James Lindhorst

This past season was the year of the comedy in St. Louis Theater. Companies across the city had audiences laughing all season long with slapstick, farce, and satire. There were some wonderful musical productions that really sang, a few hard hitting dramas, but comedies reigned in both quantity and quality. Instead of publishing a Top 10 list this year, I’m going to recognize the Best in St. Louis Theater for 2025. “The Best” is still a shortened list of just 13 shows out of the nearly 90 shows I saw this past year. It took weeks of thought and painstaking consideration to decide which productions would be included in my annual list. Here they are. The productions are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked by favorites:

Watching Broadway’s Sara Sheperd perform her holiday themed cabaret, Please Come Home for Christmas, is akin to sitting in front of a cozy fire with a mug of hot cocoa. Sheperd, and her piano playing father Scott, shared more than a dozen of her favorite holiday songs peppered with a few seasonally appropriate Broadway tunes. From her opening number “Let it Snow” to her final song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” Sara Sheperd gifted the audience with a lovely evening of perfectly pitched and precisely phrased vocals. Her audience left the club feeling the spirit of the season and grateful that the humble Sheperd shared her talent again in St. Louis.

John Hughes Your Own Adventure - LIVE is a whole lot of fun for anyone familiar with Hughes work. Hughes enthusiasts and aficionados will be laughing through their tears. The sold-out runaway hit was the headliner at STL Fringe and one of last summer’s hottest theater tickets. St. Louis Fringe and Cherokee Street Theatre Co. are reprising the outrageous satire at the Kranzberg Black Box. Twelve actors, supported by an offstage announcer (billed as The Voice of God), are hurling themselves about the stage in their homage to John Hughes and his classic films.

Director Will Bonfiglio, Music Director Larry D. Pry, Choreogrpaher Jo Palisoc, and the entire company deserve a lot of credit for their all in committed, peppy, and high-spirited production of a marginal show that is staged as a pet project far too often. There are thousands of musical theater assets that have arguably better books and scores that are rarely produced. Legally Blonde the Musical is like a pink piece of bubblegum. At first it sounds appealing, but the flavor does not last long.

Lize Lewy is having a moment. The actor, director, and playwright is currently slaying audiences in their breakout turn as Harriet in the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ production of Emma. Their scene stealing portrayal of Emma’s awkward friend is a masterclass in expressive physical comedy.

Merry Ol’ Missouri: A Family Christmas Spectacular returns to the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Missouri on December 18-20, 2025. Last year’s sold-out, one night only show created such overwhelming demand that producers Melissa Bohon-Webel and Shelby Ringdahl Cox expanded the 2025 holiday spectacular to three performances. The very busy Shelby Ringdahl Cox graciously agreed to sit down with Broadway World and talk about creating Merry Ol’ Missouri: A Family Christmas Spectacular. Melissa and Shelby are the founders of Show Me Theatricals, the creative minds behind Merry Ol’ Missouri: A Family Christmas Spectacular, and the co-directors of the show. Both women grew up in Columbia, Missouri, graduated from Rockbridge High School, and went on to successful performing careers in New York and beyond.

There is nothing like the holidays in New York City. Ice skating under the iconic Rockefeller Center Tree, watching the Rockettes high kick in Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular, eating your way through the Winter Village in Bryant Park, and admiring the decorated storefront windows on 5th Avenue is unforgettable. But for this regional theater critic, all the holiday hoopla (which I enjoyed) is secondary to attending live theater in Manhattan.

Last Wednesday an actor with ties to St. Louis made his Broadway debut as King Louis XIV in The Queen of Versailles. Just three years ago, Jake Bentley Young starred as Johnny in the STAGES St. Louis production of Karate Kid The Musical. That is where he first met Queen of Versailles co-producer and STAGES St Louis founder Jack Lane.

Brício’s play, An Orchard for Chekhov, is written with sophisticated humor. It is entertaining and moves quickly yet feels empty in its ambiguity, not dissimilar to Alma’s and her daughter’s lack of fulfillment. But Brício’s characters linger in your gray space long after the curtain has fallen. Perhaps that is the playwright’s Chekhovian intention.

Broadway’s Sara Sheperd returns to St. Louis with her new cabaret show “Please Come Home for Christmas.” Sheperd invites audiences to “slow down, get cozy, and enjoy the tunes of Broadway and the Holidays” at Blue Strawberry on December 13, 2025.

Nisi Sturgis’ Baskerville is a wacky whodunit. The madcap mystery is filled with riotous performances from a talented cast breaking boundaries with bold artistry. Alicia Revé and Sean C. Seifert are revelations. Their presence is more than scene stealing because their every moment on the stage is unforgettably funny. The entire acting troupe commits to absurd physical dynamism with athletic intensity to land every joke possible. Baskerville at New Jewish Theatre is a fun, fast, and frenzied good time.

On Friday at the STAGES St. Louis Applause Gala, Tony Award winner and guest performer James Monroe Iglehart made a big announcement. Midway through his set, Inglehart shared with the several hundred supporters in attendance that he will be directing next summer’s production of Guys & Dolls at STAGES St. Louis. Guys and Dolls will play the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center as part of STAGES St. Louis 2026 Season. Performances of Guys and Dolls begin July 24th and run through August 23, 2026.

Deposition is an entertaining 90-minute story with, like many divorces, no clear resolution. Hanson’s script presents the evidence without assign fault. First Run Theatre’s staging is mostly effective, but at times felt a bit under rehearsed. Leading players Bill Burke, Ami Bossi, and Deb Dennert noticeably tripped over their dialogue or seemed to be reaching for lines. This will likely improve with added performances, but perhaps the loss of the director late in rehearsals may have been a contributing factor.

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is a one actor play examining life, relationships, and art on Earth. The play opens with an introduction to Trudy, a kooky bag lady who serves as a medium for extra-terrestrials attempting to understand life on earth. Trudy attempts to explain the complexities of human life to the aliens through a series of vignettes. The audience and the aliens are introduced to eight other women, all portrayed by the same actor.

When the new documentary film A MAN WITH SOLE: The Impact of Kenneth Cole opened the St Louis Film festival last week, Broadway, Off-Broadway, and West End Producer Jack Lane stepped into the spotlight as a multimedia producer. The four-time Tony winner said he had to sign on to this project because he found Cole’s story life changing.