The Alhambra Theatre & Dining has been voted the No. 1 dinner theater in the United States by readers of USA TODAY, topping the publication’s annual 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

MJ The Musical, the electrifying Broadway sensation, lands in Jacksonville with a show that not only pays homage to the King of Pop but also delivers a theatrical experience that is as grand as it is intimate. With its opening night at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts, the production sets the stage ablaze with dazzling choreography, stunning visuals and a heartfelt tribute to Michael Jackson’s legacy.

Steel Magnolias at Orange Park Community Theatre invites audiences into the warm, familiar hum of a Southern beauty salon where hairspray is as essential as heart. Over the course of several years — and across changing seasons, hairstyles and life stages — six women gather to share gossip, swap advice and support one another through life’s joys and devastations. Set entirely in Truvy’s salon, the play chronicles the wit, warmth and resilience of its characters as they navigate friendship, family and loss.

Every so often, a university makes a decision so misguided, so out of touch with its own mission, that you can’t help but feel angry, disappointed and deeply sad all at once. That’s exactly how I felt reading the news that Jacksonville University is cutting its music, theatre and visual arts programs. Not reducing. Not restructuring. Cutting. Gone.​

I was spellbound the moment I heard that Theatre Jacksonville was performing Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, and was drawn to opening night in a slow, hypnotic trance.