The Asolo Repertory Theatre has revealed the lineup for its 2024-2025 season. A world premiere play from Ken Ludwig, the regional premiere of Good Night, Oscar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, and more are included in the Florida company's upcoming slate of productions.
The season will kick off with Asolo's production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The jukebox biomusical, which follows the journey of legendary singer-songwriter Carole King, will run November 13, 2024-January 5, 2025. Shelley Butler is set to direct the international hit musical, which features a book by Douglas McGrath with music and lyrics by Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Gerry Goffin, and Carole King, by arrangement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The production will also feature musical direction by Angela Steiner, choreography by Banji Aborisade, and orchestrations, vocal, and incidental music arrangements by Steve Sidwell.
From January 17-February 8, Asolo will present the world premiere of Ken Ludwig's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. The new play from Ludwig, whose works also include Crazy for You, Lend Me a Tenor, and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, follows Peg and Molly, two brilliant detectives from Scotland Yard. The production will be directed by Peter Rothstein.
Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics will follow, with a run set for February 19-March 13. Set in 1929, the work follows a handsome lector who arrives in Florida from Cuba, bringing with him a copy of Anna Karenina and subsequently igniting a powder keg of passions. Marcela Lorca will direct.
From March 19-April 19, Asolo will present Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Set in the 1930s, the play follows five fierce sisters holding onto each other through the joys and sorrows of life in rural Ireland. Joe Dowling will direct.
Next in the season is the regional premiere of Good Night, Oscar, which will run April 2-27. Doug Wright's play depicts "fearless truth teller, brilliant pianist, and over-medicated neurotic mess" Oscar Levant's 1958 appearance on The Tonight Show. The work made its Broadway premiere in the 2022-2023 season, winning Sean Hayes a Tony for his portrayal of Levant. Peter Amster will direct the Asolo production.
Rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar will follow, with a run set for May 14-June 15. With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, the biblical musical will be directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes. Jenny Kim-Godfrey will serve as music director.
The season will close with a holiday production of Peter Rothstein's All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, presented in partnership with The Ringling, December 4-22. The musical is set on the Western front of World War I on Christmas, when a German soldier's rendition of "Silent Night" prompted a night of fellowship, music, and peace. The production will be directed by Rothstein, with music direction by Erick Lichte and vocal arrangements by Lichte and Timothy C. Takach.
"We are thrilled to create a season of stories that span oceans: from Ybor City, Florida, to County Donegal, Ireland, and on to Jerusalem; stories about revolutions that forever changed the course of history to quiet moments that illuminate the recesses of the human heart; stories about songwriters and cigar-rollers, detectives and concert pianists, soldiers and saints," Rothstein, who also serves as Asolo’s producing artistic director, said in a statement. "I hope this season has something for everyone, and inside this array of characters we both see ourselves and come to understand each other.”
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