SARASOTA, FLA.: Florida Studio Theatre (FST) has announced its 2019-20 season, featuring four mainstage shows and a cabaret series.
“This year’s mainstage season speaks from the heart,” said producing artistic director Richard Hopkins in a statement. “Every production of the season deals with human—not political—issues that touch all of our lives in one way or another.”
The season will kick off with Bright Star (Nov. 6-Jan. 3, 2020), by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Inspired by a real event, the folk musical takes place in the Blue Ridge mountains and follows a literary editor and a young soldier in the 1940s who share a past.
Next up will be Handle With Care (Dec. 11-March 8, 2020), by Jason Odell Williams, a bilingual comedy about a young Israeli woman and an American man who meet on Christmas Eve.
Following will be American Son (Jan. 22-March 22, 2020), by Christopher Demos-Brown, about a mother searching for answers at her local police station after her teenage son goes missing.
The mainstage season will conclude with Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride (April 1-May 29, 2020), about an Elvis impersonator who loses his job and takes up a gig as a drag artist to support his family.
FST’s 2019-20 cabaret season will begin with That’s Amoré! (Sept. 25-Feb. 2, 2020), by Richard Hopkins and Rebecca Hopkins. The musical revue features songs by Dean Martin with arrangements by Jim Prosser.
Next will be Richard Hopkins and Rebecca Hopkins’s Outlaws and Angels (Nov. 20-March 29, 2020), a country music revue featuring music by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, and Dolly Parton.
The cabaret season will conclude with Light My Fire (Feb. 5), by Richard Hopkins and Rebecca Hopkins with arrangements by Prosser. The new revue celebrates the musical soundtrack of the 1960s with hits such as “She Loves You,” “Somebody to Love,” “Piece of My Heart,” and more.
Founded in 1973, Florida Studio Theatre presents contemporary plays and musicals at its five-theatre venues in Sarasota.
