Theatre

The Brits love “The Da Vinci Code,” so the only surprise was that they waited until 2022 to adapt the 2003 novel for the stage. The drama jumped the pond in August of 2023, and Producing Artistic Director Tyler Young was first in line for the rights to produce the play in Florida.

Five shows open around Southwest Florida this week, another offers a sneak peek preview, two continue their run and one show closes. Read on for play dates, times and a synopsis of each show.

Opening October 18 at Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota is the regional premiere of Morgan Gould’s dark comedy “Jennifer, Who Is Leaving.” Set in a lonely Dunkin Donuts on highway outside Boston, the play captures the demands placed on women, who are often thrust into the role of caregiver - like it or not.

The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral is celebrating Broadway with a cabaret-style revue called “Encore.” One factor that makes “Encore” different from other Broadway revues is the effort Belle Theatre has made to cast some of this area’s favorite performers in unexpected roles … along with sprinkling in a handful of former stars who haven’t been on stage in a while.

The relationship comedy Men Are Dogs is on stage at Fort Myers Theatre. Here's what Southwest Florida theater goers can expect from local playwright Joe Simonelli in the coming months.

Belle Theatre's Peyton McCarthy commands the stage in Grounded as an F16 fighter pilot who is reassigned to fly drones from a windowless trailer in the desert outside Nevada after she becomes pregnant. McCarthy rises to the challenges presented by this ambitious one-woman show.

The play Silent Sky describes how Henrietta Swan Leavitt's passion for discovery enabled astronomy to map the sky and, in the process, determine our exact place in the universe. Silent Sky is on stage at the FGCU TheatreLab through February 25, 2024.

In David Auburn's proof, sisterly bonds and romantic relationships are put to the test when a female college drop-out authors a groundbreaking mathematical discovery that everyone ascribes to her recently-deceased father.

"The Women Who Mapped the Stars" tells the story of five female computers who worked in obscurity at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s. But the show won't be staged in a theater. Instead, it will be performed at and as a fundraiser for the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium.

Gulf Coast Symphony and Gulfshore Ballet are making The Nutcracker a Southwest Florida holiday tradition. But this year's production at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall on December 16th is different from prior years.