![\"Catherine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Catherine_Randazzo-FST_hbbvcK8_t850.jpg\" "\\"Catherine")
<\/p>\nFlorida Studio Theatre offers cabaret shows all year, but there\u2019s nothing like slipping into one of them when temperatures are in the 90s. When you step inside one of FST\u2019s two dimly lit cabarets, you enter a cool musical cave, one with cold drinks, reasonably priced food and friendly faces.<\/p>\n
The cares of the outside world are left behind as you groove to the upbeat, idealistic soundtrack of baby boomers\u2019 youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe the reason FST cabaret resonates so strongly in the summer is that even those who are retired remember the freedom of the months without school. There was more time to daydream, wander and listen to music. Before the era of personal digital devices, music mainly came from the radio \u2014 either in a car or the transistor model you took with you everywhere during your summer travels.<\/p>\n
As Van Morrison asks in \u201cBrown-Eyed Girl,\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever happened\/To Tuesday and so slow\/Going down the old mine\/with a transistor radio<\/p>\n
Sure, there was vinyl, but the record player was at home. And who wanted to be stuck at home during the summer?<\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s true that Brian Wilson spent years in his room and even wrote a song about it. But he was a troubled genius. The rest of the Beach Boys raced cars, chased girls and tried to catch the next wave.<\/p>\n
When FST launched its summer cabaret series in 2014, it tuned the nostalgia dial to the doo-wop days of the 1950s immortalized in Broadway\u2019s \u201cJersey Boys\u201d and to the Beach Boys-inspired groups of the 1960s surfer movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the surfer craze has receded at FST Summer Cabaret. Time has moved on to folk music era of the 1960s and early 1970s. With its small stage and intimate setting, FST’s Goldstein Cabaret isn\u2019t much different from the Greenwich Village clubs in the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic, \u201cA Complete Unknown,\u201d except there are no candles and cigarettes.<\/p>\n
Another perennial draw for FST\u2019s boomer patrons are the songs of Motown, Berry Gordy\u2019s Detroit hit factory. Its artists spanned the decades. After learning their craft in Motown groups, singers such as Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Michael Jackson went solo and became superstars.<\/p>\n
Before folk princess Linda Ronstadt topped the charts with soulful ballads like \u201cBlue Bayou\u201d and had-enough anthems like \u201cYou\u2019re No Good,\u201d she was a member of the Stone Poneys. The Poneys\u2019 big hit (\u201cDifferent Drum\u201d) was written by The Monkees\u2019 Mike Nesmith. As FST Summer Cabaret performer Brian Ott rightly notes during a show, \u201cThere was a lot of cross-hybridization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Singers who were starting to become popular would record a ditty by an unknown songwriter pal so they could gain recognition and hopefully earn royalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The quintessential female folk singer, Joni Mitchell, is sui generis. She\u2019s one of a kind. The only thing she shares with some other folk stars is that she\u2019s Canadian, like Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young. Her provenance cost her a spot on The New York Times\u2019 recent list of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, but to her fans, Joni\u2019s the GOAT.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll find acoustic folk music, Motown and pioneering female troubadours of the 1970s showcased in this year\u2019s crop of FST Summer Cabaret shows. The series is programmed by FST Associate Producer Catherine Randazzo, who joined the theater the same year it launched its summer cabaret.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s three shows are \u201cLeaving On a Jet Plane\u201d (through July 12), \u201cSongbirds of the Seventies\u201d (July 7-Sept. 6) and \u201cLegacy: Motown & More!\u201d (Aug. 4-Oct. 4). Subscriptions are $59, which brings the cost of each show to about half of the single ticket price of $42.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comfort food for boomers<\/p>\n
After more than a decade, Randazzo understands the taste of her older audiences, the majority of whom are repeat subscribers. She knows what they like. \u201cIt\u2019s like comfort food. People grew up with it,\u201d is how Randazzo described the mix.<\/p>\n
Unlike the cabaret shows created by FST CEO and Producing Artistic Director Richard Hopkins and Managing Director Rebecca Hopkins during season, the summer cabarets aren\u2019t produced by FST. That means it\u2019s up to Randazzo to fill the stage.<\/p>\n
\u00a0To do that, she relies on her relationships with producers and artists. She also scouts for talent at conventions where producers offer cabaret fare to regional theaters like FST and cruise lines. It\u2019s not unusual for her to work with artists to cultivate followup shows to programs that have performed well for FST.<\/p>\n
For instance, \u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d grew out of last summer\u2019s \u201cA Band Called Honalee.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Catherine Randazzo is associate producer of Florida Studio Theatre.<\/p>\n
Photo by Emiliano Mejias<\/p>\n
Honalee is a real band that performs songs by Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk singers. Its roster of vocalists have solo careers and also appear with the band all around the country. One \u201cHonalee\u201d member, Katie Blackwell, is in the trio of vocalists in \u201cJet Plane.\u201d The others are Collin Purcell and Brian Ott, who both play guitar. They are backed up by Geoff Neuman and other rotating bass players.<\/p>\n
FST audiences will remember Ott, a native of Minnesota, from his recent appearances in \u201cA Band Called Honalee\u201d and \u201c59th Street Bridge,\u201d a show inspired by the songs of Simon and Garfunkel and other folk singers. On stage, Ott\u2019s the thread that runs through FST\u2019s folk-driven cabaret, but the idea for \u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d came from Aaron Gandy, Randazzo says.<\/p>\n
A former member of Band Called Honalee, Gandy is now part of Epic Arts Management, a firm that Randazzo calls a \u201ccreative partner\u201d of FST. \u201cI discovered Epic Arts Management and its producing director, Ron DeStefano, from looking at websites. During the pandemic, Ron reached out with a show called \u2018Shades of Bubl\u00e9,\u2019 that we picked up. His pitch was that he can bring a new generation in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though it takes its title from a Peter, Paul and Mary song, \u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d is not a tribute show. Its subtitle is \u201cA Folk Journey,\u201d and it makes good on its word. These are the songs that propelled the struggle for civil rights, women\u2019s liberation, better conditions for workers, ending war and protecting the environment from pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many of these issues are back in the news again. Hearing Blackwell sing \u201cThey paved paradise and put up a parking lot\u201d during \u201cBig Yellow Taxi\u201d seemed quite apt for 2026 Sarasota.<\/p>\n
But the throughline of \u201cJet Plane\u201d is the loneliness of life on the road. It\u2019s a theme that the artists lean into by revealing their hometowns. Each spoke of ambivalent feelings \u2014 being grateful to be performing in Florida, but missing loved ones back home. If they were faking their homesickness, they did a good job.<\/p>\n
The playlist mines homesickness with the titular song, and with Blackwell\u2019s moving cover of Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cCalifornia\u201d and the trio\u2019s excerpt of CSNY\u2019s \u201cLove the One Your With,\u201d a solution to loneliness that rings differently today than in the free-love era. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the applause seemed restrained after that number.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d covers a lot of territory with medleys, including tributes to CSNY and the Loving Spoonful. The audience was encouraged to join in on The Turtles\u2019 \u201cHappy Together\u201d and John Denver\u2019s \u201cGrandma\u2019s Feather Bed,\u201d but they sang even when not invited.<\/p>\n
There were a few surprises, including \u201cEarly Morning Rain,\u201d a somewhat obscure Gordon Lightfoot song about being stuck at the airport. For a troubadour, the only thing worse than having to catch an early plane is watching one take off without you because you don\u2019t have a gig lined up to pay for your ticket.<\/p>\n
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