TheatreZone looks for lucky 13 with era-spanning music

TheatreZone is bringing high kickers and a youngster with an emotional green thumb to make its 13th season a lucky one, staging popular, name musicals "Copacabana" and "The Secret Garden."

"Copacabana" is one of two returning from TheatreZone's early years; "Baby," a modern take on parenthood, is the other.

"It’s not that I go for the 'We need a revival,' " said Mark Danni, founder and artistic director of TheatreZone. " 'Baby' is one of my all-time favorite shows. It's so well-written. But we ran it our first year or two, when we only had three or four performances, and I thought, 'Wow, not a lot of people have seen that.' So I thought it would be a good one now," he said. "The same was true of 'Copacabana,'  which we did in our fourth season. People loved that. We all love Barry Manilow here. But we ran it at a time when we were only doing four or five shows."

Productions now run for 11 performances.

Danni says his goal for each season is to offer his audiences four different types of musicals, from vintage to thought-provoking to contemporary and iconic:

» The professional Equity musical theater opens the season with old-fashioned comedy and song in "Me and My Girl," a 1937 musical with a sunnier take than "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," but on a similar theme of the long-lost heir finding a potentially wealthier life ahead of him. If it doesn't have songs that are indelibly in the Great American Songbook, there are little gems like "You Would If You Could" and "The Lambeth Walk." It won a Tony Award for best choreography in its 1987 revival.

» "Secret Garden," the 1991 musical depiction of the popular Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, follows an orphaned girl to her new, decidedly gloomy home, where she discovers a garden with a past — and a future. "The Girl I Mean to Be" and "How Could I Know" are among its songs; it won a Tony and a Drama Desk award for best book of a musical and was nominated for best musical Tony.

» Is the "Copacabana" the hottest spot north of Havana? Find out in this musical concocted on the foundation of a single Barry Manilow song by that name. The popular melody also buttressed a made-for-TV movie and an Atlantic City show, all in some form telling the tale of two nightclub performers whose love plans are thwarted by a gangster with a roving eye. TheatreZone first staged the musical in 2004, Danni said; its popularity then kept it high on the list of return requests.

» "Baby" looks at parenthood through the eyes of three couples as they approach the big change in their lives. The songs reflect the frustrations and future hopes with tunes like "Fatherhood Blues," "We Start Today" and "Two People in Love." The 1984 musical was popular internationally as well as in the U.S.

Season tickets for new subscribers are on sale now, and individual tickets, priced at $50 to $75, will go on sale May 1. Purchase them online at theatrezone-florida.com or by calling the box office 888-966-3352.

The on-site box office is at at the G&L Theatre on the Community School of Naples, 13275 Livingston Road, North Naples. It is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays through June 13, and reopens Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Theatrezone's schedule:

"Me and My Girl": Jan. 11-21

"The Secret Garden": Feb. 8-18

"Copacabana": March 8-18

"Baby": April 26-May 6

Auditions will be held Sept. 9 and 10, with details to come later.

TheatreZone will also stage its second seasonal song-costume-dance special, "Home for the Holidays," 8 p.m. Dec. 8 and 9 and 2 p.m. Dec. 9 and 10. Ticket prices are $50 to $75.