership, the special event includes The Korean Association of West Florida, The Kuumba Dancers and Drummers, Tampa City Ballet, Shreyas Arts, and The Fred Johnson Jazz Ensemble.

When vocalist Rob Evan and conductor Randall Craig Fleisher got the idea to artistically fuse classical compositions with iconic rock and roll, do you think they ever imagined that their brainchild Rocktopia would be a beloved international music sensation 8 short years later? Direct from its smash-hit run on Broadway, on Tuesday, May 14, Rocktopia's one-of-a-kind musical arrangements return to Carol Morsani Hall at The Straz Center of Performing Arts.

Veterans of Broadway, Jana Robbins and Haley Swindal bring We Just Move On-The Songs of Kander and Ebb to Straz Center for the Performing Arts on May 19. Named one of the Top 9 Nightclub Cabaret Acts in New York in 2018, featuring some of the composer/lyricist's most iconic tunes from the extensive catalogue like 'Maybe This Time,' 'How Lucky Can You Get,' 'Life Is,' 'A Quiet Thing,' 'All That Jazz,' Jana and Haley tell the story of two women seeking fulfillment on Broadway.

Combine the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss with 47 eager student actors and you are in for a grand time when The Cat in the Hat, Horton, the Whos, and the other jungle animals bring the heartwarming tale of Seussical Jr. to life. The Patel Conservatory will present the toe-tapping musical at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts' TECO Theater April 25 through 27, with a special sensory-friendly performance on April 27.

Is an assumption not corrected, an invention born out of best intentions, a fabrication of truth that gives solace to a grieving family, still wrong? What if the lie unintentionally metamorphosizes into a voice for the silent, hope for the hopeless, a place where the invisible feel seen? On Tuesday night, April 9, the audience at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts was left pondering those questions during the emotional nuanced three-hour performance of the six-time Tony Award-winner in 2017 (including best musical), DEAR EVAN HANSEN.

If you enjoyed the 2008 and 2018 MAMMA MIA! movies, you are going to love the original musical from which the Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried-vehicle came. Running April 10 through May 12, featuring toe-tapping, danceable songs from the Swedish supergroup ABBA, American Stage has created the Greek island of Kalokairi at Demens Landing Park for its production of MAMMA MIA! under the direction of American Stage's artistic director Stephanie Gularte.