Peter Rothstein’s staging talent and moxie continue in Florida

The weather, we were told at the airport, was “nippy.” Yes, 62 and partly sunny is nippy in Sarasota. In Minnesota, we call that summer.

We had traveled to Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast to attend “Inherit the Wind,” Peter Rothstein’s inaugural production as producing artistic director at Asolo Repertory Theatre.

I’ve covered Rothstein’s career in the Twin Cities for nearly 20 years. I felt some ownership of his success and one of our favorite nights out in retirement was a Theater Latté Da opening night. So seeing him here, in a new world, launching his second act, felt necessary — nostalgic, a little melancholic, but good. Besides, Twin Cities actors Mark Benninghofen, Sasha Andreev and Sally Wingert are in the show that runs through Feb. 24.

Asolo Rep is the largest Actors’ Equity theater in Florida, with an $11 million annual budget (more than three times what Rothstein had during his 25 years at Latte Da). It sits cheek by jowl with the Ringling, a series of art museums, a mansion, gravesites and beachfronts on 66 acres of property once owned by circus barons John and Mable Ringling. The greatest attraction was the “Howard Brothers Circus,” a miniature display of a Ringling circus visiting a small town, circa 1910. It is the greatest model train set you will ever see.

Asolo itself is easy to get to. You can literally walk from the airport. The main theater is a gorgeous 530-seat auditorium that once was a Scottish opera house. As such, it has some of the “classic old theater” issues — sight lines — but in its entirety the vibe is charming and the alacrity of the standing ovation on opening night would have shamed Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater.

It was a warm Sunday afternoon in September 2001, when I walked into the Loring Playhouse in Minneapolis to review Latté Da’s production of “The Rink.” Rothstein apologized for making me work on such a rare day.

“I hope we can make it worth your while,” he said.

I adored the production. Rothstein had found the devastating heart of a time passed. I can still see the colored lights strung across the proscenium, the roller-skating dancers, the big voices.

I was in the Westminster Presbyterian Church auditorium in 2007 when Rothstein’s “All is Calm” premiered, before it became a classic that would win acclaim in New York and be filmed by PBS. He had teamed up with the vocal group Cantus for a musical essay on the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Seeing Benninghofen and Wingert at Asolo reminded me of Rothstein’s gorgeous “Sweeney Todd,” a razor-sharp production that packed the Ritz Theater in northeast Minneapolis, and his chamber version of “Ragtime” conveyed raw and honest emotions of people caught in hard times. He has brought both shows to the Asolo Rep.

Rothstein launched “Twelve Angry Men” as a contemporary opera in 2022 after I’d retired. I wrote to him that it felt like an important American work. If you get down to Sarasota in May, you’ll see a lot of Twin Cities actors in the cast.

As we walked into the lobby to watch “Inherit the Wind,” I could hear Rothstein’s voice amplified. I followed it up to a donor dinner on the mezzanine. He was talking about how he had always wanted to do this show and how happy he was that this was his first official production in office at Asolo Rep.

I have to admit, I didn’t get it. My experience with “Inherit the Wind” was a small professional production years ago that seemed to confirm its community theater reputation. It is unmistakably current, but tinged by a bit of the sepia in those well-made 1950s dramas.

Then the show started and I got it: This was a Peter Rothstein show, chock-full of the detail and observation that marked all of his shows. He uses music to lubricate the joints of an old play; he helps it step through the choreography of real life. The show springs from the stage.

“Inherit the Wind” concerns the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1920s Tennessee. It’s a contest between censorship and the freedom for a teacher to teach evolution. Benninghofen, sporting a 4 a.m.-on-the-subway couture, slouches into the leading role of attorney Henry Drummond. Andrew Long goes toe to toe with Benninghofen as Matthew Harrison Brady, the fundamentalist crusader bent on stopping the encroachment of evolution. The show is still talky in the second act but the ideas land with truth. It is a solid play made better by Rothstein’s work.

Asolo Rep is a great opportunity for Rothstein. As we walked through the theater’s huge new production facilities, he talked about other classic shows that could be liberated with music. “Wouldn’t that make a good opera?” he asked of one play. “But they won’t give us the rights.”

Oh well. He’ll try again. And again.

And Sarasota is a good place to do that. It’s a city rare in Florida for its embrace of the arts and typical of the Gulf Coast with the fabulous beaches, the keys — and the “nippy” breezes that smell like summer in January.

Graydon Royce is a retired Star Tribune theater critic.