Musical favorites and new works highlight Florida Studio Theatre’s summer season

As the weather heats up, Florida Studio Theatre lightens up the tone of the plays and musicals it presents.

“We found out many years ago when we had put in a drama every summer that they were not being well attended,” said Richard Hopkins, the theater’s producing artistic director “We decided we were going to stop wasting those great dramas in the summer when people just want to have fun in the summer, and save them for the winter months.”

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to the three mainstage shows that Hopkins has picked to run from June into September. “It’s just a lighter approach to what is happening,” he said, like the non-partisan political comedy “The Outsider” and the songs John Kander and Fred Ebb created for more than a dozen musicals dealing with a world of issues and conflicts. They are both part of the theater’s summer season.

Here’s a look at the summer mainstage season and the three touring cabaret shows.

Mainstage

‘The World Goes ‘Round’

Begins June 5, Gompertz Theatre

FST will stage its third production of this off-Broadway revue that celebrates the songs of John Kander and Fred Ebb, creators of such shows as “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” The last production was staged in 2013.

“They’re just so good,” Hopkins said of the songwriting team. “They are always writing material that is thoughtful and meaningful and mostly universal.”

It will be staged by Ben Liebert, who has directed or choreographed several past shows for the company and will be joining FST as an associate artist.

‘Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise’

Begins July 3, Keating Theatre

Ken Ludwig has become one of the most successful playwrights in the country since he was introduced to audiences with the comedy “Lend Me a Tenor” and the musical “Crazy for You.” Last summer, FST presented his “A Comedy of Tenors.”

In this show, two actors play versions of the playwright’s own parents whom audiences meet through an exchange of letters during World War II. U.S. Army Capt. Jack Ludwig was a military doctor stationed in Oregon and Louise Rabiner was an aspiring actress and dancer. “It’s tender and funny and there’s a tension to it,” Hopkins said. “You don’t know if they’re going to get together for sure, even though you know the product of them wrote the play.”

‘The Outsider’

Begins July 24, Gompertz Theatre

Hopkins describes Paul Slade Smith’s play as “a comedy that verges on farce. It’s just very funny. It’s about politics, but completely non-partisan. You never know which party they’re in.” The play is about the insanity of politics and political decisions. It’s about a political candidate who has low poll numbers and isn’t even sure he wants to win, but he may be exactly what voters want.

Cabaret

‘Rhinestone Cowgirls’

Begins May 21, Goldstein Cabaret

From the producers of last summer's cabaret hit “Diva’s Three” comes this show that focuses on country music, from its beginnings to today, with favorites by Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Carrie Underwood.“They kind of do a history of the singers and how they started and then move into modern and crossover artists,” said Catherine Randazzo, an associate artist who oversees the cabaret programming.

‘The Music of Laurel Canyon’

Begins June 18, Court Cabaret

This revue brings back the music of the 1960s and 70s in a Los Angeles neighborhood just off the Sunset Strip that became a creative center for such stars as Joni Mitchell; Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Mamas and the Papas.”

“This is the music that is right in the bread basket of our theatergoing audience, the theatergoers who have disposable time and income. This is the stuff they grew up with and why they’re flocking to see it,” Hopkins said.

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Review: Country stars carry a lot of baggage in FST musical ‘Troubadour’

‘The Four C Notes’

Begins Aug. 6, Goldstein Cabaret

It’s back to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in this show created by John Michael Coppola that highlights the distinctive sounds and moves in such songs as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Let’s Hang On.”

Tickets

For ticket information and subscriptions: 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: FST summer season focuses on pop stars and new works