Whitefish Theatre Company Announces Upcoming Season, Including Spring Production of “Little Shop of Horrors”

Earlier this month the Whitefish Theatre Company announced the lineup for its 2025 through 2026 season, which kicks off in late September.

The community theatre group plans on featuring a blend of mainstage productions, live music, and black curtain readings that audiences have come to appreciate over the years, including an October thriller, a heartwarming December production, and a major spring production. There’s also, as it turns out, a little more puppetry in the mix.

Reviewing the season lineup, artistic director Kim Krueger thinks WTC has managed to provide something for everyone.

On the subject of puppetry, for starters, people will have a chance next May to see the ventriloquist Michael Harrison perform his “Ventastic” act. It just may be the first time a ventriloquism act has been brought to the O’Shaughnessy Center, Krueger said. Harrison is a former finalist on “America’s Got Talent,”  and ventriloquism runs in his family. His great grandfather, Frank Merryfield, was a magician and well-known ventriloquist, according to Harrison’s website.  Krueger says it’s a family friendly act, which is sure to make people laugh.

But if theatergoers are unfamiliar with Harrison and “Ventastic,” there’s a good chance they might recognize the other notable puppet coming to Whitefish in 2026: Audrey II, the man-eating, musically-talented plant of laugh-filled nightmares, will grace the stage for a 10-show run of the musical comedy “Little Shop of Horrors,” which kicks off on May 21.

There are four puppets, actually, to represent Audrey II’s deadly growth spurt, and having them is a must for a stage production of the 1982 Alan Menken musical.

“These puppets really have to be crafted, because they’re big enough to eat people onstage,” Krueger said. WTC plans on renting the Audrey II puppets, but they don’t come cheap, so the community theatre group will launch a fundraiser to help bring them to town.

While Audrey II understandably commands a lot of attention, there is another Audrey with an influence on the 2025 through 2026 WTC season.

For the theatre company’s October mainstage production, which in recent years has dialed into the spooky mood of Halloween in the Flathead with shows like “Sweeney Todd” and “Misery,” audiences will have a chance this fall to see “Wait Until Dark.”

The thriller play began terrorizing moviegoers in 1967, when a film adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn was released. “Wait Until Dark” tells the story of a blind woman who becomes wrapped up in a deadly conflict involving a cast of criminals intent on getting their hands on a misplaced doll filled with heroin. The critically-acclaimed movie has landed on a number of scariest movie lists over the years, and Krueger said it’s a great thriller selection for October.

Auditions for “Wait Until Dark,” which is the first mainstage production of the season, will take place on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25, and Krueger said people should check the WTC website for the latest information on auditions. Performances of “Wait Until Dark” are planned for Oct. 16 through Oct. 19 and Oct. 23 through Oct. 25.  

For theatre-goers who are interested in something a little more on the heartwarming side of things, this year’s main stage holiday production is “Let Nothing You Dismay.” It’s the tale of a couple who, arriving at a hospital to become parents, adopt a child. But slowly but surely, the child’s oddball family members start showing up.

“At first you’re like ‘Oh no, this poor couple with all their whacky relatives,’” Krueger said. “But each relative kind of brings the spirit of Christmas, and the spirit of family, and it turns out to be a really lovely story about family.”

The play was written by Topher Payne, whose work, “Evelyn in Purgatory” and “Baby Shower,” WTC has previously performed to much success, Krueger said. “Let Nothing You Dismay” will be performed from Dec. 4 through Dec. 7 and from Dec. 11 through Dec. 14.

The season will start off on Sept. 27 with two nights of Black Curtain theatre staged readings of “Perfect Arrangement,” about the double lives of Cold War-era U.S. State Department employees, which WTC described in a press release as a “clever mix of madcap comedy and Cold War tensions.”

On Oct. 4, the musical trio of TAKE3, which promotes itself under the tagline “when rock meets Bach,” will hit the stage for a show that blends classical music with a rock-and-roll sensibility.

Here’s how the rest of the season schedule will play out:

Nov. 7: The Celtic music ensemble Reverie Road will perform. Reverie Road counts among its lineup two founding members of the traditional Irish music group Solas, and one former member of the Irish music group Gaelic Storm.

Nov. 15-16: A Black Curtain staged reading of “World Builders,” a story about two patients in a clinical drug trial who fall in love.

Jan. 24-25: A Black Curtain staged reading of “Brooklyn Laundry,” which WTC describes as “a quirky love story about a laundromat meet-cute, unexpected second chances, and the weight of family obligations.”

Feb. 6: A performance by Syrian-American soul and funk group Bassel & the Supernaturals.

Feb. 19-22 and Feb. 26-28: A main stage theatre production of the Neil Simon comedy “The Odd Couple,” about two mismatched roommates.

March 21-22: A Black Curtain theatre staged reading of “The Best We Could.” The play explores a father-daughter road trip that delves into memory, grief and connection.

April 9-12 and April 16-18: Main stage production of “The Cottage,” a romantic British farce comedy “full of secrets, scandal and slamming doors.”

April 22: A musical performance by the rhythmic, step-dancing Quebec folk trio Bon Débarras.

Coinciding with the lineup announcement, tickets and Build-Your-Own-Season Pass packages are now on sale. A full set of season tickets is $270, which includes all 14 shows. The Build-Your-Own-Season Pass option allows people to purchase tickets for six or more shows at a 10% discount, which comes out to about $19 a show, according to WTC.

For more information go to https://whitefishtheatreco.org/.

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