Your Top 13 Things to Do: April 20-26
Image: Courtesy Jack Dowd
Sarasota Magazine’s Best of 2017 Party
April 24
It promises to be a buzzy ’60s happening at Selby Gardens when Sarasota Magazine celebrates the winners of our 2017 Readers’ Poll with the best food, drink and entertainment. This year’s theme is "A Warhol Happening," so come in your Pop Art-sophisticated best and expect plenty of Warholian surprises. Tickets available here.
Image: Matthew Henry
Kinky Boots
April 25-30
With a book by Harvey Fierstein and music by Cyndi Lauper, it’s no surprise that this show about a shoe factory, a drag queen, and what a pair of high-heeled boots can do for you was a hit on Broadway. Now it kicks up some fun with eight performances at the Van Wezel.
Image: Mike Valasek
Jazz in the Ballpark
April 22
As American as baseball and apple pie, jazz will fill Ed Smith Stadium when the Jazz Club of Sarasota and Baltimore Orioles present their annual Jazz in the Ballpark outdoor show. “Big Band Through the Decades” features Michele James-Pruyn and The Swing Sisters and the Sarasota Jazz Project big band. Tickets on sale at the Baltimore Orioles box office.
Image: Courtesy Sarasota Orchestra
Sarasota Orchestra Pops: The Music of Sinatra
April 21-22
Crooner Michael Andrew sings classic numbers from the Frank Sinatra songbook, backed by the Sarasota Orchestra in this season-ending pops concert. Three shows Friday and Saturday at the Van Wezel. Everybody, now: “Strangers in the night…”
Image: Shutterstock
Earth Day at Oscar Scherer State Park and Crowley Museum & Nature Center
April 22
Celebrate Earth Day at Oscar Scherer State Park with live music and all kinds of kid-friendly activities. And Crowley Museum & Nature Center gets into the act, too, Saturday with guided nature hikes, campfire treats and more.
Image: Courtesy Selby Gardens
Selby Gardens Chagall Family Saturday
April 22
Perlman Music Program Suncoast brings its instrument petting zoo to Selby Gardens Saturday morning as part of the Gardens’ Chagall Family Saturday so kids of all ages can plink and plunk to their hearts’ content. Art and nature activities inspired by Selby’s current Marc Chagall exhibit, too. Chagall Family Saturday is included with your admission to Selby Gardens (which for Gardens members is always free).
Bobby Previte
Greenfield Prize Weekend
April 20-23
A world premiere work by 2015 Greenfield Prize-winning composer/drummer Bobby Previte, as part of New Music New College; Creative Conversations with art world luminaries; and a gala dinner celebrating the nationally renowned photographer and 2017 Greenfield Prize winner David Burnett—all part of the Greenfield Prize Weekend presented by the Hermitage Artist Retreat and its partner, the Greenfield Foundation.
Image: Don Daly Photo
Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe presents Dearly Departed
April 19-May 27
The dysfunctional Turpin family gathers in their rural Southern home for their patriarch’s funeral, and all comedy breaks loose. Something new from the talented Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.
Alton Brown Live: Eat Your Science
April 20
The Food Network star brings science, music and lots and lots of food to the stage of the Van Wezel with an all-new show that he promises features “songs, new comedy, new puppets, and bigger and better potentially dangerous food demonstrations.”
Perlman Music Program Alum perform in The Ringling Gallery 21
April 20
The all-female string quartet of violinists Hannah Tarley and Mariella Haubs, violist Bethany Hargreaves and cellist Arlen Hlusko—all Perlman Music Program/Suncoast alum—will perform Beethoven, Debussy and Schubert in the Ringling Museum’s Gallery 21 this Thursday evening as part of The Ringling’s Art after Five. Extra ticket required.
Image: Courtesy Show Management
Suncoast Boat Show at Marina Jack
April 21-23
The largest boat show in Suncoast Boat Show history takes over Marina Jack. Nearly 200 dealers will display a huge range of watercraft and marine products, many of them never before seen on the Gulf Coast. And for kids, free Hook the Future fishing clinics Saturday and Sunday.
PoetryLife Weekend
April 21-22
Nationally renowned poets Edward Hirsh and Aimee Nezhukumatathil join fellow poets, students, teachers and lovers of the written word at Florida Studio Theatre for this sixth annual festival. One highlight is the community favorite poet reading session at 2 p.m. Friday in FST’s Bowne’s Lab.
