OUR 2019-2020 SEASON
The Producers – A New Mel Brooks Musical
Broadway Musical – Mainstage
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks
Original Direction and Choreography by Susan Stroman
By special arrangement with StudioCanal
September 6th – 28th, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
A scheming producer and his mousy accountant aim to produce the biggest flop on Broadway in Mel Brooks’ laugh-out-loud spectacle. Bialystock and Bloom! Those names should strike terror and hysteria in anyone familiar with Mel Brooks’ classic cult comedy film. Now as a big Broadway musical,The Producers, winner of a record twelve Tony awards, once again sets the standard for modern, outrageous, in-your-face humor.
The Producers is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
The Crucible
Halloween Drama – Mainstage
by Arthur Miller
October 11th – November 2nd, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play, this gripping drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem is a timely parable of our contemporary society. The story focuses on a young farmer, his wife, and a young servant-girl who maliciously causes the wife’s arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie – and it is here that a monstrous course of bigotry and deceit is terrifyingly unleashed.
The Crucible is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
Hungry Casanova and the Haunting of Netherstone Manor
Original Works – Black Box
by Shane Steele
November 8th – 10th, 2019
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
A world premiere staged reading of a funny and touching new play. When esteemed globetrotter and aspiring children’s book author Hungry Casanova returns to England to visit his old friend Vincent Netherstone, he becomes wrapped up in the latest problem to plague Netherstone Manor: a haunting! But this is no ordinary restless spirit. This ghost warns of a villain who plans to reshape all of reality. It’s up to Hungry Casanova to uncover the plot, save Netherstone Manor, and possibly rekindle a romance along the way.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead
Contemporary Comedy – Mainstage
by Bert V. Royal
November 15th – 23rd, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
When CB’s dog dies from rabies, CB begins to question the existence of an afterlife. His best friend is too burnt out to provide any coherent speculation; his sister has gone goth; his ex- girlfriend has recently been institutionalized; and his other friends are too inebriated to give him any sort of solace. But a chance meeting with an artistic kid, the target of this group’s bullying, offers CB a peace of mind and sets in motion a friendship that will push teen angst to the very limits. Drug use, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence, rebellion and sexual identity collide and careen toward an ending that’s both haunting and hopeful.
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
A Christmas Cabaret
Musical Cabaret – Black Box
Developed by Carrollwood Players Theatre
November 29th – December 1st, 2019
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Join some of the most talented singers in our community for an evening of classic cabaret, holiday style! A piano, soft lighting, and intimate, performances of songs honoring many holiday traditions will surely get you in the mood for the most festive time of the year.
A Christmas Carol
Holiday Classic – Mainstage
By Charles Dickens
December 6th – 22nd, 2019
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Celebrate the season with your entire family as this beloved holiday tradition returns to our stage. Each year, a different director selects a favorite stage adaptation of Dickens’ original story, so there are always new surprises in store! Will the Christmas ghosts inspire Scrooge to give love, kindness, and generosity a chance? The holidays aren’t complete until you’ve spent a magical evening in Victorian London with Carrollwood Players Theatre.
Play it By Ear
Experimental Comedy – Black Box
By It’s a Secret!
January 3rd and 4th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm
Back by popular demand for its 3rd year! What happens when a group of actors walk onto the stage in front of a live audience, but have no idea what play they will be performing? You’re about to find out! As the lights come up, our actors will be handed the script of a comedy play, given some costume pieces and props, and told to “go!” The hilarity of watching them perform an entire play, sight unseen, is why this show is a sell out every year!
Auntie Mame
Classic Comedy – Mainstage
by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Based on the novel by Patrick Dennis
January 10th – February 1st, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Besides being the source for one of Broadway’s most popular musicals, Auntie Mame, the play, set a standard for comedy that’s been sought after ever since. She was a handsome, sparkling, scatterbrained and warmhearted lady who brightened the American landscape with her whimsical gaiety, her slightly madcap adventures and her devotion to her young nephew. Anyone who has ever been loved – or has yearned to be loved – by a larger than life spirit, must see this funny, uplifting, soul-pampering play.
Auntie Mame is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
Let’s Talk About Sex
Original Works – Black Box
by Local Playwrights
February 7th – 9th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
We brought you The Vagina Monologues. We brought you The Penis Monologues. Now we’re opening Pandora’s box and inviting local writers to submit original monologues and pieces about sex in general! Expect an evening of laughter, reflection, and naughty storytelling as our cast performs a staged reading of the best submissions. Leave the little ones with a sitter!
Broadway Musical – Mainstage
Elton John & Tim Rice’s
Aida
Music by Elton John, Lyrics by Tim Rice
Book by Linda Woolverton and Robert Falls & Henry David Hwang
February 14th – March 7th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Winner of four Tony Awards, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida is an epic tale of love, loyalty and betrayal, chronicling the love triangle between Aida, a Nubian princess stolen from her country, Amneris, an Egyptian princess, and Radames, the soldier they both love.
With an unforgettable score, featuring soaring ballads and rousing choral numbers, Aida is a modern triumph that embraces multicultural understanding and love.
Elton John and Time Rice’s Aida is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
Comedy Tonight!
Musical Cabaret – Black Box
Developed by Carrollwood Players Theatre
March 13th – 15th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Broadway musical comedies are good for the heart, and have been making people laugh for over 200 years. We’re rolling in the piano, setting up the spotlight, and bringing in some of the funniest singers around to take you on a madcap cabaret-style journey through some of the best Broadway comedy songs of all time. Get ready to laugh out loud, and don’t be surprised if you hear something familiar, because it’s time for Comedy Tonight!
A Streetcar Named Desire
Classic Drama – Mainstage
by Tennessee Williams
March 20th – April 11th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
In one of the most renowned plays of the American theater, Blanche DuBois, a schoolteacher, arrives in New Orleans and takes a streetcar named “Desire” to the French Quarter, where her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski, live.
Blanche’s affectations of refinement set her immediately at odds with blue-collar Stanley. The apartment becomes a pressure cooker of sensuality and class tensions, ultimately erupting in some of the most iconic dramatic moments seen on the modern stage.
A Streetcar Named Desire is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York, on behalf of The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
Kidspeak 5.0
Original Works – Black Box
by Local Young Playwrights
April 17th – 19th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Join us as we celebrate 5 years of inspiring young, local playwrights to reach for the stars! Explore the imaginations of our writers as an adult cast performs a staged reading of short plays submitted by kid playwrights. Audiences of all ages love the results, so come escape into a world of wonderment and endless possibility.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Contemporary Comedy – Mainstage
by Christopher Durang
April 24th – May 9th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play. Middle-aged siblings Vanya and Sonia share a home, where they bicker and complain about the circumstances of their lives. Suddenly, their movie-star sister, Masha, swoops in with her new boy toy, Spike. Old resentments flare up, eventually leading to threats and chaos. Contributing to the excitement are a sassy maid who can predict the future, and a lovely young aspiring actress who can’t. Come discover why Durang is lauded as the master of mining the absurdities of human folly!
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
Spring Awakening, The Play
Classic Drama – Black Box
by Frank Wedekind
May 15th – 24th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Spring Awakening, the play that inspired the modern Broadway musical, is one of the most groundbreaking – and most banned – plays in the history of modern theatre. This production, uncensored and unapologetic, follows the stories of a group of school children who are just reaching sexual maturity.
Aptly subtitled “a children’s tragedy,” this pioneering story unmasks the often shocking harm a sexually repressive society can have on its own children. Examining topics ranging from puberty to rape to abortion – and everything in between – the play remains as powerful and relevant today as when it premiered in 1906. A rare full staging of an important, often controversial work that should be experienced by every serious theatre goer.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Broadway Musical – Mainstage
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on the plays of Plautus
May 29th – June 20th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Broadway’s greatest farce is light, fast-paced, witty, irreverent and one of the funniest musicals ever written. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum takes comedy back to its roots, combining situations from the time-tested, 2000-year-old comedies of Roman playwright, Plautus, with the infectious energy of classic vaudeville.
This nonstop laughfest is full of plot twists and turns, cases of mistaken identity, slamming doors and a showgirl or two. “Something for everyone, a comedy tonight!”
A Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Forum is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com
A Patriotic Cabaret
Musical Cabaret – Black Box
Developed by Carrollwood Players Theatre
June 26th – 28th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Join us as we rekindle a great American pastime – gathering around the piano to sing! Just in time to spark your patriotic spirit for the 4th, our cabaret singers have prepared your favorite traditional anthems honoring our great nation, as well as some modern patriotic showstoppers and surprises, too! Bring the whole family for an uplifting, fun evening of song that will remind you how proud you are to be an American.
The 2020 One Act Weekend (not included in any season ticket)
Original Works – Mainstage
by Various Playwrights
July 10th – 12th, 2020
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Each year, hundreds of playwrights from across the nation submit their short original plays in the hopes they will be one of the eight selected to appear in our popular annual One Act Weekend. A proud Carrollwood Players tradition, this exciting event provides opportunity for emerging playwrights, directors, and actors to gain experience, while entertaining packed houses of enthusiastic audiences. Don’t miss your chance to see 8 plays in one evening of theatre!
The Curious Savage
Classic Comedy – Black Box
by John Patrick
July 17th – 26th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
This highly entertaining play deftly harnesses the subjects of greed and insanity, resulting in a devilishly delightful, laugh out loud evening of theatre. Mrs. Savage has been left ten million dollars by her husband. Her grown stepchildren will do anything to get it, including committing her to an institution.
Locked away, she meets various social misfits, and surprisingly finds happiness among them. She decides to spend the rest of her life as one of them. When the doctor insists on releasing her, she has no choice but to use what she has learned to lead her greedy stepchildren on a merry chase. Presented as a staged reading, this classic comedy promises giddy fun!
The Curious Savage is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
August: Osage County
Contemporary Drama – Mainstage
by Tracy Letts
July 31st – August 22nd, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. A vanished father. A pill- popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you’ve got a major play that unflinchingly – and uproariously – exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.
August: Osage County is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.