Opening season to be a love letter to the Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre has announced its 2026-27 season programming, featuring beloved titles intended to draw audiences back to the downtown Winter Garden destination. 

After the doors closed on regular live productions in 2024, the theater now has been revived with a full programming schedule. DNA Productions, a Winter-Garden based production company working with the city to manage the theater, plans to present a wide range of performances that reflect the heart of Winter Garden’s past and future. 

Dennis Morgan, executive creative director for DNA Productions, described this first season of live programming as a love letter to the original theater that opened in 1935. 

“The theater originally started as a cinema house; those are its roots,” Morgan said. “We wanted to celebrate the fact that it is now a cinema house and a live-events theater.”

The season’s theatrical series includes “Footloose: The Musical,” “Come What May: A Tribute to Moulin Rouge & Other Movie Musicals,” “The 39 Steps,” “Josie & Grace” and “9 to 5: The Musical.”

Alina Williams, executive producer of DNA Productions, said choosing well-known productions was a deliberate choice to bring audiences back and entice newcomers to the theater.

“What’s cool about the theming is that people might not have that whole interest in theater, but they’ll know these titles,” Williams said. “They’ll know ‘Footloose.’ They may have seen the movie, and it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m familiar with this piece,’ so hopefully that will encourage some new fans of the future.”

The season also includes a concert series, including “The Rocket Man Show,” “Rhinestone Cowgirls,” “Beatles to Bourbon Street” and “A1A: The Official + Original Jimmy Buffett Tribute Show.”

The Garden Theatre’s season also features special community-driven events such as “Wild World of Animals,” “Haunted Illusions,” “Mutts Gone Nuts” and “Celtic Angels Ireland.”

Morgan said “Mutts Gone Nuts” is a performance with adoptable dogs from the Polka Dogz shelter. 

“We want to help the shelter in our community,” Morgan said. “We want our productions to dig deeper and find those connections with components of our city where we really can make a difference, and ‘Mutts Gone Nuts’ is a really fun one.”

DNA Productions also has announced its holiday programming, featuring “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.” 

The members of DNA Productions  emphasized the Plant Street community has played a major role in revitalizing the theater. 

“Every time we have a show, you’re anticipating a full theater,” Williams said. “The spillover of that is, they’re going to go to dinner before the show, they’re going to go have a cocktail before the show, they’re going to grab coffee before the show. We want to see them spilling into the streets to support the restaurants, the stores, everything around the area.” 

Morgan said the community’s response to the theater so far reflects a desire for a dedicated space to gather. He believes people are seeking meaningful opportunities to connect with family and friends in a unique and creative space.

The desire for connection through live performance is familiar to both Morgan and Williams. 

Williams has an extensive theater background in Central Florida. She grew up in the area, studied theater at Dr. Phillips High School and the University of Central Florida, and worked with the Broadway series at the Bob Carr Theatre through the Florida Theatrical Association. Morgan graduated from the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and began touring regional productions across the country before joining Walt Disney World. 

The duo spent years bringing entertainment to corporate events across the country. But with both having prominent theater backgrounds, Morgan and Williams decided sourcing talent and producing live performances felt like home to them. 

“As a lifelong resident of Central Florida, theater has always been a part of my story here in Winter Garden,” Williams said. “We felt it was very important to do whatever we could to be sure that the theater community thrived.”

As the season approaches, DNA Productions invites the community to embark on this next chapter.

“What we’re trying to provide for everyone is just this future-forward look at everything,” Morgan said. “We invite everyone to come join us on what we believe is going to be a really wonderful journey.”