FEBRUARY’S LEAP YEAR OFFERS REASON TO JUMP FOR JOY AT THE PARKER

Published: Jan 12, 2024

It’s a bigger February this year and Lillian S. Wells Hall at The Parker also has a supersized jam-packed lineup with comedy, music, dance and film.

Tom Papa brings his “The Good Stuff Tour” to Lillian S. Wells Hall as part of the TRUIST Comedy Series on Friday, February 2 at 8 p.m. The host of the hit Sirius/XM show Come to Papa, that airs on channel 99, is a veteran standup comedian whose clean but cutting comedy has earned the respect of both his peers and the public alike. His most recent Comedy Central special is Tom Papa Live in New York City and he has appeared as frequent guest on late night television. He has also been seen alongside Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Behind the Candelabra and in the Steven Soderbergh film The Informant as well as starring as the voice of the title character opposite Paul Giamatti in the animated feature The Haunted World of El Super Beasto.

The Cleveland Clinic Rock Series brings Starship featuring Mickey Thomas to The Parker Sunday, February 4 at 7 p.m. With his soulful and compelling vocals, Thomas first made his mark as lead vocalist on the mega-hit "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" with The Elvin Bishop Band before joining Jefferson Starship after the departure of Grace Slick and Marty Balin. The band recorded a string of hits including "Jane," "No Way Out," "Find Your Way Back," "Stranger" and "Layin It On The Line" before renaming itself Starship and topping the charts with “We Built This City," "Sara" and the Academy Award-nominated "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.” Starship also hit it out of the park with "It's Not Over Til It's Over," Major League Baseball's theme in 1987.

The Broward Center and AEG Presents bring brass-fueled Tower of Power to The Parker on Tuesday, February 6 at 8 p.m. The band’s dynamic blend of R&B, soul, funk, and pop can be heard on 18 studio albums and their songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart include "You're Still a Young Man," "So Very Hard to Go," "What is Hip?" and "Don't Change Horses (in the Middle of the Stream).” Their  horn section has also been heard on recordings backing Otis Redding, Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Huey Lewis, Santana, and Stevie Nicks, among others.

India's biggest stand-up comedian, Bollywood star and Emmy^® nominee Vir Das brings his “Mind Fool” tour to The Parker on Thursday, February 8 at 7 p.m. in an evening presented by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and AEG Presents. With his boundless comedic talent, wildly successful world tours and five incredible Netflix specials he delivers what the Boston Globe labeled a “mixture of audacity and humility” while The New York Times declared “no artist embodies the globalization of stand-up like Vir Das.”

The Cleveland Clinic Rock Series Rock series brings Rumours - A Fleetwood Mac Tribute to The Parker on Friday, February 9 at 8 p.m. Formed in 2014, Rumours (also known as Rumours ATL) has taken the U.S. by storm with their stage- scorching renditions. Rumours is fronted by Mekenzie Thrift (Stevie Nicks vocals), Adrienne Cottrell (keyboards and Christine McVie vocals), and Denny Hanson (guitar and Lindsey Buckingham vocals). Joined by John Spiegel on lead guitar, Jim Ramsdell on bass and Daniel Morrison on drums, they deliver one of the best live band performances you will see. This performance is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Division of Arts & Culture.

Delivering an accurate and energetic recreation of an American music icon, The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash comes to The Parker on Saturday, February 10 at 8 p.m. Born and raised in a working class suburb of St. Louis, Shawn Barker took a schoolboy love for singing in church with his family and turned it into a career with this a one-of-a-kind tribute to Johnny Cash. Universally considered the preeminent Johnny Cash tribute artist, Barker shares an uncanny resemblance to Cash with his strikingly similar looks, voice and spot-on mannerisms.

Now seen in 50 countries worldwide, The Simon & Garfunkel Story is a critically acclaimed concert style theatre show about two young boys from Queens, New York who went on to become the world’s most successful music duo of all time. Using state of the art video projection, incredible lighting, and a full live band. The Simon & Garfunkel Story comes to life on Monday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m.  A full live band delivers all the hits including "Mrs. Robinson," "Cecilia," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Homeward Bound" and many more.

The TRUIST Comedy Series brings standup comedian, actor and correspondent on The Daily Show Ronny Chieng to The Parker on Thursday, February 15 at 7 p.m. Chieng starred in "Crazy Rich Asians", Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Disney's Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., NBC's Young Rock and M3GAN. He has two stand up comedy specials on Netflix. He will next be seen in the Disney Plus series American Born Chinese and Hulu's upcoming series Interior Chinatown.

The Broward Center and Mark Cortale present two stars of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and Hamilton as Mandy Gonzalez and Javier Muñoz perform in the Broadway Concert Series on Saturday, February 17 at 8 p.m. After making her Broadway debut in Aida in 2001, Gonzalez has played many notable roles on Broadway including Elphaba in Wicked and Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton. She originated the role of Nina Rosario in In the Heights on Broadway and enchanted audiences with her sweet yet fierce performance that resonated so deeply with many first-generation college students. A New York native, Muñoz made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of In the Heights where he understudied Lin Manuel Miranda before eventually assuming the role of Usnavi. History repeated itself when Hamilton opened on Broadway and Muñoz served as the Hamilton alternate for Miranda in select shows before taking on the title role for two years and garnering glowing reviews.

DRUM TAO “30th Anniversary” Tour comes to The Parker as part of the Allegro Fort Lauderdale Mosaic Series on Sunday, February 18 at 7 p.m. Drum Tao set out to create the best show in the world using Taiko drums, Japanese drums with a very rare and unique variety of sound expressions. Based in Oita, Japan, they started creating their own music, stage set-ups and costumes to produce concerts that have thrilled fans for three decades.

A once-in-a-generation talent, Keb' Mo' performs Monday, February 19 at 8 p.m. With five Grammy^® Awards and 14 Blues Foundation Awards, the guitarist-songwriter-arranger has a unique gift for linking the past and present with his evocative modern, genre-bending take on old school sounds. His latest album draws on country, folk, blues, and soul to weave a joyful, heartwarming, and relentlessly optimistic tapestry encompassing his nearly 50-year groundbreaking career.

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts and SaveLive present Welcome Back My Friends: The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer as part of the Cleveland Clinic Rock Series on Tuesday, February 20 at 8 p.m. After establishing themselves in bands such as The Nice, King Crimson, and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer formed one of rock's first (and biggest) supergroups selling more than 50 million records. As the last surviving member, Palmer carries on the band's enormous musical legacy with the full approval of his late friends’ estates and managers. With footage on massive video walls, Lake’s voice and instrumentation and Emerson’s unmistakable keyboard mastery are mixed with Palmer's onstage live drumming to magically reunite Emerson, Lake and Palmer once again.

Adrian Vandenberg will perform his blockbuster hits and Whitesnake classics as part of the Cleveland Clinic Rock Series Rock on Friday, February 23 at 8 p.m. Exploding out of the Netherlands and onto the global scene with 1982's self-titled Vandenberg, the Dutch phenomenon notched an international hit in the form of "Burning Heart," paving the way for seminal releases such as Heading For A Storm [1983] and Alibi [1985]. The band canvased the United States, Europe and Japan alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Rush, Scorpions, Michael Schenker and many others. Sought out to join Whitesnake, Vandenberg famously ripped the legendary lead on the 1987 recording of the No. 1 smash "Here I Go Again," from the 8x-platinum Whitesnake.

The Allegro Fort Lauderdale Mosaic Series brings the incomparable Forever Tango back Saturday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m. From multiple and recent runs on Broadway to legendary stages around the world. Known everywhere as the best tango show, it continues to WOW sold out houses with huge audience acclaim unmatched by any other company. Direct from Argentina, this production features the best Tango dancers in the world, internationally renowned musicians and a storyline true to the art of Tango.