Touring oldies show brings classic pop tunes to Bradenton

Last fall, a touring show titled “Decades Rewind” stopped at the Manatee Performing Arts Center. It featured live singers and instrumentalists re-creating some of the best and most popular songs from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

Bradenton audiences loved it, so the performing arts center is bringing it back again for two shows this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Apparently audiences around the country loved it just as much as we did. The show has been so successful, according to officials at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, that it’s been considerably enhanced in just the nine months since it last came to town. “Decades Rewind” now includes a 15-piece orchestra, six vocalists, “incredible” costumes” and “phenomenal” production values.

It still includes all those great songs from the era that brought us the Beatles, Abba, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Carole King and so many other artists who shaped their generation. The show features about 60 songs in all.

One indication of how much the show has grown since it was here last is that “Decades Rewind” isn’t just coming to our own Manatee Performing Arts Center this year. It’ll also stop into the two major performing arts centers in the area. It’ll be at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa on Oct. 14, and at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota on Nov. 19. It’s almost certainly the first time a road show significant enough to play at the much larger spaces such as Van Wezel and Ferguson Hall at the Straz has also come to MPAC

Details: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3-4, Stone Hall at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton. $27-$37. 941-748-5875, manateeperformingartscenter.com.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Touring oldies show brings classic pop tunes to Bradenton."