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Stage Planner: Get tickets now for seasons at the Straz, Stageworks and more

 
Ashley Danewitz plays Anninna, left, and Elizabeth de Trejo is Violette in La Traviata.
Ashley Danewitz plays Anninna, left, and Elizabeth de Trejo is Violette in La Traviata.
Published June 30, 2015

Theater might be coasting a bit for the summer, but the new season lineups offer something for everybody. We've got musicals and experimental plays, Broadway legends and Shakespeare coming. Advance tickets are available for many, so if you want to be sure to catch the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker Dec. 26 (Mahaffey Theater), for example, you can do that now. Here's a sampling from some recently announced fall seasons.

DAVID A. STRAZ JR. CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Stage performances at the Straz range from One Man Breaking Bad — The Unauthorized Parody (Sept. 17-19) to PostSecret: The Show (Feb. 13), based on the postcards to artist, curator and Internet phenomenon Frank Warren.

Musicals include Once (Sept. 22-27), rumored to have been sketched out in five minutes in a Dublin cafe by director John Carney, who was missing his girlfriend at the time; and Kinky Boots (Dec. 1-6), featuring a score by Cyndi Lauper and based on a book by Harvey Fierstein.

Old standbys such as The Lion King (Jan. 20-Feb. 14) and a new production of The Sound of Music (Dec. 22-27) should put families in the seats, as will Peking Dreams: National Circus and Acrobats From the People's Republic of China(Dec. 5).

For more classical tastes, you can catch Cosi Fan Tutti (Feb. 19 and 21), La Traviata (March 11 and 13) Don Giovanni (April 8 and 10), part of the Florida Opera Festival; or violinist ITZHAK PERLMAN on March 12. For a full lineup of the season, click here.

ASOLO REPERTORY THEATRE

The season in Sarasota kicks off in November with West Side Story (Nov. 13-Dec. 28). All the Way, (Jan. 8-April 9), the 2014 Tony Award winner for best play, pits President Lyndon Baines Johnson between the Civil Rights Act of 1964 he desperately wanted to pass and the looming Vietnam War.

Up next is a regional premiere of Living on Love (Jan. 15-Feb. 25), which follows an opera star through a love triangle amid soaring egos. The show opens on Broadway in April starring Renee Fleming.

The Pulitzer-winning Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar, runs April 1-24. The show is set at a New York dinner party hosted by Pakistani native but thoroughly westernized corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor and his wife, Emily. The evening starts off well as the foursome share similar tastes in cooking. But conflicts within Kapoor, who shows disdain for Islam but feels the tug of his heritage, work their way to the surface.

The world premiere of Josephine (May 6-24), a biopic of Jazz Age icon Josephine Baker, closes the season for now, although a summer musical will be announced later.

STAGEWORKS THEATRE

The Channelside theater kicks off its 2015-16 season with Lights Rise on Grace, (opens Oct. 9) about a love triangle that challenges labels of race and sexual identity. In This Wonderful Life, which opens Dec. 4, one actor takes on every role in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life. In the Blood (opens Feb. 5), a play by Suzan-Lori Parks modeled on The Scarlet Letter, centers on a woman who struggles with raising her five children. She tries to get assistance from the children's fathers but that doesn't go smoothly.

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After Inherit the Wind (opens March 11) and Broadway Bound, (opens April 29) the season closes in June with 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (opens June 10), an 80-minute show with audience participation set in the 1950s.

mThrough July 12: IF THE SHOE FITS, comedy at Early Bird Dinner Theatre, 13355 49th St. N. earlybirddinnertheatre.com or (727) 446-5898

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: Comedian RICKY REYES, Side Splitters Comedy Club, 12938 N Dale Mabry Highway. sidesplitterscomedy.com or (813) 960-1197