Critics Choice awards announced for 27th Orlando Fringe Festival

Last night, the 27th annual Orlando Fringe Festival came to a close, and despite dire weather forecasts this year’s event broke records for the number of sold-out performances. During the Fringe’s closing ceremony on Memorial Day, festival producer Michael Marinaccio presented the Critics Choice awards, which are decided by myself and the Orlando Sentinel‘s Matt Palm.

This year’s big winner was 13 Dead Dreams of Eugene, by Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald/Theatre Mobile, which was named Best Show of the 2018 Orlando Fringe Festival.

Here are the rest of this year’s Critics Choice selections:

BEST PLAY, COMEDY:
The Jurassic Parks, by Superbolt Theatre

BEST PLAY, DRAMA:
The Encampment of Dr. Moreau, by Marlon Andrew Burnley

BEST PLAY, MUSICAL:
F*ckboys: The Musical, by Infinite Productions

BEST SOLO SHOW, COMEDY:
Kevin, King of Egypt, by Rob Gee

BEST SOLO SHOW, CABARET:
Beneath the Bikini, by Katie Thayer

BEST SOLO SHOW, DRAMA:
Muttnik, by Pipsqueak Collective

BEST SOLO SHOW, MUSICAL:
A Solo From the Pit, by Elias Faingersh/Teater KEF

BEST DANCE SHOW:
VarieTease: Spellbound, by Blue LaLa Entertainment

BEST VARIETY OR SPECIALTY SHOW:
FrogPig, by Joel Swanson

BEST ORIGINAL SCRIPT:
Enter, Pursued by a Whale, by Irene L. Pynn

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Thrones! The Musical Parody, by Chris Grace, Zach Reino, Al Samuels, Nick Semar and Dan Wessels

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT:
An Excruciatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show, by Zach Dorn

BEST FEMALE PERFORMER:
Erin Cline, Meet the Replacements

BEST MALE PERFORMER:
Chris Crawford, Hello

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE:
The cast of El Wiz

BEST DIRECTION:
Scott Browning, Shakespeare’s Ghostbusters

This article appears in May 23-29, 2018.