Grab your fan, shapewear and TUMS — Menopause The Musical opened Friday night at the Alhambra Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida. Created in 2001 by Jeanie Linders in Orlando, Florida, Menopause the Musical has since become the longest-running musical production in Las Vegas history. A show created with Baby Boomers in mind, it puts a humorous spin on the traditional jukebox musical genre.

Players by the Sea’s production of Rent arrives with the pulse and grit that changed the trajectory of musical theater in 1996. Jonathan Larson’s story of struggling artists in New York’s East Village gave Broadway a jolt of raw sound and real life, pairing rock music with a candid look at poverty, queer identity, addiction, illness and chosen family. It helped pull musical theater into the modern era and gave a generation of performers and audiences a voice they recognized. This production honors that legacy while delivering a fresh reading shaped by a cast that understands the material and a director who refuses to let the show sit in nostalgia.

A sold-out Little Women: The Musical opened at Amelia Community Theatre on Saturday night and wastes no time upending expectations. After receiving her twenty-second rejection letter, this time from a publisher who deems her story “tasteless and vulgar,” Jo March vents her frustration to her friend Professor Bhaer. Intrigued, he asks what the story is about, and Jo perks up immediately. “Blood and guts stuff. It’s all the rage. The magazines and periodicals are full of it!”

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is writing loud for all to hear, so let’s talk about Elf, which debuted at the Alhambra Theatre and Dining on Friday night. The Alhambra has a long, outstanding reputation for putting on the finest holiday shows year after year, and this year’s presentation of Elf is no exception.

The BroadwayWorld Jacksonville Awards are back, celebrating the productions and people who kept local stages busy over the past year. As part of BroadwayWorld’s annual Regional Awards, the Jacksonville edition looks only at work from our corner of Florida, covering productions from as far west as Gainesville and as far south as Palm Coast.

Jacksonville area artists, productions and companies are competing with fellow locals, not theatres from across the state or country. The ballot becomes a snapshot of the past year on First Coast stages, filtered through the audiences who filled the seats and sent in their favorites.

Samuel Issac Nelson III has been named a 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholar, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school seniors.

Nelson, a member of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts’ class of 2025, is one of only 161 students recognized nationwide and among just 20 honored for achievement in the arts. He is one of three recipients from Florida and the only one from Jacksonville.