Opera Laguna to Present THE STUDENT PRINCE at Laguna Playhouse

Opera Laguna will present a one-night-only, semi-staged concert of The Student Prince on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at the Laguna Playhouse.

Directed by Josh Shaw and starring tenor Arnold Livingston Geis as Prince Karl Franz, the operetta tells the story of a prince who must ultimately choose between his devotion to Kathie, a commoner, and the royal duties that require him to become king and marry Princess Margaret.

“We feel a very special connection to this show, and the stage where it will be performed,” said co-founder of Opera Laguna, Oriana Geis Falla, who recently won Artist of the Year at the 2026 Laguna Beach Arts Alliance Art Star Awards together with co-founder Arnold Livingston Geis. “Not only did Arnold's birth father sing it at Heidelberg Castle where the story takes place, but the Laguna Playhouse opened its first permanent theater the same year that The Student Prince opened on Broadway. We're excited to have the rare opportunity to showcase opera in Laguna Beach and to embark on what we know will be a beautiful partnership with Opera Laguna and the Laguna Playhouse and we look forward to continuing to provide our audiences an experience to have ‘a day at the beach, a night at the opera!'”

Debuting on Broadway in 1924, The Student Prince was the most-performed and longest-running Broadway show of the 1920s. Based on the German play Old Heidelberg by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly, the show was a Prohibition-era smash hit that toured for nearly two decades and was adapted into a silent film in 1927. 

Sent incognito to the University of Heidelberg to experience life beyond the palace, Prince Karl Franz of Karlsberg discovers friendship, freedom, and first love in the warm-hearted Kathie, niece of the owner of the Inn of the Three Gold Apples. As their romance blossoms, Karl Franz is called home by duty when his grandfather, the King, falls gravely ill, forcing him to honor a long-arranged engagement to Princess Margaret. Though he promises to return, the demands of the crown—and his eventual ascension to the throne—keep him away for years. When he finally returns to Heidelberg, he hopes to reunite with Kathie, only to learn that she has seemingly moved on. Accepting that personal happiness must yield to responsibility, Karl Franz embraces his role as king, while Kathie remains the great love of his life and Heidelberg endures as a cherished symbol of youth, friendship, and lost possibility.