#1
Posted: 1/4/05 at 3:36pm
Filled with lots of surprises and more than a few disappointments, 2004 proved to be a mostly rewarding year for theatre, in retrospect. I saw 86 plays and musicals on-, off-, and off-off-Broadway (as well as a few regional productions in Washington, D.C. and Seattle) -- probably a more theatre than ANYONE needs to see in a given year (though a few folks over at ATC saw more than double that amount) but as addictions go, hey, at least frequent theatre-going doesn't rot your teeth or leave tracks on your arms ...... well, not yet anyway.
The following is my list of what stood out in my mind as the "best" (whatever that means) -- smartest, most thought-provoking, most-inspiring, most emotionally and intellectually-stimulating, most fun, least flawed ....... I don't know ...... perhaps it's a combination of all of that and more. I omitted productions I returned to this year which I had seen before in prior years ("Caroline, or Change," which topped my 2003 list when it was at The Public; Linda Emond reprising her brilliant performance as The Homebody in Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul" at BAM). And, just so you know, there was a lot of tinkering with both the Top Ten, as well as the Honorable Mentions List, and several inclusions on the latter, could easily qualify, in my mind, for the former -- it's all a little arbitrary, so perhaps it's best to look at both together as a Top 20 List and leave it that. Anyway, without further ado:
TOP TEN OF 2004 (in alphabetical order):
BLACKBIRD by Adam Rapp (Off-Off-Broadway; The Blue Heron Arts Center)
Disturbing and claustrophobic, this powerful drama from the prolific young Adam Rapp, took stage naturalism to an uncomfortable extreme. Staged in a tiny (30 seat?) studio space in the Blue Heron Arts Center, the audience became flies on the wall to this tale of an ailing Gulf War vet and his drug-addicted teenage lover, living together in the squalor of a downtown tenement building. The realism of the staging was such that no effort was made in any way to separate the characters from the audience, to the point that you felt that you were actually in the apartment with them as an invisible observer (I was even bumped into twice by one of the actors). Paul Sparks and Mandy Siegfried gave stunning performances and Rapp managed to convey the poetry and pathos and a surprising bit of humor in exploring the lives of these desperate characters.
BUG by Tracy Letts (Off-Broadway; The Barrow Street Theatre)
The year's most visceral event. A sweaty-palmed, paranoia-inducing, Chicago-school absurdist nightmare, the whole experience made you want to scratch yourself incessantly and take a shower afterwards. The direction and design elements were all above reproach and Michael Shannon and Shannon Cochran led the flawless ensemble in this jarring and affecting production.
FIRST LADY SUITE by Michael John LaChiusa (Off-Off-Broadway; The Connelly Theatre)
This revival of LaChiusa's chamber musical depicting moments in the lives of first ladies -- Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower and Jackie Kennedy -- was one of the unexpected delights of the year (and one of the biggest bargains: how often do you get to see and hear Broadway caliber talent like Mary Testa, Mary Beth Peil, Julia Murney, Donna Lynne Champion and Sherry D. Boone for $15?). Each vignette perceptively conveyed the isolation, power and responsibility that goes with being the first lady of the land, yet still found the humanity and vulnerability underneath. A remarkable score gorgeously sung by all of the ladies, with special kudos going to Mary Testa for her startling, goosebump-inducing vocal turn as Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt's secret lover who, as she sits in the back on the floor of the plane while Eleanor is up front being wooed by Amelia Earhart who is giving them a flying tour of the capitol, sings a humorous, but bitter lament at being the other woman in the shadow of a legend. Brilliant.
GEM OF THE OCEAN by August Wilson (Broadway)
A rich, incandescent, mystical new work from the invaluable August Wilson, Gem represents the ninth play in his cycle of of ten plays chronicling the African American experience in 20th century America decade by decade, and is one of his best. The direction and the ensemble work are outstanding, some of the finest to be seen on any NY stage at the moment.
JUMPERS by Tom Stoppard (Broadway)
David Leveaux's dazzling, remarkably coherent and comprehensible production of Stoppard's three ring circus of a play about God and technology and the search for meaning in the modern world. The estimable Simon Russell Beale led a first rate cast from London's Royal National Theatre all making their Broadway debuts -- I look forward to their return.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by William Shakespeare (from Edward Hall and The Propeller Company @ The Brooklyn Academy of Music)
Sheer magic. Edward Hall and his masterful all-male Propeller Company came over London and turned a cynical theatregoer who thought he'd seen everything that could be done with this particular play into a true believer in the tranformative powers of the theatre. Simply the most joyous evening I spent in a theatre all year.
A NUMBER by Caryl Churchill (Off-Broadway; New York Theatre Workshop)
Just what is it exactly that makes you you? This question and others were explored in Caryl Churchill's potent and thought-provoking rumination on the nature of identity, personality and individuality from arguably the theatre's greatest living playwright. Dallas Roberts shined in a tour de force performance playing multiple clones of single individual, each with his own unique identity. A spare, scintillating, mind-bending 65-minute jewel of a play.
PACIFIC OVERTURES by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman (Broadway; Roundabout Theatre Company)
In a year that saw three major productions of Sondheim musicals on Broadway, I thought that this one was the most completely successful on the most levels. Amon Miyamoto's Noh-inspired staging ably abeted by striking work from his talented design team takes the audience on a fascinating and sublime journey through the last 150 years of Japanese cultural and political transitions spurred on by Western (notably American) imperialism and hegemony. Weidman's complex book and Sondheim's ingenius score are shown off to excellent advantage here, with its issues and concerns every bit as relevant today as they were thirty years ago when the show debuted.
ROSE RAGE by William Shakespeare; adapted by Edward Hall and Roger Warren (Off-Broadway; The Duke on 42nd Street)
Another winner from my director of the year, Edward Hall. By boiling down the three Henry VI plays to a streamlined 4 hours, pacing the action within an inch of its life and imaginatively stylizing the (frequent) violence of the plays, he managed to keep the epic scope of the piece while bringing out the intimate nature of the characters and their predicaments. Quite an achievement from a gifted young director.
WELL by Lisa Kron (Off-Broadway; The Public)
The Best Play of the Year. Period. Lisa Kron has been a writer (and performer) to watch for well over a decade and with "Well" she fulfilled the promise that she would one day be a truly important playwright -- "Well" is a smart, inventive, comic masterpiece. Part exploration of the nature of sickness and wellness, part confessional family drama, part meta-deconstruction of the entire solo play genre, Kron considers and reconsiders the very notion of autobiographical storytelling as a dramatic artform and the limits of dramatic license. Further, the play considers who owns the stories of our lives and what responsibilities does the artist owe not only to the real people they depict in those stories, but to the "truth" itself. Somehow Kron makes all of this hilarious and emotionally involving and intellectually challenging all at once. A compelling and gratifying breakthrough for Kron and the best new play of the year.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in alphabetical order):
AIN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH by Melvin Van Peebles (Classical Theatre of Harlem)
ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman (Broadway)
THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN? by Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu (New York Musical Theatre Festival)
CVR -- CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (Collective Unconscious Theatre @ P.S. 122)
DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley (Manhattan Theatre Club)
THE DOWNTOWN PLAYS by various playwrights (1st Annual Tribeca Theatre Festival @ The Michael Schimmel Center at Pace)
THE FROGS by Stephen Sondheim et al (Broadway; Lincoln Center)
GOD OF HELL by Sam Shepard (Westbeth Theatre)
THE NORMAL HEART by Larry Kramer (The Public Theatre)
A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry (Broadway)
THREE MEMORABLE EVENINGS:
CAROLINE OR CHANGE (last performance)
An electric, galvanic, standing ovation-filled performance from one of the finest shows to grace the Broadway stage in many a season. Too bad it couldn't have stuck around a while longer.
KIKI & HERB WILL DIE FOR YOU (their farewell performance at Carnegie Hall)
The King and Queen of warped downtown cabaret went out in style with a farewell blowout at the legendary Carnegie Hall with special guest Sandra Bernhard, Rufus Wainwright, Isaac Mizrahi, and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Can't wait for the inevitable comeback concert (s) in the years to come.
TINY KUSHNER
A riveting evening of Tony Kushner one acts: Jeffrey Wright performed EAST COAST ODE TO HOWARD JARVIS (a monologue) and Ben Schenkman (ANGELS IN AMERICA) and Linda Emond (HOMEBODY/KABUL) played patient and psychiatrist in the fascinating TERMINATING, OR SONNET LXXV. The highlight, though, was a wonderful and VERY pregnant Harden in the opening scene of ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY, playing Laura Bush as she reads the "The Brother Karamazov" to a group of dead Iraqi children who speak only in bird noises. A very clever and provocative collection of lesser-known Kushner.
MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES:
Ashlie Atkinson, FAT PIG
Simon Russell Beale, JUMPERS
McCaleb Burnett, THE NORMAL HEART
Brent Carver, KING LEAR
Anthony Chisholm, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Shannon Cochran, BUG
Dame Edna, DAME EDNA BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!
Essie Davis, JUMPERS
Viola Davis, INTIMATE APPAREL
Ann Duquesnay, HALLELUJAH BABY! (DC)
Raul Esparza, THE NORMAL HEART
Edie Falco, NIGHT MOTHER
Julie Halston, WHITE CHOCOLATE
Lisagay Hamilton, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Nicky Henson, JUMPERS
Jayne Houdyshell, WELL
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Judith Ivey, DIRTY TRICKS
Cherry Jones, DOUBT
James Earl Jones, ON GOLDEN POND (DC)
Frank Langella, MATCH
Brian O'Byrne, FROZEN & DOUBT
Mary-Louise Parker, RECKLESS
Christopher Plummer, KING LEAR
Heather Raffo, NINE PARTS OF DESIRE
Phylicia Rashad, A RAISIN IN THE SUN & GEM OF THE OCEAN
Dallas Roberts, A NUMBER
Michael Shannon, BUG
Lilly Taylor, AUNT DAN & LEMON
Mary Testa, FIRST LADY SUITE
The following is my list of what stood out in my mind as the "best" (whatever that means) -- smartest, most thought-provoking, most-inspiring, most emotionally and intellectually-stimulating, most fun, least flawed ....... I don't know ...... perhaps it's a combination of all of that and more. I omitted productions I returned to this year which I had seen before in prior years ("Caroline, or Change," which topped my 2003 list when it was at The Public; Linda Emond reprising her brilliant performance as The Homebody in Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul" at BAM). And, just so you know, there was a lot of tinkering with both the Top Ten, as well as the Honorable Mentions List, and several inclusions on the latter, could easily qualify, in my mind, for the former -- it's all a little arbitrary, so perhaps it's best to look at both together as a Top 20 List and leave it that. Anyway, without further ado:
TOP TEN OF 2004 (in alphabetical order):
BLACKBIRD by Adam Rapp (Off-Off-Broadway; The Blue Heron Arts Center)
Disturbing and claustrophobic, this powerful drama from the prolific young Adam Rapp, took stage naturalism to an uncomfortable extreme. Staged in a tiny (30 seat?) studio space in the Blue Heron Arts Center, the audience became flies on the wall to this tale of an ailing Gulf War vet and his drug-addicted teenage lover, living together in the squalor of a downtown tenement building. The realism of the staging was such that no effort was made in any way to separate the characters from the audience, to the point that you felt that you were actually in the apartment with them as an invisible observer (I was even bumped into twice by one of the actors). Paul Sparks and Mandy Siegfried gave stunning performances and Rapp managed to convey the poetry and pathos and a surprising bit of humor in exploring the lives of these desperate characters.
BUG by Tracy Letts (Off-Broadway; The Barrow Street Theatre)
The year's most visceral event. A sweaty-palmed, paranoia-inducing, Chicago-school absurdist nightmare, the whole experience made you want to scratch yourself incessantly and take a shower afterwards. The direction and design elements were all above reproach and Michael Shannon and Shannon Cochran led the flawless ensemble in this jarring and affecting production.
FIRST LADY SUITE by Michael John LaChiusa (Off-Off-Broadway; The Connelly Theatre)
This revival of LaChiusa's chamber musical depicting moments in the lives of first ladies -- Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower and Jackie Kennedy -- was one of the unexpected delights of the year (and one of the biggest bargains: how often do you get to see and hear Broadway caliber talent like Mary Testa, Mary Beth Peil, Julia Murney, Donna Lynne Champion and Sherry D. Boone for $15?). Each vignette perceptively conveyed the isolation, power and responsibility that goes with being the first lady of the land, yet still found the humanity and vulnerability underneath. A remarkable score gorgeously sung by all of the ladies, with special kudos going to Mary Testa for her startling, goosebump-inducing vocal turn as Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt's secret lover who, as she sits in the back on the floor of the plane while Eleanor is up front being wooed by Amelia Earhart who is giving them a flying tour of the capitol, sings a humorous, but bitter lament at being the other woman in the shadow of a legend. Brilliant.
GEM OF THE OCEAN by August Wilson (Broadway)
A rich, incandescent, mystical new work from the invaluable August Wilson, Gem represents the ninth play in his cycle of of ten plays chronicling the African American experience in 20th century America decade by decade, and is one of his best. The direction and the ensemble work are outstanding, some of the finest to be seen on any NY stage at the moment.
JUMPERS by Tom Stoppard (Broadway)
David Leveaux's dazzling, remarkably coherent and comprehensible production of Stoppard's three ring circus of a play about God and technology and the search for meaning in the modern world. The estimable Simon Russell Beale led a first rate cast from London's Royal National Theatre all making their Broadway debuts -- I look forward to their return.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by William Shakespeare (from Edward Hall and The Propeller Company @ The Brooklyn Academy of Music)
Sheer magic. Edward Hall and his masterful all-male Propeller Company came over London and turned a cynical theatregoer who thought he'd seen everything that could be done with this particular play into a true believer in the tranformative powers of the theatre. Simply the most joyous evening I spent in a theatre all year.
A NUMBER by Caryl Churchill (Off-Broadway; New York Theatre Workshop)
Just what is it exactly that makes you you? This question and others were explored in Caryl Churchill's potent and thought-provoking rumination on the nature of identity, personality and individuality from arguably the theatre's greatest living playwright. Dallas Roberts shined in a tour de force performance playing multiple clones of single individual, each with his own unique identity. A spare, scintillating, mind-bending 65-minute jewel of a play.
PACIFIC OVERTURES by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman (Broadway; Roundabout Theatre Company)
In a year that saw three major productions of Sondheim musicals on Broadway, I thought that this one was the most completely successful on the most levels. Amon Miyamoto's Noh-inspired staging ably abeted by striking work from his talented design team takes the audience on a fascinating and sublime journey through the last 150 years of Japanese cultural and political transitions spurred on by Western (notably American) imperialism and hegemony. Weidman's complex book and Sondheim's ingenius score are shown off to excellent advantage here, with its issues and concerns every bit as relevant today as they were thirty years ago when the show debuted.
ROSE RAGE by William Shakespeare; adapted by Edward Hall and Roger Warren (Off-Broadway; The Duke on 42nd Street)
Another winner from my director of the year, Edward Hall. By boiling down the three Henry VI plays to a streamlined 4 hours, pacing the action within an inch of its life and imaginatively stylizing the (frequent) violence of the plays, he managed to keep the epic scope of the piece while bringing out the intimate nature of the characters and their predicaments. Quite an achievement from a gifted young director.
WELL by Lisa Kron (Off-Broadway; The Public)
The Best Play of the Year. Period. Lisa Kron has been a writer (and performer) to watch for well over a decade and with "Well" she fulfilled the promise that she would one day be a truly important playwright -- "Well" is a smart, inventive, comic masterpiece. Part exploration of the nature of sickness and wellness, part confessional family drama, part meta-deconstruction of the entire solo play genre, Kron considers and reconsiders the very notion of autobiographical storytelling as a dramatic artform and the limits of dramatic license. Further, the play considers who owns the stories of our lives and what responsibilities does the artist owe not only to the real people they depict in those stories, but to the "truth" itself. Somehow Kron makes all of this hilarious and emotionally involving and intellectually challenging all at once. A compelling and gratifying breakthrough for Kron and the best new play of the year.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in alphabetical order):
AIN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE A NATURAL DEATH by Melvin Van Peebles (Classical Theatre of Harlem)
ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman (Broadway)
THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN? by Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu (New York Musical Theatre Festival)
CVR -- CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (Collective Unconscious Theatre @ P.S. 122)
DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley (Manhattan Theatre Club)
THE DOWNTOWN PLAYS by various playwrights (1st Annual Tribeca Theatre Festival @ The Michael Schimmel Center at Pace)
THE FROGS by Stephen Sondheim et al (Broadway; Lincoln Center)
GOD OF HELL by Sam Shepard (Westbeth Theatre)
THE NORMAL HEART by Larry Kramer (The Public Theatre)
A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry (Broadway)
THREE MEMORABLE EVENINGS:
CAROLINE OR CHANGE (last performance)
An electric, galvanic, standing ovation-filled performance from one of the finest shows to grace the Broadway stage in many a season. Too bad it couldn't have stuck around a while longer.
KIKI & HERB WILL DIE FOR YOU (their farewell performance at Carnegie Hall)
The King and Queen of warped downtown cabaret went out in style with a farewell blowout at the legendary Carnegie Hall with special guest Sandra Bernhard, Rufus Wainwright, Isaac Mizrahi, and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. Can't wait for the inevitable comeback concert (s) in the years to come.
TINY KUSHNER
A riveting evening of Tony Kushner one acts: Jeffrey Wright performed EAST COAST ODE TO HOWARD JARVIS (a monologue) and Ben Schenkman (ANGELS IN AMERICA) and Linda Emond (HOMEBODY/KABUL) played patient and psychiatrist in the fascinating TERMINATING, OR SONNET LXXV. The highlight, though, was a wonderful and VERY pregnant Harden in the opening scene of ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY, playing Laura Bush as she reads the "The Brother Karamazov" to a group of dead Iraqi children who speak only in bird noises. A very clever and provocative collection of lesser-known Kushner.
MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES:
Ashlie Atkinson, FAT PIG
Simon Russell Beale, JUMPERS
McCaleb Burnett, THE NORMAL HEART
Brent Carver, KING LEAR
Anthony Chisholm, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Shannon Cochran, BUG
Dame Edna, DAME EDNA BACK WITH A VENGEANCE!
Essie Davis, JUMPERS
Viola Davis, INTIMATE APPAREL
Ann Duquesnay, HALLELUJAH BABY! (DC)
Raul Esparza, THE NORMAL HEART
Edie Falco, NIGHT MOTHER
Julie Halston, WHITE CHOCOLATE
Lisagay Hamilton, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Nicky Henson, JUMPERS
Jayne Houdyshell, WELL
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, GEM OF THE OCEAN
Judith Ivey, DIRTY TRICKS
Cherry Jones, DOUBT
James Earl Jones, ON GOLDEN POND (DC)
Frank Langella, MATCH
Brian O'Byrne, FROZEN & DOUBT
Mary-Louise Parker, RECKLESS
Christopher Plummer, KING LEAR
Heather Raffo, NINE PARTS OF DESIRE
Phylicia Rashad, A RAISIN IN THE SUN & GEM OF THE OCEAN
Dallas Roberts, A NUMBER
Michael Shannon, BUG
Lilly Taylor, AUNT DAN & LEMON
Mary Testa, FIRST LADY SUITE
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
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