Hamburger Mary's Bingo Night Supports the Straz!

We hope you will join us for Hamburger Mary’s Bingo Night on Aug. 25th!

Join the Straz Center's Producers Group for a fantastic evening of everybody's favorite game of chance!

Every Wednesday, Hamburger Mary’s raises money for a local non-profit organization. Next weeks Bingo Night proceeds will go to the Straz Center. The more people we invite, the more money we will raise!

Some highlights for the evening:
* Bingo players can win tickets to several of our upcoming shows
* The cast of Respect will be performing
* One of the Straz Center employees, Rick Criswell, will be dressing up as Edna from Hairspray and will help call the bingo games
* Hamburger Mary’s will have $5 Texas sized Margaritas
* Games begin at 7:30ish, get there early to get a good spot!

Check out the event on Facebook!

The Producers host something Wicked

Last night I attended the All Access Backstage Event here at the TBPAC hosted by The Producers with my boyfriend. It was a nice intimate gathering of young professionals in the Tampa Bay area to explore backstage, mingle, and have some fabulous appetizers catered by Bone Fish Grill.

The toughest decision of the night was whether to go with ‘The White Rabbit’ or ‘Wicked-tini’ cocktail (hey – I’m of age!). Of course, I had to try the ‘Wicked-tini’ (because it was pink) and explore.

Many of the upcoming show banners were hung around the space: In the Heights, Wonderland, Wicked, Mary Poppins to remind guests of our 2009-2010 Broadway season kicking off in October. There were also cast members from Respect and South Pacific walking around with guests to promote the shows. Guests also got to go on the stages of the Carol Morsani and Ferguson. How cool is that?

As I stood center stage of Carol Morsani (a dream come true for anyone who calls themselves a performer) and looked out into the 2,610 empty seats I had to catch my breath. Sure, I’ve been in the audience plenty of times, we will actually be there again in two week for the O.A.R. concert, but who else can say they have done that?

Overall, great event, great experience, great company, and I was in a great dress! Not bad for a Thursday night!

For more information on The Producers or to become a member, visit theproducers@tbpac.org.

- AP Intern

Ladies Nights?

TBPAC is seemingly teeming with gynocentric programming over the summer: Menopause the Musical, Woman in Mind, The Sisters Rosensweig. We just had Patty Larkin and Lily Tomlin. I suppose Clay Aiken, though not a woman, fits in line as a very female-friendly artist.

Of course not all of those shows or artists have exclusively female appeal, but at least on the surface they all certainly do. Women account for the largest group of people who buy tickets for shows here at TBPAC, so that's not so bad.

Actually if you really want to get technical, we know our most regular ticket buyer is a woman between the ages of 45 and 55 who has at least some college education and a household income of over $75,000. So I won't act surprised that artists/shows like I listed above do very well here.

Menopause is certainly an event, and is an enormous draw. The show posted the single-best record for a show in the Jaeb Theater last summer. It sold more than a million dollars in tickets - simply amazing. It handily beat out heavyweights like Forever Plaid and Shear Madness in the process.

The show opens officially tonight and is currently on sale through the end of July. Tickets are going extremely fast - people will be hard-pressed to get decent seats unless you want to buy a minimum of two to three weeks in advance.

Get 'em while they're hot-flashing. Ok, ok ... I'll stop.

And you dudes? Depending on your age and sense of humor there's laughs to be had at Menopause, Woman in Mind should easily appeal to anyone with a like of BBC comedies like The Office, Fawlty Towers or old Python - and there's always that icon of male humor, Mel Brooks, who has a little musical coming back this summer that you might have heard of based on some movie.

We're not getting rid of the men's rooms. Promise.