Lemon Bay Playhouse presents 'Sicilians In The Basement'

ENGLEWOOD — Playwrights occasionally have talkbacks with audience members about the play they just watched. Joe Simonelli is no exception.

Simonelli, who writes and directs plays in Southwest Florida, says one of the questions he often fields is how he comes up with ideas for his plays.

One time he was conducting a talkback in New Jersey and a patron lamented that his wife was upset. “I asked, ‘How come?’” Simonelli said.

The man responded that they were soon to host relatives from overseas.

“She’s upset because she’s going to have Sicilians in the basement,” the man said. Simonelli responded, “’That’s a great title for a play’ and I wrote it.”

The man went to see the play. And now you can, too.

“Sicilians In The Basement” will be presented April 24-May 12 at Lemon Bay Playhouse in Englewood.

Written and directed by Simonelli, this romantic comedy is about a hapless couple who open a Swiss Restaurant in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The Swiss cuisine is not really going over well in the heavily ethnic neighborhood until two Sicilian immigrants arrive to shake up the menu.

This comedic show starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sundays. There is no late seating.