No doubt, 2025 has been a year of ups and downs for Lehigh Valley theater companies.

Pines Dinner Theater, which had spent a year in limbo after losing its longtime home at 17th Street in Allentown in 2023, finally opened its new home at the Shops at Cedar Point, Allentown, in March, with a playful production of the comedy “Nunsense.”

MunOpCo Music Theater, Allentown’s oldest community theater, postponed its February production of “Urinetown: The Musical” because of “financial impacts and timing considerations,” according to a press release.

After no fall show either, MunOpCo came back after a year dark with a new board, a holiday production and plans to stage a musical in late spring or early summer.

Between The Lines Studio Theater also faced financial struggles and leadership changes, postponing a planned May production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and a November production of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.”

Between The Lines is forging ahead with some new faces, plans for an “Actors’ Gym” and “Playwrights’ Circle” in the new year and “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” now scheduled to open Feb. 27.

Area theaters’ long-term goal of increasing diversity on stage continued in 2025 with outstanding productions, including “Raisin in the Sun” at PA Shakespeare Festival, and “Fences” and a joyful production of “In the Heights” at The Pennsylvania Playhouse.

Local theaters tackled timely political topics with Northampton Community College’s sly and smart production of “POTUS” and Crowded Kitchen Player’s terrifying ICE parable “The Watchers.” Civic Theatre carried through with some political statements in its “Shrek the Musical” and “Reefer Madness.”

Here are some of my favorite performances of the past year.

Outstanding ensemble: The whole stage exploded in color, energy and music in Pennsylvania Playhouse’s exuberant and uplifting “In the Heights.” Energy infused the vibrant and dynamic production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical.

The large and talented ensemble was showcased by director Jonathan T. Shehab in explosive production numbers like “96,000,” “The Club” and the joyous, colorful “Carnaval del Barrio.”

Outstanding use of multiple departments: DeSales University brought together all three majors in the School of Performing Arts, including Act 1 theater, the school’s dance division and the TV-film department to stage a breathtaking production of the classic musical “Singin’ in the Rain.”

The thrilling musical featured great performances, particularly by the suave and appealing Noah Schnabel as Don Lockwood and the phenomenal Tommy Gray as his comedic sidekick, along with outstanding tap dancing, eye-popping visuals and ear-worm songs.

Adding another dimension to the show were the filmed scenes of silent pictures and the talking picture shown on stage. Director Anne Lewis made everything look smooth and flawless.

Outstanding solo performance: Rachel Camp was riveting as Penelope in PA Shakespeare Festival’s “Penelope,” a fascinating and evocative original musical focusing on the experiences of Odysseus’ long-suffering wife.

Camp’s Penelope goes through emotions ranging from despair to determination as she navigates her situation as a woman alone, raising a child, running the small island of Ithaca and fending off increasingly insistent suitors.

Camp delivers the original songs with mesmerizing passion and she brings a depth and complexity to Penelope, revealing her vulnerability as well as her cleverness and resourcefulness.

Outstanding solo performance runner-up: Theater artist Susan Chase put her mother front and center in “Mother’s Day: A Theatrical Homage to The Women Who Made Us,” her joyful, heartbreaking one-woman show, which premiered at Bethlehem’s Touchstone Theatre.

The 90-minute performance used spoken word, music, dance and film to celebrate not just Chase’s mother, but all mothers. Skillfully blending movement with home movies and old Kodachrome photos that displayed on a video screen behind her, Chase wove the heartfelt story of her life as seen through the filter of her mother.

Outstanding musical (professional): Bill Mutimer Summer Theatre Series presented an exciting “Evita,” filled with powerful performances at Northampton Community College. Matias de la Fleur proved a charismatic and effective Ché who commanded the audience’s attention as he prowled the stage like a panther ready to pounce. Olivia Hudson-Fuentes was a dynamic and confident Eva with a soaring voice.

Director and choreographer Gustavo Wons, who is from Argentina, added elements to give the show an authentic feel and brought elements of tango into the show’s energetic dance numbers.

Outstanding musicals (non-professional): Cedar Crest College Department of Performing Arts presented a hilariously dark and humorously tragic “Heathers The Musical.” The cult classic musical was tight, clever, tuneful and featured great performances. The production was laugh-out-loud funny and featured eye-catching choreography and crisp direction.

Treading a fine line between satire and mayhem, Civic Theatre of Allentown gave audiences a “Reefer Madness,” that was funny, sly and hilariously clever. The musical comedy based on a 1930s anti-marijuana film took a comedic jab at the authoritarian use of propaganda to control people, specifically to stop them from smoking the “demon weed.”

With tongue firmly in cheek, the musical follows two stereotypically clean-cut teens who meet cute and then fall victim to the lure of marijuana and descend into an eye-popping nightmare of sex, indulgence and violence.

Outstanding plays in repertory: PA Shakespeare Festival has been doing two plays in repertory for years, but this year the plays, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Tom Stoppard’s existential comedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” dovetailed perfectly. Seeing the same actors approaching Shakespeare’s tragedy in very different ways definitely enhanced the experience.

Cerebral and funny, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” took two minor characters from “Hamlet” and put them on a stage, mostly alone, to ponder whether they control their own existence or are simply pawns in something bigger and beyond their control. Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Guildenstern and Sean Close as Rosencrantz skillfully held a mostly empty stage, impressively trading Stoppard’s rapid-fire wordplay as the “real” play occasionally interferes.

PSF’s stark production of “Hamlet” was dark, moody and fascinating with a passionate performance by Biko Eisen-Martin as Hamlet. The production was marked by an industrial set with unadorned angular set pieces backed by a fluorescent light bar with dramatic and harsh lighting creating a nightmare-like quality.

Outstanding play (professional): Harrowing, yet hopeful, PA Shakespeare Festival’s “A Raisin in the Sun” paints a picture of a troubling American landscape but also makes the case for standing up for what is right, even when the odds are stacked against you. In this devastating, but determined production, the entire cast delivered heartfelt, emotional and outstanding performances in this important show that still resonates today.

Outstanding play (non-professional): Pennsylvania Playhouse staged a powerful and emotionally rich production of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fences.” Haunting and compelling, the play explored familial conflicts in which all the characters rang painfully true under the deft direction of Adam Newborn.

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com