Regional theaters across the country have spent the past few years cutting seasons, shrinking casts, and in some cases closing for good. Last December, the New York Times ran a piece asking why that wave hadn't reached everywhere, and it named two cities as the exceptions worth watching: Milwaukee, and Naples.
The Naples half of that story is playing out a short walk south of Lake Park. Gulfshore Playhouse, the only fully professional LORT company in the state's southwest corner, has its 2026-2027 season opening this fall at the Baker Theatre and Education Center on Goodlette-Frank Road. It's not a scaled-back lineup. It's seven mainstage productions, a returning festival, and an expanded slate of adult classes, all in a building the company has now called home for two years running.
What's actually going up this fall
The season opens the week of October 20 with a format choice that says something about how the company thinks about a Tuesday night out. As the Naples Press reported, The World Goes 'Round: The Songs of Kander & Ebb runs October 21 through November 22, but it's staged cabaret-style in the 125-seat Struthers Studio, with tables and drinks instead of fixed rows. It's the same setup the Playhouse used for its very first show in this building, and directing duties go to Dan Dunn.
The rest of the lineup, as announced:
- A Christmas Carol (Nov. 17-Dec. 24): a new adaptation of the Dickens classic, replacing last season's White Christmas as the Playhouse's holiday anchor.
- Heist: a Canadian import that Founder and Producing Artistic Director Kristen Coury has described as an "Oceans Eleven" type caper.
- Fundraiser: A Play: a World Premiere pulled directly out of last year's Next Wave Festival after audiences responded to it, from the playwright behind The Refugees.
- Guys and Dolls: the Broadway standard, for anyone who wants a season with at least one show they already know the words to.
- Job: a two-hander fresh off a Broadway run, built around a Gen X content moderator and her skeptical boomer psychiatrist.
- Tartuffe: Moliere's comedy, rounding out the season on the classical end.
Two of those seven overlap on the calendar. A Christmas Carol opens November 17, the same week The World Goes 'Round is finishing its run, which means for a few nights in late November the Playhouse is running two full productions in two different rooms at once.
What Coury said instead of overselling it
Coury didn't frame this season as a bet against the national trend. When she introduced the lineup to patrons back in the spring, she was blunt about the industry she's operating in.
"Broadway's having a hard time right now," Coury said, as reported by Naples Press.
That's the same person announcing seven shows, a returning festival, and more classes than the company has offered before. The season isn't a hedge against a bad year for theater. It's what the company decided to do anyway.
Two rooms, two different nights out
The building itself is part of why this works. The Baker Theatre and Education Center houses the 350-seat Moran Mainstage and the 125-seat Struthers Studio under one roof, along with rehearsal halls and education space. That split matters more than it sounds like it should.
A Mainstage night, for Guys and Dolls or Tartuffe, is the traditional version: fixed seating, a full stage, the show you'd expect from a 350-seat house. A Studio night is a different proposition entirely. The cabaret setup for The World Goes 'Round means you're at a table, there's a drink in front of you, and the room seats a third as many people. It's the difference between an evening out and a night at a dinner theater that happens to have Broadway-caliber material. Knowing which room a show is in before you buy tickets changes what you wear, who you bring, and how early you should plan to eat first.
More than a ticket
The Mainstage lineup isn't the only reason the building stays busy. The Next Wave Festival is returning this season, the same festival that produced Fundraiser: A Play as an audience favorite last year before it graduated to a full production slot. For residents who want a lower-commitment way to see new work before it's fully staged, that festival is where it happens first.
The Conservatory side keeps running in parallel: adult acting classes under the "Page to Stage" banner, a lecture series, Paint 'n Sip nights, and fitness classes that include yoga, chair fitness, and something the Playhouse calls Broadway Zumba. None of this requires a season ticket. It's the kind of programming that turns a theater from a building you visit twice a year into one you have a reason to walk into most months.
Getting there
Single tickets for the 2026-2027 season have been on sale since May 26, and Flex Passes went on general sale in late March, so none of this requires waiting in a fall rush. Tickets and the full schedule are available directly through Gulfshore Playhouse, and the building sits at 100 Goodlette-Frank Road, just south of Lake Park at the edge of the Design District corridor.
If you're already tracking what's rising along that same stretch of Goodlette-Frank, our earlier look at what's under construction two blocks north covers the retail and mixed-use side of that same corridor.
The Beretta Group keeps an eye on what's actually opening within walking distance of the neighborhoods we work in, not just what's listed in them. We'll post an update when the rest of the season's dates are confirmed.
