Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is coming… to the stage at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center! The New Tampa Players, New Tampaâs community theater troupe, is preparing to open its summer production of âThe Music Man.â
This classic musical features toe-tapping tunes, colorful costumes and a cast filled with neighbors, teachers and students. âThe Music Manâ is bringing people together both onstage and off.
âThe New Tampa Players (NTP) chose âMusic Manâ for this summer because it is just fun that will have our audiences humming the tunes for days! It has big dance numbers, silly comedy and characters that make you smile!,â says NTP producing artistic director Nora Paine.
The cast of 40 includes a wide range of community members â from first-time performers to stage veterans. David Groomes and Becky Groomes, veterans of the Tampa stage, join NTPâs cast as the con man Harold Hill and the River City mayorâs wife Eulalie Shinn. Melanie Marie Bierwieler, who earned raves as Lina in last summerâs âSinginâ in the Rain,â plays the female lead, Marian Paroo, River Cityâs prim and skeptical librarian.
Set in 1912, âThe Music Man,â which won five Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical, was written by Meredith Wilson. It tells the story of Harold Hill (originally played by Tony winner Robert Preston and by Hugh Jackman in the 2022 Broadway revival), a charming con man who poses as a traveling bandleader. He arrives in River City, Iowa, planning to sell instruments and uniforms to the townspeople, and then skip town without teaching the children how to play.
However, Haroldâs plan starts to unravel when he falls for Marian (originally played by Tony winner Barbara Cook on Broadway), the townâs librarian and piano teacher. As he grows genuinely fond of Marian and the community, Harold inadvertently brings the town together â creating a boysâ band and actually lifting local spirits.
In the end, despite being exposed as a fraud, Harold is forgiven by the townspeople, thanks in large part to Marianâs support and the unexpected positive impact he ends up having on the town. The show celebrates themes of transformation, redemption and community.
Whether you know every lyric to âSeventy-Six Trombonesâ or are new to River City, âThe Music Manâ promises an unforgettable night of music, heart and good old-fashioned fun.
Performances will run Fridays-Sundays, July 25-27 and August 1-3 at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, with both evening and matinee options. Tickets can be purchased at NewTampaPlayers.thundertix.com. For more info, visit NewTampaPlayers.org or see the ad below. â Special to the Neighborhood News, including the photos on this page.Â
Theater lovers: mark your calendars for an afternoon of creativity, laughter, and powerful storytelling! The Wesley Chapel Theater Group (WCTG) is proud to present its âOne-Act (Play) Festivalâ on Saturday & Sunday, July 12-13, 2 p.m., both days. The Festival will be a vibrant celebration of local talent that brings original one-act plays to life on stage.
This exciting event showcases the power of community-driven art, featuring short plays that have been written and will be directed and performed entirely by local artists. From heartfelt dramas to witty comedies, each one-act play promises a unique and captivating experience, all within a single afternoon.
The Festival performances will be held at the Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center (12118 Lake Blanche Dr., in nearby Odessa). The doors will open at 1:40 p.m. both days, so arrive early to grab your seat and settle in for a memorable ride through the imaginations of our hometown playwrights.
âThis festival is all about celebrating the incredible talent we have right here in our own backyard,â says WCTG Board member Samantha Grahn. âWeâre giving local voices the spotlight and inviting the community to come together to laugh, feel and be inspired.â
Whether youâre a seasoned theatergoer or new to the stage, this is the perfect opportunity to support local artists, enjoy original performances and be part of something truly special. Gather your friends, grab your tickets and get ready to be swept away by the magic of live theater!
Featured Plays At WCTGâs âOne-Act Festivalâ:
The first time I saw âLittle Shop of Horrors,â the campy, award-winning sci-fi/horror musical (based on an original 1960 film by âThe King of Cultâ Roger Corman) about a man-(and woman-) eating plant named Audrey II and the bumbling âSkid Rowâ flower shop employee who earns fame because of the voracious plant, I was sitting about eight rows back in the showâs original Off- Broadway Orpheum Theatre in the Little Ukraine section of Manhattanâs East Village in late 1982 or early 1983, only a few months after the show first opened to rave reviews.
Sitting directly in front of me were Liza Minelli, Sean Penn and Madonna. Yes, that famous trio (no one called them a âthrupleâ). We were all among the packed house of nearly 350 people who took in the spectacle of this flytrap-looking plant that grows from a pot on a counter to take up most of Mushnikâs Flower Shop â and plans to take over the entire world.
Four years later, âLittle Shopâ was made into a hit 1986 movie starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene (who also created the role of Audrey, the love interest of geeky Seymour Krelborn, who also loves âstrange and interesting plantsâ), Steve Martin as Audreyâs sadistic boyfriend Orin Scrivello, DDS, and Vincent Gardenia as the failing flower shop owner, Mr. Mushnik.
Fast-forward nearly 40 more years and Jannah and I are sitting in a theatre almost as large as the Orpheum â the New Tampa Performing Arts Center â on what turned out to be opening night of the New Tampa Players (NTP)â production of the show (Oct. 18), because the first weekend of performances got canceled following Hurricane Milton.
I have to admit that NTPâs âLittle Shopâ very much rang true to the original version I saw more than 40 years previous.
Yes, a show where four people are âeatenâ by a giant plant is a little disturbing, but an outstanding cast performing great songs (with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, the same creative team behind Disneyâs âThe Little Mermaid,â âBeauty and the Beastâ and âAladdinâ), great direction by NTPâs Thomas Pahl, musical direction by Rick Barclay and choreography by Makayla Raines, made NTPâs âLittle Shopâ an amazing tribute to that Off-Broadway original. (By the way, the Broadway revival production lasted only 372 performances between Oct. 2003 and Aug. 2004.)
And Away We Go!
NTPâs âLittle Shopâ opened with the title theme, sung by âthe urchinsâ â (photo #1, l.- r.) Paige Alter as Crystal, Sara Gutierrez as Chiffon and Patty Smithey (who portrayed Lorrell Robinson in NTPâs âDreamgirlsâ) as Ronette.
We then meet (photo #2, l.-r.) Mushnik (Luis Graham), who is threatening to close his flower shop on Skid Row because he canât do any business, the oafish, love-sick Seymour (Richard Brown) and Audrey (Madison Pulica, who has the original cartoon-ish speaking voice and mannerisms of the roleâs originator down to a âTâ).
Seymour shows Mushnik the âstrange and interesting plantâ that he found following a recent total solar eclipse and says that maybe displaying the plant will bring in customers â which it immediately does.
But soon, when Seymour cuts himself on a rose thorn, the plant â which Seymour names the âAudrey IIâ after his unrequited beloved â first shows its thirst for blood, so Stanley squeezes a few more drops into its open maw (photo #3), after which, Audrey II first begins to grow. Meanwhile, Audrey continues to display the painful results of the âaffectionsâ of her dentist boyfriend Orin (portrayed with very much Steve Martin-esque vigor by Tom Bronson), and sings (photo #4) to the urchins about her dream to move to âSomewhere Thatâs Green.â
We (and Seymour) then meet Orin for the first time, after Orin sings â(âYouâll Be A) Dentistâ to the urchins (photo #5). Seymour also sees Orin ârough upâ Audrey for the first time and, realizing that he canât continue to drain himself of his own blood for Audrey II, also wonders for the first time if maybe Orin should end up âprovidingâ the blood for the now-much-larger plant.
Mushnik is now so impressed with Seymour (who is revealed early on to be an orphan), that he tells Seymour in the song âMushnik & Sonâ (Photo #6) that he will re-name the now-much-more successful flower shop and adopt his now-star employee.
But next, we find out for the first time that Audrey II can talk â in the booming baritone of Christan McLaurine (at right in photo #9, who also was a scene-stealer as James âThunderâ Early in NTPâs âDreamgirlsâ) in the song âFeed Me.â
Act I ends as Seymour brings a gun to his visit to Orinâs dental office, which is replete with rusty, medieval-style torture appliances. Orin canât wait to ply his trade inside Seymourâs mouth, so much so that he gets his âspecial gas maskâ (photo #7) â not to sedate Seymour, but so Orin can âenjoyâ his work. Seymour now realizes he doesnât have to shoot Orin, who canât get the mask off and, without assistance from Seymour, asphyxiates and dies in the most authentic scene of the entire show.Â
Act II – âSuddenly, Seymour!â
With Orin now out of the way (and chopped into pieces by Seymour, so he can feed the dentist to Audrey II), it doesnât take long for Audrey to realize that Seymour has always loved her and (she thinks) that heâs a good man who shares her dream of moving to the country, despite his newfound (and unwanted) fame, which comes with Life magazine and TV interviews. The duet between Audrey and Seymour â âSuddenly Seymourâ is probably the most famous song in âLittle Shop.â
But, of course, everything falls apart quickly from there. Seymour next sacrifices Mushnik, who discovered Orinâs bloody lab coat in the storeâs garbage can, to Audrey II, even though Mushnik says he wonât tell the authorities, as Seymour still needs to feed the now-monster-sized plant (photo #8).
Next, Audrey, who reveals she was an exotic dancer before coming to Mushnikâs, sacrifices herself by having Seymour throw her into Audrey IIâs mouth. Then, Seymour, who now realizes that Audrey IIâs plan is to take over the world, also jumps into the plantâs maw. With all of the main characters now dead and plans to spread Audrey II seeds all over the country (as the plant planned all along), the show ends on a seriously ominous note.
Congrats to the Audrey II puppeteers (Joseph Conrad, at left in photo #9), Lily Sanford and Yoanivette Davila Aguiar, as well as to James Cass of Picture This Photography for the scenic art, scenic dressing and props, and Shelly Giles for the great costumes â and everyone else associated with the Players and this show. âLittle Shopâ was super-creepy but it was also super-fun!
For more info (including about ticket sales and audition info) about the 2025 New Tampa Players shows âInto the Woodsâ and âThe Music Man,â visit NewTampaPlayers.org.Â
Powerstories presents Stan Zimmermanâs âright before i goâ as part of its âCelebrate the Power of the Artsâ weekend at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center Sept. 20-21.Â
You may not know the name Stan Zimmerman, but if youâve ever watched an episode of âThe Golden Girls,â âGilmore Girlsâ or âRoseanne,â you may already know his work.
But, whether you know his name or not, you owe it to yourself to check out Zimmermanâs original play, âright before I go,â in which he also acts as the narrator.
Zimmermanâs play about suicide notes will be performed at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC, 5850 Hunters Village Rd.) on Friday and Saturday, September 20-21, 7 p.m., by Powerstories, âa nonprofit professional theatre troupe whose mission is to stage true stories to open minds and hearts and inspire action worldwide.â Powerstories will âCelebrate the Power of the Artsâ throughout the weekend, which also will include an art display, raffles, appetizers, staged reading, talkback, celebrity meet & greet and live music.
Zimmerman, who also has directed many plays, says âright before i goâ itself is âonly about an hour longâ and that there will be a half-hour sit-down with a mental health professional following the performance. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to the Crisis Center of Hillsborough. Also scheduled to be readers are chief meteorologist Denis Phillips and anchor Wendy Ryan of ABC Action News Tampa Bay.
âI feel that with this piece, the audience will need to talk about it afterwards,â Zimmerman says. âItâs really about starting a discussion. Iâve found that after the show, people want to talk about it with total strangers on the street or friends and family.â
Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) had this to say about the play: âStan Zimmerman brings to life the last words written in letters by individuals lost to suicide â including celebrities, veterans, kids that were bullied, LGBTQ and the clinically depressed â and those who have survived suicide attempts. Since its acclaimed first performance at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015, the play has traveled across the country, raising awareness and offering hope for suicide prevention.âÂ
Zimmerman, who says he was mercilessly bullied and regularly spit on in 7th, 8th and 9th grade, admits that he would go home and âvisualize taking my own lifeâ many times.
In an interview on YouTube, he said, âI donât suffer from depression, but if I did, and had those feelings [of suicide], I honestly donât know if Iâd be here today.â
But then, in 2012, âI was one of a couple of people who received a suicide note from a very good friend of mine named Kevin, who took his own life. I started Googling âsuicide notesâ and had an idea to use my craft to put what I found into a play, with actors reading the suicide notes in order to help raise awareness and prevention for suicide.â
Writer, director, playwright and actor Stan Zimmerman will be the narrator for âright before i goâ at NTPAC and will have a âtalkbackâ session following the play. (Photo: Screenshot from YouTube)Â
With his career predominantly as a comedy writer, Zimmerman says he really scoured the internet in order to try to find a âfunnyâ suicide note, âbut what I found is that there really wasnât one. Some of them were lighter, and that some people will laugh or giggle, but that may be nervous laughter. But, this is a very important moment in anyoneâs life when they decide to do this.â
He says that when the play was first performed at the Fringe Festival, âthe tendency for the actors was to play the result, you know, where this was going. And I had to remind them that thereâs an urgency to these notes. These people that wrote these notes needed to get this out [because] they werenât being heard and they had to tell people what they felt inside. And I think thatâs why theyâre all so powerful.â The subtitle of âright before i goâ is âDestigmatizing Suicide.â
As for how he approached writing âright before i go,â Zimmerman says, âI wanted this to be sort of like âThe Vagina Monologues,â in that it would be something that would be easily performed and wouldnât take a lot of rehearsal, so theatre companies, when they did this piece, they could rehearse it for a couple of hours or a couple of days and interpret it any way they wanted.âÂ
He also says that it just came to him âhow the structure needed to be and how to group the notes to tell the story.â
Meanwhile, Zimmerman says that although he has made a career of writing, his first love was acting, and he started his career in the theatre program at New York University.
And, even though he didnât originally intend to be the playâs narrator, âWhen I did the first table read in my living room with friends of mine, a lot of them said, âYouâre a writer, you need to put yourself in this piece.â Thatâs when I started writing a lot more in between. And, they said they wanted hope, so thatâs when I started putting a lot of stuff about hope at the end.â
An Illustrious Career
Although Zimmerman and his long-time writing partner James Berg were never the head writers on âThe Golden Girls,â âGilmore Girlsâ or âRoseanne,â the Zimmerman/Berg team did write multiple episodes for all three and were able to capitalize on those successes (and others) with many other writing credits.
In addition, while they also didnât receive writing credits for the original script of âThe Brady Bunch Movieâ (and werenât happy about it), the team was hired by the filmâs director Betty Thomas to do rewrites of the original script, and the movie became a hit. Zimmerman and Berg would then get full writing credits for âA Very Brady Sequel,â which also became a hit in 1996.
And, while none of the other TV series the pair wrote for â including the TV adaptation of the hit movie âFame,â as well as âJust Our Luck,â âPaulyâ and âRita Rocks,â to name just a few â became monster hits, they also were hired as âterm writersâ for other series, most notably âThe Nanny.â
Their work won the team two Writers Guild of America award nominations â for the âRoseâs Motherâ episode of âThe Golden Girlsâ and the infamous âLesbian Kissâ episode of âRoseanne.â
Zimmerman and Berg also were the writers for âLadies of the â80s: A Divas Christmas,â a 2023 TV Christmas comedy starring some of the most famous TV divas of the â80s â Loni Anderson (âWKRP in Cincinnatiâ), Morgan Fairchild (âFlamingo Roadâ and âFalconâs Crestâ), Linda Gray (âDallasâ), Donna Mills (âKnots Landingâ) and Nicollette Sheridan (also âKnots Landingâ and later, âDesperate Housewivesâ).
Also last year, Indian River Publishing (an independent book publishing company distributed by Simon & Schuster) published Zimmermanâs book The Girls: from Golden to Gilmore, subtitled âStories about all the wonderful women Iâve worked with…â (Note-He says that the words that come after the ellipsis are âand Roseanne,â although the book cover doesnât say it.)
The book tells Zimmermanâs true story as a TV and film writer and yes, all of the wonderful women he and Berg worked with together. Iâve read several chapters of my copy, which I will ask Stan to autograph when I meet him next month. Itâs a great read.
Editorâs note â Although I also interviewed him on the phone, most of the direct quotes in this article came from the YouTube video âPlaywright Stan Zimmerman Discusses Right Before I Go.â And, the information about his early life and career came from The Girls.