We’ve all been through a lot over the past week, so maybe this is a good time for some fun and great music. The Palladium came through the storm well and we had a cast of very talented people ready to perform the hit musical “Webb’s City,” that celebrates the history of our town.
So the shows are going on. And we’d love to have you join us. For tickets and information call our box office at 727 822-3590 or follow this link for online tickets and information.
If you don’t know this show, which was last produced in 2009 at the Palladium, read on:
The hit musical written and directed by Bill Leavengood with music, lyrics and musical direction by Lee Ahlin about St. Pete’s famous drug store returns to the Palladium in a concert format.
In 1999, the Pinellas County Millennium Celebration commissioned Leavengood and Ahlin to create a new musical based on the life and times of J. E. “Doc” Webb, the colorful St. Petersburg entrepreneur called the “P.T. Barnum of Retail.” In 1925, Webb opened a tiny drug store on Ninth Street and over the next five decades transformed it into a 77-store complex covering ten city blocks. In its heyday, Webb’s City attracted 60,000 visitors per day.
Webb’s City, the Musical premiered in 2000 at both Ruth Eckerd Hall and the Mahaffey Theater. The show was such a hit that a new non-profit arts organization, LiveArts, was created to bring it back to the Mahaffey Theater in 2001, where it broke their box office records, selling more than 10,000 tickets. A community theatre production was mounted at St. Petersburg Little Theatre a few years later where it broke their box office records as well.
Now, the Palladium Theater and American Stage, with underwriting by Jim and Suzanne MacDougald and Larry and Joyce Beltz, along with the Tampa Bay Times and the Princess Martha, present this brand new multimedia concert version featuring all of the great music from the original musical, expertly woven together with narration, scene highlights and iconic images from five decades of St. Petersburg and Webb’s City history. The show reunites original production’s creators and directors, Bill Leavengood and Lee Ahlin.
CAST
Doc Webb: Jim Sorensen
Aretta Webb: Emilee Dupre
Leo Kerns: Terrence Jamison
Frank Hubert: Charles Reynolds
Marie Webb: Emilia Sargent
Breadline Betty: Stephanie Roberts
Bunie Webb: Michael McGuigan
Jimmy Webb: Mitch Marois
Ensemble: Susie Rayburn, Josh Moody, Olivia Sargent, Senna Prasatthong-osoth, Will Hess, Ari Weiss, Shannon Wright, Reilly O’Neill, Erin Wilson, Oliver Hess
Leave a Reply