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THE Naples Blog | Theater Season in Naples, Bonita, Marco, SWFL

If Janet Berry and her team can assist you, or the ones you care about, with Esplanade Golf and Country Club or other Naples Florida Real Estate, Simply Call or Text Janet at 239-450-1892 For Immediate Help.

Today, I would like to talk to you about Theater season in Naples, Bonita, Marco, SWFL

Theater season is just getting started in Southwest Florida. Here’s a look at all the plays, musicals and other shows happening in the 2018-19 season:

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The national touring cast of "School of Rock." (Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Murphy)

ARTIS—NAPLES (NAPLES)

• "The Sound of Music" (Dec. 26-29): A new production of the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical about the singing von Trapp family.
• "Les Misérables" (Jan. 29-Feb. 3): The Cameron Mackintosh production of the ever-popular French-revolution musical is back on the road after 2½ years on Broadway.
• "Waitress" (Feb. 19-24): Based on a 2007 movie starring Keri Russell, this musical tells the story of a pregnant waitress who sees a pie-making contest as a way to escape her unhappy life. Featuring songs by pop singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles.
• "School of Rock” (April 2-7): Musical based on the Jack Black movie about a wanna-be rock star who poses as a substitute teacher and turns his students into a rock band. Featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Glenn Slater.
• MORE: "Fiddler on the Roof" (March 12-17).

Info: 800-597-1900 or artisnaples.org

[caption id="attachment_10941" align="alignnone" width="899"] The national touring cast of "School of Rock." (Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Murphy)[/caption]

BARBARA B. MANN PERFORMING ARTS HALL (FORT MYERS)

• “On Your Feet!” (Jan. 1-6): Dance-filled musical about crossover Latin pop sensations Emilio and Gloria Estefan of Miami Sound Machine. 
•  “A Bronx Tale” (Jan. 23-27):  Legendary actor Robert De Niro co-directs this show set to 1960s pop and doo-wop music. It tells a story of loyalty and family with a young man torn between a mob boss and his own father.
• “Monty Python’s Spamalot” (Feb. 5-10): Cows fly, Frenchmen taunt and killer rabbits attack in the return of this silly, Tony Award-winning musical based on Monty Python’s 1975 movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
•  “Tap Dogs” (March 5-10):  This tap-dancing extravaganza has toured the world and appeared in more than 370 cities on six continents.
•  “Disney’s The Lion King” (April 3-21): The blockbuster musical based on the hit 1994 Disney movie returns to Mann Hall. The winner of six Tony Awards — including Best Musical — features eye-popping puppetry of African wildlife and catchy Elton John and Tim Rice songs.
• MORE: “Les Misèrables” (Feb. 19-24).

For more information, call 481-4849 or visit bbmannpah.com

A scene from the Broadway musical "A Bronx Tale" (Photo: Special to The News-Press)

CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS BONITA SPRINGS

• Staged Readings (Sept. 14): The first in a series of staged readings with actors performing short stories, essays, plays, speeches and more.
• Funny Shorts Live! (Nov. 9): The first in a series of evenings featuring comedic short plays, including one from a local playwright.
• “Deadly Sugarplums: A Fright Before Christmas” (Dec. 6-9): Character actor and comedian Frank Blocker performs in a world-premiere collaboration with LA horror director Jana Wimer. The play rekindles the Old English tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve with a series of spooky short tales.
• “Waverly Gallery” (April 10-14): The CFABS Players perform this comedy drama about a grandson watching his grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer's disease.
• Stage It! 10-Minute Play Competition (April 26-28): Annual celebration of playwrights and audiences featuring short plays and monologues submitted to CFABS.

Info: 495-8989 or artcenterbonita.org

The cast of "Les Miserables." Photo by Matthew Murphy. (Photo: Matthew Murphy/ Special to the Press-Citizen)

Cultural Park Theater's "The Jersey Girls" plays through Aug. 3. (Photo: Special to The News-Press)

Marillee Talkington and Jeffrey Binder in "The Price," a Gulfshore Playhouse production of the Arthur Miller drama during the 2017-18 season. (Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

GULFSHORE PLAYHOUSE (NAPLES)

• "An Iliad" (Oct. 20-Nov. 4): A retelling of the classic story about the Trojan War, told in modern language.
• “The Revolutionists” (Jan. 12-Feb. 3): This revisionist look at the French Revolution drops Marie Antoinette, an assassin, a playwright and spy into a meeting that hatches an unlikely alliance.
• “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play” (Feb. 16-March 10): Sarah Ruhl’s Tony Award-nominated comedy based on the bizarre historical fact that 19th century doctors used vibrators to treat "hysterical" women (and sometimes men).
• “Holmes and Watson” (March 23-April 20): Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick, Watson, learns that three men claiming to be the famous detective are under a doctor's care — three years after Holmes appeared to plunge to his death from Reichenbach Falls.
• “Skylight” (May 4-19):  David Hare's Tony-winning drama reunites a schoolteacher with her former lover, now a widower, in her London apartment. Together, they recall their history and renew their clashing ideologies.
• MORE:  "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (Nov. 17-Dec. 30).

Info: 261-7529 or gulfshoreplayhouse.org

The cast of Lab Theater's "It's Only a Play" (Photo: Paula Sisk)

THE MARCO PLAYERS (MARCO ISLAND)

• "Rehearsal for Murder" (Oct. 24-Nov. 11): In this murder mystery, a play is used to solve the mystery of a murder that occurred a year earlier at the theater.
• “Four One-Act Comedies” (Nov. 28-Dec. 16): Los Angeles writer Bruce Kane’s collection of four fast-paced, one-act comedies about bad sex, retired superheroes, therapy and more.
• "Come Blow Your Horn" (Jan. 2-20): Neil Simon’s first Broadway comedy hit. Two parents are horrified by their sons’ rebellious behavior and swinging bachelorhood.
• "Spreading It Around" (Feb. 6-24): When a widow decides her money is being ill spent on her unappreciative children, she decides to set up a “S.I.N. Foundation”  for "spending it now."
• "The Savannah Sipping Society" (March 13-31): Four Southern women, drawn together by fate, turn their weekly happy hours into a mission to renew their lost enthusiasm for life.
• "Black Tie" (April 10-28):  A.R. Gurney’s comedy where the new world meets crusty New England old money in a black-tie affair. Things gets messy when their cultures clash.

Info: 642-7270 or themarcoplayers.com

Casey Cobb, top center, as unemployed bartender Maude Gutman, and David Whalley, as art expert Lionel Percy, rehearse a scene for The Studio Player's upcoming performance of Bakersfield Mist at the Joan Jenks Auditorium in the Golden Gate Community Center in Naples on Monday, April 9, 2018.The Studio Players, its producers, presents one of eight theater series in Collier County. (Photo: Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News)

THE STUDIO PLAYERS (NAPLES)

• "I'll Eat You Last" (Oct. 5-21): John Logan's one-woman play about abrasive, powerful Hollywood talent agent Sue Mengers.
• “Burn This” (Jan. 11-Feb. 3): In this Lanford Wilson romance, a choreographer's dead friend’s brother shows up to collect his sister’s belongings. They seem completely mismatched, but the romantic attraction is undeniable.
• "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" (March 3-24): In this Tony Award-winning comedy by Christopher Durang, Vanya and Sonia are joined by their overbearing sister Masha, her hot young lover Spike and a soothsaying housekeeper named Cassandra. The story borrows liberally from Anton Chekov.
• “Over The River & Through The Woods” (May 10-26):  Joe DiPietro’s warm-hearted comedy about a man who tells his doting Italian-American grandparents that he’s taking a dream job across the country. Chaos ensues as his stunned grandparents plot and scheme to find a way to keep him in Hoboken. 

Info: 398-9192 or thestudioplayers.com

THE NAPLES PLAYERS (NAPLES)

• "Peter and the Starcatcher" (Oct. 3-28): The community-theater troupe opens its 65th season with this prequel to the classic "Peter Pan" story.
• "June and Jason's Survival Guide to Divorce" (Oct. 24-Nov. 18): World-premiere comedy by local playwright Laura Lorusso. The story involves zany neighbors and friends who try to save June and Jason from a looming divorce.
• "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" (Nov. 28-Dec. 23): Two Army buddies, now showbiz partners, follow two singing sisters to a Vermont inn. They end up putting on a show to help save the place — and fall in love, too. A holiday musical filled with classic Irving Berlin songs, including “Happy Holidays,” “Blue Skies” and “White Christmas.”
• "Marjorie Prime" (Feb. 6-March 3): A Pulitzer Prize finalist, this play tells the story of an 85-year-old widow whose daughter and son-in-law begin priming her memory with technology: A hologram of her late husband. But the surprise is the effect it has on the children.
• "Always a Bridesmaid" (March 27-April 20): Four friends have sworn to keep their long-ago promise to be in each other's weddings — no matter how long it takes and under what circumstances.
• "Lost in Yonkers" (May 1-26): In this Neil Simon tale, two young brothers find their lives turned upside down when their father moves south for work, leaving them with some crazy relatives in Yonkers.
• MORE: "Don't Dress for Dinner" (Jan. 16-Feb. 10), "Guys and Dolls" (March 6-April 7).

Info: 263-7990 or naplesplayers.org

iLuminate (Photo: Special to The News-Press)

THEATRELAB (FGCU IN ESTERO)

• “UrineTown: The Musical” (Oct. 11-14): Irreverent comedy musical that satirizes the musical genre and its traditions, while also taking on capitalism, corrupt businesses, the environment, politics and more. Produced in collaboration with Naples’ TheatreZone
• “Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!” (Nov. 30-Dec. 9): Fifth-grader Junie B. draws the name of her nemesis for her school’s Secret Santa gift exchange and comes up with a plan to teach the tattletale a lesson.
•  “Machinal” (Feb. 15-24): Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist 1928 drama inspired by the true story of convicted and executed murderer Ruth Snyder.
• “Life Is a Dream” (April 5-14): Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 1635 allegory involves a Polish prince wrongfully imprisoned by his father after a prophecy predicts the prince will bring the king's downfall.

Info: 590-7268 or theatrelab.fgcu.edu

TheatreZone cast members rehearse the show "Legs Diamond" at G&L Theatre in Naples on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Photo: Dorothy Edwards/Naples Daily News)

THEATREZONE (NAPLES)

• "Home for the Holidays" (Dec. 7-9): TheatreZone opens its season with this original show featuring TheatreZone regulars performing holiday songs from various eras.
• "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (Jan. 10-20): Tony Award-winning “whodunit” based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel. The audience gets to choose the musical’s ending at each performance.
• “Aida” (Feb. 7-17): Elton John and Tim Rice’s musical based on the classic Verdi opera about love, loyalty and betrayal. 
• "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (March 7-17): Tony-nominated 1929 musical about a reincarnated young woman with ESP whose psychiatrist falls in love with one of her past-life personalities.
• "And the World Goes 'Round" (April 25-May 5): A musical revue featuring the songs of Kander & Ebb,  who wrote the music and lyrics to "Cabaret," "Chicago" and more.

Info: 888-966-3352 or theatrezone-florida.com

Source: Naples Daily News

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If Janet Berry and her team can assist you, or the ones you care about, with Esplanade Golf and Country Club or other Naples Florida Real Estate, Simply Call or Text Janet at 239-450-1892 For Immediate Help.