There are certain things Sarasota understands instinctively: sunshine, waterfront living, a well-timed dinner reservation and music that sounds infinitely better when accompanied by the fantasy that somewhere nearby, someone is backing a yacht out of the marina.
So naturally, Florida Studio Theatre’s Sailing: Yacht Rock and Beyond feels less like a theatrical theme and more like a civic responsibility.
Sarasota Was Made for Yacht Rock
The production, playing in FST’s intimate Court Cabaret as part of its 2026–27 Winter Cabaret Season, takes audiences cruising straight into the gloriously polished sounds of the 1970s and early ’80s — an era when harmonies were silky, hair was ambitious and heartbreak apparently came with an excellent saxophone solo.
And really, could there be a more Sarasota show?
This is a town where “casual” can still involve linen, valet parking and shoes that have never encountered an actual boat deck.
Sailing: Yacht Rock and Beyond understands the assignment.
The revue was created by Richard Hopkins, Rebecca Hopkins and Catherine Randazzo, with musical arrangements by longtime FST collaborator Jim Prosser. Randazzo also directs, while Zach Spound serves as music director. The cast features J.D. Daw, Gemma Pedersen, Lorenzo Pugliese and Talitha McDougall Jones, tackling music associated with the gloriously smooth universe of Christopher Cross, The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Olivia Newton-John and their musical neighbors.
A Soundtrack Built for Smooth Sailing
If the phrase “yacht rock” still makes you picture Thurston Howell III holding a guitar, some history is in order.
The music itself flourished roughly between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, though nobody was standing around a Los Angeles recording studio in 1979 announcing, “Gentlemen, today we are making yacht rock.” The label actually arrived decades later, popularized by a 2005 online comedy series celebrating — and gently teasing — that impeccably produced West Coast sound.
Think layered harmonies. Smooth keyboards. Soul and R&B influences. Immaculate production. Romantic lyrics. Music that never seems particularly worried about anything.
In other words: the musical equivalent of SPF 50 and somebody else paying the marina fees.
FST has assembled a playlist filled with songs that require approximately three notes before half the room starts smiling.
There’s Christopher Cross’ “Sailing,” of course, along with “Brandy,” “Margaritaville,” “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and “Arthur’s Theme.”
These aren’t merely old songs. They are tiny time machines.
One melody and suddenly somebody is back in a convertible in 1981.
Someone else is remembering a first date.
And another audience member is quietly realizing that yes, they apparently still know every word.
That is the sly pleasure of a production like this.
Why These Songs Still Work
Nostalgia can become painfully syrupy when handled badly. But yacht rock comes with its own built-in wink. The genre has been rediscovered by younger audiences precisely because it is simultaneously fabulous and just a little ridiculous.
We can adore it without pretending there wasn’t a considerable amount of polyester involved.
The best part is that beneath the retro fun, these songs are remarkably sophisticated. Yacht rock may sound effortless, but musically it is anything but. Intricate vocal arrangements, jazz influences, R&B rhythms and carefully engineered melodies are hidden beneath all that breezy California cool. Randazzo has described the style as heavily arranged, melodic music filled with harmony and love stories — which explains why it has survived far beyond its original era.
And the Court Cabaret is exactly where this material belongs.
Rather than watching from some enormous auditorium, audiences are tucked into FST’s intimate cabaret environment, where performers and patrons occupy essentially the same musical orbit. There’s food, there are drinks available, and the atmosphere allows the songs to feel less like museum pieces and more like an evening out.
That distinction matters.
Because Sailing isn’t really asking us to study the 1970s.
It is asking us to enjoy them.
There will always be room for theater that challenges us, unsettles us and sends us home contemplating the existential condition of humanity.
But occasionally?
We would simply like Christopher Cross.
And perhaps a Piña Colada.
And maybe a song about a woman named Brandy who really deserved better.
Florida Studio Theatre knows its audience well enough to understand that pure entertainment is not a dirty word. There is something enormously satisfying about sitting in a darkened cabaret while four talented performers revisit music you had forgotten you remembered.
By the end, you may find yourself wondering why we ever stopped making songs this unapologetically melodic.
You may also experience an inexplicable desire to purchase white trousers.
Proceed cautiously.
Sailing: Yacht Rock and Beyond runs at Florida Studio Theatre’s Court Cabaret through February 7, 2027, giving Sarasota plenty of time to climb aboard.
No yacht required.
Although in Sarasota, statistically speaking, somebody in the audience probably has one.
And really, darling, that seems exactly right.
https://www.floridastudiotheatre.org
