Will Ray and EJ Zimmerman portray Chris and Kim in 'Miss Saigon' at Riverside Theatre. / For FLORIDA TODAY
Equity shows
• “Once” opens Tuesday and runs through Feb. 1 at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, 401 W. Livingston, Orlando. Tickets are $38.50 to $95.50, plus handling. Call 800-448-6322 or visit
orlandobroadway.com.
• “The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” Parts I and II runs in repertory through March 9 at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando. Tickets are $20 to $40. Call 407-447-1700 or visit
orlandoshakes.org.
• “Table Manners” runs through Feb. 23 at Mad Cow Theatre, 54 W. Church St., Orlando. Tickets are $26.25 to $33.75. Call 407-297-8788 or visit madcowtheatre.com.
• “Miss Saigon” runs through Feb. 2 at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. Tickets are $48 to $73; student discounts available. “God of Carnage” opens Tuesday and runs through Feb. 9. Tickets are $40; student discounts available. Call 772-231-6990 or visit riversidetheatre.com.
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While Brevard County is rich in fine community theater, audiences have some good choices in nearby professional theater as well.
Leading the ever-growing pack of professional theaters are Riverside Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Festival and Mad Cow Theatre. These are Equity houses, meaning they employ primarily professional actors and use professional stage managers.
In addition to the productions those houses mount, the Florida Theatrical Association presents an entire season of professional Broadway tours at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. Next year, it will present the shows at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, a grand, multivenue complex scheduled to open this fall.
On Tuesday, the Broadway hit “Once” opens at the Bob Carr. Called a musical romance, “Once” won eight 2012 Tony Awards, including best musical. Still running on Broadway, “Once” is based on the small 2006 film and concerns a Dublin street musician and the young woman in whom he finds love and inspiration.
“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” Parts I and II, opened Friday at Orlando Shakespeare and runs through March 9. Based on the Charles Dickens story, this two-part play won four 1982 Tony Awards, including best play. OSF presents both parts in rotating repertory, meaning, if you plan correctly, you can see one part in the afternoon and the second in the evening.
The Dickensian story revolves around a penniless young man who encounters the best and worst of humanity. A cast of 27 actors plays more than 150 characters.
Mad Cow Theatre opened “Table Manners” on Friday. That wicked comedy continues through Feb. 23.
Although she’s a devout supporter of Brevard’s community theaters, Titusville resident Lynne Librizzi is also a regular patron of professional theater in the Orlando area. She plans to see all three professional shows: “Once” and both parts of “Nicholas Nickleby.”
“I have Mad Cow in there, too,” she says. “I have to check my calendars.”
Theater patrons also can head south to Vero Beach, where they will find the beautiful, 672-seat Riverside Theatre with oh-so-easy parking. Riverside is a member of LORT, the League of Regional Theaters. As such, it is also an Equity house.
For a theater with a $6.5 million annual budget, Riverside is “America’s largest small-town theater,” says Oscar Sales, Riverside’s marketing director.
“That means theaters with this kind of budget are found in much larger communities,” he says. “And we sign more Equity contracts than theaters in communities our size.”
Riverside prides itself on big, lavish shows, spending easily $500,000 or more on one production. Last season, it spent more than that on “Les Miserables,” which starred performers who had toured in professional productions of the show.
Currently, its vaulting production of “Miss Saigon” is electrifying audiences and features as The Engineer, Herman Sebek, who performed that role on Broadway.
“Miss Saigon” is a retelling of Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” but set during the Vietnam War. In it, a young Vietnamese woman meets an American soldier. This is a huge production, complete with jaw-dropping spectacle and exquisite voices.
Riverside Theatre also takes pride in its intimate second-stage series in which patrons can enjoy taut, contemporary plays professionally produced.
Its next production in that space is the much ballyhooed, Tony Award-winning dark comedy “God of Carnage,” which opens Tuesday. Two couples meet in a civilized setting to discuss how to deal with their children’s growing hostility to one another. Eventually, civilized demeanor falls away, revealing the livid beasts within.
Nancy Gianfortune of Melbourne and her husband, Salvatore, have plans to see “Miss Saigon.” Born and raised in the New York City area, Nancy has been a patron of professional theater all her life. When she and her husband moved to Melbourne, they heard people bragging about Riverside and decided to check it out.
“I enjoy their shows,” she says. “They’re done so well, the costumes, the singing, the talent. It’s like Broadway.”
Peg Girard, director of Melbourne Civic Theatre, says area theater patrons have the best of both worlds when it comes to quality community theater in Brevard and professional theater within an easy drive, She makes it her business to see professional theater and urges others to do the same.
“It’s a good thing,” she says.
Contact Harbaugh at 321-242-3717, pharbaugh@floridatoday.com or twitter.com/pharb.