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On stage this week: Florida Orchestra does 'American Songbook,' Derek and Julianne Hough

 
This is a photo of Julianne Hough and Derek Hough from Dancing with the Stars, brother and sister. They’re bringing their Move Live dance tour to Ruth Eckerd Hall.
This is a photo of Julianne Hough and Derek Hough from Dancing with the Stars, brother and sister. They’re bringing their Move Live dance tour to Ruth Eckerd Hall.
Published May 10, 2017

Blink and you'll miss another concert. It's almost a shame the Florida Orchestra has been so prolific, with guilty pleasures passing by almost weekly.

Jeff Tyzik conducts this weekend's pops concert, The American Songbook: Then and Now. It's a vehicle made for pianist and singer Tony DeSare, who never met a jazzy standard he didn't love.

DeSare has played Frank Sinatra off-Broadway (Our Sinatra); is equally at home playing with orchestras in Lincoln Center or comedians in Las Vegas; and gets into those romantic songs like a time traveler from the 1940s. This weekend he'll lead guitarist Ed Decker, bassist Steve Doyle and drummer Michael Klopp in a sentimental journey of Americana, from Irving Berlin to John Lennon to Elton John. He has also done well as a songwriter, penning music for commercials and the 2004 movie My Date With Drew. Concerts start at 8 p.m. Friday at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa; 8 p.m. Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater, 400 First Street S, St. Petersburg; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 N McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $15-$45. (727) 892-3337. floridaorchestra.org.

Sebastian Maniscalco's father might not have loved his career choice.

"When you're Italian, the only reason you move out of the house is unless you're going to move next door," the comedian has said. Maniscalco, who will bring his observational comedy to the Straz Center, ended up using his family as a primary source.

"I think that's why people gravitate to my comedy," the comic said recently on Toronto television, where he is just as popular. "They like to kind of reminisce about the way it was growing up."

7 p.m. Friday at the Straz Center's Carol Morsani Hall, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. $43.25 and up. (813) 229-7827. strazcenter.org.

The popular sibling duo from Dancing With the Stars, Derek and Julianne Hough, are back. Ruth Eckerd Hall has added a matinee show Saturday. Derek was 12 and Julianne was 10 when they left their Salt Lake City home to live with their dance coaches in London. The pair studied jazz, tap, ballroom and gymnastics. Both have gone on to win multiple DWTS competitions. The expanded repeat tour features singing by Julianne, a little Donny-and-Marie comedy sketch about their sibling rivalry, and the Move Company Dancers backing them up in a trip through the four elements and dance styles of the world. 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $38.75 and up. (727) 791-7400. rutheckerdhall.com.

You don't have to travel far to catch the Metropolitan Opera's current production of Der Rosenkavalier, Richard Strauss' comic opera. A live performance will be shown on screen this weekend at St. Petersburg's Eckerd College and Sundial 19 movie theater. The opera stars Renée Fleming, below, as the Marschallin, Princess von Werdenberg of the Habsburg Empire, alongside Elina Garanca as her young lover, Octavian, Count Rofrano, in a story about class conflict. 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Sundial 19, $24; and Eckerd College, Miller Auditorium, $25. metopera.org.

Avenue Q just got a little busier. Due to rapidly disappearing tickets, Stageworks Theatre has added two Sunday performances to the quirky Sesame Street-styled musical, at 7 p.m. Sunday and May 21.

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End of the Rainbow, the Judy Garland play at Freefall, was extended a week before it even opened and now runs through June 4.

Early demand also prompted the Straz Center to give Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone an extra day. The Florida Orchestra will now play John Williams' score Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 as the movie runs on a high-definition screen.