It’s the 20th annual ABEs Awards.

That’s two decades.

I am nearly breaking my arm to pat myself on the back.

Or I am putting a brace on my hand from writing so many theater reviews. Just kidding.

The ABEs, as in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, are a purely subjective way by yours truly to look back at a year of Lehigh Valley theater. I did not see all of the area theater stage shows presented in 2025.

Of the two-dozen shows that I did see and review, the ABEs is my way of putting into context the tremendous creativity, talent, dedication and hard work of the Lehigh Valley theater community. Standing ovations to all.

It was a year for Mel Brooks. You could see his “Young Frankenstein” at The Pennsylvania Playhouse and his “The Producers” at the PA Shakespeare Festival.

It was a year for movies as theater, a theme at The Pennsylvania Playhouse.

The ABEs are intended to highlight and celebrate plays and musicals and those at Lehigh Valley theater nonprofits who produce them. We don’t include national touring shows. We don’t include college and university productions, although we probably should.

And we don’t include high school musicals. After all, that’s what the Freddys are for.

In recent years, Kathy Lauer-Williams selects her own “best-of” theater shows in the Lehigh Valley. She sees just about every area theater production. And of those shows that she might not attend, she previews them in “Curtain Rises” and lists them in “Lehigh Valley Stage” in the Focus section.

Audience attendance at shows in 2025 seems to have bounced back to near normal from 2000 when the COVID-19 pandemic swept in with the Ides Of March and shut down most theaters, along with many other entertainment activities, workforces and other pursuits nationwide.

One casualty of the pandemic might have been the use of orchestras and musicians to accompany shows. The ease of rehearsal and performance to recorded tracks is understandable. The thrill of actors singing and dancing to music being performed is undeniable. Use of a musicians’ fund or underwriting might assist with budget costs.

Lehigh Valley theater personages losses include actor Roseann “Rosie” Damico Schatkowski, who died Oct. 22, 2025. She received a BA in theater from DeSales University, worked in the theater department marketing department there and at the former Rodale Theatre, and appeared in shows at Civic Theatre in Allentown. She was a professional presence and bright light to me personally.

As advertised in area theater playbills: “Musical Theatre is back on the Muhlenberg Stage.” Announced for June 12-27, 2026, at Muhlenberg College is “Seussical The Dr. Seuss Musical.” Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre’s last season was Summer 2019. The 40th season, announced for 2020, was canceled because of the pandemic.

MunOpCo Music Theatre did not produce a fully-staged show in 2025, but presented a benefit concert, “Tree of Lights,” Dec. 13, 2025, Lipkin Theatre, Northampton Community College.

The region is blessed with great stage plays and musicals. You can read the theater reviews on the Lehigh Valley Press website. See the accompanying theater list for details.

In the following, references are from Lehigh Valley Press theater reviews.

Now, turn off your cell phones, sit back and enjoy the 20th annual ABEs:

PROFESSIONAL THEATER

Producer: Jason King Jones, Artistic Director; Casey William Gallagher, Managing Director, PA Shakespeare Festival (PSF) at DeSales University. PSF is the gold standard for Lehigh Valley theater, regional theater, and beyond. PSF takes Shakespeare to the people, on the stages at DeSales, in the “Play On” Community Tour and newly-launched “The Muse of Fire Project.”

Musical: “The Producers,” PA Shakespeare Festival. States the review: “Every aspect of ‘The Producers’ deserves superlatives” and “It’s one of the best productions ever to hit the Lehigh Valley stage” with “meticulous direction by Director Jennifer Childs.”

Original Musical: “Penelope,” PA Shakespeare Festival, co-production with Theatre Horizon, Philadelphia; music, lyrics, book by Alex Bechtel; co-written with Grace McLean; directed by Eva Steinmetz. “The 22 music numbers in ‘Penelope’ have a Kronos Quartet meets Carly Simon flavor,” the review states.

Director, Musical: Denis Jones, “She Loves Me,” Bucks County Playhouse. States the review: “unapologetic moments of believable romance interspersed with over-the-top humor.”

Actress, Musical: Rachel Camp (Penelope), “Penelope,” PA Shakespeare Festival. “Camp has an amazing vocal range from a whisper to a scream, with every note imbued with a delicate intensity and confident power” and “Camp brings humorous asides to the role,” the review states.

Actor, Musical: Kennedy Kanagawa (Arpad Lazlo), “She Loves Me,” Bucks County Playhouse. He’s “a scene-stealer, and not only because of the bicycle he rides in on” and “he makes his case in the Act II opening number ‘Try Me,’” states the review.

Ensemble: Musical: “Leader of the Pack: The Ellie Greenwich Musical,” Bucks County Playhouse. The review states: “The legendary Bucks County Playhouse is transformed into a Las Vegas Strip showroom. Call it ‘Vegas on The Delaware.’”

Choreography: Choreographer Tara Jeanne Vallee, “The Producers,” PA Shakespeare Festival. The review notes “the spectacular dancing by the 14-person Ensemble.”

Play: “Hamlet,” PA Shakespeare Festival. Director Lindsay Smiling and Biko Eisen-Martin “upend and deconstruct the play and put it back together again” and “it’s nothing short of breathtaking” states the review.

Original Play: “Christmas City Follies XXVI,” Touchstone Theatre. The Touchstone Ensemble found the right balance for its 26h production, one of mirth, frank in a sense and gold in creativity to provide a cozy treat in such times as these that can be the real follies.

Director, Play: Jason King Jones, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” PA Shakespeare Festival. “Director Jason King Jones brings speed, dexterity, panache and charming fun” to the play,” states the review.

Actress, Play: Susan Riley Stevens (Apemantus), “Timon of Athens,” PA Shakespeare Festival. “Stevens provides a bitter, sardonic and acerbic antidote to Timon’s pie-in-the-sky, high-flying ways,” the review states.

Actor, Play: Greg Wood (Timon), “Timon of Athens,” PA Shakespeare Festival. States the review: Wood “energetically and authoritatively leads a rollicking PSF ensemble” and “Wood evokes great empathy, making us feel his pain, his suffering, his shaming, and, yes, his humanity.”

Ensemble, Play: (Brandon E. Burton (Walter Lee Younger), Noelle Diane Johnson (Ruth Younger), Kian E. Cooper (Travis), Kimberly S. Fairbanks (Mama Lena Younger), Billie Wyatt (Beneatha Younger), Keith Livingston (Bobo), Jamir Fisher (George Murchison), Isaiah Caleb Stanley (Joseph Asagai) and Matt Pfeiffer (Karl Linder), “A Raisin in the Sun,” PA Shakespeare Festival. “Each performer is extraordinary, expressing a full range of emotions at once compelling, sensitive and heart-rending,” states the review.

Costume Design: Costumer Designer Gregory Gale, “She Loves Me,” Bucks County Playhouse.

Scenic Design: Scenic Designer Anna Louizos, “She Loves Me,” Bucks County Playhouse.

Lighting Design: Scenic and Lighting Designer Brian Sidney Bembridge, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” PA Shakespeare Festival.

Sound Design: Sound Designer Elizabeth Atkinson, “Hamlet,” PA Shakespeare Festival.

Tim Roche Memorial “Meanwhile” Comedy Award: Scott Greer (Max Bialystock), Michael Doherty (Leo Bloom), Nicole Benoit (Ulla), Anthony Lawton (Franz Liebkind), “The Producers,” PA Shakespeare Festival. The review cites a “madcap maelstrom” of humor.

COMMUNITY

THEATER

Producer: Pennsylvania Playhouse. The board of The Pennsylvania Playhouse, with President Parker Ryan and Vice President Jim Vivian, embraced a clever theme for its 2025 season: to produce plays that were made into movies, or movies that became plays. These included “Singin’ In The Rain,” “In The Heights” and “Young Frankenstein.” It was not only clever, it was creative and popular.

Musical: “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. States the review: Civic Theatre of Allentown Artistic Director William Sanders “directs ‘Shrek The Musical’ with a knowing awareness of contemporary events without drawing too much attention to the story line’s implications, rather letting the characters and their plight speak for themselves” and ”It will make you a believer in the quality of theater in the Lehigh Valley.”

Original Musical: No ABE Award given.

Director, Musical: Jonathan T. Shehab, “In The Heights,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. States the review: Shehab “directed with a strong and gentle hand” and an “explosive, exciting and inspiring production.”

Actress, Musical, Tie: Brooke Harrsch (Princess Fiona), “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. Zoe Mulzet (Lina Lamont), “Singin’ In The Rain,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. Harrsch (“wonderfully comedic,” states the review) is in fine voice throughout and has a stage presence that commands attention. Mulzet “gets the show’s biggest laughs whenever she’s on stage” and “she’s sympathetic in her characterization” states the review.

Actor, Musical: Jarrod Yuskauskas (Lord Farquaad, “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. Yuskauskas plays the role “magnificently malevolent” states the review. He’s on his knees and the effect, with inventive costume design, is hilarious.

Ensemble, Musical: “In The Heights,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. It’s “an unabashed celebration of a community, its people, romantic and familial love, education, small business capitalism and the state lottery system,” the review states.

Choreography: Ali Santos, Khylah Eure, “In The Heights,” Pennsylvania Playhouse. “High-energy” and “amazing dancing,” states the review.

Play: “Little Women: The Play,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. Charming and charmed. The cast portrays the characters so convincingly that you think you are in Concord, Mass., circa the 1860s.

Original Play: Ara Barlieb, writer-director, “The Watcher,” Crowded Kitchen Players (CKP). The topics of censorship of the arts and ICE-like raids sent a chill through the audience in the Charles A. Brown Ice House during CKP’s 25h season. “‘The Watcher’ metaphorically lays siege to the Ice House” and ”It lays bare the axiom, ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’” states the review.

George B. Miller Memorial Director Award, Play: Melissa Miller, “Little Women: The Play,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. Miller expertly navigates the sentimentality, the tragedy (what becomes of the March sisters) and the humor of young ladies as individualistic as their dreams.

Actress, Play: Mia Zappacosta (Jo March), “Little Women: The Play,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. There’s always an area actor who appears in the firmament of the Lehigh Valley stage like a comet. Such is Zappacosta, in her Playhouse debut. She made the character, by turns audacious, humorous, serious, and pleased to receive $30 for her first newspaper article as the American Civil War swirls around the March family.

Actor, Play: Willie Wo (Troy Maxson), “Fences,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. “Wo embodies this complex character: An everyman grappling with systemic and racial prejudice.” states the review.

Ensemble, Play: “Little Women: The Play,” The Pennsylvania Playhouse. The March family of young ladies was portrayed with chamber ensemble clarity by Mia Zappacosta (Jo March), Emma Funderburk (Beth March), Angella Brown (Amy March), Bryanna Pye (Meg March), Krista Metter (Aunt March) and Nana Nyanor (Hannah).

Costume Design: “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. Costume Designer Rigby Maiatico and Scaramouche with Hair and Wigs by Kim Danish. “This is Broadway-quality work,” states the review.”

Scenic Design: Set Designer Josephine Genuardi, “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. “The stagecraft is bold, with a nearly bare stage,” the review states.

Lighting Design: Will Morris, Lighting Designer, “A Christmas Carol,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. The lighting is mysterious, haunting and startling.

Sound Design: Mike Martens, Sound Designer, “Shrek The Musical,” Civic Theatre of Allentown. “Kudos to Civic and Music Director Nick Conti for going with an orchestra ... The musicians are superb” states the review.