Central Florida theaters, large and small, flourished with creativity during 2025. Throughout December, I’ve been saluting achievements in the various branches of the theatrical arts with a series of online honor rolls (find them at OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment).

Now, here is my Critic’s Pick in each category — for the first time ever, one category has a tie —plus my choices for the year’s Best Comedy, Best Drama and Best Musical as we finish this annual celebration of the most memorable theatrical achievements of 2025.

CREATIVEBethany Hemmans‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf” ♦ Theater West End

In September: Bethany Hemmans, who also performed as the show’s Lady in Yellow, devised movement for the play that provided a visual element to the deeply personal monologues being shared. Her work beautifully reflected the performers’ palette of emotions, while crucially not distracting from the tales they were telling.

Bert RodriguezCabaret ♦ Orlando Shakes

In February: Music has never sounded so good in the Shakespeare Center’s Margeson Theater, thanks to Rodriguez and his 9-piece band, with each instrument making its presence felt. The glorious entr’acte was worth the price of admission alone. And the singers brilliantly used the unforgettable Kander and Ebb tunes to add credence to their characters.

Marco DiGeorge‘Birds of North America’ ♦ Theater on the Edge

In May: In “Birds of North America,” Marco DiGeorge’s sound design became its own character. There was the literal value to the different chirps and squeaks, reflecting the bird species mentioned in the script. But the birds also reflected the emotions and themes of the story as they sounded warnings, broke the tension or offered reassurance that life goes on.

Kylee Taylor‘Sunday in the Park With George’ ♦ Central Florida Vocal Arts

In November: With a stripped-down scenic design for “Sunday in the Park With George,” Kylee Taylor’s lighting helped fill in impressionistic details with color and imagination. In a musical about making art, her evocative and often dreamscape lighting design was a work of art in and of itself.

Daisy McCarthy Tucker‘Jerry’s Girls’ ♦ Winter Park Playhouse

In August: “Daisy McCarthy Tucker’s costumes deserve their own round of applause,” I wrote in my original review of Winter Park Playhouse’s “Jerry’s Girls.” Every time a performer re-entered the stage, it seemed as though she was wearing something else. From glitzy red Dolly dresses to old-timey black-and-white ensembles, from sophisticated evening gowns to silly clown-like garb, to a particularly brilliant ambiguous outfit that let one performer sing a male-female duet to herself.

Tramaine BerryhillBig Fish ♦ Theatre at St. Luke’s

In August: “Big Fish” veers between intimate, realistic scenes to larger-than-life numbers full of theatrical magic. Tramaine Berryhill designed a handsome, multitiered and delightfully surprise-filled set that perfectly handled the many needs of this complicated show with particular beauty.

PERFORMING‘Cabaret’Orlando Shakes

In February: The hard-working crew of “Cabaret” made all that hoofing look effortless. The performers successfully made it feel like they were old pros at working the Kit Kat Klub, where they provided a crucial segment of setting the scene. And they had to do it all up close and personal with patrons in the VIP seats.

Rose Lamarre‘Calendar Girls’ ♦ Theater West End

In January: In a gorgeously heartfelt performance, Rose Lamarre got everything right about her “Calendar Girls” character, a rule-following people pleaser who has been taken advantage of by everyone from her philandering husband to the women’s club leader. It was all there in the way her eyes dropped in shyness or self-doubt, in the quaver in her voice when she dared to step outside the lines she placed around herself and in the sense of freedom when she finally let loose.

Jeremy Wood‘Frozen’ ♦ The Ensemble Company

In May: Playing a child killer, Jeremy Wood never forgot to show the audience both a “monster” and a man. He made Ralph damaged, pitiable, unnerving and revolting, but never in a way that felt like a calculated collection of emotional stage directions. His Ralph was the real deal: Everything from his Scots accent to his volley of cursing to his childhood fantasies felt perfectly natural — and therefore far more horrifying.

Adam DelMedico‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ ♦ Theater West End

In June: Adam DelMedico gave High Priest Caiaphas an ice-cold sneer of triumph so chilling that it’s no wonder he was trusted to set the vibe for the entire show by opening it with the distinctive guitar lick. And the sadistically growling DelMedico kept that self-serving, power-hungry cruelty writ large across his face, until the show’s last moment when he brilliantly let his sneer crack into doubt.

Keri Hollingsworth‘Welcome to Matteson!’ ♦ Orlando Shakes

In March: Keri Hollingsworth stood out in “Welcome to Matteson,” giving her character a bracing no-nonsense attitude and self-assured energy, never condescending to her character’s origins and creating a relationship with fellow actor Walter Riddle that hummed with love and energy.

Jessica Hamilton‘Frozen’ ♦ The Ensemble Company

In May: As a grieving mother, Jessica Hamilton did far more than weep for a lost child. In a show where the playwright sets up much of the story as monologues from her characters directly to the audience, Hamilton created a whole world for her character:  We could see her sulky other daughter and ineffectual husband with a wandering eye. Hamilton consistently showed us Nancy’s reactions to her family members, making them and her own character more vibrant. In effect, she was beautifully playing multiple roles.

There are two Critic’s Picks in this category this year.

Anastasia Remoundos‘Cabaret’ ♦ Orlando Shakes

In February: As devil-may-care Sally Bowles, Anastasia Remoundos blazed across the stage, baring her desperate soul at every turn in an electrifying raw performance. Her gutsy “Cabaret” 11 o’clock number became the defiant and self-defeatingly triumphant anthem for everyone who has chosen to stay in their own little world, on their own insular path, doing what feels good for themselves, consequences be damned. And underneath the makeup, her ferocity and pain were etched all over her face.

Dustin Michael Russell‘Big Fish’ ♦ Theatre at St. Luke’s

In August: It was up to Dustin Michael Russell to bring the larger-than-life elements of “Big Fish” down to intimately human scale. And he did so masterfully and magnificently. Russell aged and de-aged, in voice and posture, before our eyes: Youthfully limber one minute, stooped and slow the next. He made his love for his girlfriend-later-wife both fantastical and oh so heartwarmingly real in a fully committed and deeply engaging performance.

DIRECTINGRoberta Emerson‘Welcome to Matteson!’ ♦ Orlando Shakes

In March: Roberta Emerson had her top-notch actors hit the issues being raised in “Welcome to Matteson!” — does “moving up” mean “selling out,” and should we even be using the term “moving up” — with just the right amount of emphasis. And she developed fascinating relationships among the play’s four characters while keeping them all grounded in reality without sacrificing laughs.

Matthew MacDermid‘Frozen’ ♦ The Ensemble Company

In May: Matthew MacDermid took a play filled with unimaginable real-life horror and unfathomable emotional turmoil and gave it all beautiful clarity with a polished and focused staging. He made monologues seem real as he took audiences on a journey that had them forgetting to breathe.

Steve MacKinnon‘Cabaret’ ♦ Orlando Shakes

In February: Director Steve MacKinnon balanced the seriousness and frivolity of Orlando Shakes’ “Cabaret” with a sure and steady hand. Every movement, every beautiful piece of theatrical imagery felt like a warning to the audience; even in its most lighthearted moments, the production thrillingly hummed with an encroaching darkness just under the surface. This was theater at its most urgent and most gripping.

TOP PRODUCTIONS‘Welcome to Matteson!’Orlando Shakes

In March, I wrote: The well-acted and consistently engrossing “Welcome to Matteson!” has both the couples and the dinner to provide plenty of food for thought about the state of America today. Frankly, it’s not a pretty picture. … Both the director and the actors do excellent work in keeping these characters real, even as they occasionally behave in ways it’s hard to imagine at such a gathering. Their actions might shock, which provides the dark humor, but at the core, these characters seem completely believable. They could be our neighbors.

‘Frozen’The Ensemble Company

In May, I wrote: In a sterling production, “Frozen” tells a story so compelling you might find yourself forgetting to breathe. And while it has you in its grasp with its gripping tale of a murdered child, a grieving mother, a dogged but tortured criminal psychiatrist and a serial killer, “Frozen” is saying something profound about what it means to be human — both weak and strong. … This fascinating and thought-provoking play dwells on the human brain but explores the human heart as it reaches straight into a theatergoer’s soul.

‘Cabaret’Orlando Shakes

In February, I wrote: The show wants to rattle your cage, to leer and sneer and dare you out of complacency. It’s a five-alarm warning about disengaging from politics and avoiding reality, whether welcome or not. … All of these potent moments ring true for Orlando Shakes … With its overall messaging and look, Orlando Shakes has outdone the latest buzzy but gimmicky New York revival.

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