Fran Thomas

What did our critic think of ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS TIME at Southwest Florida Theatre Company?

As a writer, I am filled with admiration for the authors of A Christmas Story, now playing at Broadway Palm. They created an entire movie/play based solely on one boy’s quest for the perfect present.

Attention, local actors. Think twice before you take a part in a production in which Frank Blocker has been cast. Chances are good that he will steal the play right out from under you.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more quintessential American musical than the 81-year-old Oklahoma. But leave it to Players Circle Theater to give the venerable show a clever facelift by presenting it in a concert version.

Broadway Palm’s production of Annie brings the plucky heroine to life in the form of Addie Jaymes and Sophie Nesanelis, double cast in the role as are all the other girls in the orphanage.

What did our critic think of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) at Players Circle Theater?

Imagine, if you will, with an invisible posse having your back at all times. That is the state of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical now playing at Broadway Palm.

Have I mentioned how much I love Players Circle Theater? They consistently present entertaining yet thought-provoking shows. Their actors are multi-talented. And their small venue lends itself to the feeling of belonging to an exclusive club.

Players Circle Theater presents one of London’s longest running murder mysteries, THE BUSINESS OF MURDER, running April 15th – May 11th, 2025. A critical and popular success in London, this psychological thriller about revenge centers on the interlocking triangular relationship between three people. In the tradition of Agatha Christie, nothing is as it seems and as the plot twists and turns, it becomes clear they are all in the same business… murder.

What did our critic think of FLATLANDERS at Players Circle Theater?

Good actors spend a lot of time creating backstory and motivation for the character they are playing. Imagine how much work goes into doing this preparation to take on more than a half dozen roles. That is the task faced by Robbie Harrison in Murder for Two, a musical comedy/mystery now being offered by Southwest Florida Theatre Company in conjunction with Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre. This is the first collaboration between the two.

What did our critic think of CRAZY FOR YOU at Broadway Palm?

Given her photo in the program, playwright Jessica Provenz is far too young to know as much as she does about the life of a senior citizen in Florida. The packed audience at her play Boca was under no such limitation. Laughter, nay, guffaws of recognition greeted each scene.

What did our critic think of THE FANTASTICKS at Players Circle Theater?

Bloomsday by Steven Dietz at Florida Rep will touch the heart of any romantic. Jessica Mosher as Caithleen and Braydie Aldrich as Robbie are awkward and charming twenty-year-olds who meet in Dublin on June 16, Bloomsday. Lynn Hawley and Duke Lafoon are the same couple now called Cait and Robert, older and wiser, who reunite thirty-five years later.

If you can’t find something funny in the musical farce Lucky Stiff by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, you are as dead as poor Uncle Anthony. That gentleman has passed on in New Jersey, and he has willed six million dollars to his British nephew Harry Witherspoon, who has never even met him.

What did our critic think of ADMISSIONS at Players Circle Theater?

What did our critic think of BUDDY: THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY at Broadway Palm?

Ripped from the pages of today’s headlines, ADMISSIONS is a dramedy about liberal parents desperate to get their children into an Ivy League school. A no-holds-barred look at privilege, power, and the perils of hypocrisy, ADMISSIONS features razor-sharp dialogue and hard-hitting laughs.

What did our critic think of SIX TEEN EDITION at Melody Lane Theater?