Daily Loaf

Tes One (nee Leon Bedore) returns to Tampa for Repeat Offender, his first solo show in five years — which is now entering its final week on display. The artist, whose prints are a mainstay in galleries around the Bay area (and designer of CL’s own Obama-inspired cover), creates a collection that contrasts “nature with technology, grime with grace” — the results of which are immediately striking and visually interesting, but require closer inspection to fully digest. More often than not, what’s underneath the surface is even more important than the clearly visible — like a snarling grizzly bear screenprinted over a sign advertising “space available.” Ironic, of course, because we’re cutting down the trees in the grizzly’s space to make our signs. (Pictured: “External Drive,” acrylic on wood) On display through Nov. 30, Redletter1 Gallery, 1510 E. Eighth Ave., Ybor City, free, 813-241-2435, tesone.net. – Franki Weddington Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to On the Radar, where we preview up-and-coming arts events to mark your calendar for. Last season, The Florida Orchestra performed the music of Pink Floyd with a full band and psychedelic lights. This weekend, conveniently close to the release of the re-masters and a resurgence of interest in the Fab Four, TFO pays tribute to The Beatles with Classical Mystery Tour.

Actor/musicians from Broadway’s Beatlemania – Jim Owen on rhythm guitar and piano, Tony Kishman on bass and piano, Tom Teeley on lead guitar and  Chris Camilleri on drums as John, Paul, George and Ringo, respectively – perform note perfect renditions of Beatles hits Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I encountered my first call girl, “Broadway Mary,” when I stopped to ask for directions. Mary claimed she was in Ybor City on “business” that had fallen through; she asked for a ride home. She was reasonably attractive, and I was completely lost, so I complied.

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When I ventured to Ybor City last week for The Hold Steady show at the Ritz, I had no idea I’d come face to face with my very first professional sex worker.  Or in street terms, you might refer to her as a call girl.  An unplanned event like this could only take place on a damp, sticky night in Ybor.

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Nah. That’s just what one Shakespearean wag mused about in regards to the (mostly) critically acclaimed production of Hamlet that’s headed to Broadway from London this fall:

Rosalind emailed me this morning, wondering if I wanted to go to London to see Jude Law in Hamlet.
That reminded me of feature we long ago joked about adding to shakespeare.com: Naked Shakespeare with Nude Jude Law.These would be brief productions of crucial scenes from Shakespeare’s plays performed with utmost seriousness – except that at a certain point you’d see that one of the actors was totally naked. And that actor would be a nude Jude Law.

The blogger goes on to dream of Kate Winslet getting “her kit off” and joining Jude in the nude, so he’s clearly an equal-opportunity voyeur. Read the rest of this entry »

“One song…glory.” In RENT, HIV-positive rocker Roger Davis struggles to create the consummate song to carry on his legacy “before the virus takes hold.” Adam Pascal, who brought the character to life in the original production and on-screen, also experiences life through his music. After quitting his band and moving to NYC to make his fame as a solo musician, Pascal heard from a friend about RENT, a then-unknown musical that was holding auditions. When Pascal got the part, he was just glad to have a job. RENT was originally scheduled for a 10-show run, but after repeatedly sold-out performances, it moved to Broadway and enjoyed one of the longest runs in the history of the Great White Way.

Now Pascal’s back in the role for which he’s famous, touring in a production which comes to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center July 7-12. But more than a few things have changed for the actor. He’s been in movies like SLC Punk! and School of Rock. He played Radames in Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. He cranked out a few rock albums of his own. Oh, and he got married, had two kids, and moved to L.A. It’s quite a laundry list of accomplishments, but it made me wonder one thing: What the hell does Adam Pascal have in common with Roger Davis anymore?  After all, he first played Roger more than a decade ago and the times, as they say, are a ‘changing. Isn’t he getting a little old for this role? That was my first question in our phone interview last Friday.

See what Pascal had to say about his time in the show, how RENT is like Nirvana and more after the break:

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Neil Patrick Harris performs the “11 o’clock number” at the Tonys.

If there were a Tony Award for critics’ best post-mortem sentence, this one would be a candidate:

With producers coming out of the woodwork like dinner-jacketed head lice, ebullient hippies celebrated in the aisles, staring down the camera lens and cavorting with the likes of Edie Falco.

That from the Chicago-based Theater Loop blog by Chris Jones, who accurately characterized last night’s show as “uncommonly energetic.” The above passage describes the antics of the Hair entourage after their win for best revival; in fact, every time the folks from Hair hit the stage, the exuberance level went up several notches.

But the best moment of the night, no question, was host Neil Patrick Harris’ closing number. Written right up to the final minute by the Hairspray team, Marc Shaiman and Scott Witman, the lyrics name-checked losers and winners with high style and lowdown wit. The New York Times has the story of how the songwriters managed to be so timely so fast; read the lyrics (set to the tune of “Tonight, Tonight”) after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

“Bring on the Men and Let the Fun Begin.”  That was the opening number of M.A.D Theatre’s Broadway Gay Cabaret (M.A.D. stands for Music, Acting and Dance).  And they truly did bring on the fun.

I walked into Streetcar Charlie’s in Ybor not really knowing what to expect.  As a friend of mine said, it could be really good, or it could be really bad.  There was a small stage area with a white gauzy curtain.  The performers (about ten men and women) were dressed in basic black and added props appropriate to the various songs.

Director, producer and performer Justyn Wade Dansby introduced the show as a “Fabaret” that would cover the themes of love, life, happiness and unhappiness, and he was right.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The group had some truly kick-ass voices. Read the rest of this entry »

Lauren Graham with Craig Bierko in Guys and Dolls/NY Times photo by Sara Krulwich

Lauren Graham and Oliver Platt won critical raves for their roles in TV cult hits Gilmore Girls and Huff, but the New York Times‘ Ben Brantley says they’re not exactly lighting up Broadway in the new revival of Guys and Dolls. Gilmore and Platt are the latest TV stars to get bashed by the Times this season; Charles Isherwood eviscerated  “a staggeringly miscast” Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) and an “ill-used” Jena Malone (The Office) for their performances her performance in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra (see the review’s truly scathing opening paragraph after the jump), and Mary Louise Parker (Weeds), usually a B’way darling, got slammed for her Hedda Gabler.

But the big names keep on coming: Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone’s favorite web-crawler (sorry, Charlotte) is poised to make his Broadway debut — in a musical! That’s not even the crazy part. Per Variety:

Helmed by Julie Taymor (“The Lion King”), “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark” will have music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, both of U2. Taymor and Glen Berger (”Underneath the Lintel”) pen the book.

Julie Taymor? Bono and The Edge? That’s some major star-power in the playbill. My gut instint is to call all of these people insane and rant about how a Spider-Man musical is just about the dumbest fucking idea I have ever heard. Only problem: It isn’t.

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EW’s Popwatch is willfully spreading a too-good-to-be-true rumor that they found on MTV’s website. The rumor? Waiting for Guffman, the mock doc that skewered community theater so accurately it even made community theaters cringe, is headed for Broadway. Jane Lynch said so, and since Jane Lynch has never said anything that wasn’t true — well, at least when she was acting — this must be reliable information. Or maybe, like the Popwatch blogger, we just want it to be true. Meanwhile, enjoy “the scent of salt water” in the unforgettable “Square Dance” number.