Let there be lots of music

Concerts both pop and operatic, cabaret shows, even a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol - Tampa Bay Performing Art Center's 2001-02 season offers special treats for music lovers.

By JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 3, 2001

TAMPA -- Musical theater stars in concert, including Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin and Tommy Tune, will be high on the agenda next season at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Bea Arthur, a Broadway star before she moved on to television's Maude and The Golden Girls, will be trying out her show of songs and storytelling,And Then There's Bea, in a weeklong run in October.

Today, the center unveils its 2001-02 season, though two significant components of the season -- the Broadway subscription series and Opera Tampa schedule -- were previously announced.

This past season was marked by the Opera Tampa premiere of Anton Coppola's Sacco & Vanzetti. "Not only did it bring fame to our young opera company," TBPAC president Judith Lisi said, "but it brought recognition to the entire city as a cultural destination."

Next season's music lineup includes concerts by Jose Carreras, Celia Cruz and Rockapella.

TBPAC's Center Theater Company will present a series of cabaret shows that include Little Shop of Horrors, Shear Madness (starring John McGivern, who was in a previous production of the hair salon whodunit at the center) and a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

In February, there will be a festival called Bernstein, Broadway, The Bomb -- The Age of Anxiety, with an eclectic mix of performances and events related to Leonard Bernstein, including his opera Trouble in Tahiti, directed by Vernon Hartman and conducted by Coppola. The festival also has a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the premiere of a center-commissioned work by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and a concert featuring pianist Dick Hyman.

The Shimberg Play Series includes Yasmina Reza's boulevard comedy Art and a staging of Dracula by Jobsite Theater. In other theater, Monica Bishop Steele's Women's Work Series continues with three productions, and Aquila Theatre does The Tempest.

Donald Byrd/The Group will make a return appearance as part of the dance series, which also presents the Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company and Dancing Wheels. Rhodessa Jones headlines a performance arts series with Hot Flashes, Power Surges & Private Summers.

The second annual Art and Spirituality Festival will feature the Ethos Percussion Group and Jobsite's Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Below is the 2001-02 Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center season. Sale dates vary according to series and whether by subscription or individual ticket. Call the box office at (813) 229-7827 or check www.tbpac.com

BROADWAY

Riverdance, Oct. 9-14; South Pacific, Oct. 16-21; Kiss Me, Kate, Dec. 5-9; Music Man, Jan. 1-6; Blast, Jan. 18-27; Saturday Night Fever, Feb. 19-24; Beauty and the Beast, March 5-17; Mamma Mia, April 30-May 12.

BROADWAY CONCERTS

Bea Arthur, Oct. 23-28; Patti LuPone, Dec. 15; Mandy Patinkin, Jan. 30; Tommy Tune and the Manhattan Rhythm Kings, March 20.

MUSIC

Rockapella, Oct. 5; Celia Cruz, Nov. 3; Jose Carreras, Jan. 16; Dick Hyman, Feb. 24; Ethos Percussion Group, March 22.

OPERA TAMPA

Die Fledermaus, Nov. 30-Dec. 2; Basically Bernstein, Feb. 9-10; Rigoletto, April 19-21.

DANCE

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Oct. 12-14 and Feb. 16; Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company, Nov. 24; Donald Byrd/The Group, Jan. 23; Dancing Wheels, March 5.

PLAYS

Jobsite Theater's Dracula, Nov. 1-18; The Crucible, Feb. 7-24; Aquila Theatre Company's The Tempest, Feb. 27; Art, April 11-28.

PERFORMANCE SERIES

Paul Bonin-Rodriguez in Memory's Caretaker, Oct. 19-21; Rhodessa Jones in Hot Flashes, Power Surges & Private Summers, March 15-17; Son of O'Donnollogues, May 3-5; Nine Months, May 10-12.

CABARET (Center Theater Company)

A Christmas Carol, Nov. 23-Dec. 2; A Holiday Cabaret, Dec. 7-23; Little Shop of Horrors, Jan. 23-April 28; Shear Madness, July 5-Aug. 31, 2002.

WOMEN'S WORK SERIES

The Wind Beneath My Wings, Oct. 4-7; Northern Lights, March 6-10, Trailers, May 17.

FESTIVALS

American Music Festival 2002: Bernstein, Broadway, The Bomb, Feb. 4-24; Art and Spirituality Festival, March 22-24.

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