The Best of 2025
As the last hours of 2025 tick away, Asheville Stages staffers look back on the year that was and pick their favorite theater performances from the past 12 months.
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Bruce Steele
When I tell people that I see more good theater in and around Asheville than I did during my recent stint living in Los Angeles, they look doubtful — but only if they don't live around here. In my experience, Asheville-area stages are full of talent, innovation, and superb storytelling. And if you want the Broadway touring companies (which is mostly what I saw in L.A.), you just need to drive down the mountain to Greenville, S.C., where the Peace Center offers a consistent diet of national tours (their Kimberly Akimbo was a joyful eyeopener).
I've only been permanently back in WNC for about six months, but I've seen some wonderful theater. A highlight was Art at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, with a stellar three-man cast in a smart and smartly funny play that happened to be running on Broadway at the same time. The counterpoint to the regularly revived Art would be The Sublime Theater's world premiere of Fire & Flood, two captivating one-acts by local playwright Travis Lowe at the BeBe Theatre. I was also consistently impressed with the reliable, professional, and inviting offerings of both Flat Rock Playhouse (Murder on the Orient Express and The Play That Goes Wrong were outstanding) and North Carolina Stage Co. (The Last Wide Open was a scintillating surprise). Finally, I have to add kudos to the little theater company that could, SART in Mars Hill, which gave us an hysterical production of the complicated comedy Noises Off.
I very much look forward to a full 12 months of Asheville Stages in 2026!
Juked (Photo by Shelby Taylor Design)
Arnold Wengrow
Stephanie Hickling Beckman’s Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective has staked out a unique role in Asheville’s theater community. She showcases African American performers and she nurtures new playwrights who dig deeply into what it means to be Black in the United States.
All this mission-driven energy came together in a sizzling production of Juked, an inventive reframing of Sophocles’ Electra by Mildred Inez Lewis, set in 1940s Asheville. When Sharvis Smith as a Greek chorus figure launched into an electrifying gospel anthem at the top of the show, I knew something new and important was taking off. Matching Smith in stage presence and power were Kirby Gibson as Lectra and Donna Marie McMillan as her mother Nestra. Gibson’s quiet intensity was a perfect foil for McMillan’s extravagant prowling and sashaying. When McMillan entered late in the first act in an over-the-top costume by Ida Bostian, the audience gasped. It was a little theatrical coup I’ll long remember.
Miss Julie (Photo courtesy of Attic Salt Theatre Co.)
Jeff Catanese
I averaged almost two plays a month this year, not including one-offs, and I've seen a great many fantastic performances. To whittle them down to a handful is no easy task, but here's a list of wonderful ones anyway. (In no particular order.)
Shelby Acosta (Angelica Schuyler) in the Broadway tour of Hamilton at the Peace Center - Most notable for the fact that she was the role's understudy, and did great things with a very difficult role.
Alan Steele (two roles) at Montford Park Players - In the roles of John Heminges and Falstaff in The Book of Will and The Merry Wives of Windsor, respectively, Steele showed great range and confidence and had audiences crying and laughing. Often at the same time.
Lauren Otis (Miss Julie) in Miss Julie at Attic Salt Theatre Company - Diving headfirst, Otis showed great poise and steamrolled across the stage in one of the theater's most complex roles.*
The entire cast of Too Much Light Makes the Baby go Blind at 35below - Filled with local theater stalwarts, they played off of each other with such joy while attempting to (and succeeding at) presenting 60 short plays in 90 minutes.
Travis Lowe (Cyrano) in Cyrano de Bergerac at Montford Park Players - Lowe already has a reputation as a sharp and versatile local actor, so it didn't surprise that he absolutely killed this role.
Chesney Goodson (several roles in several plays) at Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective - A couple of years ago, he was a stand-up comedian testing the theater waters. Now it would be hard not to simply peg him as a full-fledged actor. It's great to watch him stretch and grow.
Alex McDonald Villarreal as Himself in Ethnically Ambiguous at HART - I actually saw this performance last year, when it was a short piece in Different Strokes' 369 Series, but Villarreal has expanded and moved the one-man show, and is still nothing short of brilliant.
*Full disclosure: I directed her in this performance, but that doesn't make me biased and she was amazing anyway. So there.
The Lehman Trilogy (Photo courtesy of NC Stage Co.)
Edwin Arnaudin
Way back in March, NC Stage Co.’s production of Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy set a new standard for local theater. Under the inspired direction of Charlie Flynn-McIver, the ensemble of Willie Repoley, Adam Kampouris, and Philip Kershaw each played numerous characters and performed a staggering amount of dialogue over the course of three 50-minute acts. It was a marathon night for all involved — the theater blessedly provided attendees with seat cushions — but wholly worthwhile.
(Photo of Art courtesy of Black Mountain Center for the Arts)
