As we rapidly approach the end of the year, I'm pretty proud of myself for actually sticking with this blog and sharing a whole bunch of random opinions with the few dozen of you who have kept checking in. Thanks for that! I had three goals when I started: get 10 loyal readers, get free tickets to at least one show, and actually get through the year. Done, done, and...so close!
So while I still have two shows to write up and, who knows, could still see things next week (Porgy and Bess, anyone?), I'm ready to look back at the 114 shows I saw this year (yeah...114. christ.) and offer up my own list of my ten favorite shows and ten performances. Because you know what I love almost as much as live theater? LISTS!
Looking over everything I saw, I realize I attended shows in hotel rooms, converted warehouses, an abandoned church, an old town house, and a few basements. I saw a disconcertingly large number of actors naked (Burning and Hair alone pushed the number past 25, but there seemed to be an extra lot of nudity elsewhere this year as well). I railed against things everyone else loved (War Horse) and advocated for things people thought were abysmal (The People in the Picture). Mostly, though, I just had a ton of fun.
So without further ado...
My ten favorite shows:
Once
The reviews of this show weren't across the board raves: proof that people who aren't me are idiots. On the plus side, it's transferring to Broadway in the new year, so a) I can see it again and b) critics will have a chance to realize that they missed out on the strongest new musical of the year, if not the past few years. And no, I'm not forgetting The Book of Mormon (see a teeny bit below). You can argue that the show is overly sentimental, but you'd be missing the point. It is disarmingly earnest and hopelessly romantic--two things that usually make my teeth itch--but the beauty of the production is that the reality of life is always lurking in the background reminding us how ephemeral the central romance is. With some of the most beautiful simple stagecraft I've ever seen and one of the strongest ensembles around, I found it impossible not to be won over.
born bad
If Once made me cry at the capacity of goodness in many people, born bad shattered me with our potential for hideousness. With its fractured dialogue holding us at remove from the start, the play reveals itself in fits and starts as the story of one woman whose pleas to her family to listen to her experience being sexually abused by her father fall on deaf ears. Without ever actually speaking of what happened, Dawta rages against her family only to be met by denial, anger, and avoidance. Running less than an hour, it was one of the shortest plays I saw this year, but it was also the most impactful.
The Book of Mormon
I mean...listen, what am I going to say that hasn't been said? It's sold out until doomsday, won every award known to man, and was greeted with rave reviews across the board. Why? Because it's seriously fucking funny. But beyond that because it actually has a beating heart, tells a real story, and is strangely relatable. This is the show that every Fringe Festival jokey musical wants to be. None of them can touch it. I've seen it three times and will head back next time I can score tickets. So...maybe for my 50th birthday?
Sons of the Prophet
Here's something I'm noticing: my top choices were mostly shows that made me laugh really, really hard or cry real tears. This did the former and had me on the verge of the latter. It was the year's funniest tragedy--an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink play that piled woe upon woe on its main character but never missed a laugh, it somehow also never cheapened itself or its characters. It's a high-wire act of writing, and I still don't know how it managed not to fall off the edge. It didn't hurt that it was so precisely directed and given life by a brilliant team of actors.
The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church
One man surrounded by audience on all four sides, detailing the treasure trove of thousands of suicide letters he found in the attic of a house he was considering buying, this was another amazing feat of writing and imagination, brought to life by its nerdy, lovable creator Daniel Kitson. The whole story may have been made up, but that didn't make it feel any less honest. Kitson is stateside again in the new year with another one man show. You can bet I already have tickets.
Black Watch
In the "you never know" category, I avoided this history of a platoon of the Scottish army the first two times it came through New York. And even halfway through the experience of watching it, I remained on the fence, wondering if it was glamorizing the armed forces, whether the construction by way of interview snippets leading in and out of flashbacks was lazy technique, and whether it really had anything all that interesting to say. And then a small voice in the back of my head told me to shut up and just watch. I fell further and further into the entire production and by the heartstopping wordless finale, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I was actually trembling. Without Stephen Hoggett's unreal movement design, the show might not be the dazzler it is. It should be mentioned that Hoggett also did the musical staging of Once. And that he might be a genius.
SWAN!!!
I swear I'm not just including this because it got me a ton of blog hits when I was linked to random Randy Harrison fan pages. Hey again, Queer as Folk fans! If all I was doing was pandering, I'd just name the show that got me the most Google hits at all this year: The Motherfucker with the Hat. And I'm just not that desperate for attention! I kid, I kid. For real, though, this was five people in chairs hamming it up as they performed the script of Black Swan. Jenn Harris is simply the funniest chick in the game, and she and her friends dazzled with a camp fantasia. Sure, it was slight. But it was also the hardest I laughed all year.
Follies
It's fucking Sondheim. Did you think I wouldn't include it here? Now, I may only have seen it three times (so far!), but I'll certainly be back before it closes next month. Because let's be real: there isn't a better score on Broadway right now. I know a lot of people have their quibbles with this production, but Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Terri White, Rosalind Elias, Jayne Houdyshell, Elaine Paige...the amount of talent and theater history on that stage combined with the stunning music make it essential.
Hello Again
I was about to say this was the most divisive show on my list, but then I looked at what I have down for number 10. We'll get there. Meanwhile, I know some folks didn't buy the environmental staging which, let's face it, was pretty hokey. And the sound design was wonky, and yes it's ANOTHER show based on La Ronde. But you know what? I fell head over heels for the score, loved the intimacy of the entire production, and thought that while it was easily the most cynical show about relationships I saw this year, it was also the sexiest.
The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
So here's a show that some people HATED. To me, this is the show that crazy ass play Burning thought it was being. Deliberately awkward, highly stylized, and just really, really weird, it approached the story of a possibly insane man deciding to make his three musically challenged daughters into a girl group by giving us hints of how each character saw things, abstracting all of it, and slamming it together in a wistfully atonal mishmash that refused to outright moralize. It rewarded the audience that stayed on its toes and approached it on its own level.
And my ten favorite performances:
Stockard Channing as Polly in Other Desert Cities
I had so much trouble with this show Off-Broadway but really came around to it when it transferred thanks in large part to Rachel Griffiths and Judith Light as the new cast members. But this isn't about them. Its about Stockard Channing as the ice-cold mother of an upper-upper-class Palm Springs family. Her repeated refrain, "I know who I am," begins as a frightening peek behind the curtain of a woman capable of threatening to cut off her own child before ultimately revealing itself to be more of a warrior cry. She does know who she is, and that's something she must desperately cling to since almost no one else around her is let in on her secrets. It is a truly great performance and while there's a possibility that she isn't my true number one (see below) the distance between the two is a hair's breadth.
The cast of born bad
Yes, it's a cheat to include an entire cast, but if I didn't, there'd be so little room for everyone else! Heather Alicia Simms was raw with rage as Dawta. Crystal Dickinson was horrifyingly relateable as the sister who chose to deny what was going on. Quincy Tyler Bernstine (always brilliant) was hauntingly elusive as the sister whose spotty memory may or may not have been a choice. Michael Rogers' mostly wordless role as the abusive father showed just how huge a presence an actor can be even at their most still and silent. LeRoy James McClain was heartbreaking as the brother who eventually breaks the family secrets wide open. And the look on Elain Graham's face as a mother finally coming to terms with the truth of her past was the single most haunting image of the entire year. It is to her credit that I can't shake the image, even if I may want to. In a year of strong ensembles (Black Watch, Book of Mormon, Sons of the Prophet, Once, etc.), no other cast moved together as flawlessly as this one.
Mary Louise Wilson as Vera in 4,000 Miles
One of the great ladies of the theater, Wilson played a nonagenarian whose 21-year-old grandson arrives on her doorstep having biked his way across the country. She offered an extraordinary portrait of a woman frustrated by her diminished faculties who finds it incredibly difficult to understand her emotionally brittle grandson but whose compassion is never diminished. A beautiful, honest portrayal of elderly life that never relied on cheap sentiment or easy humor.
Mark Rylance as Rooster in Jerusalem
One of the two showiest performances on my list, Rylance's portrayal of a hard-partying older traveler surrounded by young people, refusing to grow up, and clutching tight to the loose joys of childhood was big and wild enough to carry Jez Butterworth's depiction of small events rendered nearly mythical in scale. This is a man who I think would be more than happy to literally chew the stage, but the mania and energy and feeling of unpredictability are all the more impressive when quieter moments occur and you realize just how carefully calibrated the performance was for all three hours of the show
Lucy Taylor as Brett in The Select (The Sun Also Rises)
Hemingway's drunken sex bomb tease would be so easy to play as a simple slut, but Taylor's Brett perfectly captured the depression and loneliness fueling her escapades. It was terribly simple to see why so many would fall in love with her, even knowing that she was destined to let them down. A natural born heartbreaker rendered with immense empathy.
Linda Lavin as Rita in The Lyons
Joining Rylance in the "Hey, look at me, I'm acting!" club, the ever-delightful Linda Lavin didn't steal this show from the rest of her cast. She simply refused to let anyone else ever come close to possessing it. Great this year in Other Desert Cities Off-Broadway and Follies in DC, she skipped both of those transfers to Broadway for this small Off-Broadway show, and it was easy to see why. The disgruntled Jewish mother has been seen before, but Lavin played her like a sitcom dream and looked to be having more fun than anyone else on stage this year.
Danny Burstein as Buddy in Follies
In such a diva-heavy show, it's surprising to me that my favorite performance came from one of the male actors, but Burstein is so sad and so lovable as the shat-upon husband of Bernadette Peters' potentially crazy Sally. Burstein's second act opener, "The Right Girl," is a highlight of the entire show, the character's entire story of vacillation between love and disappointment rendered in miniature. More than anyone else for me, he nailed the balance between good humor and real sadness that the show needs to be its best.
Annaleigh Ashford as Maureen in Rent
I did not love the off-Broadway revival of Rent. It's a show that meant a lot to me as a teenager and which I saw many, many times on Broadway. To bring it back so soon after the original closed, I was hoping that something amazing and new would be brought to the table. It wasn't. Except in the case of Annaleigh Ashford whose Maureen felt completely different from any other portrayals of the character I've seen but also completely fitting with the role as written. The production was vibrantly alive when she came on stage. If only the rest of the cast had gotten the memo that they needed to figure out their own way to play familiar characters.
Jenn Harris as Clarice in Silence! The Musical and Nina in SWAN!!!
There's a reason that Harris seems to star in shows that require exclamation points in their titles. She's too funny for vaguer punctuation. A spot-on mimic with perfect comedic timing and a sense of utter fearlessness, she is the only performer this year that I saw swallow a can of cold baked beans for a laugh. And if you don't respect that...I just don't know what to do for you.
Chris Perfetti as Charles in Sons of the Prophet
Almost anyone from this cast could have made it onto my top 10, but I'll give it to the new kid in town. In a supporting role, Perfetti shone as the gay younger brother in a family that can't manage to escape tragedy. Whether coming on to the football player who ran over his dad or trying to convince his brother that there's somehow a message for them from the afterlife, he stays grounded and real and very, very touching.
Bobby Steggert - A Minister's Wife
No one else liked this show as much as I did. A musical version of Shaw's Candida, I thought the show was delicate and lovely. And at its heart, Steggert played a lovelorn, naive young poet who believes himself to be terribly mature. A sophisticated portrayal of youthful innocence by one of my favorite current actors.
I started the blog this year with a list of my favorite performances of 2010 and named Nina Arianda in Venus in Fur as one of them. I'd actually give her the number one slot here, but I've rhapsodized about her enough!
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