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Stage
Hot ticket: You already know all the words
By Times Staff
Published August 18, 2005
It'll be White Christmas in August when the Show Palace Dinner Theatre in Hudson opens Puttin' on the Ritz, the songs of Irving Berlin, on Friday.
The song-and-dance show has more than 60 Berlin songs, including Blue Skies, Alexander's Ragtime Band, There's No Business Like Show Business and God Bless America. Or, as company manager Todd M. Eskin put it, it is "a show where you already know all the words to the songs."
The show follows the sequence of Berlin's long career: ragtime, vaudeville, Broadway and the movies. The cast of 12 will re-create scenes from some Berlin movies, including White Christmas. Featured performers Matthew McGee and Katie Kerwin will do the hobo dance routine, A Couple of Swells, made famous by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade.
"I think it's the kind of show everyone wants to see in the summer," said McGee, the Show Palace's artistic director. "It's a great escape."
Other cast members are Ken Robinson, Laura Lynne Tapper, Chuck Cantrell, Andrea Eskin, Sara DelBeato, Justin Barnette, Lisa Katt Watson and Lucianne Hamilton, plus Show Palace newcomers Tom Andrew (national tours of The Music Man and Titanic) and James J. Mitchell, a New Port Richey native who got his theatrical start at Richey Suncoast Theatre 23 years ago and has performed in dinner theaters and on cruise ships since.
Puttin' on the Ritz runs through Sept. 25. Dinner and show, $41; show only, $29.95. Discounts for children. (727) 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll-free elsewhere at 1-888-655-7469.
- BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times staff writer
After "Rush Hour," he's a standup guy
Motormouth comic and actor Chris Tucker hasn't made a movie since 2002's Rush Hour 2, and his most recent high-profile role was as the final defense witness in the Michael Jackson trial.
But Tucker, who has always said standup comedy is his first love, is still a major draw in the comedy clubs. His six Tampa shows this weekend sold out within hours. Tucker, 32, performs at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday at the Improv Comedy Theater, 1600 E Eighth Ave., C-112, Tampa. (813) 864-4000. - Times staff writer
[Last modified August 17, 2005, 15:52:42]
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