Tampa Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: WATER FOR ELEPHANTS at Straz Center
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - October 30, 2025

This was a breathtaking circus of beauty, brutality, and heart. This is one of those musicals that you will be talking about on the drive home - how the actors transformed seamlessly from present to past, the music, and simply the beauty of a simple set....

Review: EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL at Stageworks Theatre
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - October 25, 2025

I mean, really… what could possibly go wrong when five college students break and enter into a secluded cabin in the middle of the forest? Turns out, just about everything. From a cursed book and possessed hands to singing demons and chainsaw showdowns, this cult classic is brought to gloriously gor...

Review: GHOST BROTHERS OF DARKLAND COUNTY at JOBSITE THEATER
by Drew Eberhard - October 21, 2025

Let me start with a question, if you shall indulge me for a moment. What happens when one of the greatest storytelling musicians of modern times, and the master of horror/suspense and the downright weird, decides to form a partnership? What happens when you take a story, stretch the lore, change th...

Review: The Gator Lane Players of Land O Lakes High School Presents SIX: THE MUSICAL
by Peter Nason - October 19, 2025

An exceptionally tight production of the hit show where nearly everything goes right....

Review: AMITYVILLE 74 at Carrollwood Cultural Center
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - October 18, 2025

Amityville '74 isn’t just a play—it’s a psychological gut punch. This is not for kids. It’s a harrowing, emotionally charged descent into the trauma of a family unraveling, culminating in murder. Don’t expect to go home and sleep easy. This production grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go....

Review: ALICE BY HEART Presented by USF's School of Theatre & Dance
by Peter Nason - October 05, 2025

A brilliantly staged and sung production of a very flawed musical....

Review: Suncoast Broadway Dinner Theatre Presents GREASE
by Peter Nason - September 28, 2025

Grease at the Suncoast Broadway Dinner Theatre brought a new and exciting twist to the beloved show, spearheaded by a strong cast and immersive environment....

Review: ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S TELL ME ON A SUNDAY at FreeFall Theatre
by Drew Eberhard - September 17, 2025

A rarely done musical, Tell Me On a Sunday, features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. “...Sunday...” is primarily a one-woman show, and most notably made famous by Bernadette Peters and Marti Webb. In this 70-minute One-Act Song Cycle, we meet an ordinary English Girl who, from ...

Review: EVERY BRILLIANT THING at Carrollwood Cultural Center
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - September 14, 2025

Every Brilliant Thing was raw, immersive, and unforgettable. From the moment Paul Berg stepped into the center of the room, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a typical theatre experience. The play took me from childhood heartbreak to adult healing, weaving humor, music, and audience interaction i...

Review: BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL at Eight O'Clock Theatre
by Drew Eberhard - September 06, 2025

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical featuring the vast songbook of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of a generation. The book by Douglas McGrath tells the story of Carole King’s early life and career. ...

Review: Reginald Rose's 12 ANGRY MEN Opens the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival
by Peter Nason - August 31, 2025

The brilliance of the script is that, although first written in the 1950s, it still has so much relevance to our world today. The audience at the performance I saw was one of the most robust, vocally supportive and emotional audiences I have ever seen. ...

Review: A WELCOMED RETURN TO THE FRAY WITH. POPCORN FALLS at Hat Trick Theatre Productions
by Drew Eberhard - August 22, 2025

James Hindman’s farcical comedy tour-de-force Popcorn Falls premiered at Theatre NOVA on January 20, 2017. The show’s next production took place in 2018 at the Riverbank Theatre, under the Direction of Christian Borle. Finally, in October of the very same year, James Hindman’s “little play that coul...

Review: BEYOND VAN GOGH AND BEYOND MONET at Straz Center
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - August 01, 2025

Last night, I stepped into a world where brushstrokes seemed to breathe and masterpieces moved—Beyond Van Gogh and Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience at Tampa’s Straz Center. This wasn’t merely an exhibition; it was a transformative journey through light, color, and emotion that blurred the boun...

Review: The New Tampa Players' Production of Meredith Willson's THE MUSIC MAN
by Peter Nason - July 26, 2025

The Music Man  is one of those rare musicals that’s quite old fashioned and wears its stodgy heart on its sleeve like a badge of honor, but that also can crackle with entertainment and even innovation. ...

Review: RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET at the Carrollwood Cultural Center
by Peter Nason - July 20, 2025

I guess it’s hard to live in the present because we always seem to be looking backwards at past decades. It’s something we still do, escaping our current life especially when our world is in such destructive disarray....

Review: Powerstories Theatre Presents Liz Duffy Adams' WITCH HUNT at Stageworks
by Peter Nason - July 18, 2025

A solid re-examining of the Crucible, set 10 years later, that starts Powerstories' 25th season on the right foot!...

Review: Jobsite Theater & the Straz Center Present Matt Cox's PUFFS at the Jaeb
by Peter Nason - July 12, 2025

A hilarious spoof about a certain unnamed school for wizards featuring a stellar cast and astonishing special effects!...

Review: St. Petersburg College Theater Department's INTO THE WOODS
by Peter Nason - June 29, 2025

It's great when everything comes together--the acting, the singing, the staging, the set and the tech. What a show! It’s safe to say that Into the Woods is Stephen Sondheim’s most produced and most popular work. Schools, community theaters, and probably even psychiatric hospitals have taken a stab a...

Review: TAMPA METROPOLITAN IMPROV (TMI) at The Studio At Carrollwood Cultural Center
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - June 21, 2025

Tampa Metropolitan Improv*'s debut was a sharp, high-energy triumph filled with quick wit, strong ensemble chemistry, and nonstop laughs. The cast delivered a tightly paced, joyfully unpredictable show that left the audience thoroughly entertained and eager for more—a bold and confident start for Ta...

Review: MURDERERS Presented at the Tampa Fringe Festival
by Peter Nason - June 15, 2025

Intense, frustrating, harrowing...and all based on true-life murders....

Review: RED HOT PATRIOT – THE KICK-*SS WIT OF MOLLY IVINS at TheatreFor
by Deborah Bostock-Kelley - June 14, 2025

One-woman triumph. I was completely captivated by Samantha Marti Parisi’s beautiful portrayal of Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot. She didn’t just perform the role—she embodied it, delivering every line with razor-sharp wit and unmistakable heart....

Review: PUP PLAY: A QUEER PSEUDO-LECTURE (OF SORTS) at the Tampa Fringe
by Peter Nason - June 14, 2025

Pup Play: A Queer Pseudo-Lecture (Of Sorts), the award-winning brain child of the immeasurably talented Noah Pantano, is maybe the fringiest Fringe play I’ve seen. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll bark like a dog!...

Review: JAMES IJAMES FAT HAM at American Stage
by Drew Eberhard - June 09, 2025

Fat Ham is a dramatic play, and a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. James IJames play received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for 5 Tony Awards, including Best Play....

Review: MAD Theatre of Tampa AIDA at the Shimberg Playhouse
by Peter Nason - June 08, 2025

Everyone has a favorite Elton John song.  Ask anyone and they probably won’t even hesitate to tell you their selection:  Maybe “Tiny Dancer,” a song impossible not to sing along with in your own version of carpool karaoke? ...

Review: Corbett Prep's High School Summer Theatre Presents HADESTOWN: TEEN EDITION
by Peter Nason - June 05, 2025

Before seeing a stunning youth production of Hadestown at Corbett Prep’s Farish Speakeasy, I ran into a friend standing in line.  “Hadestown is my all-time favorite musical, “ she told me....