Michael Marotta and Greg Longenhagen. -STEPHANIE DAVIS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

The curtain is officially up on the Southwest Florida theatre season, which, for area arts lovers, makes it the most wonderful time of the year.

For me, the first weekend of October was overflowing with drama, comedy, song and more. First, I got to see the brilliant “Rat Pack Lounge” at Florida Repertory Theatre in downtown Fort Myers. This was such a fun, engaging musical comedy featuring the music of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin – and the performances made me want to beam myself out to Vegas in the early 60s where I could have a swingin’ good time with martinis and cigarettes. Plus, I got to run into lots of theatre lovers like Michael and Janice Danzig, Doris and Kieth Colgate, Naomi Bloom, Jenny Smith and the director of the show, Michael Marotta, who was catching up with Florida Rep Producing Artistic Director, Greg Longenhagen at the festive cast party after the last bow.

Pretty Woman at the Palm

Before tooling down McGregor to Florida Rep by 8 p.m., I was at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre enjoying a pre-show reception and Happy Hour for the opening of the musical “Pretty Woman.” It was fun to see several of the ladies arriving in versions of Vivian’s (Julia Roberts’ character) costumes. The brown polka-dot dress and hat that she wears to the polo game, the red designer off-the-shoulder gown she wears to the lobster dinner and more. Afterward, friends raved about how much they enjoyed it. I loved seeing Lydia and Chris Black, Maureen and Will Prather, Jennifer and Roy Benton, Roger and Aimee Bireley, Lenny and Angela Katz, and a whole bunch more.

Theatre kids

A little too bright and early the next morning, I was honored and delighted to get to judge the Southwest Florida Theatrical Society competition for local Lee County high school students – and trust me, we’ve got some incredibly talented young people around these parts! We got to see singing, dancing, acting, directing, costume and set design, playwriting and other specialties of the theatre world. Having grown up in this area, it’s so gratifying to see how much arts education has flourished over the years – and how these gifted young people are thriving. I’ve always said that theatre kids are the best. They’re SO supportive of each other – it may have been a competition, but they were all in it together. It was nice running into several theatre buddies who were also judging, like educator Tiffany Campbell, actresses Shelley Sanders and Anna Grilli, Paula Sisk, Sonya McCarter, Diana Waldier and more who donated their time and talents.

More curtains rising

And since the theatre season has officially arrived, there’s so much to see! The Laboratory Theater of Florida on the edge of downtown is running a thriller for spooky season called “Grey House” until Nov. 2nd. At the Off-Broadway Palm (their intimate black box space, the classic “Steel Magnolias” runs until Nov. 15th. Down south at Players Circle Theatre, the Neil Simon comedy “Rumors” runs from Oct. 21st through Nov. 16th.

The beaches are beautiful, spring training is fun, but the arts need us – support local theatre, you’ll be so glad you did!

 

Stephanie Davis is a recovering girl-about-town formerly known as the Downtown Diva. A nearly native Southwest Floridian, when she’s not photographing events for Florida Weekly, she’s perfectly content to stay at home binging Netflix with her husband and two cats, Tennessee and Lilibet.