Top 10 Arts Events for Sarasota-Manatee: Jan. 20-26
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A talk with Pulitzer Prize winner
Just a few months before his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “A Strange Loop” makes its Broadway debut, creator Michael R. Jackson will be talking about “The Work” that goes into developing a show in the Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens program at 5:30 p.m. Friday. His meta musical is about a Black gay musical theater writer creating a musical about a Black gay musical theater writer. The show was originally staged at Playwrights Horizons in 2019. Jackson was a 2021 Hermitage Artist Retreat fellow and returns to the area to provide a candid conversation about the writing process and offer samplings of his latest work outdoors at Selby Gardens, 1534 Mound St., Sarasota. Admission is free but there is a $5 registration fee. You can register at hermitageartistretreat.org
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Commissioning new work: Rising composer Angélica Negrón wins 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize
New play prize: Hermitage Artist Retreat selects Radha Blank as inaugural winner of theater award
A ‘Revolution’ with Sarasota Orchestra
The Sarasota Orchestra has two distinct programs planned this week. On Friday and Saturday, the Orchestra’s Pops series presents “Revolution: The Music of the Beatles,” led by conductor William Waldrop. The concerts at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, features an authorized symphonic tribute to the Fab Four with Grammy winner Jeff Tyzik’s arrangements based on original master recordings made at Abbey Road. Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $37-$88. And at 4 p.m. Sunday, the latest Chamber Soiree program features the Felix Mendelssohn’s “Octet” and Franz Schubert’s “”Nocturne.” The concert is at Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, and tickets are $38-$48. For more information: 941-953-3434; sarasotaorchestra.org
Staying safe: Sarasota Orchestra cancels weekend concerts due to COVID exposures
New music director debuts: Sarasota Orchestra launches a new era
Asolo Rep seeks ‘Grand Horizons’
Bess Wohl’s comedy “Grand Horizons,” which opens Friday at Asolo Repertory Theatre, begins with a woman announcing she wants a divorce after 50 years of marriage. The retired and comfortable couple Nancy and Bill have been living in what might be described as a bland marriage for years. But there is nothing bland about the reaction of their children to the divorce news. Associate Artistic Director Celine Rosenthal directs the comedy, which ran on Broadway in 2020. Suzanne Grodner, a graduate of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory who has returned for several previous productions, plays Nancy, opposite Peter Van Wagner, who was the understudy for the role of Bill in the Broadway production. “Grand Horizons” runs in rotating repertory through April 1 at Asolo Rep, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org. The theater also is presenting “Our Town” in its rep schedule.
Last chance for Ringling’s ‘Hard Bodies’
You have just a few more days to experience The Ringling exhibition “Hard Bodies: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculpture,” which continues through Sunday in the museum’s Searing Wing. This traveling exhibit from the Minneapolis Institute of Art features 16 contemporary Japanese artists playing post-modern tricks with an ancient medium. Through April 3 in the Monda Gallery, you can spend time with “Rhodnie Désir: Conversations.” She’s a dancer and choreographer who explores her ancestral heritage from the African diaspora. The exhibition, which uses video, light and sound to create a gallery space, is an expansion of her performance series “Bow’t Trail.” And in the Searing Wing, the museum presents “As long as there is sun, as long as there is light. Selections from the Bring Gift and The Ringling Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art,” which continues through Aug. 13. The Ringling is at 5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota. 941-359-5700; ringling.org
Comedy royalty: Betty White kept audiences laughing for decades with a touch of humility
Players Centre’s ‘Forbidden Broadway’ spoofs decades of theater hits
The Players Centre is poking fun at the Broadway musicals it often presents with a production of the long-running hit “Forbidden Broadway.” Created by Gerard Alessandrini, the revue is a satirical look at the hits, flops and stars who have made Broadway such a favorite destination for millions. This “Greatest Hits” version features some of the most popular numbers from the many editions that Alessandrini create since the show initially opened in 1982. Amanda Heisey directs this production which features Nancy Denton, Chris Caswell, Shawn Spears, Brett Anglin and Brenna Griffith. The show will be presented in the company’s temporary home at Studio 1130, at the Crossings at Siesta Key shopping center, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 1130, Sarasota. Performances continue through Jan. 30. Tickets are $29.50 and $14 for students. 941-365-2494; theplayers.org
New leadership: Sarasota’s Players Centre hires new artistic director to lead through changing venues
Celebrating local arts: Proposed arts festival could bring national attention to Sarasota area cultural scene
‘Lady Day’ sings at Venice Theatre
Since she first appeared at Venice Theatre as an apprentice artist, DaNiesha Carr has taken on some major roles in such shows as David Mamet’s “Race” and the musicals “Once on This Island” and “Ragtime.” She returns to the Pinkerton Theatre to play legendary singer in the bittersweet biographical musical “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” by Lanie Robertson. Set in 1959 in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, it presents Holiday in one of her last concert performances, singing such standards as “God Bless the Child,” “Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer),” “When a Woman Loves a Man” and “Strange Fruit.” The production, staged by Kristofer Geddie, also features musical director William Coleman as Holiday’s accompanist Jimmy Powers. The show opens Friday and runs through Feb. 20. 140 W. Tampa Ave., Venice. Tickets are $32, $20 for college students and $15 for youth. 941-488-1115; venicetheatre.org
Safety protocols: Venice Theatre adds face mask requirements for January shows
Chamber Orchestra offers free concert
The Chamber Orchestra of Sarasota is offering a free concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday, featuring saxophonist Nalisio Taveras and clarinetist Michael Drapkin as featured soloists. The program includes Victor Lopez’s “A Whitney Houston Tribute,” Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” and Drapkin’s “A Klezmer Set.” There also will be music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Scott Joplin, William Grant Still and Béla Bartók. The program concludes with a side-by-side performance of Alan Lee Silva’s “Luminescence” with the Manatee School of the Arts Orchestra, led by Laura Jensen-Jennings. The concert is at at the school, 700 Haben Blvd., Palmetto, and is free with no reservations required. For more information: 219-928-8665; chamberorchestrasarasota.org
A musical look at the life of ‘Chaplin’
Through his character of the Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin kept millions of movie lovers laughing even as he touched their hearts in dozens of films. “Chaplin,” a 2012 Broadway musical about his life, opens today at the Manatee Performing Arts Center in a production starring Aaron Castle as the silent film genius. He is joined by Sarah Cassidy, Dan Yonko, Karli Gundersen, Mike Nolan and Maddie Cashen. The show depicts Chaplin’s family life and rise to fame and includes such famous figures as Hedda Hopper and director Mack Sennett. “Chaplin” runs through Jan. 30 in Stone Hall, 502 Third Ave., West, Bradenton. For ticket information: 941-748-5875; manateeperformingartscenter.com
Remembering a legend: Cherishing a lifetime of musical theater created by Stephen Sondheim
The current season: Manatee Players reschedules postponed shows for 21-22 season
Comedy from disaster in FST farce
With a title like “The Play That Goes Wrong,” you can expect that things aren’t going to be perfect in the comic farce that begins Wednesday at Florida Studio Theatre’s Gompertz Theatre. The production was originally scheduled to debut this week, but the theater announced a one-week delay on Monday due to complications from COVID-19. The play was created by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and henry Shields for the Mischief Theatre Company before it went on to long-running successes in London and on Broadway. It depicts an amateur theater company attempting to put on performance of the whodunit “The Murder at Haversham Manor,” even though just about everything possible goes awry. Bruce Jordan, a co-creator of “Shear Madness,” directs the production. “The Play That Goes Wrong” runs through March 20 in the Gompertz, 1265 First St., Sarasota. The theater also is presenting the world premiere of Jason Odell Williams’ “America in One Room” and the cabaret shows “The Wanderers” and “Friends in Low Places.” 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org
Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica
The “Rainforest Masks of Costa Rica” has become a winter tradition at Selby Botanical Gardens. For the 18th year, the showcase and sale of work by artists from the Boruca tribe in southwestern Costa Rica is being presented in Selby’s Museum of Botany & the Arts at its downtown Sarasota campus. It features hundreds of vibrant, hand-carved wood masks highlighted by flora and fauna found in the tropical rainforest. The exhibit also will feature Borucan traditions of textile making with weavers using leaves and plant seeds to dye their cotton materials. The exhibition, included with admission to Selby, continues through Jan. 30. 1534 Mound St., Sarasota. 941-366-5731; selby.org
If you would like your events to be considered for this column, please email jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com with your information and photos at least two weeks before our Thursday publication date. Show schedules are subject to change; check with venues in advance to confirm or for questions on COVID-19 protocols.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Top 10 Arts Events for Sarasota-Manatee: Jan. 20-26
