Florida Studio Theatre goes surfing with music of The Beach Boys

The music of The Beach Boys and such hits as “Surfin’ USA,” “Barbara Ann,” and “Surfin’ Safari” are sure signs that summer has arrived. Those songs and many more kick off Florida Studio Theatre’s summer cabaret season with the musical revue “The Surfer Boys.”

The Beach Boys “were creating the best music out there,” said Brian Noonan, who developed the concert show as he did “The Jersey Tenors” and a sequel, which were earlier hits in the FST summer cabaret series. “Even though The Beatles were getting more popularity, l think in that period, the mid 1960s, they were really creating some of the finest music out there.”

Noonan created “The Surfer Boys” in 2012 and it toured the country for several years in different versions and incarnations before his production company let it “fall by the wayside. I regret not keeping up with it.” But the show is back with some of his favorite music performed primarily by veterans of musical theater.

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Rolling Stone ranked “God Only Knows” at No. 25 and “Good Vibrations” at No. 6 in its 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. “God Only Knows” ranked No. 11 and “Good Vibrations” was No. 53 on the magazine’s 2021 list.

“I agree with Rolling Stone magazine,¨ he said. Noonan also appreciates the “tonic and blue note approach” heard in “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Good Vibrations.” And he notes that “I Know There’s an Answer” is “is just so poetically written.”

Most of the band’s hits were crafted by Brian Wilson, who formed the group with his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and family friend Al Jardine.

The group was known for its distinctive vocal harmonies and youthful spirit from its start in 1961.

Noonan said the group’s 1966 album “Pet Sounds” will “go down as one of the greatest albums ever created, not just because of the incredible harmonies but also for some haunting solos.”

That album introduced such enduring classics as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Sloop John B” and “God Only Knows” among its more than a dozen songs.

Six performers will be featured in the production over the course of its run. Joseph DePietro (a veteran of “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway) and Michael Jayne Walker will be with the show through the summer, joined for the first month by Kenneth Quinney Francoeur, who appeared in FST’s “The Wanderers” and Bruno Vida, who toured in the musical “Jersey Boys.” In July, J.D. Daw and Brandon Lambert, who both appeared in “The Jersey Tenors; Part II” at FST, will be back through Aug. 13.

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Audiences for the show are often older than for some of Noonan’s company’s other productions.

“I don’t think The Beach Boys have had the type of effect on younger audiences as some of the other groups of that time, which is really kind of sad. I don’t know if they’re not put into popular culture and movies as much as say The Beatles may be,” he said. “I find it a real shame. Even when I play it for my three kids who are 14, 8 and 6, they like the car revving sounds of ‘Little Deuce Coupe.’ But if you play ‘Good Vibrations’ for them, it falls on deaf ears.”

The show’s primary goal, he said, “is to do right by the composers and creators. We don’t like to take creative license with these things. The music is the most important thing.”

Audiences respond to all the music, but he said “Barbara Ann’ “gets such a visceral response. That ‘ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-bara ann” really gets people going.”

The production kicks off a summer cabaret series that also includes “Divas Three,” a celebration of female vocalists from the 1960s through the 1990s, and “Creedence Clearwater Remixed!,” which highlights songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

‘The Surfer Boys’

Created by Brian Noonan. Runs June 13-Aug. 13 in Florida Studio Theatre’s Goldstein Cabaret, 1241 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $18-$39. 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ‘Surfer Boys’ salutes music of The Beach Boys in FST summer cabaret