From Stage Dreams to Reality: Luanne Hunt and Jim Bellacera at Grand Oaks

Exploring Entertainment Ventures in The Villages: A Talk with Luanne Hunt and Jim Bellacera

In this episode of 'Open Forum in The Villages, Florida,' host Mike Roth interviews Luanne Hunt and Jim Bellacera about their backgrounds and their new theater venture at the Grand Oaks Resort. Luanne shares her extensive experience in the entertainment industry, while Jim talks about his background in personal development and event organization. Together, they discuss their plans for innovative dinner theater shows, including original musical compositions and themed events. They also touch on their efforts to build an audience through networking and the challenges and solutions they encounter in setting up their new venue.

00:00 Introduction to the Open Forum Podcast

01:42 Meet Luanne Hunt: From Community Theater to Recording Artist

02:39 Jim Bellacera: Personal Development and Entertainment

03:10 The Old Mill Playhouse and Nashville Knights

05:18 Transition to Grand Oaks Resort

07:21 Building a New Theater Experience

13:19 Upcoming Shows and Events

16:23 Introduction of John Kase and Event Details

17:03 Food and Menu Options

17:31 Seating Arrangements and Venue Setup

18:20 Concerts and Tribute Shows

22:10 Dinner Theater Pricing and Upcoming Events

27:06 Parking and Accessibility

27:47 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

Transcript

Luanne and Jim Bellacera Final Cut

[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages, Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the Villages. To get perspectives of what is happening here in the Villages Florida, we are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters in episodes.

[00:00:25] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. Listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project for you. This podcast brings you knowledge, inspiration, and a lot of things that people need to know about the villages and the people living here. Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week.

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Or the purple supporter box. Even a small donation of three to $10 a month makes a big difference, and you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on. I hope everyone enjoys today's show.

This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. I wanna welcome Luanne Hunt and Jim Bellacera, Luanne has a background in the entertainment industry. Luanne, why don't you share yours first?

[00:01:53] Luanne and Jim: I've been in the entertainment business for as long as I can remember. 

I started out professionally in community theater. 

[00:02:00] Mike Roth: Okay.

[00:02:01] Luanne and Jim: And then I moved into singing and vocal performance. I started out singing at retirement homes and county fairs, and then I got into. Teaching, singing for a long time I had a lot of shows with my students and that turned into me pursuing a career as a recording artist.

I've also been an entertainment promoter and put on dozens of shows throughout my lifetime. 

[00:02:29] Mike Roth: Where was that?

[00:02:30] Luanne and Jim: In Southern California.

[00:02:31] Mike Roth: You were in Southern California?

[00:02:33] Luanne and Jim: And then eventually we moved to the high desert of California. Victorville, apple Valley. 

[00:02:37] Mike Roth: Roy Rogers Museum. 

[00:02:38] Luanne and Jim: Yes. 

[00:02:39] Mike Roth: And Jim, what's your background?

[00:02:40] Luanne and Jim: Oh, it's interesting. I really wasn't the entertainer the same way that Annie was, but I call her Annie Luanne. I was in personal development public speaker trainer. I taught people how to overcome their fears and all that kind of wonderful things. But I was also involved in entertainment because I brought entertainment into all my events.

I did events with a few hundred people to arenas all across the United States and around the world.

[00:03:03] Mike Roth: I was out in the Ontario area. And then eventually we moved to the high desert of California, Victorville, Apple Valley. 

So Annie, I ran into you when you were doing the community theater at the Old Mill Playhouse. Why don't you tell our listening audience who may not have heard about that, what that was all about?

[00:03:23] Luanne and Jim: We met a lady here in The Villages when we first moved here four years ago.

Her name is Marie Bogdonoff and she runs this Villagers for Veterans Organization. we got to know her and we wound up doing a show for her back in 2022, and it was a big success. So she had been asking me over the years to do a few other things and I started this singer songwriter series.

In 2023 called Nashville Knights. we did some of those and they were successful. through that we got to know Craig Wolf at the Old Mill Playhouse, who's the general manager.

And we just sit around talking a lot of times, dreaming about the space over there because it's so wonderful and what could be done.

And Jim and I told him, we'd like to maybe do theater over here, it'd be really awesome.

And he was all for it. So next thing you know, Jim's building a stage and I planned a whole season of shows and Jim of course did his wizardry with the marketing and just drew so many people over there to our shows.

And so it was really successful and it was just a surprise to us because people took to it so quickly.

And were so willing to come out and support what we were doing.

[00:04:33] Mike Roth: I think there's a big market for entertainment here in The Villages.

[00:04:36] Luanne and Jim: I actually produced two albums for the purpose of overcoming ASCAP and BMI, so I could do videos and anything we wanted to do, didn't have to worry about paying anything. After meeting Annie. And learning about her skills and hearing many of the songs that she had written sung and, performed herself.

I realized the talent that she had. Then the longer we were together, the more I began to see all the things that this woman could do from creating videos, producing all kinds of things, working with musicians and turning those songs into just another level of quality. when you're someone like me who's been in this world and worked with so many pros.

I found out that we're gonna start doing something at the theater.

I was all in and helping her. 

[00:05:13] Mike Roth: Why don't we share with our listeners about your new theater?

[00:05:18] Luanne and Jim: I think we should preface it by saying that we have moved out of the Old Mill Playhouse.

They have decided to cancel all their live entertainment at the Old Mill Playhouse.

Luckily, we found out about Grand Oaks Resort We had been over there a few times to eat at their Bistro and Jim noticed they had some rooms and he said to me, maybe we should just go over and talk to them and see if they'd be willing to let us do this, what we're doing at the Old mill.

 So we did, and sure enough they were open to it. They have a big room, it's called the West Gallery, and they use it for weddings once in a while.

[00:05:53] Mike Roth: That's the room they used to have all of the carriages in. Exactly. They were beautiful carriages.

 They've actually walled off half of it.

That's a good thing because we wouldn't need as much space as it originally was. Yeah, they were on board and Jim built a stage in there, beautiful stage. And it's gonna be great 'cause now I'll be able to have flexibility, like we're gonna be doing dinner theater over there and that's something I know that people love.

[00:06:21] Luanne and Jim: There's something about dinner theater. People love it and they will keep it alive for those who've never been to Grand Oaks, it's simply breathtaking.

[00:06:28] Mike Roth: It's a lot of space. Unlimited parking.

[00:06:31] Luanne and Jim: Jim and I have talked about this so many times this last couple of weeks, but there's a misconception about where it is and how far it is because it's really close by.

[00:06:40] Mike Roth: by

[00:06:41] Luanne and Jim: It's funny 'cause they really do think it's way out in the country. It's 1.2 miles off the

441 hanging right on the Marion County Road. It's 1.2 miles to the driveway to the Grand Oaks resort.

[00:06:52] Mike Roth: That depends on where you're starting from.

If you're starting from Lady Lake in The Villages, not a problem. It's quite local.

[00:06:58] Luanne and Jim: It's seven minutes, but if you're coming from a different part of The Villages,

[00:07:01] Mike Roth: If you're coming from Newell, near The High school you're looking at 40 minutes to get up there.

[00:07:06] Luanne and Jim: The perception is it's way out in the country. And that's what the point she was trying to make.

It does feel like you're out there

[00:07:11] Mike Roth: They have so much open land 

[00:07:12] Luanne and Jim: almost have 400 acres. 

[00:07:13] Mike Roth: Alot of land.

[00:07:15] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. And just 

to be able to have the luxury of being able to control that room and create the environment in that room and build it out the way we wanna build it.

This is crazy 'cause when this whole thing was coming down with the theater, I told Annie, I go we really should go out there.

[00:07:28] Mike Roth: How big is the stage you built?

[00:07:30] Luanne and Jim: It's 24 by 12, 12 feet deep. 24 feet wide.

[00:07:34] Mike Roth: And how far off the ground is it?

[00:07:35] Luanne and Jim: It's 30 inches.

[00:07:37] Mike Roth: Okay. Does it have a curtain?

[00:07:38] Luanne and Jim: The backdrop is curtain, by the way, and then two sides is curtains. I'm also adding to it so that when the entertainers are coming up the steps, there's a little runway. I'm adding one more thing to it. Whether it be curtains, they will walk through so no one can see them when they're in the green room.

[00:07:52] Mike Roth: Okay. there's no front curtain.

And what did you do for the acoustics in that hale?

[00:07:56] Luanne and Jim: We're working on it right now. I'm actually talking to a professional that actually, that's all he does for a living.

He's done churches and schools and so on and so forth. So we're starting with. Adding more speakers so we can do it at a lower volume.

Which helps tremendously aiming downward at a 15 degree angle. So it's going towards the carpet on the ground. And then we'll be doing some stuff on the walls that will help also soften it.

[00:08:17] Mike Roth: That's great. 

What's your vision for this theater?

[00:08:19] Luanne and Jim: We want to bring a variety of entertainment there. The whole reason I wanted to start the theater to begin with was to do plays and musical. Because I have a theater background and that was my dream.

And so we definitely are gonna be doing quite a bit of that, but we also found out that people like to come out and see tribute shows or hear oldie music from their generation.

So we wanna bring a good bit of that in as well. the show that we have coming up on June 28th, which is a luau style show. 

[00:08:54] Mike Roth: Different.

[00:08:54] Luanne and Jim: Something maybe you'd see on a cruise ship or something. A specialty type show.

Where you have a variety of things happening, but it's also a fun atmosphere for people.

So we'll have different shows like that. Maybe murder mysteries, whatever we can dream

[00:09:12] Mike Roth: Oh, so that would be an original composition show as opposed to putting on a version of Oklahoma.

[00:09:16] Luanne and Jim: Exactly. I don't have any interest in putting on.

[00:09:20] Mike Roth: The

[00:09:20] Luanne and Jim: and true things because for me, as someone who's very creative,

I don't get any joy out of that.

'cause it's been done so many times. 

[00:09:29] Mike Roth: What

[00:09:29] Luanne and Jim: I don't have any fun doing something that's been done.

before.

We did a play at the old Mill in March called Betty and the Jocks spinning records at the Holiday Inn. it was a takeoff of Sam Phillips who started Sun Records label.

And he actually started a all female run radio station in Memphis.

[00:09:48] Mike Roth: I didn't know that.

[00:09:49] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. And so this play it wasn't nonfiction. There was a lot of stuff in it that was just made up, but it was based on that story.

And I wound up meeting a lady here in The Villages. Whose mother was one of the original women who worked at the

[00:10:02] Mike Roth: station.

[00:10:03] Luanne and Jim: And then I met another guy who knew the woman who wrote a book, 'cause she worked at Sun

[00:10:09] Mike Roth: Records back

[00:10:09] Luanne and Jim: the day as a publicist, and she wrote a book about her time at Sun Records her book is something that inspired that play.

 I did a mini documentary that we showed at the beginning of the play.

it was really a cool thing to do. I incorporated a little film into the play telling the backstory of the two main characters.

[00:10:26] Mike Roth: Very convenient. 

[00:10:27] Luanne and Jim: It was cool.

[00:10:28] Mike Roth: Are you gonna have a screen in the new theater to do a projection on 

[00:10:31] Luanne and Jim: It was nice to have it at the theater, but we are gonna have TVs.

We've actually bought a couple and we're gonna buy some more so we can have video going throughout I'll see what. We're gonna do in terms of the screen, but it's harder there because at the old mill, you've got the entire

[00:10:49] Mike Roth: Oh, a big screen. 

[00:10:50] Luanne and Jim: You can't put a screen behind the people on our stage at Grand Oaks because nobody would see it.

[00:10:55] Mike Roth: The problem I had at Old Mill when we did the improv show there is we couldn't use the projection screen. Because it would've meant projecting a background on the faces and bodies of all the players standing on the platform in front of the screen.

[00:11:08] Luanne and Jim: You get a lot of shadows, things like that.

[00:11:10] Mike Roth: Yeah. 

[00:11:11] Luanne and Jim: right,

[00:11:11] Mike Roth: We're gonna take a short break and listen to an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis.

[00:11:16] Dr. Craig Curtis: All scientists feel. All doctors Feel that you should definitely engage your brain and get involved in crossword puzzles, Sudoku, whatever types of brain stimulation you enjoy and do it on a regular basis. 

[00:11:29] Warren: Experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life.

To learn more, visit his website, craig curtis md.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

[00:11:44] Mike Roth: I'm back with Luanne Hunt and Jim Bellacera.

How are you going to go about building the audience?

[00:11:50] Luanne and Jim: So my background is networking. I've networked with thousands upon thousands of people. I've had. Two organizations with over a couple hundred thousand people in 'em. And I started both of them with me. That was it, nobody else. as I started to meet people, I would discover some of these people were parts of groups.

Either that or they had influence with four or five or 10 other people that were in their neighborhood or just friends Quickly I caught on to this and I started grouping them together when they would order tickets for themselves. then someone would ask me a question, I'm bringing several people with me, and I would start reserving their seats, which developed into really good relationships with people, whether they were parts of clubs or just influential with their friends.

Now we have over a hundred leaders. And again, these leaders, some of 'em are in clubs. Some of 'em are just influential, but they're leaders nonetheless. And so that's what got me to really recognize that. And so I started creating. Group spots. This leads me to what she's wanting to do at the theater.

Now having dinner. They get to sit in rounds rather than theater style, They're actually sitting at a table so they can put their drinks on the table as well as, eating their food. But they're talking to each other. They're facing each other.

This is much bigger. so I would talk to everybody about coming together as a group. they started reaching out to their friends, and that's how it turned into the number of people that we have that are influential in bringing groups. They brought the bulk of the people, not me.

I just met the key people and then turned that into, an opportunity for them to bring their friends.

[00:13:19] Mike Roth: When is the first production going to come on?

[00:13:22] Luanne and Jim: It's gonna be on June 7th. We have a lady by the name of Hannah Tim. She has sung on Broadway.

She's a TV personality. She's been a host on home Shopping Network and QVC. she does a show called Judy at a hundred Judy Garland. it's a multimedia presentation. she goes through the life of Judy Garland and all the music, and there's narration she's a phenomenal singer.

Her husband, who's also been on Broadway, plays piano for her. he's gonna do a little tribute to Bobby Darren. It's gonna be a cool event. 

[00:13:58] Mike Roth: That's tomorrow. But when you talked about a tribute to Judy Garland there's a lady here in The Villages who wrote a tribute show to Mae West, that might be something of great interest. The lady who wrote it, I saw her sitting down the piano playing the songs that she wrote, and she was acting as Mae West, it was fantastic. the producer took her out of the show completely.

man.

 But there were a couple of other writers here in The Villages, like Wayne Richards, who has written several shows that have not been produced on Broadway, but he owns 'cause he wrote 'em. That you might want to talk to over time.

Do you have a show calendar for the rest of 2025 in your mind?

[00:14:44] Luanne and Jim: I have been putting together shows.

 Some of them are not completely confirmed yet. 

I will be doing three

[00:14:51] Luanne Hunt: Luaus

this summer, one in June, the one on the 28th. And then there's one at the end of July, one in August, and we also have a musical about John Denver that I've written, and it's all original music. So that's gonna be on October 17th, 18th.

[00:15:08] Mike Roth: So it's not none of the John Denver songs that we're all familiar with.

[00:15:11] Luanne and Jim: we will have a pre-show with some John Denver music so people will be able to enjoy that and get in the mood for the presentation of this show.

We're planning something as a pre New Year's thing, and right now we're trying to get our entertainment for that. And then in July, we have a Beatles tribute coming Liverpool live on July 13th. It's a Sunday afternoon. 

[00:15:36] Mike Roth: So you're bringing in performance for that? Yes. 

[00:15:38] Luanne and Jim: Okay. That's what we have so far. It's here. I don't know whether we'll be adding anything more for now.

[00:15:43] Mike Roth: I don't remember a luau dinner theater here in The Villages in the past seven years that I've been here. Maybe someone does, but could you explain for our listeners what a luau dinner theater is?

[00:15:56] Luanne and Jim: I say it's a luau style dinner.

[00:15:58] Mike Roth: In my opinion, it's not a luau unless you have a roast pig.

[00:16:02] Luanne and Jim: Exactly. it's luau style. we're gonna 

have Hawaiian dancers. 

[00:16:06] Mike Roth: Okay.

[00:16:06] Luanne and Jim: And we're also going to have a gentleman come and play, a steel drum presentation. Which is gonna be awesome.

[00:16:14] Mike Roth: Steel drum.

[00:16:15] Luanne and Jim: Yeah, steel drums and some music. Original music by myself that I've written in style of

[00:16:23] Mike Roth: Hawaiian music. 

[00:16:23] Luanne and Jim: Then we have a gentleman by the name of John Kase he's singer songwriter

Oh, I know John very well. John was in my improv group regularly.

He's gonna be doing a tribute to Jimmy Buffett.

[00:16:34] Mike Roth: During the show.

[00:16:35] Luanne and Jim: So it's a combination with a lu afield, but then we have the buffet thing going on, kind of island style. It's called Jim and Annie's island party. And then we'll have, pineapple chicken and things like that on the buffet. Appropriate food for the theme,

[00:16:49] Mike Roth: But no real poi.

[00:16:50] Luanne and Jim: No. Nothing like that,

[00:16:51] Mike Roth: Oh, good.

[00:16:52] Luanne and Jim: I don't think anyone will be upset.

[00:16:54] Mike Roth: I couldn't eat that 

[00:16:55] Luanne and Jim: No, it's not so hot.

[00:16:57] Mike Roth: I guess if you grew up with it, it's great.

[00:16:59] Luanne and Jim: Somebody asked us, this morning? Is everybody gonna get laid? And we said yes.

[00:17:03] Mike Roth: What are you gonna do for people who have a vegetarian or other special diet?

[00:17:08] Luanne and Jim: We have a vegetarian option.

[00:17:10] Mike Roth: okay.

[00:17:10] Luanne and Jim: the menu, we'll have a vegetarian option,

[00:17:13] Mike Roth: and

[00:17:14] Luanne and Jim: there's salad and vegetables and all kinds of things too. So it's gonna be buffet style? Yeah, it's a buffet.

[00:17:20] Mike Roth: and how many people are you gonna have in the room? 

[00:17:22] Luanne and Jim: We're hoping between two and 300.

[00:17:24] Mike Roth: so you got a lot of tables to get 300 in there?

[00:17:27] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. it maxes out at 350 with the tables.

[00:17:30] Mike Roth: Yeah. So yeah, we do our improv shows.

The first ones we did were theater style seating and then we threw that idea away real fast and went to round tables of eight.

[00:17:40] Luanne and Jim: We also have the TVs that are gonna be

[00:17:42] Mike Roth: The TVs are gonna help.

[00:17:44] Luanne and Jim: We're gonna have at least four of them.

[00:17:46] Mike Roth: We can't put TVs into the rec centers. not without a tremendous amount of expense of putting 'em in and pulling 'em out.

'cause you can't leave anything there overnight if you're doing two consecutive shows.

[00:17:55] Luanne and Jim: This is one of the nice things about this place. The arrangement that they've made with us is beautiful. We can come in days early, set up and then

[00:18:03] Mike Roth: Do you do dress rehearsals?

[00:18:05] Luanne and Jim: No problem.

[00:18:05] Mike Roth: Yeah. That's a problem in The Villages.

[00:18:07] Luanne and Jim: Yes. And that was a huge problem for the theater when they were practicing for the play.

They would have to come at eight o'clock in the morning, stop by 10 o'clock sometimes that was the best time they would give would be by 10 and sometimes just 9:30, but I wanted to add one thing. I don't know if this is something you guys wanna put on the talk or not, but I started doing these concerts over at the theater

[00:18:26] Mike Roth: You were in the front area, the atrium 

[00:18:28] Luanne and Jim: And the concert I'm talking about specifically are the tribute type concerts. And the first ones we had was Elvis Presley and Hank Williams senior. And we maxed it out, 300 people. the next one we did, which was the last one on April 13th, we did a Patsy Klein and Johnny Cash and I maxed it out twice. So 300 back to back. So it's 600 people and this one will be actually, 'cause it'll, it's being moved over there. It'll be after your podcast is aired. But it's something that could be talked about 'cause we'll continue to do this. I have some others planned

[00:18:58] Mike Roth: What area are you gonna use for these concerts?

[00:19:02] Luanne and Jim: I'm using our Room,

[00:19:03] Mike Roth: theater. 

[00:19:03] Luanne and Jim: Yeah, it'll be a free concert. So people can come, they just have the RSVP, there's no other way to to come in. But that room actually holds a little bit more people.

We're planning on doing back to backs. So the the Engelberg Humperdink and Friends concert that we're doing. That's a tough name to say.

[00:19:19] Mike Roth: Yes it is.

[00:19:19] Luanne and Jim: But he does Tom Jones. oh my goodness. Does he do Kenny Rogers? No, but he, George Strait. He does several different celebrities and he's got a beautiful voice, but he's also performed several times over at the Orange Blossom Opry. this will be the first time he's performed for free, but he knows that, people like him, they'll leave tips and so forth and it really works out well.

Everybody wins. I do the advertising. Money comes to me. But it does bring people to knowing about the location. They get a feel for us,

[00:19:47] Mike Roth: That's a great dirty trick to bring people in to see how close it is. To see what a nice facility it is. Now are you gonna set up the seating in round tables or are you gonna seat them auditorium style.

[00:19:58] Luanne and Jim: We have not made that decision yet. But it is, gonna be either or She really wants, and I agree with her, I like the round table because it gives people the opportunity to speak to each other and meet friends. I'm all about that. I'm the guy that builds organizations where it's all about know and trust, build those relationships.

And you can't do that when you're sitting theater style.

[00:20:16] Mike Roth: You could talk to one person on either side and that was it. 

[00:20:19] Luanne and Jim: That's all the things that I've done throughout my career have always been about building relationships.

[00:20:24] Mike Roth: Then you have to stick with the round tables.

[00:20:26] Luanne and Jim: I agree. 

[00:20:26] Mike Roth: It's great.

[00:20:26] Luanne and Jim: That's why I was doing what I was telling you before with the groups.

I sat 'em all together, but I know the guy at the very end, or lady at the very end, she's not talking to the one on the other side.

[00:20:34] Mike Roth: Yeah. 

[00:20:35] Luanne and Jim: But with the round tables, yes they

[00:20:36] Mike Roth: It's easier. Are you gonna have people bringing in their own snacks?

[00:20:40] Luanne and Jim: That's a great question. the facility will provide the alcohol and the snacks and so forth. And there's a bistro there too, so depending on, I don't think they have the bistro on Sundays. so that won't be available But there will be snacks and alcohol.

[00:20:52] Mike Roth: You have to get a lot of people in. 

[00:20:53] Luanne and Jim: I think at the same time they're trying to, we're all like learning each other, 'cause we are gonna be a long-term relationship with them we wanna help them too. Bring more attention to that place 'cause it is spectacular. And we ate in the bistro a few weeks ago 'cause I had eaten there with Jim probably two or three years ago. this time it was like, oh my God, they got new management with new cooks and everything.

in fact, the chef. Has 35 years experience. The food was fabulous.

[00:21:22] Mike Roth: Oh, that's great. 

[00:21:23] Luanne and Jim: Anytime.

[00:21:24] Mike Roth: I remember the last time I went out there for dinner. They were serving lobster, but you had to call a week before to make a reservation for a lobster.

[00:21:32] Luanne and Jim: Oh, really? Yeah. Interesting. They probably had to buy in advance. But yeah it's unbelievable how much the food's been upgraded. It's fantastic. Let's be straight. She's a critic. She's an amazing chef. She doesn't just write songs, write plays, write musicals. This woman can also do videos.

She's an excellent chef. And wherever we go to eat. we're not going back if the food's not good. That's why we didn't go back to the bistro. She loves it there. Oh yeah. The food is excellent.

[00:21:57] Mike Roth: One of the topics. I'm getting close to putting together a second podcast.

It's gonna be called mature Adults in The Villages, What are the good restaurants in The Villages? What are the ones to avoid?

Yeah. So what kind of cost Is it gonna someone to go to one of your dinner theater shows or regular shows?

[00:22:15] Luanne and Jim: Our typical price is $60 for general admission, and $68 for VIP, which are probably gonna be like the first two rows. And of course there're dinners included in that. 

[00:22:27] Mike Roth: If there's a show without a dinner?

[00:22:28] Luanne and Jim: I don't know, because right now we're pretty much. Stuck on doing the dinner theater.

I don't know if we're gonna even go to a theater style. 

[00:22:36] Mike Roth: You had some shows that were RSVP only. Those are free. and everyone's supposed to give a donation when they leave.

[00:22:40] Luanne and Jim: Oh, they don't have to. they can tip the artist if they want, but they're not required to.

No one's required. So we'll stay with this dinner theater concept, though, but that's gonna be our general price. The show that I'm working on, it's like a pre New Year's Eve celebration We've scheduled it for December 27th. that show will be a little bit more because we're planning on upgrading the food, like maybe doing filet and salmon 

So if we have, that kind of food, the ticket price will go up a bit, but generally we'll just be doing that price, the 60.

[00:23:13] Mike Roth: Are you gonna do a New Year's Eve show?

[00:23:15] Luanne and Jim: This isn't on New Year's Eve, but it's a few days before 

[00:23:17] Mike Roth: put it on December 31st.

[00:23:19] Luanne and Jim: No, we're not gonna do that. 

[00:23:21] Mike Roth: Take that day off. Okay.

[00:23:22] Luanne and Jim: a lot of artists especially this year, have already been booked in advance. So we thought, let's do a pre-New Year's Eve thing.

this way people don't have to stay in there till midnight or anything. You know when you consider the cost of the, let's say it's a $60 seat instead of 68, the VIP is VIP, but you're gonna spend just for lunch. You're gonna spend $30 before you even pay the tip. Every place we go to eat at lunchtime is 30 bucks.

You know you're gonna get, so when you look at what you're getting entertainment that typically is gonna cost between 25 to 55, 75, even a hundred dollars. Without the meal.

[00:23:55] Mike Roth: Yeah. after improv, we go out to Kumu or Paizano and just for me alone last night was like $20 tab. And I didn't eat a lot 'cause it was, nine o'clock at night.

[00:24:07] Luanne and Jim: When. We go to lunch, like he said, we'll pay between 30 and $40 Every time and dinner. You'll pay 50, 60, $70 for dinner depending upon where you go. By the way, that's without alcohol. we don't even drink, so we don't drink.

That's not clued in a dessert. We don't even buy soft drinks. So that's just that. And then if you go to a show at the Savannah Center, for instance, they have their tickets usually start at 40, 45 and a lot of 'em go up to 60.

[00:24:34] Mike Roth: Yeah, even higher or you could pay $60

[00:24:37] Luanne and Jim: Just for the

[00:24:38] Mike Roth: Yeah. I paid, over a hundred dollars for the tickets for Book of Mormon.

[00:24:42] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. That's the problem too. So we wanna bring quality. For a reasonable price, but for two people to be able to go out to a dinner and a show for, $120 for the whole evening, you got everything. The other day we went down to St. John's River, they have a river ship cruise. it was $71 a person.

[00:25:04] Mike Roth: And

[00:25:04] Luanne and Jim: We got a fabulous meal. They had prime rib on their menu. And salmon and all this stuff. And so you get the meal and you.

[00:25:12] Mike Roth: Nice meal.

[00:25:12] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. Very nice meal. You get the boat ride.

They have live entertainment for 71 bucks 

[00:25:18] Mike Roth: Depends on where you were sitting. We've taken that cruise twice with the Mercedes Club If you're in the back, you don't even know the entertainers are on the ship.

[00:25:25] Luanne and Jim: They do it differently because they have a television set upstairs

That the entertainers have seen on there and they've piped in the sound throughout the boat.

[00:25:35] Mike Roth: Oh, they improved it.

[00:25:36] Luanne and Jim: So you hear everything the whole time. But for $150. We got a full day of entertainment, and everything was included. people pay a lot just to go on a cruise for that kind of package deal.

Where they get their food, they get the shows.

[00:25:49] Mike Roth: That makes it a much better package.

[00:25:51] Luanne and Jim: So we felt like this is really reasonable.

[00:25:53] Mike Roth: How many shows do you think you're gonna put on average

[00:25:55] Luanne and Jim: For now? two.

[00:25:57] Mike Roth: Two shows a month.

[00:25:58] Luanne and Jim: Next year we wanna do three or four a month, depending upon.

what we can bring in. But this year, since we're halfway through, is a let's just test the waters.

[00:26:08] Mike Roth: And

[00:26:09] Luanne and Jim: Work out the kinks of a new venue and see what the public response is, and then we can go full board in 2026.

[00:26:16] Mike Roth: I wish you a lot of luck, and I'm sure our audience will want to know how to get a hold of you to make the reservation for the $60 Dinner Theater. How do they do that?

[00:26:25] Luanne and Jim: They go to stellar stage shows.com.

[00:26:29] Mike Roth: Spell that out.

[00:26:30] Luanne and Jim: S-T-E-L-L-A-R, stage S-T-A-G-E, shows, SHOW S.com. if you're gonna RSVP to a free event, there's a tab that says free events, and you just do the free events.

The homepage is where you buy all the tickets, and there's also a form where you can join our email list. 

[00:26:53] Mike Roth: How many people do you have on your email list now?

[00:26:56] Luanne and Jim: You can tell It's a lot.

[00:26:57] Mike Roth: It's a lot. Which means Thousands. That's good.

[00:27:00] Luanne and Jim: Yeah. He builds it up fast.

[00:27:02] Mike Roth: Thanks for being on the show. did I forget to ask you any questions you want to answer?

[00:27:06] Luanne and Jim: I guess some people might wanna know about the parking situation over there. Because there was a concert a few months ago with Chubby Checker and people were buzzing on the internet and they were complaining 'cause they had to pay for parking.

But in our case, all the parking's gonna be free over there and there's plenty of it. And even if you have to park out from the building. We'll have golf carts shuttle on you to the front door.

[00:27:30] Mike Roth: Oh, that's great. 

[00:27:30] Luanne and Jim: be really convenient. if somebody, has a walker or wheelchair, whatever, they can drop 'em off right out front. And then they can just turn around and go to the park. Their vehicle. And like she said, be golf carts to shuttle them back and forth if need be.

[00:27:43] Mike Roth: And you're gonna have the signage so people know where to go.

[00:27:46] Luanne and Jim: Yes. 

[00:27:46] Mike Roth: That's great. Thanks for being with us. 

[00:27:48] Luanne and Jim: you, Mike.

[00:27:49] Emily: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9:00 AM. Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemmich, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K 2 in the Villages.

We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening or just tell your friends about the show. We thank everyone for listening to the show.

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