Posted October 27, 2024

TheatreZone 2024-25 Season Filled With Passion, Fun

Read online at NaplesNews.com

TheatreZone has reached a milestone. The theater company will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025 with a year-long observation of its milestones. Mark Danni, founding artistic director of TheatreZone, Naples’ premier professional theatre company, earlier this year announced the theatre’s 2024-2025 musical productions. The new season begins with its traditional opener in December, “Home for the Holidays,” and continues with the Tony Award-winning best musicals “Once; Jersey Boys“; the Kander and Ebb treasure “The Rink” and the musical version of the hit film “Ghost.”

Tickets — available for sale to the public at www.Theatre.Zone — cost $50, $65 or $85, depending on seat selection.

‘Home for the Holidays’

Dec. 20-22: TheatreZone’s original musical extravaganza, “Home for the Holidays,” is a Southwest Florida tradition celebrating its eighth annual production.

The show delights audiences with beloved traditional and popular Christmas songs, sparkling and elaborate costumes, and Christmas-themed scenery. The cast combines professional Equity performers and a few young stars of the future, adding charm and fun to the performances.

‘Once’

Jan. 9-19: “Once,” the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2012, tells a story of passion for music, heartbreak, intimacies, and wonder about
the future. The musical, based on the 2007 film of the same name by John Carney, won eight Tony Awards. The Broadway cast album won a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album. The plot follows the relationship between Guy, a street performer who is a songwriting guitar player, and Girl, whose encouragement and appreciation of Guy’s music lifts his spirits when he wants to quit music.

‘The Rink’

Feb. 6-16: Kander & Ebb’s “The Rink” made its Broadway debut in 1984 and was nominated for five Tony Awards. It starred Liza Minnelli, Jason Alexander and Chita Rivera, who won the Tony Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. “The Rink” is one of ten Kander & Ebb collaborations, whose credits include “Cabaret,” “Chicago,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and more. Regarding “The Rink,” it’s a Kander & Ebbs show. John Kander, 96 years old, gave TheatreZone
exclusive rights to produce the show, and wrote: “I loved doing ‘The Rink.’ The show was an incredible, emotionally fulfilling experience and it’s a piece I am especially proud of. It represents some of Fred and Terrence’s best work. And I’m just thrilled it’s being done at TheatreZone.”

A theater version of the popular 1990 film “Ghost” will hit the stage at TheatreZone in June 2025.

‘Jersey Boys’

March 6-16: “Jersey Boys,” the 2006 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, was a success dramatizing the formation, success, and breakup of the 1960s group, The Four Seasons. “Jersey Boys” was one of Broadway’s longest-running shows in history. The musical is structured in four seasons, each narrated by a different member of the group who gives his own perspective on the history and music of The Four Seasons. The group created such hit songs as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “My Eyes Adored You,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Working My Way Back to You.”

‘Ghost’

June 5-15: “Ghost: The Musical” is an adaptation of the 1990 Academy Award-winning hit film. Sam and Molly are deeply in love. Their connection takes a shocking turn when Sam is killed in a mugging that turns out to be a planned murder by a close associate of the couple. Unwilling and unable to leave Molly, Sam hovers between two worlds and learns the truth of his murder. To communicate with Molly, he turns to a store-front psychic, Oda Mae Brown, a character with a rap sheet for conning money out of vulnerable widows.

To book tickets, visit www.Theatre.Zone or call the box office at 888-966-3352, ext. 1.

Dave Osborn is the regional features editor of the Naples Daily News and News-Press. Follow him on Instagram and Threads @lacrossewriter and on X (formerly Twitter) @NDN_dosborn.