Our picks for the top 20 San Diego theater shows of 2025

This was a big year for San Diego theater, with many ambitious world premiere musicals and plays produced by theaters large and small. In 2025, I reviewed nearly 120 local productions. Normally, I make a top 10 list with some runners-up, but there was so much good theater this year I chose 20.

While the content of this year’s plays and musicals varied wildly, many were about psychological trauma and featured depictions of violence, sexual assault, torture and even an onstage execution. Many of these plays may reflect the chaos in the world today, but the shows that most inspired and spoke to me celebrated hope, resilience and human kindness, three things we need more than ever.

Here are my top 20 picks for 2025

“Regency Girls,” The Old Globe — I’ve been lucky enough over the past 30 years to be in the opening-night audience at the La Jolla Playhouse and The Old Globe for a new musical so thrilling and original that I felt in my gut it would become a Broadway hit. “The Outsiders,” “Come From Away,” “Jersey Boys,” “The Full Monty” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” are just a few on that list. I feel the same way about the world premiere musical “Regency Girls,” which debuted last April at the Globe. It’s a rollicking, hysterically funny Regency Era romp about women’s rights and reproductive freedom in 1810 Engand. Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan wrote the witty, biting and anachronistic script with laugh-out-loud lyrics by Amanda Green, a diverse score by Curtis Moore, and eye-pleasing direction by Josh Rhodes. The musical’s firt act, with an overlong all-girls carriage ride, needs cuts, but little other surgery is required to make it Broadway-ready.

“The Heart,” La Jolla Playhouse — Although less conventional in style than “Regency Girls,” this beautiful and deeply moving world premiere musical that opened at the end of August really tugged at my  heartstrings. Based on a French novel, but relocated to La Jolla/San Diego by bookwriter-lyricist Kait Kerrigan, it’s a fast-paced, 80-minute docudrama-style musical about all of the lives touched during a human heart’s 24-hour journey from dying donor to transplant recipient. Director Christopher Ashley, Kerrigan and composer/lyricists Ian and Anne Eisendrath —  who created an unusual electronic dance music-enhanced score — worked closely with San Diego transplant coordinators, surgeons, nurses and patients to understand and tell the story with authenticity, creating multidimensional characters who were flawed, but real. Ashley told the story with urgency and minimal scenery. Choreographer Mandy Moore moved the actors around the stage like pieces on a chessboard in a high-speed match and the physical production was icy-cool. Some of the musical’s characters felt underwritten, and I found myself wanting a more cathartic cry at the end, but it was a touching story with heart.

“3 Summers of Lincoln,” La Jolla Playhouse — A third new musical I loved this year opened at the Playhouse last March. It portrayed the transformation of President Abraham Lincoln from stiff, rule-bound lawyer to animated, law-breaking abolitionist over the course of the Civil War, thanks in large part to the enlightenment he received from his friend and trusted advisor, Frederick Douglass, the brilliant and fiery Black abolitionist. Joe DiPietro wrote the swift-paced book and shared lyrics-writing credits with Daniel J. Watts. Crystal Monee Hall wrote the score. And creative tap dance and African dance-inspired choreography by Watts and Jon Rua brought a propulsive urgency to the show. Director Christopher Ashley gradually built the story, sprinkling in nuggets of humor, to balance the dark tone of the story. The magnetic Quentin Earl Darrington was the show’s standout performer as Douglass.

“The Mountaintop,” New Village Arts  — This was the third time I’ve seen a production of Katori Hall’s historical fantasy play, and New Village’s June production was the best. The play imagines the last night night of Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s life, before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Exhausted and at a low ebb emotionally, he finds solace in conversation with Camae, a no-nonsense, angelic maid at the Memphis hotel where he’s staying. With naturalistic direction by Durwood Murray Jr., DeAndre Simmons and Taylor Renee Henderson were both extraordinary and realistic in the roles of King and Camae. And the projection and video design by Michael Wogulis added a spacey new dimension to the production.

“Follies,” Cygnet Theatre — San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre inaugurated its new home, the $43.5 million The Joan theater in Arts District Liberty Station, with a September production of this 1971 musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman. It’s about a reunion party at a shuttered Broadway theater that’s about to be torn down. As long-retired dancers, actors and employees come together to share cocktails and old stories, the ghosts of their former selves move, dance and linger in the background. Karole Foreman, Sandy Campbell and David Humphrey delivered standout performances. The musical itself is a little creaky, but the songs are wonderful and the show was gorgeously and imaginatively staged by Sean Murray in a lavish production that showcased the Joan’s state-of-the-art, 280-seat Joseph Clayes III Theater.

“The Janeiad,” The Old Globe — Anna Ziegler’s 90-minute, time-hopping world premiere play, presented last June on the Globe’s in-the-round stage, wove together facts with fiction, and contemporary tragedy with an ancient Greek poem. It’s a moving and often funny story about one woman’s 20-year cycle of grief and recovery. Maggie Burrows directed the heartbreaking yet whimsical story of Jane, a woman stuck in time after the disappearance of her husband, Gabe, who was in the World Trade Center when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. Believing Gabe will eventually return, like Odysseus after his Trojan War odyssey, Jane waits, hopes and ultimately lets go. I found it a beautiful, mythical story.

“We Lovers,” Loud Fridge Theatre Group — In September, Loud Fridge presented the first full-length staging of San Diego playwright Christian St. Croix’s 90-minute play, which was first presented as a 40-minute show at 2024 San Diego International Fringe Festival. It’s about a group of adult friends who escape their busy lives and find comfort in each other by gathering regularly at a campsite and telling spooky stories by lantern light. Each of their stories subtly reflect their secrets and personal journeys. Director Kate Rose Reynolds infused the play with elements of dance, rhythmic drumming and highly creative use of props. The physical production, with scenery by Heather Larsen, sound by Estefania Ricalde and lighting by Mashun Tucker, was magical.

 “What the Constitution Means to Me,” North Coast Repertory Theatre — For good reason, Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical play was the most-produced play in America during the 2024-25 season. Inspired by the U.S. Constitution contests Schreck competed in as a teen, the funny and thought-provoking play points out the flaws in our founding document, and how its authors (a small group of America’s richest and most powerful White men) never considered women or slaves worthy of constitutional rights. Jacque Wilke gave a charismatic and funny lead performance in director Shana Wride’s moving production in March.

“The Waverly Gallery,” Backyard Renaissance Theatre — Kenneth Lonergan’s drama, presented in November at a theater in San Diego’s East Village, is a young man’s memory tale about his beloved grandmother’s gradual descent into Alzheimer’s disease. I lost my mom to Alzheimer’s and found Francis Gercke’s direction painfully honest. Deborah Gilmour Smyth gave a stunning and heartbreaking performance as Gladys, the New York City art dealer losing her battle with the memory-robbing disease.

“Appropriate,” The Old Globe — The best play I saw on Broadway last year arrived at the Old Globe in January, and it was no less potent or disturbing the second time around. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 2014 drama, which won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival, is about a trio of dysfunctional White American siblings grappling with their Arkansas family’s disturbing, centuries-long history of racism, cruelty and immorality. Laced with dark humor and shocking revelations, “Appropriate” is a wickedly good firecracker of a play about America’s moral rot, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

“Fragment/o/s of Air/e,” OnStage Playhouse — Chula Vista playwright Carla Navarro’s world premiere play, presented last July at OnStage, told the harrowing story of Nina, a middle-aged woman in San Diego who is still struggling to emotionally recover from the horrors she experienced before escaping her native Chile during General Augusto Pinochet’s reign of terror. Director James P. Darvas helped Navarro develop the script in OnStage’s play-development program, and his stage direction was thrilling and imaginative, but also graphically violent. Valeria Vega gave an outstanding lead performance as Nina. The play was fascinating, but it left me with many unanswered questions.

“Beauty’s Daughter,” OnWord Theatre — Launched last spring, San Diego’s new OnWord closed its first season in November with a simply staged but powerfully told production of Dael Orlandersmith’s poetic 80-minute solo play. OnWord’s producing artistic director Marti Gobel was spellbinding in portraying six different characters whose lives are intertwined in 1990s Harlem. OnWord co-founder Danielle Bunch’s fluid direction and intimate staging was simple but effective.

“Anastasia” — Moonlight Stage Productions had a wonderful summer season with four musicals making their regional premieres at the outdoor Moonlight Amphitheatre. “Anastasia,” in July, was the most impressive with a fantastic singing cast led by Lena Ceja in the lead role, beautiful costumes and sets and state-of-the-art projections.

“We are Continuous,” Diversionary Theatre — This subtle one-act play by Harrison David Rivers tells the heartbreaking story of a gay HIV-positive Black man whose parents have pushed him away, to different degrees, because of their religious faith. Kian Kline-Chilton’s nuanced direction of the handsome production last March filled in the blanks of the minimalist story and the performances by Elliot Sagay, Marti Gobel and Eli Wood were wonderful.

“Oklahoma!,” Cygnet Theatre — This classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was the final production Cygnet staged in in Old Town before moving to The Joan in August. The barnlike theater was the perfect setting for the love story of cowboy Curly and farmgirl Laurey. Director Sean Murray’s production mixed in elements of Daniel Fish’s 2019 Broadway revival of the musical, which brought more depth, darkness and authenticity to the characters. I particularly liked the performance of Jacob Caltrider as the show’s Jud Fry, who in the revival was portrayed more as a misunderstood and ridiculed outsider than the one-dimensional villain in the original 1943 production.

“Master Class,” Scripps Ranch Theatre and The Roustabouts Theatre Co. — This well-staged co-production starred Sandy Campbell, reprising a role that won her a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle award in 2015. She starred in Terrence McNally’s 1995 play as retired opera diva Maria Callas, sharing her wisdom and passion with vocal students at  New York’s The Juilliard School in the early 1970s. Director Phil Johnson’s November production was funny and interactive and Campbell was even better this time as the fragile, edgy and outspoken singer.

“Spring Awakening,” Oceanside Theatre Company — Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s 2006 Broadway rock musical isn’t staged very often, so I applaud OTC for producing the challenging piece in September. Based on an 1891 play, it’s about the sexual awakening of a group of teens in a religious German town in the late 1800s. The young and committed cast gave their all, and Gerilyn Brault’s direction, with frenzied choreography by EU Washington, had an explosive amount of pent-up energy.

Blues for an Alabama Sky, Moxie Theatre — Moxie presented Pearl Cleage’s heartbreaking 1995 period drama in a well-cast and lavish October production. Set in 1930 Harlem, it’s the story of a group of friends who hold tight to their dreams while battling unemployment, poverty, addictions, homophobia, racism, sexual harassment and violence. Moxie executive artistic director Desireé Clarke Miller directed the production, which featured strong performances by Deja Fields as jazz singer Angel and Kevane La’Marr Coleman as gay costume designer Guy.

“Arms and the Man,” Lamb’s Players Theatre — George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 satire about war and politics may sound dry and old-fashioned, but director Deborah Gilmour Smyth’s October production was charming, funny and exceptionally well cast. Set in 1885, it’s about an unexpected romance that blooms between a Bulgarian military officer’s daughter and a war-weary Swiss soldier fleeing a nearby battle against the Bulgarian army.

 “Jekyll & Hyde,” San Diego Musical Theatre — Frank Wildhorn’s 1997 musical “Jekyll & Hyde” is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of show. I lean toward the “hate it” side because of its gory, melodramatic story, which is usually presented in woefully over-the-top stagings. But for this October production, director Omri Schein did a fine job shaving away some of the story’s silliest elements and he fielded a strong singing cast led by gifted vocal powerhouses Richard Bermudez and Melissa Musial as Dr. Henry Jekyll and barmaid Lucy Harris, respectively.