After 30 years of performing stand-up comedy in clubs across the nation, being featured on Good Morning America, headlining in Las Vegas and opening for the likes of Louie Anderson, Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, comedian Dean Napolitano is taking his comedy to the theatrical stage in a trilogy of one-man shows that will chronicle his younger self — first growing up in the 1970s and ’80s on Long Island, New York, and then moving to Florida, where he married and became a father. The simpler, nostalgic and non-technological lifestyle and the focus on family are central themes for each chapter.
Bart Drive Boys, the first in the series, is a nostalgic look back at Napolitano’s family and eccentric childhood friends, weaving stories and humor from growing up. Baseball in the streets, card games in the basement, school field trips, growing up Catholic and freedom on the BMX — all are stories that will take the audience back to their own childhood.
Napolitano, a resident of Deltona, is opening Bart Drive Boys in Central Florida at Shoestring Theatre in Lake Helen with five performances before hitting the road for private corporate events, replacing many of his normal stand-up performances with the theatrical show.
Napolitano had originally planned to tour the show in 2020 after performing the first incarnation as a fundraiser for the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center in Sanford. However, COVID cancellations postponed the tour until now.
Bart Drive Boys is co-produced and directed by entertainment veteran Jeffrey Ault.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25 and 26, and Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, and Sunday, March 6.
Tickets cost $20 for adults; $15 for students with ID (student tickets may only be purchased in person at the box office); and $14 per person for groups of 12 or more.
Shoestring Theatre is at 380 S. Goodwin St. in Lake Helen. For more information, call 386-228-3777.
