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Coming to a stage near you: St. Pete theater’s new season
Part 1 of 2.
The Tampa Bay area’s professional theater companies are enjoying their brief summer breaks before roaring back to life in the fall.
Here’s an advance look at what the 2025/26 season has in store; tickets (subscription and, in most cases single-show) are available now.
Today we’re focusing on St. Petersburg’s professional theaters. Saturday, we’ll turn the spotlight on theater in Tampa.
freeFall Theatre Company, 6099 Central Avenue. Artistic director: Eric Davis.
Tell Me On a Sunday (Sept. 5-Oct. 5). A 1977 musical comedy by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black, with St. Pete’s Julia Rifino in the role made famous by Bernadette Peters: A young English girl who has recently landed in New York brimming with optimism for the future. Songs include “Tell Me on a Sunday,” “Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes” and “Unexpected Song.”
Deathtrap (Oct. 24-Dec. 7). Ira Levin’s play holds the record for the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway. Failing playwright Sidney Bruhl believes a script from former student Clifford Anderson might be the best play he’s ever read. How can he get Anderson out of the way, and claim the surefire hit as his own work? “A series of boldly theatrical and frankly camp moments, sometimes very silly yet perfectly calculated to jolt audiences out of their seats.” – Evening Standard.
A Christmas Carol: In Concert (Dec. 11-24). The company’s holiday slot is filled with a re-mount of a successful previous production. The musical adaptation by Keith Ferguson and Bruce Greer features a cast of live singers, along with multimedia and narration from the original novella by Charles Dickens.
Himself and Nora (Jan. 30-March 8). The untold story of Irish writer James Joyce and his muse, Nora Barnacle, is a musical by Jonathan Brielle. The New York Times called it “a lively, lusty spin” through Joyce’s life and literary times.
And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank (April 10-May 17). A multimedia play that combines videotaped interviews of Holocaust survivors Ed Silverberg and Eva Schloss with live actors recreating scenes from their lives during World War II. He was Anne’s first boyfriend; she was the same age as Anne and lived in the same apartment building in Amsterdam. Her family went into hiding the same day as the Frank family. And like the Frank family, they were betrayed
Bash of The Titans: An Unauthorized Parody Party (June 12-Aug. 2, 2026). A musical co-written by the triumvirate of freeFall creatives Eric Davis, Matthew McGee and Michael Raabe, it’s an ‘80s jukebox musical comedy about discord among the ancient Greek gods (McGee plays Zeus).
American Stage, 163 3rd Street N. Artistic director: Helen R. Murray.
The Good Peaches (Sept. 20 at the Mahaffey Theater). For one performance only, The Good Peaches is a three-way collaboration between American Stage, The Florida Orchestra and projectALCHEMY Dance Company.
Hundred Days (Oct. 22-Nov. 16). Written by Shaun and Abigail Bengson, with Sarah Gancher, it’s a “folk/punk musical” about living and loving as if your time on earth was limited: What if you met your soulmate, with only 100 days left to live? And it’s based on the Bengsons’ own story.
The Scarlet Letter (Jan. 21-Feb. 15). Kate Hamill’s adaptation of the classic 19th century novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, adulterous Hester Prynne navigates a society that frowns upon women who dare to think, love, or rebel.
Into The Woods (March 25-April 2). On the outdoor stage at Demens Landing Park, Stephen Sondheim’s beloved fairy tale musical will likely feel more whimsical than ever, as Little Red and the wolf, the Baker and his wife, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack (of Beanstock fame) deal with a duplicitous witch and the notion of happily ever after – what does it truly mean?
The Hot Wing King (June 3-28). Katori Hall (The Mountaintop) won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this comedy about a gay Memphis couple – Cordell and Dwayne – and an upcoming cooking contest (the Hot Wang Festival). The New York Times reviewer said the play “is never better than when its all-male ensemble is functioning as an awkward but interdependent unit — riffing with, scoring off and rubbing up against one another. They have that palpable, physical ease with one another, both contented and irritable, that comes from being part of a family.”
The Off-Central, 2260 1st Avenue S. Artistic director: Alan Mohney Jr.
Bakersfield Mist (Sept 4-14). Roxanne Fay directs a comedy-drama by Stephen Sachs about a thrift-store purchase that might – just might – be an extremely valuable Jackson Pollack painting. On London’s West End, one acclaimed production starred Kathleen Turner and Ian McDermid.
White (Oct. 9-19). James Ijames (Fat Ham) penned this dark comedy about race, gender and sexuality. A white artist (Gus) wants to be presented in a major exhibition for artists of color, so he hires a Black actress (Vanessa) to appear as a brash and political artist that will fit the museum’s desire for “new voices.” Things, naturally, spin out of control.
Art (Nov. 13-23). French playwright Yasmina Reza’s comic drama asks one simple question: What constitutes art? As three friends square off over the “worth” of an all-white canvas, their relationships are sorely tested; they use the argument as an excuse to relentlessly batter one another over various failures. Directed by Alan Mohney Jr.
Who’s Holiday (Dec. 11-21). A re-mount of last season’s breakout hit, in which a now grown-up Cindy Lou Who recounts her adventures with the seedier side of life … and with her former Beau, the Grinch.
The remainder of the Off-Central 2025/26 season is TBA.
