At the end of 2019, I had the bright idea of doing a feature article, “2020 Vision.”

It was to be a look at what Lehigh Valley theater groups, concert groups and entertainment presenters and arts organization leaders were seeing for 2020 and beyond.

I had my list of questions in an email prepared for the arts leaders. I was ready to hit the send button.

We all know what happened next: the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutdown.

I never hit the send button.

To quote a cliche, I had to pivot. As did we all.

I joked, or tried to, that I became the “Coronavirus Closings Editor” of the Lehigh Valley Press Focus section, as one by one, arts and entertainment venues shut their doors.

The coronavirus, COVID-19, and its variants, including Delta and Omicron, is no joking matter. It’s a deadly serious health concern.

Week after week in 2020, it seemed, in the Focus section, I was writing about what was not happening, rather than what was happening in the Lehigh Valley.

The content of the Focus section, which I edit, changed, too. Gone were “another opening, another show” preview articles. Instead, were articles about area firms changing over to manufacturing hand-sanitizer and the latest protocol at the region’s major health-care institutions.

As the coronavirus subsided, or seemed to, or was supposed to, this all was to change in 2021. It did and it didn’t. Arts organizations are back, more or less.

Once COVID-19 vaccinations became available, arts groups began to venture forth with in-person shows, concerts and events.

In 2021, Mayfair Festival of the Arts was one of the first major Lehigh Valley events to go in-person for the Memorial Day Weekend at Cedar Crest College.

Musikfest was back with Darius Rucker headlining a sold-out concert at the Wind Creek Steel Stage. Most of the 38th festival’s concert sites and food vendors were back, too.

The Great Allentown Fair, dating to 1852, in its 169-year history, was not held in 1917 and 1918 during World War I; 1942 - 1945 during World War II, and in 2020 during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutdown. The Fair was back in 2021 as Toby Keith and Carrie Underwood lit up the Fairgrounds Grandstand stage.

New stages

Just in time for the reopening of some events, summer theater survived, and in some ways, thrived, in the Lehigh Valley in 2021.

There were changes in leadership with more changes to come.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF), which was dark in 2020, reopened for its 30th season after constructing a new outdoor stage, Air Products Open Air Theatre, on the DeSales University campus. It proved to be an enjoyable theater-going experience.

PSF Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy is stepping down after the 2022 season. After 19 years, Mulcahy will return full-time to the DeSales University faculty. He led PSF longer than any previous leader, including its founder, Rev. Gerard J. Schubert, OSFS.

Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre (MSMT) stayed dark two seasons in a row, 2020 and 2021.

MSMT Co-Founder Artistic Director Charles Richter and MSMT Co-Founder and Director Of Design and Technical Theater Curtis Dretsch retired at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Also retiring was Muhlenberg Tap Instructor Shelley Oliver, who made many an MSMT show a tap-dancing extravaganza.

Richter, Dretsch and Jeremy Slavin, Director of Vocal Performance at Muhlenberg, founded MSMT in 1981.

Touchstone Theatre also entered a new stage, building the Barrio Stage on a portion of the parking lot at the south side Bethlehem theater. Touchstone brought back its third annual “Festival Unbound.”

As Lehigh Valley theater troupes and concert groups streamed performances in 2020 and into 2021, Touchstone went one step further, utilizing the United States Postal Service to deliver its original production, “Letters from Far,” directly to old-school in-boxes: mailboxes.

Northampton Community College Summer Theatre canceled its 2020 and 2021 seasons.

At Civic Theatre of Allentown, longtime officials and performers Sharon and Barry Glassman retired to Florida.

Among area arts and entertainment venues reopening for performances and events for audiences were Penn’s Peak, Miller Symphony Hall, Roxy Theatre, Allentown Art Museum, Baum School of Art and college and university performing arts centers.

The State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton, reopened in September and continued with concerts and national touring productions, including “Waitress.”

The Freddys are to be live and in-person for the 20th anniversary on the State Theatre stage in May 2022, State Theatre President and CEO Shelley Brown announced.

The 2020 Freddys were virtual. The 2021 Freddys included one song-and-dance number that was socially-distanced.

The Focus section “High School Musicals” series by Ed Courrier carried on in 2020 and 2021.

The significance of high school theater was symbolized by the Dec. 10 visit of Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried to her alma mater, Allen High School. Seyfried chatted with Allen theater department chair John Sechler. Seyfried, Oscar nominee, supporting actress, “Mank,” and noted for starring roles in the feature movies, “Mama Mia!,” “Dear John” and “Mean Girls,” was on stage at Civic Theatre of Allentown, including “A Christmas Carol.”

Another Civic Theatre alum, as well as a Pennsylvania Playhouse alum, Daniel Roebuck, was back in the area to direct his movie, “The Hail Mary.” It’s the third film the Bethlehem Catholic High School graduate filmed in the Lehigh Valley, following “Lucky Louie” and “Getting Grace. Roebuck’s acting credits include TV’s “Matlock” and the movies “The Fugitive,” “River’s Edge” and the upcoming “The Munsters.”

Diversity was in the spotlight as Lehigh Valley community theaters created the Lehigh Valley Community Theater Consortium to address concerns about equity, diversity and inclusion. Curtain talk announcements at DeSales and Civic Theatre recognized the region’s Lenape native American heritage.

Delta dawn

By fall, theater and concert venues invited audiences back if they were fully-vaccinated and displayed a CDC proof of vaccinations card and photo ID. Face masks were required for theater-goers. At concert venues, COVID protocol was often at the behest of touring shows and musicians.

Things seemed to be back to semi-normal. And then: the Delta variant and Omicron. By year’s end, some area stage shows were postponed or performances were canceled because a cast or crew member tested positive for COVID-19. On Broadway, some shows canceled performances. The “Christmas Spectacular Starring The Radio City Rockettes” at Radio City Music Hall, which opened Nov. 5 and was to continue through Jan 2, was canceled Dec. 17.

Is it the end of an era in theater, entertainment and the arts? It may be.

It is, for a whole different reason: the Nov. 26 death of Stephen Sondheim. American musical theater will remembered as Before Sondheim and After Sondheim.

Sondheim’s death symbolizes the passing of an era. Sondheim lived to see the beginning of the COVID era. He didn’t live to see the end of it. Will we?

In memoriam

The Lehigh Valley theater community saw the death April 13 of a titan of the stage in actor, director and producer George B. Miller. One can assuage the impact of George, whose reach, with his wife, Kate Scuffle, extended across the ocean to Ireland via their Selkie Theatre.

One cannot appreciate Miller’s impact unless you attended one of his productions, from the avant garde at Guthsville Playhouse, to the “Irish plays” at Theatre Outlet, to more recent productions, such as “To Kill A Mockingbird,” at Pennsylvania Playhouse. Miller’s productions were detailed. His approach to theater was elegant. His outpouring was prodigious.

His voice will be missed, too, as frequent co-host with Kate Scuffle of “Lehigh Valley Arts Salon” on WDIY. We “remain yours,” George.

The Lehigh Valley lost a champion of the theater with the June 5 death of Carol Gorney, a frequent contributor to Focus as theater reviewer and to the annual ABEs.

Carol’s careful and considerate approach to reviewing a play or musical illuminated stage acting, theater craft and the theater canon for performer and audience alike.

Gorney also compiled “The Family Project” column for the Focus section Lifestyle page and wrote features articles for Bethlehem Press. She received first place in the Features Beat category for her theater reviews in the 2018 and 2019 Keystone Media Awards.

Adeline “Addie” Burt, who was a performer, served on area theater company boards and founded a theater publication, died July 17.

Burt, who co-founded the TheatreEast troupe, started the publication, Theatrical Faces, in 1977, which became Arts Alive! in 1986, continuing until 1999.

We dedicate the 16th annual ABEs to George B. Miller, Carol Gorney and Adeline Burt. They’re probably comparing notes now.

2021 ABEs

The ABEs, as in Allentown, Bethlehem Easton, is an attempt to look back and celebrate a year’s worth of plays and musicals produced by Lehigh Valley theater companies.

This is the 16th annual ABEs.

Yes, it’s “Sweet 16.”

It’s more like “Bittersweet 16.”

In addition to theater reviews, which have been appearing on the Lehigh Valley Press website, on the Focus page, “Curtain Rises,” by Kathy Lauer-Williams, is published nearly every week in the Focus print edition and online.

Looking back at 2019, in the pre-COVID era, there were 43 theater reviews in Lehigh Valley Press Focus. That compares to 41 theater review in 2018 and 35 theater reviews in 2017.

In 2021, Lehigh Valley Press Focus had 19 theater reviews.

In previous years, the ABEs were divided into many categories, similar to those for the Tony Awards, with contributions by consensus from the reviewers. There were also community theater and professional theater categories.

For 2021, Kathy Lauer-Williams and myself wrote articles about some of our favorite shows and performances that we saw in the Lehigh Valley in 2021.

One-Person Shows

In the COVID era, it made sense to produce one-person shows. Three shows that I saw provided many outstanding moments, which I still rewind in my mind.

Tony Todd, “How I Learned What I Learned,” Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival,

Main Stage, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University. Todd (August Wilson) imbues playwright August Wilson’s semi-autobiographical play about growing up in Pittsburgh with towering dignity, passionate humanity and mischievous humor. Director Christopher V. Edwards carefully constructs the play as a series of chapters in Wilson’s book of life. Set Design by Baron E. Pugh. Projection Design by CJ Barnwell, Lighting Design by Jason Lynch, Sound Design by David M. Greenberg and Costume design by Kendra L. Johnson bring superb artistry to the pristine production in the Lehigh Valley premiere.

Greg Wood, “An Illiad,” Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival,

Main Stage, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University. Wood gives an Olympian performance as The Poet in the play’s Lehigh Valley premiere. “An Iliad,” by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, is based on Homer’s “The Iliad,” translated by Robert Fagles. Wood is transcendent, and riveting, especially reciting a litany of presumably all of the wars in human history. “The Iliad,” an ancient Greek epic poem which is attributed to Homer, was written circa 8th century BC and, along with Homer’s “Odyssey,” is among the oldest works of Western literature. Wood enters the stage to a loud percussive sound and is silhouetted by stark white light emanating from a doorway. It’s as if Wood is a time-traveling storyteller. On a stage tower is Liz Filios (The Muse), composer and sound designer for the production directed by Wood.

Cheryl Moritz, “Who’s Holiday!,” Civic Theatre of Allentown,

Theatre514. Moritz again dazzles in her third annual year in the role of Cindy Lou Who, the outcast of Whoville, in this spoof by Matthew Lombardo of the Dr. Seuss classic, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” Director Will Morris, Scenic Designer Sam Roff, Scenic Artist Jan Joyce, Sound Designer Randall Utsch, Propmaster Jason Daniel Sizemore and Hair-Wigs Designer Kim Danish set the scene for the hilarious outre show.

Lead Actor, Non-Musical

Bill Joachim, “A Christmas Carol,” Civic Theatre of Allentown,

Main Stage, Nineteenth Street Theatre. Joachim brings a John Waters’ vibe to the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens’ classic adapted by William Sanders and Sharon Lee Glassman for the stage and directed and choreographed by Sanders in the 30th anniversary production of the play at Civic. Joachim’s thin frame is a perfect representation for skinflint Scrooge. As his life passes before him, Joachim warms to the role to become a benefactor who learns to “keep Christmas well.”

Lead Actress, Non-Musical

Trish Cipoletti, “Noelle,” Crowded Kitchen Players,

Charles A. Brown Ice House. Cipoletti, as The Uninvited Guest, makes her entrance midway through the show. But, oh, what an entrance. Once, she’s on stage, Cipoletti commands the audience’s attention as she glides sylph-like from one end to the other. At first, you don’t know her purpose, nor does Noelle (Sharon Ferry). When audience and Noelle understand the Uninvited Guest’s presence, the reveal may just be one of the best Christmas presents ever.

Lead Actor, Musical

Ryan Donchez, “They’re Playing Our Song,” Civic Theatre Of Allentown,

Main Stage, Nineteenth Street Theatre. “Song,” as the title states, is playful and songful. As directed by Civic Theatre of Allentown Artistic Director William Sanders, it’s a great choice for the reboot of regularly-scheduled Main Stage shows at Civic. Donchez is Vernon Gersch, the composer, in the musical based on the lives, careers and songs of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, partners in song and life (for a time in the late 1970s).

Lead Actress, Musical

Rebecca Pieper, “They’re Playing Our Song,”

Civic Theatre Of Allentown, Main Stage, Nineteenth Street Theatre. Pieper is Sonia Walsk, the lyricist in the zesty production based on the songwriting team of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, composer and lyricist. “Song” has some great songs by Hamlisch and Bayer Sager delivered with exuberance, classy style and in fine voice by Donchez and Pieper. The actors also have great timing in delivering the witty dialogue of Neil Simon, who wrote the book for the musical.

Ensemble Performance, Non-Musical

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival,

Air Products Open Air Theatre, DeSales University. PSF hangs the moon literally, albeit, with a rope and pulley raising a two-dimensional lunar image where William Shakespeare’s comedy classic sallies forth. In the direction by Matt Pfeiffer, “Midsummer” unfolds as an eyes-wide-open “Dream,” the cast energetically working the entire stage, grassy areas in front of the stage and at the side of the stage. There’s even a trapdoor (After all, what would a Shakespeare play be without a trapdoor?). The outdoor setting seems to have liberated Pfeiffer’s band of merry thespians, invigorating them with a freedom of movement and interaction with each other and audience.

It’s Puck ever after with Mary Tuomanen taking center stage with sparkling energy, in terrific voice and an enthusiasm that enervates the entire show. Ian Merril Peakes as the redoubtable Nick Bottom struts and voices stridently the role, even more so when transformed to a hee-haw donkey when he really kicks up his heels. As the gamine Hermia, Kathryn Tkel charms and stands her ground, as does her counterpart Brett Ashley Robinson, a brash and bold Helena. Akeem Davis prevaricates effectively as Demetrius, while Luigi Sottile is no bystander as Lysander. Holding court are Eleanor Handley, elegant and regal, respectively, as Hippolyta and Titania, and Lindsay Smiling, imposing and earnest, respectively, as Theseus and Oberon.

“Midsummer Night’s Dream” represents a joyful return for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Kudos to PSF Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy, the staff and board of directors for pushing forward. Without Shakespeare, it would have been another sad summer.

And so we bid adieu, against a backdrop of trees, chirping birds, blue sky and soon a Center Valley sunset splashed with orange and pink. The real quarter-moon rises in the west after Puck’s epilogue and the actors have taken their bows. As twilight settles in, lightning bugs flicker forth, the very fairies of the night, further illuminating this fanciful tale that vanishes as a dream.

Ensemble Performance, Musical (tie)

“Annie,” Civic Theatre of Allentown,

Main Stage, Nineteenth Street Theatre. The classic musical, set in Great Depression-era New York City, is based on the book by Thomas Meehan with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, and directed by Civic Theatre of Allentown Artistic Director William Sanders. Annie Hotz, as plucky orphan Annie, is fabulous in the title role as she goes from down-and-out ragamuffin abandoned by con-artist parents to fairytale-level princess, and charms everyone in the process. Robert Fahringer (Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks) turns in a stellar performance. His voice and presence are riveting. Melisa Klausner (Miss Agatha Hannigan) is superb as the abusive matron of the orphanage. Hannigan drinks like a sailor, barks like a drill instructor and doesn’t mind swindling a few thousand bucks. Jarrod Yuskaukas (Daniel “Rooster” Hannigan) is great as the hustler who tries to con Warbucks. His beautiful partner in crime and love interest, Lily St. Regis (Cindy Lozada), is perfect as a trophy girlfriend and wanna-be moll who shows great interest when money is mentioned.

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” Pennsylvania Playhouse.

Rody Gilkeson directs a tour-de-force that brings great voices, wonderful costumes, dramatic lighting and a terrific cast together on stage in a fast-moving murder-mystery musical. With book and lyrics by Robert L Freedman and music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak, it’s based on a novel by Roy Horniman. Patrick Mertz (Monty Navarro) showcases his musical chops in the ode to his true love in “Sibella.” Christopher D’Imperio (The D’Ysquith Family, in multiple roles) is superlative as he ranges from haughty upper-class English gentleman (Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith), to portraying a pub patron (Henry D’Ysquith) and Lady Hyacinth D’Ysquith. Kimberly Mertz (Sibella Hallward) and Patrick Mertz make bright, romantic, sparkly sparks in several scenes. Elizabeth Marsh-Gilkeson (Phoebe D’Ysquith) is delightful, notably in “Inside Out” with Patrick Mertz (Monty) and Kimberly Mertz (Sibella) in “That Horrible Woman.”

Original Play

“Noelle,” Crowded Kitchen Players,

Charles A. Brown Ice House, Bethlehem. “Noelle” is the un-Christmas play. It advances, then demolishes, the shibboleths about the season. The play, written and directed by Ara Barlieb, who also wrote an original drama, “Corner Booth” presented by CKP in 2021, assembles one of the most disagreeable bunch of characters this side of a family-induced intervention. Rudy (David Oswald) and his wife, Dominique (Suzy Barr Hoffman), are trying to dislodge Noelle (Sharon Ferry) from her apparent Alzheimer’s reverie. There’s an assortment of madcap interlopers and onlookers, led by an ex-wife Vicky (Pamela McLean Wallace), a Rabbi (Jerry Brucker) and the Wikipedia-infused Kenny (Scott VanNortwick). One can’t help but be carried off by the hilarious dialogue in the carrying-ons. A surprisingly-sweet ending to this Christmas Eve fable leaves nary a dry eye in the house.

Douglas Graves contributed to this article.