Ramsey Lewis concert moved to St. Petersburg's Palladium

   If you have tickets to the the upcoming concert featuring jazz great Ramsey Lewis and R&B great Philip Bailey, you're going to have to drive a few blocks farther than you planned.

Ramsey Lewis

   The Feb. 24 shows was supposed to be at St. Petersburg's Mahaffey Theater, but it's been moved to the Palladium.

   The Palladium's a great venue, older and much more intimate than the Mahaffey. It's at 253 Fifth Ave. N.

   Bailey, who's best known as the lead singer from Earth, Wind & Fire, will perform with Ramsey Lewis and His Electric Band. They'll be doing some Earth, Wind & Fire stuff, and the band will no doubt offer "The In Crowd" and other classic Lewis instrumentals.
   Tickets run $49.50-$69.50. Call 727-893-7832 or go to themahaffey.com for tickets. (Student tickets are available for $35 at the door only, with a valid student ID.) If you want to know more about the Palladium, go to mypalladium.org.

Sarasota Ballet changes March program

"Shostakovich Suite"

   There's been a change in an upcoming Sarasota Ballet program. 

   The performance that's scheduled for March 27-30 was supposed to include Sir Peter Wright’s "Summertide."   That's out, and in its place is a revival of resident choreographer Ricardo Graziano’s "Shostakovich Suite."        The other pieces on the revised program are Paul Taylor's "Company B," which is based on music by the Andrews Sisters, and the world premiere of a new work by Graziano.
   "Summertide" is now slated for the November program.
   Call 941-359-0099 or go to sarasotaballet.org if you want to know more.

Sarasota's Banyan Theater Company announces 2015 season

Tanner in "The Amish Project"

   Two years ago, Sarasota actor Katherine Michelle Tanner delivered one of the most amazing performances local theater goers have ever seen. The play was the American Stage production of Jessica Dickey's "The Amish Project," which is based on a mass murder in an Amish school in 2006. Tanner played all seven characters, male and female, from young victims to the killer's wife to townspeople only peripherally involved. No one who saw that performance will forget it.
   Those who missed it will have another chance. "The Amish Project," with Tanner reprising her roles, is part of the recently announced Banyan Theater Company season.
   Banyan produces shows only in the summer. "The Amish Project" is the second show of the Banyan's 14th season.
   All shows in the Banyan season are in the Jane B. Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts in Sarasota. A three-show subscription costs $70, a two-show package is $52 and single tickets are $28.50. Go to banyantheatercompany.com for information and tickets.
  

    Here's the season schedule:
  

  "Art" by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, June 25-July 12
   The winner of the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1996 Olivier Award for Best Comedy revolves around friends who argue over the artistic value of a painting.
   

   "The Amish Project" by Jessica Dickey, July 16-Aug. 2
    A devastating and beautiful play that gives an intriguing glimpse into Amish culture and compels the audience with our own capacity for forgiveness and condemnation.


   "My Old Lady" by Israel Horovitz, Aug. 6-23
   Horovitz (the father of Beastie Boy Ad-Rock) has written more good plays than most people have seen. This one, which was made into a movie starring Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith, is one of his best. It's about a financially struggling middle-aged man who inherits an apartment in Paris and finds that French law says the tenant can stay there until she dies. He has no choice but to move in with her.

Five Finger Death Punch heads 98Rockfest lineup

   Five Finger Death Punch heads the recently announced lineup for this year's 98Rockfest.

Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless

   The hard-rock concert is set for April 24 in the Amalie Arena in Tampa. The other bands on the program are Rise Against, Breaking Benjamin, the Pretty Reckless -- who sure seem to be performing in the Tampa area a lot lately -- and Nothing More.
   There's a free pre-show on the west plaza of the arena that starts at
2 p.m. and features performances by 98ROCK’s Skratch n Sniff, Sleepwave, Beartooth and Young Guns.
   Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 30. They'll run you $25, $39 and $59. VIP packages start at $169. There's a service charge on top of all those prices.

   Call 800-745-3000 or go to amaliearena.com.

   

'Book of Mormon' lottery returns to Tampa

   If you want to see "The Book of Mormon" but you don't want to shell out $66 for the cheapest tickets, here's some good news for you.

  The producers of the show are again offering a lottery that will let you purchase tickets for $31. And they're not all cheap seats. You could end up getting a $178.50 tickets for $31.

   Here's how it works: Between two and two and a half hours before any performance, you go to the box office at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa and fill out a form. You specify whether you want one ticket or two for that performance. You can't enter any drawing more than once.

 

A scene from "the Book of Mormon"

 Then, two hours before curtain, someone draws names and an unknown number of people will get the discounted tickets. It's cash only. You have to be there to win. 

   These lotteries have drawn as many as 800 entrants. You might have a better shot earlier in the run, before word of mouth about the show and about the lottery has peaked. You might also have a better shot on weekdays, because the drawing will at 5:30 p.m and a lot of people won't be able to get to the Straz Center after work by then.

  The Straz Center is at 1010 N. MacInnes Place in downtown  Tampa. "The Book of Mormon" opens Jan. 20 and runs through Feb. 1. Curtain is at  7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Call 813-229-7827 or go to strazcenter.org.

Allman, Widespread Panic headline Wanee Music Festival

   It's still three and a half months away and a couple of hundred miles away, but the 2015 Wanee Music Festival is worth getting excited about.
   The 11th annual festival is set for April 16-18 in Live Oak. The lineup that's been announced so far includes three former members of the Allman Brothers Band, all playing separately with their own groups: Gregg Allman, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band and Butch Trucks & Very Special Friends.

Gregg Allman

   Widespread Panic is the nominal headliner, but there are tons of great acts and big names, including Cheap Trick, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gov't Mule, JJ Grey & Mofro, Hot Tuna, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk and supergroup the Word, which includes Robert Randolph, John Medseki and Luther DIckinson.
   Also slated to appear are Oteil & Friends, Galactic, Zappa Plays Zappa, Leftover Salmon featuring Bill Payne (of Little Feat), Yonder Mountain String Band, Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, Raw Oyster Cult,  Dragon Smoke, the Revivalists, Home At Last, The Nth Power Performs Steely Dan, Tea Leaf Green, Bobby Lee Rogers Trio, Pink Talking Fish, Eric Lindell & Company, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Twiddle, Natural Child, Jacob Jeffries Band and Juke.
   The festival is in Suwannee Music Park, which is a gorgeous place for music festival.
   Advance tickets are on sale now, and if you're sure you want to go you might want to get tickets soon. Three-day tickets are $195 plus "applicable fees" but the price will go up later. Tickets include three nights of primitive camping and music from 12:30 p.m. on Thursday and full days of music on Friday and Saturday.
   VIP tickets are $499 (again plus applicable fees) and include a whole lot of extra stuff, including catered meals and  access to private restrooms.
   For tickets and more information, go to waneefestival.com.  

Idina Menzel to perform near Bradenton next year

   She became a Broadway star when she appeared in "Rent.” She became a Broadway superstar when she won a Tony Award from originating the role of Elphaba in “Wicked." She became a movie star when she voiced the role of Elsa the Snow QIeen in "Frozen." She became a pop culture icon at this year's Oscars when John Travolta introduced her as "Adele Dazeem,”
  

Idina Menzel

  Idina Menzel is maybe the most famous performer in musical theater and film these days, and definitely one of the most acclaimed. Besides her Broadway credits, Menzel has a recurring role as  Shelby Corcoran on “Glee” and she starred as the Elsa the Snow Queen In “Frozen.” 
   She’s just announced a world tour that will being her within driving instance of Bradenton in 2015.

   She’ll be at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on July 28. That’s a long time from now, but tickets go one sale at noon Saturday (Dec. 6). It’s likely to sell very quickly, so if you want good seats it’d be good idea to get them soon.
   

   Tickets for the Clearwater show are $128.75, $103.25 and $83.25, $58.75. Call 727-791-7400 or go to  rutheckerdhall.com.

Area playwright brings one-woman show to Sarasota

  Area playwright Roxanne Fay has presented her one-woman show "Home Fires Burning" to appreciative audiences at a couple of different venues in St. Petersburg, and now she's bringing it to Sarasota.
   She'll be performing it at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Home Resource, which is at 741 Central Ave. in Sarasota. Home Resource is essentially a furniture store, but it has a history of staging occasionally some great and wonderfully unusual theater.

   “Home Fires Burning" is actually two plays. In one Fay portrays a lost child, and in the other she's an ancient, disfigured woman. Although the two plays revolve around disparate characters they share a theme the characters' fights to reclaim and hold onto a their homes. The plays have been described as “funny, horrifying and heartbreaking.”
   Fay's show has been selected to be in New York's prestigious United Solo Theatre Festival, the largest festival of one-person shows in the world. In fact, as of earlier this week it had sold more tickets than any other show in the festival. The festival runs Sept. 18-Nov. 23, and Fay will perform “Home Fires Burning on Sept. 28.
   Fay is also currently appearing as Nurse Ratched in the great production of Dale Wasserman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. That show runs through Sept. 14.
   Tickets for "Home Fires Burning" are $10. There's a talkback with Fay after the show. Call 941-366-6690 for information and reservations.