Actors Theatre of Indiana is swapping go-go boots for platform shoes as it opens its new season with “Never Can Say Goodbye: The ’70s Beehive Musical,” a jukebox revue built around more than 30 songs that defined the decade of disco, folk, and classic rock. The show, which follows the success of the company's 2025 hit “Beehive: The ’60s Musical,” opens Thursday, September 4, at The Studio Theater in Carmel.
The six-woman ensemble performing the new production includes Rachel Dudt, Riley Francis, Deborah Mae Hill, Michaela McGarel, Kayla Perry, and Kira Rangel, according to BroadwayWorld. Five of the six are returning cast members from Actors Theatre of Indiana's prior production, a detail that underscores how directly this new show builds on last year's run. Cast member Debbie, who recently appeared in “Sunset Boulevard,” joined the ensemble for this outing, according to WISH-TV.
Onstage, the sextet performs hits by artists including Gloria Gaynor, Blondie, the Jackson 5, LaBelle, Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Heart, and Pat Benatar, per WISH-TV's reporting. Cast member Rachel Dudt told the station that the 1970s marked a major shift in popular music as new genres and subgenres emerged, and that the show offers folk, country, rock, and disco in a mix she called a crowd pleaser. Dudt also said Beehive and the new production have a natural connection, since the music evolves from one decade to the next, and added that the cast will be ready when the curtain goes up.
Same Creative Team, Now Chasing a Different Decade
“Never Can Say Goodbye” was written by Fred Stuart with musical arrangements and orchestrations by George Luton, and it is published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide as an official sequel to Larry Gallagher's 1986 off-Broadway hit “Beehive: The ’60s Musical,” which celebrated female vocalists of the 1960s. Director and choreographer Carol Worcel leads the Carmel staging, continuing a long-standing relationship with Actors Theatre of Indiana that has included her prior work directing “Beehive: The ’60s Musical,” “A Grand Night for Singing,” and “Gypsy.”
Actors Theatre of Indiana's production marks the regional premiere of “Never Can Say Goodbye” in Central Indiana, arriving after the show's initial licensing rollout in late 2025 and summer 2026. The staging follows directly on the heels of the company's September 2025 run of “Beehive: The ’60s Musical,” which opened the theater's 2025–2026 season and helped establish local audience demand for a 1970s follow-up.
Where and When to Catch the Show
Performances run at The Studio Theater inside the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts campus at 4 Carter Green in Carmel, a flexible 200-seat black-box venue that is one of three performance spaces on the campus alongside The Palladium and The Tarkington. The production features 1970s fashion and energy and gives audiences a way to experience the decade through its defining songs and artists, offering a mix that includes rock, country, folk, soul, and disco. The run continues through Saturday, September 20.
Theatergoers who attend the Sunday, September 13 performance can stick around for a Second Sunday Talkback, a post-show question-and-answer session giving audience members a chance to hear directly from the cast and creative team. Bier Brewery is providing complimentary beer at that talkback.
New Leadership, Full Season Ahead
The 1970s musical opens Actors Theatre of Indiana's 2026–2027 season, which will also include “Little Shop of Horrors” in October, “The Maltese Falcon,” and “A Little Night Music.” The season kicks off under new administrative leadership: in July, the company appointed former board president and former City of Carmel communications consultant Dan McFeely as its new Executive Director, succeeding retiring leader Jim Reilly, according to The Reporter.
Co-founded in 2005 by Cynthia Collins, Don Farrell, and Judy Fitzgerald, Actors Theatre of Indiana remains Hamilton County's only professional Actors' Equity Association theater company, a union status that mandates professional salaries and standards for its cast and crew.
