In 2024, Lehigh Valley community and professional theaters continued to tackle more diverse material, while still giving audiences what they wanted in classic musicals.

When Civic Theatre of Allentown asked audiences to vote to choose its fall musical, the winner was the perennial favorite “The Sound of Music,” of which Civic staged a delightful production.

Diversity is still at the forefront of many area theaters.

Civic staged a crackling production of the Fats Waller jazz musical “Ain’t Misbehavin.’”

Pennsylvania Playhouse explored issues of race and class in its intriguing production of “Stick Fly.”

Women of all orientations got their say in Civic’s cheeky “Five Lesbians Eating A Quiche.”

Northampton Community College Theatre Department staged the raw “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties.”

Crowded Kitchen Players continued to deliver thoughtful original works about serious issues, particularly those affecting the senior population. “Death By Lullaby” tackled serious problems that can occur in senior living situations and “Twilight in the Park” took a tough look at how the onset of dementia can rip apart families.

The Lehigh Valley theater community suffered a huge loss when Bill Mutimer, head of the theater department at Northampton Community College, died March 6.

Mutimer was the producing artistic director of the Northampton Community College Summer Theatre, which he founded in 2017. He had just finished directing “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” at Cedar Crest College.

Colleagues Brett Oliveira and Clair Freeman took up the reins of the Northampton Community College Summer Theatre, for which Mutimer already had started casting, and renamed it Northampton Community College Bill Mutimer Memorial Summer Theatre in his honor. The renamed summer theater is slated to continue in 2025.

Mutimer had directed and performed on nearly every stage in the Lehigh Valley, including Pennsylvania Playhouse, Civic Theatre of Allentown, Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College, MunOpCo Music Theatre and Pennsylvania Youth Theatre.

He was artistic director of the Main Street Theater, Quakertown, for many years, and then co-owner and artistic director of Center for the Arts on Main, Quakertown, before becoming an adjunct professor at Muhlenberg College.

Mutimer was the final artistic director of Theatre Outlet after George B. Miller and Kate Scuffle went to Ireland. In 2010, he began teaching theater at Northampton Community College.

Another loss to the theater community was Allentown native Michael McDonald, who was nominated for a Tony Award for costume design for the 2009 Broadway revival of “Hair.” McDonald died Sept. 4 in New York City.

McDonald started his career as a teen volunteer, designing more than 25 productions for Civic Theater. Most recently, he designed the costumes for Civic’s “Pippin” in April. He has also designed costumes for Pennsylvania Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Cedar Crest College, Bucks County Playhouse, Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre and The Theatre Outlet.

In 2019, McDonald was honored with Allentown Arts Commission Arts Ovation Award.

Throughout 2024, I saw 40 shows and here is my take on what were my favorite shows of the year. It some cases, it was hard to pick just one because there was a lot of compelling theater this past year.

Professional Musical

Northampton Community College Bill Mutimer Memorial Summer Theatre’s heart-warming and well-rounded production of the classic musical “Fiddler on the Roof” had it all: top-notch dancing, great musicianship, memorable acting and effective costumes and set.

Under the deft direction of Gustavo Wons, the show, which depicts the eviction of the ethnic Jewish population from their homeland in what is now Ukraine, resonated with significance in the light of world events. Wons also did the outstanding choreography based on Jerome Robbins’ original choreography.

The musical was dedicated to Mutimer, who played Tevye in a 1999 production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at Pennsylvania Playhouse; and to Mary Catherine Bracali, who died June 22, and had played Golde to Mutimer’s Tevye in the 1999 show.

Professional Play

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival produced a “The Merry Wives of Windsor” that was sidesplitting fun from beginning to end. Director Matt Pfeiffer gave the show a contemporary spin with a fusion of various influences, creating a jolly pastiche that was extremely funny and very accessible.

The cast, from Scott Greer’s Elvis-inspired Falstaff, to Akeem Davis’s over-the-top Mr. Ford, to Taysha Marie Canales and Karen Peakes’ very merry wives, the cast was across-the-board outstanding.

Community Musical

Civic Theatre staged a stylish, sexy and dynamic “Pippin” that was elevated by the steampunk-inspired costumes by Michael McDonald in his final area costume design.

Deena Lynn directed and choreographed, skillfully recreating Bob Fosse’s iconic choreography.

Former Rockette Mariel Letourneau danced superbly as the Leading Player.

Husband and wife team Patrick Mertz and Kimberley Mertz shone as the naive Pippin and manipulative Fasstrada.

Community Play

Between the Lines Studio Theater presented a deliciously dark Brontean satire in “The Moors,” which was intriguing, evocative and a bit macabre.

Under director Jason Roth, this wickedly funny send-up of gothic romance novels, zipped by like a roller coaster to its outrageous ending.

Playwright Jen Silverman’s clever plot twists and turns were brought to subversive life by the talented cast, which included Julia Urich’s coldly domineering Agatha, Darah Donaher’s giddy Hudley and Heath Mensher’s deeply philosophical and joyless mastiff.

College Musical

DeSales University Act 1’s deliciously dark and wildly entertaining “Little Shop of Horrors” boasted great performances, hilariously kitschy visuals and some top-notch singing.

John Bell, professor of theater at DeSales. directed with precision and clarity, and the puppetry was fantastic.

Audrey II was impressively manipulated by puppeteers Bella Lucano and Teddy Novak; and wonderfully voiced by Abigail Townsend, who gave the plant a real and threatening personality.

Tommy Stacherski was an appealingly klutzy and earnest Seymour. Rosie Dunphy was sweetly self-deprecating as Audrey.

College Play

Northampton Community College’s “The Laramie Project” opened the day after the death of department head Bill Mutimer, and the show was haunting, impassioned and filled with raw emotion, delivered by a profoundly moving cast.

“The Laramie Project” which centers around the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was robbed, beaten, tied to a fence and left to die near Laramie, Wyo., is frequently painful to watch, but the horror is balanced by the humor layered into nearly every Laramie resident encountered in the play.

The amazing ensemble cast brought more than 60 characters vividly to life and was directed with painful hope by Clair Freeman.

Lead Performances

Benjamin Lurye and Chani Werely were dynamic as couple Jamie and Cathy in Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s “The Last Five Years.” This two-person, almost completely sung-through show is very demanding and Lurye and Werely were up to the task with soaring vocals and crisp, smart acting in this near-perfect production of Jason Robert Brown’s complex and challenging musical.

Under director PSF Artistic Director Jason King Jones’ skilled hands, all the parts came together for a thoroughly satisfying evening of musical theater.

Ensemble

A talented ensemble cast made Cedar Crest College’s energetic and irreverent “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” more funny than it had a right to be.

The musical followed the denizens of a dusty trailer park as they messily navigated life and love. Cedar Crest’s production was a hilarious guilty pleasure with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.

In his final directorial bow, Bill Mutimer wrung the maximum humor out of every scene.

Original Play

“Twilight in the Park,” written by Bethlehem playwright Paul Kodiak and performed by Crowded Kitchen Players, was touching and tragic.

Kodiak’s moving and thoughtful play takes an unflinching look at the devastating effect mental illness can have on loved ones.

With heartbreaking performances by John Corl as Army veteran Oscar, struggling with dementia; Pamela Wallace as his helpless and frustrated wife, and Marcy Hake Repp as their lonely and desperate neighbor, the play is disturbing and thought-provoking.

Honorable Mention

Pennsylvania Playhouse’s gritty and unsettling production of “Cabaret” was elevated by strong performances, and marked a welcome return to the theater of live musicians (on stage).

Cody Jackson was brilliant as the garish and bawdy Emcee, while Lucy Moore gave Sally Bowles a raw passion.

Outstanding performances by secondary leads Trish Kane Steele as Fräulein Schneider and Robert Torres as Herr Schultz added another layer to the show, while the Kit Kat Club performers attacked the seedy roles with enthusiasm.

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com