Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton is a sung-through musical based on Ron Chernow's 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton -- the orphaned immigrant from the Caribbean who talked his way into George Washington's inner circle during the Revolutionary War, became the first Treasury Secretary, built the foundation of the American banking and credit system, and died at 49 ... Read more
Read more »Alice Cooper didn't just play shock rock, he invented it -- the guillotine finale, the live boa constrictor draped around his neck, the fake blood and mock executions that are now standard-issue across arena rock, metal, and even pop staging, all trace back to what Cooper built onstage starting in the late '60s. He's still ... Read more
Read more »The Buccaneers and Falcons have played each other since 1977, but it didn't become a real rivalry until both landed in the newly-formed NFC South in 2002 -- and more than two decades later, the series is still essentially a coin flip: Atlanta leads the all-time series 33-32, with a 25-23 edge since the division ... Read more
Jimmy Eat World self-financed Bleed American after Capitol Records dropped them -- then the album's second single, "The Middle," hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the song AllMusic credits with launching mainstream emo-pop as a genre. It's sold 1.7 million copies since 2001 and remains the band's only Top 40 hit ... Read more
UB40 started as a group of unemployed friends in a Birmingham, England welfare line in 1978 -- the band's name is literally the UK government's unemployment benefit form number, and their first album, Signing Off, was a pun on leaving the dole. Their cover of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine" hit No. 1 in the ... Read more
One performer in 'Twas the Night Before spins by her hair roughly 100 times at top speed -- about seven rotations per second -- while another duo works a strap act 20 feet above the stage and a roller-skating pair hits 30 mph in tight circles. It's Cirque du Soleil's first holiday-themed production, built loosely ... Read more
The Lightning are one of only nine franchises in NHL history to win back-to-back Stanley Cups, taking the 2020 and 2021 titles -- the 2021 win came with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy starting all 23 playoff games and winning the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP, the first goalie to do that in a repeat championship run ... Read more
Death Becomes Her is the Tony-winning stage musical based on the 1992 Robert Zemeckis film about two rival women -- played on screen by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn -- who both drink a magic potion promising eternal youth, then spend the rest of the story literally falling apart while refusing to die. The stage ... Read more
This isn't a school recital. Next Generation Ballet is the Straz Center's resident pre-professional company, founded in 2010 and modeled on the New World Symphony's model in Miami -- pairing serious young dancers with real coaching and real performance stakes as a pipeline toward actual professional ballet careers, not just a holiday showcase. Their annual ... Read more
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