Manatee Players announce season change
The stage musical version of "The Bridges of Madison County" was supposed to come to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in the 2016-17 season, but that got canceled.
If you had your heart set on seeing it, though, there's good news from Manatee Players. They've made a change to their schedule for next season, dropping "Honeymoon in Vegas" and adding "The Bridges of Madison County" into its slot, Feb. 9-26.
This will be the regional premiere of "Madison County," which won a Tony Award for Best Original Score in 2014.
Despite some awards and some great reviews -- and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman -- "The Bridges of Madison County" never found much of an audience on Broadway, and ran for just three months.
Norman, who also wrote the books for the stage musical versions of "The Color Purple" and "The Secret Garden," collaborated on "Madison County" with Jason Robert Brown. Brown also composed the score for "Honeymoon in Vegas."
Call 941-748-5875 or go to manateeperformingartscenter.com if you want to know more.
Sarasota in Bradenton?
And speaking of the Manatee Players' upcoming season, there's something potentially exciting coming up. Janene Amick, the company's executive director, said Manatee Players have been "reaching out" to Sarasota companies and individual artists with an eye toward bringing them to the Manatee Performing Arts Center for performances.
There are some truly impressive projects that are in the talking-about stage, though Amick said she can't talk about them publicly yet. She said she's optimistic that some of them will come to fruition, as soon as the 2016-17 season, but saying too much too soon could mess up the plans.
What she can say is that the organizations that Manatee Players have been talking to -- which include Sarasota Opera and Sarasota Ballet -- are very open to the idea of performing in Bradenton.
"It's been so wonderful that these organization that we've reached out to are just as excited as we are about a collaboration that would bring
them to our stage," Amick said.
Free 'Rain'
In a year that had already given us more than its share of saddening deaths of musicians and pop culture icons, perhaps none was more shocking than the sudden passing of Prince on April 21. Whether you're a fan or not, you have to acknowledge that Prince was one of the most talented, most distinctive and most influential musicians of the past quarter-century.
There will be no shortage of Prince tributes in the coming weeks. One great way to remember the man and his work, and to gather together with fans, is coming up on April 30 in Tampa.
Tampa Theatre, a gorgeous and historic 90-year-old movie house in the heart of downtown Tampa, has just announced that it will screen Prince's 1984 film "Purple Rain" that night. It's a free screening, which is pretty cool, since the theater would probably be fairly packed even if they charged admission.
Prince plays the Kid, the frontman of a hot new Minneapolis band. His father is an abusive alcoholic, his mother is distant and unfeeling, his home is a wreck. He meets Apollonia, an aspiring singer (his real-life protégé at the time), and starts up a romance. But the Kid's abusive upbringing leads to problems in the relationship, and a musical rival (Morris Day) schemes to unseat the Kid as the area's biggest rising star.
The narrative part of the movie is OK, but the music scenes are phenomenal. They include Prince performing "Let's Go Crazy." "When Doves Cry" and the title song, plus Morris Day and the Time doing "Jungle Love," which Prince co-wrote.
You don't need tickets, but you should probably get there early to make sure you get in and snag a decent seat. Doors open at 8 p.m. For more information, call 813-857-9089 or go to tampatheatre.org.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Manatee Players announce season change ."