In her all-too-brief career, singer Janis Joplin managed to create a small yet enduring collection of music that introduced a new sound and style to rock ‘n’ roll in the late 1960s.

From 1967, when she first gained attention at the Monterey Pop Festival as lead singer with Big Brother and the Holding Company to her sudden death in 1970 of a heroin overdose, Joplin opened ears to her earthy, raw and emotion-laden sound.

The musical “A Night with Janis Joplin,” which closes Florida Studio Theatre’s Stage III season, puts some perspective on her short career while recalling the hits. Written and created by Randy Johnson, it’s not quite a biographical show, but it does give you a little background of her life, from growing up in Port Arthur, Texas, to finding her world in the California music scene.

What might have become merely nostalgic sounds, comes off as fresh and alive, as if the songs weren’t nearly 60 years old, thanks to the staging by Ben Liebert and a powerhouse performance by Francesco Ferrari as Joplin, backed by a rocking band led by music director Nathaniel Beliveau. (Laura Frye plays Janis at certain performances.)

As Joplin, Ferrari shares that she grew up loving to draw and paint and listening to Broadway cast albums with her mother. But she mostly connected with the blues, sung by such standouts as Bessie Smith, Odetta, Etta James, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin, all of whom make an appearance.

So in between Joplin’s major hits like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Mercedes Benz” and “Piece of My Heart,” we get to hear the songs that inspired her as they were originally sung. Jasmine Lawrence dons a feather headdress and a fur drape to sing Smith’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” before we hear Joplin’s grittier and more contemporary interpretation. Lawrence also plays Odetta singing “Down on Me,” while Briana Brooks takes on James.

Longtime FST favorite Jannie Jones returns as both a soul-stirring Simone (singing “Little Girl Blue”) and Franklin, the Queen of Soul, who joins Ferrari for a rousing first-act closer of “Spirit in the Dark.”

Ferrari sounds enough like Joplin (and looks like her the way she’s outfitted by costume designer Madison Queen) to make you believe she’s the real thing. She sings with the expected raspy quality in her voice and a driving energy, as if the words and music are truly coming from deep within her soul. Her speaking voice is softer and smoother than Joplin herself.

The three other singers and Katie Porter play both the 1950s girl group the Chantels, who first inspired Joplin, and Joplin’s own back-up group, the Joplinaires.

Each of the scenes is meant to reveal a bit more about Joplin. She offers some aphorisms or shares a bit of her history — like who heard her singing in a Texas bar and brought her to California — and the euphoric feeling she gets performing in front of an audience, which has a major down side off stage.

Perhaps the loneliness she felt out of the spotlight or away from cheering crowds fueled her use of alcohol and drugs. We see her swigging from a whiskey bottle and acting a little more erratically toward show’s end. The show doesn’t dwell on her decline, focusing instead on putting her in front of a microphone to show that undeniable power and connection she had with audiences and the music.

‘A Night with Janis Joplin,’ written and created by Randy Johnson. Directed by Ben Liebert. Reviewed March 13, Florida Studio Theatre Keating Theatre, 1241 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota. Extended through April 12. $49-$59. floridastudiotheatre.org; 941-366-9000.