RAGTIME, FREAKY FRIDAY, LEGALLY BLONDE & More Lead Florida's May Theater Top 10

Florida is never lacking outstanding theatre, whether epic Broadway shows, engrossing dramas or bold fringe offerings. BroadwayWorld is rounding up our top recommended theatre every month.

Ragtime

Athens Theatre - through May 5th, 2022.

Nominated for 13 Tony awards and winning the awards for Best Musical Score and Best Book of a Musical, this blockbuster was adapted from E.L. Doctorow s great novel Ragtime (a selection in Modern Library's list of 100 Best Novels). Strikingly appropriate to our own difficult times, Ragtime uses three disparate families to evoke the dangerously dynamic forces transforming America just before World War I. The play's ragtime, jazz, gospel, and ballad songs-30 of them in all-trace the once unimaginable sundering and merging of 3 families; one an upper-class, genteel, and sheltered white family; the second, a black family from Harlem who pursue a new kind of music and are pulled apart by fear and despair; and third, an impoverished and nearly starving Jewish immigrant father and daughter striving to reach the American dream. The musical's explorations of how clashing racial, religious, social, and musical forces destroy some and transform others, eventually producing a hopeful American future, has moved and delighted a quarter century of audiences. Be sure to join them. This is a truly memorable show which cannot be missed.

For tickets: click here.

Melina: a Steampunk Musical Tragedy

The Orlando Shakes - through May 8th, 2022

Melina is a musical telenovela on stage about a tragic love triangle set in a steampunk world; a world in the firm grip of a mysterious detector that holds time in its grasp. World Premier Musical written by Gretchen Suarez-Pena, presented by Central Florida Vocal Arts, with music co-composed by Julian Bond & Nishaa Johnson.

For tickets: click here.

The SpongeBob Musical

Dr. Phillips Center - May 6th through May 15th, 2022.

The stakes are higher than ever in this dynamic stage musical based on the iconic Nickelodeon Series! In "The SpongeBob Musical," SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage. The power of optimism really can save the world!"The SpongeBob Musical" is based on the beloved animated series created by Stephen Hillenburg and features a book by Kyle Jarrow, with original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White Ts, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and songs by David Bowie, Tom Kenny and Andy Paley. Additional lyrics are by Jonathan Coulton, with additional music by Tom Kitt.

For tickets: click here.

Miss Gulch Returns

The Orlando Fringe - May 18th through May 29th, 2022.

She's bitter! And SHE'S BACK! Originally conceived, written, and performed by Fred Barton (Forbidden Broadway). Brett McMahon transforms into a modern-day Almira Gulch who, in a desperate attempt to claim the fame and fortune denied her from THE WIZARD OF OZ (as well as find love) becomes a cabaret lounge singer. Full of comedy, great music and amazing lyrics, you are led down a road not covered in yellow brick.

For tickets: click here.

This Is Our Youth

Adrienne Arsht Center - ends May 1st.

ASC presents This Is Our Youth, a darkly comic, sympathetic and truthful play following the forty-eight hour stolen money spending spree of three rich, bored, very lost young souls at the brink of adulthood in New York City. ... a rambunctious and witty play ... doesnt turn youthful travails into plastic rap...This Is Our Youthis the real real world. NY Times. This is quite simply a sterling example of why we keep going...This Is Our Youth is as good as theater gets. NY Daily News. Lonergan, whose ear for the way his characters speak is pitch-perfect, is no less attuned to the simmering potential in their silent hearts. Variety.

For tickets: click here.

Bonnie & Clyde

Theater West End - ends May 8th, 2022.

At the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America's most renowned folk heroes and Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares. Fearless, shameless and alluring, the Tony-nominated Bonnie & Clyde, from the legendary Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, Civil War, Dracula) is the electrifying story of love, adventure and crime that captured the attention of an entire country.When Bonnie and Clyde meet, their mutual cravings for excitement and fame immediately set them on a mission to chase their dreams. Their bold and reckless behavior turns the young lovers' thrilling adventure into a downward spiral, putting themselves and their loved ones in trouble with the law. Forced to stay on the run, the lovers resort to robbery and murder to survive. As the infamous duo's fame grows bigger, their inevitable end draws nearer.

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Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Garden Theatre - through May 22nd, 2022.

Theres been a change in me, a kind of moving on, though what I used to be I still depend upon. Trapped in her provincial life, an intelligent young woman risks everything to save her father from a terrifying Beast in an enchanted castle. Belle becomes the heroine of her own story as she discovers the power in daring to be different and breaks free from the expectations of her quiet village. Filled with dancing teapots, gorgeous costumes, and theatre magic, this international best-selling sensation will be reimagined like never before for the Garden stage.

Get tickets: click here.

Legally Blonde the Musical

Titusville Playhouse - May 6th through May 29th, 2022.

A fabulously fun award-winning musical based on the adored film, Legally Blonde The Musical, follows the transformation of Elle Woods when her life is turned upside down after her boyfriend dumps her to attend Harvard Law. Determined to win him back, she ingeniously charms her way into the school where she struggles with her peers and professors. With the support of new friends, though, Elle quickly realizes her potential and sets out to prove herself to the world.

For tickets: click here.

I Favor My Daddy: A Tale of Two Sissies

Orlando Fringe - May 19th, 2022 through May 29th, 2022.

[I Favor My Daddy] scores on so many levels: funny, touching, honest, insightful and most of all wonderful entertainment," says actor, playwright & drag legend Charles Busch about TikTok star Jamie Brickhouses award-winning and critically acclaimed solo show I Favor My Daddy: A Tale of Two Sissies. It's his darkly comic struggle to discover who's his GAY? daddy. Daddy Earl adored martinis and bikinis as much as his homosexual alcoholic son. Was he a sodomite lush too?

For tickets: click here.

Freaky Friday

Orlando Repertory Theatre - through May 8th, 2022.

The season concludes with an all-new musical, Disney's Freaky Friday The Musical (One-Act Edition) (April 1- May 8, 2022). When an uber-organized mother and her spontaneous teenage daughter magically swap bodies, they have just one day to put things right. By spending a day in each other's shoes, Katherine and Ellie come to appreciate one another in a way they never could have imagined. Based on the beloved novel by Mary Rodgers and the hit Disney films including the recent Disney Channel Original Movie, Disney's Freaky Friday (One-Act Edition) features a book by Bridget Carpenter, co-executive producer/writer on the beloved TV hits "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood" with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composers of Next to Normal. Disney's Freaky Friday the Musical (One-Act Edition) is supported by Disney, OUC - The Reliable One, and The Three Isabels.For tickets: click here.

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