Asolo will present another Broadway-bound musical

SARASOTA — Standing-room-only audiences may make a comeback at Asolo Repertory Theatre next season.

The theater company hopes to repeat the theatrical luck garnered from 2007’s bound-for-Broadway musical “Tale of Two Cities” by staging another Broadway-bound musical, “Bonnie & Clyde.”

“I have a feeling the community is going to be very excited about it,” said Michael Donald Edwards, Asolo artistic director. “It’s going to be a beautiful production, an extraordinary cast and a Tony Award-winning director.”

News of the production came Monday during the regional company’s 52nd season announcement at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. No date has been set for a Broadway run, but producers are planning for a New York debut a year from now, Edwards said.

“Bonnie & Clyde,” directed by Jeff Calhoun, opens Nov. 19. It follows what has been shaping into a strong ticket-selling current season at the theater company.

Edwards hopes the show’s success will be at least as big as “Tale of Two Cities” was here. Though “Tale” didn’t fare as well on Broadway the following year, locals’ love for it still lingers.

“Bonnie & Clyde” made its world premiere last year at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. Edwards, who attended a performance, said audiences loved the show. Media reviews were mixed, though many gave praise to Frank Wildhorn’s pop-ballad score.

Wildhorn’s credits include “Jekyll & Hyde,” “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and the recent world premiere of “Wonderland” at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa.

“I think this is his best score,” Edwards said.

In looking for a place to continue the creative process of “Bonnie & Clyde,” producers were drawn to the Asolo, which is gaining notoriety as a place to try out new works.

Edwards said the musical will be presented with tweaks to the original production. An upcoming national talent search will be under way for several roles, including Clyde Barrow.

Edwards believes area audiences will be able to relate to the play because of the current economic climate.

“In many ways I think ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ is incredibly timely,” he said. “I feel that the Great Depression doesn’t seem so remote right now. I feel like the economic stress that Americans find themselves in right now evokes — though it’s nowhere near extreme — the economic nightmare that was the Great Depression.”

The new season will also feature the second year of the Asolo’s new play-reading festival series, “Unplugged 2011,” at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts. “Unplugged” will present new works from the nation’s brightest playwrights, including the Greenfield Prize winning playwright Craig Lucas.

“These scripts are raw, exiting, vibrant and very fresh,” said Greg Leaming, the associate artistic director and director of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. “This program promises some real thrills for all of us.”

January Holmes, features writer, can be reached at 745-7057. Follow her on Twitter @accentbradenton.