A look at Bradenton's most promising theater for 2016

Anybody who's even passively paying attention to the theater scene in the Bradenton area can tell there's a lot more going on every year than there was the year before, and that a lot more of it is great every year.

Through most of the year, even if you want to go to a play, a musical, a concert or an opera three or four times a week, you can afford to be selective and take in only the best bets.

The best stuff often sells out, though. So here's a very early look at what looks most promising for 2106, with the caveat that a lot of stuff in the last half of the year has yet to be announced.

Right here in Bradenton, Manatee Players just seem to get stronger every season. The current production of "A Chorus Line" is terrific, and the three shows in the rest of the current season -- "Chess," "Yank! A WWII Love Story," "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Phantom" are all interesting choices for very different reasons. If you want to pick one to see, go with the seldom-seen "Phantom." It's not Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera." It's based on the same novel, and has a book by Arthur Kopit and music and lyrics by Murray Yeston, the great team that created "Nine." By all accounts it's very different from the Lloyd-Webber version, and by many accounts it's better.

The shows in the "other" space at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, the intimate Bradenton Kiwanis Theater, finally started attracting larger audiences this season, thanks in large part to the Action Through Acting program. The program has Manatee Players partnering with local nonprofits, and picking shows with themes that tie into each nonprofit's mission. From an audience point of view, that helps insure that the shows in the studio theater have at least a bit of substance to them. The company has not announced the plays for the 2016-17 season yet, but both this season's remaining shows, "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "To Kill a Mockingbird," have the potential to be thrilling.

Just down the road in Sarasota, Asolo Repertory Theater opens Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" starting Jan. 22. Any O'Neill is worth seeing. An O'Neill comedy staged by Asolo Rep should be a treat. And

the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, which has a great group of actors this year, ends its season with "Nora," Ingmar Bergman's adaptation of Ibsen's "A Doll's House." The source material filtered through Bergman's artistic sensibility should be intriguing.

Other picks from Sarasota: Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe's "Driving Miss Daisy," which opens April 20, "Hands on a Hardbody" at the Players Theatre (Feb. 18), and "Stupid (expletive) Bird" at Urbanite Theatre, a raucous version of Chekhov's "The Seagull" (Feb. 12).

If your tastes run to big-time touring shows, there should be little doubt which show you'll want to catch this year. "The Book of Mormon" comes to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota for a week beginning Feb. 9. Van Wezel doesn't often get major national tours coming into town and staying for week, so this is something of a coup. "Mormon" is one of the funniest musicals ever written, with great songs and an ultimately uplifting story.

If you don't mind driving over the Skyway bridge to see a show, St. Petersburg's American Stage in the Park production this year is "Spamalot" (April 13-May 8). The park shows are always fun even when the material's not great. "Spamalot" is a phenomenal show, and it should be a perfect fit for the occasion.

That's lots more to come -- Sarasota's Banyan Theater Company hasn't announced it summer season yet, and its stuff is always worth checking out and the brand-new, always exciting and usually sold-out Urbanite should be announcing more shows soon. But even if you're just buying tickets for these sure-fire shows, 2016 should be a fulfilling and entertaining year for area theater lovers.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "A look at Bradenton's most promising theater for 2016 ."