Daily lineup for Tampa's Big Guava announced

   The day-by-day lineup of the Big Guava Festival has been announced.
   The festival's set for May 2-4 at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa. It's one of the biggest music festivals ever in west central Florida, made even bigger by the announcement earlier this week that Bruce Springtseen and the E Street Band would play a "festival kick-off show" at the amphitheatre the evening before the festival.

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  But the lineup was plenty impressive even before that: Outkast, Vampire Weekend, Violent Femmes and Cake are just a few of the big names.
   Here's the whole lineup:
   Friday, May 2: Outkast, Cake, Sleigh Bells, Twenty one Pilots, Jake Miller, Smallpools, NONONO, Vic Mensa, Unlikely Candidates, Betty Who.
   Saturday, May 3: Vampire Weekend, Slightly Stoopid, Tegan and Sara, Haim,  Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, Blue October, Band of Skulls, American Authors, Hoodie Allen, Bear Hands, Kitten, Jacuzzi Boys, Civil Twilight, Terraplane Sun, Hunter Hunted, Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas.
   Sunday, May 4: Foster the People, Girl Talk, Violent Femme, Grouplove, Walk the Moon, Earl Sweatshirt, Ms Mr,
Chance the Rapper, Timeflies, ZZ Ward,  St. Lucia, Morning Parade, Magic Man, Gringo Star, Fly Union.
   Tickets go on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15. Single-day tickets are $65. A three-day ticket is $165. VIP passes are available for $175 (one-day) and $499 (three-day).
   Besides the music, there's a midway (you can do all the rides you want for no extra charge), food trucks and craft beer gardens.
   To buy tickets go to www.livenation.com or call 800-745-3000. 
   Springsteen tickets are separate from this The three-day pass does not include that show. Springsteen tickets got on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, also at www.livenation.com.

Pilobolus performs in Sarasota this evening

   It was a shot at the big time that most artists and entertainers can only dream of. And Pilobolus blew it.          
   In the early 1970s, Frank Zappa was performing at Dartmouth College, and a group of students from a dance class opened the concert with a weird performance piece called "Pilobolus," after a fungus that grows in cow manure. Zappa loved the piece and invited the group, which didn't

even have a name yet, to go on tour with him.
   "We said, "What? We can't do that, we have midterms coming up,' " recalled Pilobolus co-founder Moses Pendleton.
    The people from Pilobolus obviously had no intention of making their careers as dancers, but they went on to change the face of American modern dance through their unusual approach to movement, narrative and illusion.

   They’ll be at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota at 8 p.m. tonight, (Wednesday, Feb. 12).
   They’ve lasted much longer than most dance companies, and in recent years they've shown signs of being past their creative prime. (Pendleton left the company to found the equally innovative Momix and Pilobolus hasn’t been as wonderfully weird since.) And because they’ve been so influential, the rest of the dance world has caught up with them and Pilobolus no longer seem so revolutionary.
   But their concerts are still full of beauty and intellect, and anyone who cares about dance still wants to see them anytime they come through town.

   Tickets are $40-$60. Call 941-953-3368 or go to www.vanwezel.org.

  
  

Bruce Springsteen announces May 1 Tampa concert

   On Monday, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band announced 15 more stops on their current tour. Tampa is among them.
   They'll be at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre on May 1.

Bruce Springsteen

  They're touring the world on the heels of their  massively popular new album "High Hopes," which debuted at No. 1 in 20 countries.
   Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 at www.ticketmaster.com. You should be able to find more details at www.livenation.com soon, but as of Monday morning the Tampa show wasn't listed there yet.

   Springsteen’s show is being billed as a “pre-festival kick-off” for the three-day Big Guava Festival, which gets going the next day and features Outkast, Violent Femmes, Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, Slightly Stoopid, Cake, Tegan and Sara, Earl Sweatshirt, Grouplove, Haim and others.

   Three-day passes for the festival are on sale for $165, or $499 for a “Super Guava” pass that includes a bunch of perks. (The three-day pass does not include the Springsteen concert.)

   Single-day tickets will go on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday for $65. Call 1-800-745-3000 or go to www.bigguavafest.com.

Kansas, Sinise complete Lakwood Ranch festival lineup

The organizers of Winterfest at Lakewood Ranch , the all-day music festival set for next month, have been releasing details about the lineup in bits, each time naming a few acts that have been added and hinting that more big acts are yet to come.

Now the entire lineup is in place, and the latest additions are some of the biggest names in the festival.

The Lt. Dan Band, a cover band headed by actor Gary Sinise, has been added to the lineup, along with classic rock stalwarts Kansas and the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

The previously announced acts are Marty Balin, Rick Derringer, Bertie Higgins, Jeff Cook & the AGB, Ty Herndon, Billy Dean, and Hotel California.

Winterfest is scheduled for 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. Saturday, March 29 (actually in the spring, despite the festival’s name) at the Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch. It had originally been announced as a two-day festival.

Balin, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member from his days as a vocalist with Jefferson Airplane, and had hits with Jefferson Starship in the ‘70s. Derringer, whose band the McCoys did “Hang on Sloopy,” had their first hits in the 1960s, and played in the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s with both Johnny and Edgar Winter.

Rick Derringer

Soft-rock giants Kansas (“Dust in the Wind), and Southern pop band Atlanta Rhythm Section (“Imaginary Lover”) had their biggest success in ‘70s. One-hit wonder Higgins hit with “Key Largo” in 1982.

Jeff Cook is a founding member of Alabama, who dominated country music in the 80s and ‘90s. Dean and Herndon are more contemporary country stars.

The website hints that Edgar Winter, a long-time musical partner of Derringer, might be joining him at Winterfest.

The Lt. Dan Band, named after Sinise’s character in the film “Forest Gump.” They’re best known for playing USO shows and other events in support of members of the United States military.

Hotel California is an Eagles tribute band.

Besides the music, Winterfest promises up to 50 food and beverage vendors and an artisan village with 25 booths.

Tickets are available on the Winterfest at Lakewood Ranch website, lwrwinterfest.com. General admission $26.87.

VIP tickets, which include an all-day catered buffet, bar service, front-row reserved seating and air-conditioned restrooms, are $104.49. Call 941-757-1553 or check the website for more information.

Asolo's "Philadelphia" is coming back to Sarasota

   Asolo Repertory Theatre's "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" has been the most talked-about area theater presentation in a long time. Even the Wall Street Journal wrote about it.
  The reason is that director Frank Galati had trimmed the play significantly, and playwright Brian Friel found out and wasn't happy. He made Asolo Rep halt "Philadelphia" after just a couple of shows. The cut scenes and characters were restored and Galati and the now-larger cast went back into rehearsals.

Christian Conn, Douglas Jones
"Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/01/09/4925742/friel-tragicomedy-opens-at-sarasotas.html#storylink=cpy

   It's reopening Tuesday, Feb. 4. It had been a 90-minute show with no intermission; now it's significantly longer and has two intermissions, as Friel dictated in his script.
   The play, which is about a half-century old, was the first big success for Friel, who's now best known for "Dancing at Lughnasa." It tells the story of a young Irish man on the night before he moves to America. The "hook" is that the young man is portrayed by two actors simultaneously, one his "public" self and one his "private" self.
   The shorter version was lovely, with a gorgeous set and wonderful performances.
    The restored version runs through April 12 at the Mertz Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $33-$61. 941-351-8000, www.asolorep.org.

Tickets on sale for John Legend's April 27 Van Wezel performance

   Tickets are on sale now for John Legend's recently announced appearance at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota.

John Legend

   The nine-time Grammy winner will bring his "An Evening With John Legend: The All of Me Tour" to Van Wezel on April 27.
    "All of Me" is the current hit single from Legend’s fourth studio album "Love In the Future," produced by Legend and longtime collaborators Kanye West and Dave Tozer. The tour starts March 20.
    Call 941-953-3368 or go to www.vanwezel.org for tickets and information.

Banyan Theater announces its 2014 summer season

  In 2013, Sarasota's Banyan Theater produced a popular staging of Donald Maguilies' "Time Stands Still." The company will end its 2014 season with another Margulies' work, "Collected Stories."
  Banyan, which produces only in the summer months, announced its 2014 season last week. Besides "Collected Stories," scheduled for Aug 7-23, the season includes Arthur Miller's "The Price," (June 26-July 13) and "The Sty of the Blind Pig" by Phillip Hayes Dean (July 17-Aug. 3). 
   All three are acclaimed dramas. This will be Banyan's second time staging "The Price," which the company first offered in 2003.
   The Banyan Theater Company performs in the Jane B. Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. A three-show subscription costs $70, a two-show package is $52 and single tickets are $28.50. For tickets and information, go to  www.banyantheatercompany.com.