Curtain Up: Theater, Opera and Ballet in Sarasota

A purple seashell concert hall, a theater shipped from Italy and an opera house from 1926. Sarasota's stages are something special.

For a city its size, Sarasota has a remarkable arts calendar, especially from fall through spring.

The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on the bayfront is hard to miss: a purple building shaped like a seashell, designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's architects and opened in 1970. It hosts touring Broadway shows, concerts and comedy.

The Asolo Repertory Theatre, one of the country's leading regional theaters, performs near The Ringling, where you can also see the Historic Asolo Theater, an 18th-century Italian theater reassembled in Sarasota. Downtown, Florida Studio Theatre focuses on contemporary plays and cabaret, the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe stages acclaimed musicals and dramas, and the Sarasota Opera performs in a beautifully restored 1926 opera house. The Sarasota Ballet rounds out the season.

A night at the theater, dinner downtown and a nightcap by your pool is about as good as a vacation evening gets.

See our homes →