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Stage: Hot Ticket
By JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 15, 2001
Life remains a 'Cabaret'
In 1977, Andrea McArdle had the title role in Annie, playing the adorable redhead saved from the Municipal Orphanage by that benevolent tycoon, Daddy Warbucks. Today, McArdle is a musical theater heroine of a different sort, Sally Bowles, the doomed hedonist of Cabaret.
McArdle has some daunting shoes to fill. Julie Harris was the first Sally, playing her in I Am a Camera, John Van Druten's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Then came Jill Haworth to originate the role in the Kander and Ebb musical, followed by Liza Minnelli in the movie.
Natasha Richardson won a Tony for her performance in the Sam Mendes-directed 1998 revival of the musical. Others to perform the part in the revival have included Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Gershon, Joely Fisher and Teri Hatcher.
McArdle and the Cabaret national tour begin a weeklong run Tuesday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $22.50-$64.50. (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045.
Classical connections
There's a nice human-interest dimension to Monday's performance by the Alexander String Quartet. One of the members of the San Francisco-based ensemble, violist Paul Yarbrough, is a Clearwater native, and one of the works on the program, Bond Revelations, is by St. Petersburg native Joan Epstein, professor of music at Eckerd College.
"Paul and I played in the Pinellas Youth Symphony together for four years before we went off to college in 1974," Epstein said. "My mother Rita Osborn, now retired from the SPJC faculty, often accompanied us both at auditions and solo and ensemble contests."
Formed in 1981, the Alexander was the first American group to win the London International String Quartet Competition in 1985. The quartet's nine-CD set of the Beethoven cycle was released on the Arte Nova label in 1999.
Epstein's quartet was inspired by her study of American songwriter Carrie Jacobs-Bond, the first woman music publisher in the United States. Also on the program are Beethoven's Quartet No. 15 and the Mendelssohn Quartet. The performance is at 8 p.m. Monday at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg. Tickets: $10 and $15. (727) 822-3590.
Fiddling around, Irish style
Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, acclaimed Irish fiddler Eileen Ivers is in the Tampa Bay area for two shows, tonight and Friday. Noted for her Irish-fusion interpretations of a wide variety of musical styles, she'll be backed by her band. Ivers has played with artists ranging from the Chieftains to Paula Cole to the Boston Pops Orchestra, but may be best known to American theatergoers for her work on the hit show Riverdance. She's also a founding member of the all-woman folk group Cherish the Ladies, and her Irish-fusion sound appears on the Sony Classical disc Back to Titanic, featuring more music from the film. Tickets for tonight's 8 p.m. show at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, are $20-25; call toll-free 1-800-826-9303; tickets for Friday's 8 p.m. show at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg are $24-$30; call (727) 892-5767.
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