Ken Ludwig World Premiere & More Set for Asolo Repertory Theatre 2024-25 Season

Asolo Repertory Theatre, has revealed its 2024-2025 season, including:  Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (November 13, 2024 –  January 5, 2025), Ken Ludwig’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (January 17 – February 8, 2025), Anna in the Tropics (February 19 – March 13, 2025), Dancing in Lughnasa (March 19 – April 29, 2025), Good Night, Oscar (April 2 – April 27, 2025), Jesus Christ Superstar (May 14 – June 15, 2025) and All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 (December 4 – 25, 2024). 

Peter Rothstein, Asolo’s Producing Artistic Director states, “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. I hope this season has something for everyone, and inside this array of characters we both see ourselves and come to understand each other.”

BEAUTIFUL: THE Carole King MUSICAL

Book by Douglas McGrath
Words and Music by Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil
Music by Arrangement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Orchestrations, Vocal and Incidental Music Arrangements by Steve Sidwell
Directed by Shelley Butler
Musical Direction by Angela Steiner
Choreography by Banji Aborisade

November 16, 2024 – January 5, 2025
Previews November 13 – 15

Her journey was as extraordinary as her music. At eighteen, Carole King wrote number one songs for Aretha Franklin and The Drifters. At twenty-nine, she was the voice of a generation. The road along the way was full of love, heartbreak, and self-discovery. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was real - and that’s what made it beautiful. A smash hit on Broadway and London’s West End, this soaring and inspiring musical features two decades of King’s hits, including “You’ve Got a Friend”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “I Feel the Earth Move.”

WORLD PREMIERE
 

Ken Ludwig’S LADY MOLLY OF SCOTLAND YARD

by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Peter Rothstein

January 24 – February 8, 2025
Previews January 17 – 23

A spectacularly hysterical world-premiere from the prolific Ken Ludwig, writer of Crazy for You and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. You know Holmes and Watson. You know Nick and Nora. Now, meet Peg and Molly: two brilliant detectives from Scotland Yard. With bombs dropping over London, a simple murder investigation leads Molly and Peg deep into the British war effort and the top-secret code-breaking operation at Bletchley Park. Going undercover as cryptographers, they uncover a plot that will strike at the very heart of the United Kingdom, launching a high-octane, laugh-out-loud race against time. Saving the world has never been so much fun. 

“Asolo Rep has staged such Wonderful Productions of my work over the last several years that I knew there was no theatre in the country better suited to developing Lady Molly of Scotland Yard,” stated playwright Ken Ludwig. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Peter Rothstein, whose expertise and experience will bring this play so joyously to life.”

ANNA IN THE TROPICS

by Nilo Cruz
Directed by Marcela Lorca

February 21 – March 13, 2025
Previews February 19 - 20

 In Ybor City, Florida, 1929, cigars are rolled by hand as factory workers listen to the charged voices of lectors reading from newspapers, political pamphlets, and great works of literature. When a handsome lector arrives from Cuba, he brings with him a copy of Anna Karenina, igniting a powder keg of passions. As an industrial revolution looming on the horizon, Tolstoy, the tropics, and the American dream prove an intoxicating, volatile combination. 

DANCING AT LUGHNASA

by Brian Friel
Directed by Joe Dowling

March 21 – April 19, 2025
Previews March 19 – 20

Music and memory draw you back to the 1930s in this lyrical, effervescent portrait of five fierce sisters holding onto each other through the joys and sorrows of life in rural Ireland. Their missionary uncle has sparked a town scandal, their means of employment are looking doubtful, and their country is caught between ancient traditions and Catholic expectations. Still, no problem is so great that it can’t be faced with hard work, family loyalty, and once a year: dancing at the annual harvest festival of Lughnasa. Brian Friel’s Tony and Olivier-award winning memory play is a modern classic.

REGIONAL PREMIERE
 

GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR

by Doug Wright
Directed by Peter Amster

April 4 – April 27, 2025
Previews April 2 – 3

There’s a fine line between genius and insanity, and Oscar Levant erased it. A multi-hyphenate talent famous for his film appearances in An American in Paris and The Band Wagon, Levant was a fearless truth teller, a brilliant pianist, and an over-medicated neurotic mess – a unique cocktail that made him a difficult person and a brilliant talk show guest. Battling network executives, his 1958 appearance on The Tonight Show could make him a legend, if he manages not to unravel first. 

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Lyrics by Tim Rice
Directed and Choreographed by Josh Rhodes
Musical Direction by Jenny Kim-Godfrey

May 17 – June 15, 2025
Previews May 14 - 16

Love. Betrayal. And Redemption. Under the hot Judean sun, tempers fray and a rogue apostle questions his Messiah, who in turn questions his God. The choices they make will change the course of the world -- forever. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice revolutionized theater when their epic rock opera debuted fifty years ago, introducing the world to such songs as “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Heaven on Their Minds.” Following his celebrated interpretations of Cabaret, The Sound of Music and Evita, Josh Rhodes returns to Asolo Rep with a fiery and revelatory new production.
 

ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914

by Peter Rothstein
Vocal Arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach
Directed by Peter Rothstein
Music Direction by Erick Lichte
Performed at The Historic Asolo Theater 

December 6 – 22, 2024
Previews December 4 – 5

 The Western Front. Christmas. A German soldier sets down his rifle and steps into No Man’s Land, singing “Silent Night”. Thus begins an extraordinary night of fellowship, music, and peace told in the words and the songs of the men who lived it. The New Yorker raves, “A heartbreaking tribute to the men, who, in defiance of their commanders had the courage to affirm their common humanity.” After acclaimed runs Off Broadway and across North America, Peter Rothstein’s salute to heroes of The Great War makes its long-awaited Sarasota debut.

Rothstein states, “The soldiers of the Christmas Truce have become my personal heroes. It is an honor to tell their story and to stage it in the Historic Asolo, where this theater began 66 years ago.”

TICKETS

Season ticket renewals are available now, with new subscriptions on sale May 13, 2024. Single show tickets will go on sale in September. For more information, visit AsoloRep.org or call 941.351.8000 or 800.361.8388.  

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