MargoChanning's Best of 2005

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:43pm

I had the busiest year of my theatre-going life in 2005. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I saw 102 performances (of 97 different shows – I saw 5 shows twice) from Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway with a handful of regional shows as well.

It was not the greatest of years, unfortunately, for new work. It’s quite disappointing to look back at the number of new plays and musicals from theatre veterans, up-and-coming writers and promising new talents that perhaps had solid “moments” in them, but were underdeveloped, lacking in coherence or simply too flawed overall for me to include on either of my lists. Not sure what that says about the state of contemporary playwrighting, other than perhaps more patience, nurturing and dramaturgical expertise needs to be happening in the not-for-profit realm, both in New York and regionally. Clearly, we’ve lost some truly gifted talents to the more financially remunerative worlds of film and television – witness Oscar-winner Charlie Kaufman’s HOPE LEAVES THE THEATRE (which may be the finest new work I saw all year) and Craig Wright’s (from “Six Feet Under”) ORANGE FLOWER WATER which both made my top ten list. Somehow, the American Theatre must try to encourage and hold onto some of these writers. Theatre will never provide an equivalent pay check to these talented young writers, but I would like to think that there are other rewards over and beyond financial considerations.

That said, it’s telling that all of my top 20 choices came from either the not-for-profit realm (Broadway or Off-Broadway), commercial Off-Broadway, Regional theatre, or from the subsidized British theatre. Nothing was a purely commercial Broadway venture – the stuff that gets all the press and attention. And were I to extend my Honorable Mention list another 5 or 6 places (my “near misses”), all of those picks would have been from not-for-profit Off- and Off-Off-Broadway. One could argue that that says more about my personal taste than the actual quality of the purely commercial Broadway ventures, but as I’ve said a thousand times, year in, year out, if you want to find the vast majority of the really interesting, challenging, smart, thrilling, thought-provoking new work, you have to look beyond commercial Broadway in order to find it.

All lists are alphabetical:


MY TOP TEN:


THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE -- William Finn/Rachel Scheinkin (Second Stage)

A charming, fresh energetic show that is laugh-out loud funny due to Rachel Scheinkin’s book and talented cast.


HOPE LEAVES THE THEATRE -- Charlie Kaufman (Theatre for the New Ear at St. Ann's Warehouse)

By Oscar-winning screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, "Hope Leaves The Theater" with Meryl Streep, Hope Davis and Peter Dinklage was a stunningly clever, touching and hysterical radio play within a play within a play with bizarre concepts, thousand year shifts in time, neurotic self-absorbed internal monologues, weird tangents, themes of loneliness and yearning for love, actors breaking the fourth wall as themselves . Maybe the best original piece of writing I saw all year, wonderfully performed.


THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA -- Adam Guettel/Craig Lucas (Lincoln Center Theatre)

A sumptuous score from Adam Guettel combines with an intoxicating design and outstanding performances – notably a career-making turn from Victoria Clark – in the year’s best musical.


LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! -- Terrence McNally (T. Schreiber Studio)

Funny, poignant, and life affirming, this small-scale off-off-Broadway production of Terrence McNally’s Tony-winning play was superior in many ways to the original production under the expert direction of Glenn Krutoff.


ORANGE FLOWER WATER -- Craig Wright (Edge Theatre at Theatre For The New City)

An emotionally raw, shockingly honest and deeply effecting portrait of marital infidelity and its aftermath. Written by Craig Wright of "Six Feet Under" fame, it had an unblinking and achingly matter-of-fact honesty to it that was astonishing in its naturalism, aided immeasurably by its cast of four first-rate actors.


ORSON'S SHADOW -- Austin Pendleton (Barrow Street Theatre)

It's always a danger with plays about famous people that the writing dwells too much with gossip and tabloid-fodder and that the performances end up suffering from caricature. "Orson's Shadow" managed to avoid both pitfalls. Dealing with Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Joan Plowright and the critic Kenneth Tynan attempting to put together a 1960 production of Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS, playwright Austin Pendleton creates a compelling portrait of artists struggling to remain relevant and contemporary, the difficulties they face adapting to changing times and the energies they spend wrestling with inner demons from the past -- and not always winning the battle. The play is in turns funny, tragic, and being a memory play told from Tynan's perspective, dream-like and surreal. This is a group of lost souls who at times give off the air of ghosts in search of a peaceful resting place.


PERSEUS -- Elizabeth Swados/Ellen Stewart (La Mama)

Like Baudelaire’s GREEK MYTHS come to life, this featured a gorgeous original score (by Elizabeth Swados and others) which incorporated the music of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas performed by four extremely talented multi-instrumentalists. The cast consisted of nearly 30 astoundingly gifted performers (who hail from over 20 countries), adept at multiple forms of dance, singing, mime and acting, that managed to portray 71 characters in 52 breathlessly creative and inventive scenes. The stagecraft throughout was eye-popping and magical in ways that Broadway shows with their multi-million dollar budgets couldn’t begin to match.


RAGTIME -- Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty/Terrence McNally (Papermill Playhouse)

Stripping the show of some of the spectacle it’s known for and mounting it minimalist, this production brought the many superb aspects of the musical into sharp focus -- the first rate book, gorgeous score and, in this case, the phenomenal performances across the board by the superb ensemble.


SEASCAPE -- Edward Albee -- (Lincoln Center Theatre)

A dense and thought-provoking work, Albee explores several of the very basic issues which make up and define our daily lives as human beings on this planet. The meaning of life, death, love, sex, marriage, evolution, pride, emotion, prejudice, fear and loss -- especially the pain at the very possibility of having to face the future alone without one's life partner -- all come into play in the course of the extended conversation between the two couples. While they all can look back fondly at their pasts together, all now look forward towards an uncertain future, realizing the path is unclear and all they really have to allow them to face the journey is each other.


THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL -- Horton Foote (Signature Theatre)

What on the surface may have appeared to be simply an old-fashioned homespun slice of Americana, known chiefly nowadays as Geraldine Page’s Oscar-winning film vehicle, this revival of Horton Foote’s play from 1953 was remarkable for how it reveals the textures and depths of a world and life that have now since long-past. Just as progress must naturally beget loss, this lovely production from Signature was able to capture the often bittersweet nature of what must unfortunately be sometimes left behind. In the the galvanic, treasureable performance from the legendary Lois Smith, as well as the rest of this finely-honed ensemble, the past springs to life with a rich, wistful feeling which remains long after the final curtain.



HONORABLE MENTION:


ABIGAIL'S PARTY -- Mike Leigh (The New Group)

Flawless ensemble acting invigorated naturalistic script (developed from improvs) that presents a slice of life of 70s middle class British suburbia which while kitschy and mundane was endlessly fascinating and compulsively watchable.


AS YOU LIKE IT -- William Shakespeare (BAM -- Peter Hall production)

A somber production burnished by autumnal moods and feelings, the great Sir Peter Hall peeled back the layers of one of Shakespeare’s brightest comedies to reveal its rueful melancholic soul. Most memorable was a radiant, intelligent performance by the director’s daughter Rebecca as Rosalind.


FOLLIES – Stephen Sondheim/James Goldman (Blue Hill Troupe at The DiCapo Opera House)

Semi-professional community theatre at its finest, Director Andrew Volkoff and the Blue Hill Troupe tackled one of the most difficult shows in the entire musical theatre canon and, despite limited resources which meant certain design elements were more serviceable than opulent, managed to mount an utterly splendid production of this landmark musical.


IN THE CONTINUUM -- Nikkole Salter/Danai Gurira (59E59/Perry Street Theater)

A smart, poignant and intense two-hander dealing with the contemporary realities of AIDS among women in the African and African-American communities.


THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED -- Douglas Carter Beane (Second Stage)

An uneven but very funny look at the contemporary realities of the Hollywood closet featuring sensational central performance from Julie White as a venal, self-absorbed film agent.


MEASURE FOR MEASURE -- William Shakespeare (The Globe Theatre at St. Ann's Warehouse)

Truly a pleasure to behold, Shakespeare skillfully performed by the esteemed all-male troupe from the Globe Theatre, led by Mark Rylance’s drole and dottering Duke of Milan.


THE PURSUIT OF PERSEPHONE -- Peter Mills (Connelly Theatre)

Telling the tale of F.Scott Fitgerald and the Princeton Triangle shows from the 1910s, this was a showcase for the immense and prodigious talents of young Peter Mills who crafted the book, music and lyrics. It was a throwback to a 1930s Tin Pan Alley musical and featured and endlessly inventive melodic score. With just a bit of well-considered editing it deserves a major commercial run.


SWEENEY TODD -- Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler (Watermill Theatre UK -- Broadway)

Despite director John Doyle’s cramped minimalist and gimmicky staging which at times lacked clarity and served to detract from the power and intensity of the tale, the extraordinary and hard-working ensemble of ten actor-musicians made this production a worthwhile event. It also made clear just how sturdy and incorruptible the source material is – no amount of tinkering and fanciful directorial conceit can completely obscure the brilliance of Sondheim and Wheeler. That this show is a masterpiece still shone through.


THIRD -- Wendy Wasserstein (Lincoln Center Theatre)

The playwright’s finest work in a decade, it was a well-wrought examination of the potential traps of liberalism in a small New England College, which also was suffused with Lear-esque undertones of loss and regret. The writing, direction, design and performances were all superb. I wish her godspeed.


THIS IS HOW IT GOES -- Neil LaBute (The Public Theater)

A deceptively simple and subtle take on the effects of race and jealously on three old high school friends, Ben Stiller, Jeffrey Wright and a luminous Amanda Peete were all splendid under the masterful direction of George Wolfe.


MOST OUTRAGEOUSLY ENTERTAINING DISASTER – IN MY LIFE

A jaw-droppingly bizarre entry from some alternate musical universe that only Joe Brooks fully understood, I laughed till I wept. Brooks’s vision of the show was so totally complete (not that it made much sense), briskly paced and well-designed that I couldn’t help wonder had it been billed as some sort of avant garde bit of whimsy from Robert Wilson or another European favorite and produced at BAM, if the reviews wouldn’t have better. As it is, it was a Broadway flop for the ages.



NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:


Patricia Berg (FOLLIES – Blue Hill Troupe)
Christian Borle (SPAMALOT)
Norbert Leo Butz (DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS)
Larry Bryggman (ROMANCE)
Bobby Cannavale (HURLYBURLY)
Kristin Chenoweth (ENCORES! – THE APPLE TREE)
Victoria Clark (THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA)
Kieran Culkin (AFTER ASHLEY)
Charles Durning (THIRD)
Mireilles Enos (WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF; ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR)
Mia Farrow (FRAN’S BED)
Felicia Fields (THE COLOR PURPLE)
Sutton Foster (LITTLE WOMEN)
Kelli Garner (DOG SEES GOD)
Renee Elise Goldsberry (TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA)
Ann Guilbert (NAKED GIRL ON THE APPIAN WAY)
Rebecca Hall (AS YOU LIKE IT -- BAM)
Mark Harelik (THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA)
Judy Kaye (SOUVENIR)
Catherine Kellner (HURLYBURLY)
Leslie Kritzer (THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL)
LaChanze (THE COLOR PURPLE)
Anthony Mackie (A SOLDIER'S PLAY)
Elizabeth Marvel (SEASCAPE)
Jan Maxwell (CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG)
Tyler Maynard (ALTAR BOYZ)
Maureen McGovern (LITTLE WOMEN)
Kristin Nielsen (MISS WITHERSPOON)
Susan Louise O’Connor (SILENT CONCERTO)
Orfeh (THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL)
Anna Paquin (AFTER ASHLEY)
Steven Pasquale (SECRET GARDEN CONCERT; A SOLDIER’S PLAY)
Billy Porter (GHETTO SUPERSTAR)
Lynn Redgrave (NIGHTINGALE)
Natasha Richardson (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE)
Chita Rivera (A DANCER’S LIFE)
Amy Ryan (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE; ON THE MOUNTAIN)
Marian Seldes (DEDICATION OR THE STUFF OF DREAMS)
Anthony Sher (PRIMO)
Christopher Sieber (SPAMALOT)
Lois Smith (THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL)
Paul Sparks (ORANGE FLOWER WATER)
Mary Testa (SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE)
David Turner (IN MY LIFE)
Kathleen Turner (WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF)
Dianne Wiest (THIRD)
Julie White (THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED)
Elisabeth Withers-Mendes (THE COLOR PURPLE)
James Yaegashi (NAKED GIRL ON THE APPIAN WAY)


FIVE NOTABLE ENSEMBLES:

ABIGAIL’S PARTY
ORANGE FLOWER WATER
SWEENEY TODD
THIRD
THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL


SOME REMARKABLE ONE NIGHT ONLY EVENTS:

THE APPLE TREE (Encores!)
ON TWENTIETH CENTURY (Actor’s Fund)
PURLIE (Encores!)
SECRET GARDEN (World AIDS DAYS Benefit for the Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation)
WALL-TO-WALL SONDHEIM (Symphony Space)





http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/

Updated On: 1/7/06 at 02:43 PM

[wickedfreak]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:47pm

I HATE MARGO CHANNING!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:49pm

Nicely put together, Margo.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:52pm

Margo, you never cease to amaze me, great list!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:52pm

I LOVE MARGO CHANNING

Did u see "Swimming in the Shallows"
I thought it was remakable.

[Drewprecht]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:52pm

Great as always!!! Thanks!!!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 2:58pm

I unfortunately missed Swimming in the Swallows, but heard good things about it.

[jimmirae]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 3:15pm

Very well done Margo, Thank You.

[itstheM]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 3:20pm

Margo, what do you do that allows you to see all of these shows?
PS-I love everything you ever have to say!

[tthomas76]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 3:37pm

Thanks Margo... You're the best and I appreciate everything you do... Well done!

[YankeeGal#24]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 3:38pm

Brava!!! Brava!!! Hail MargoChanning!!

Thanks Margo!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 3:42pm

Wonderful list, Margo. And reading how many shows you saw this year doesn't make me feel so bad!

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:00pm

Margo -- you are one classy broad!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:37pm

Clearly Margo didn't see the performances of John Raymond Barker, Rob Maitner, or Eric Moore!

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:38pm

does margo ever release a companion "worst" list?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:42pm

Oh I hope not. We might appear on THAT list!!

[Mamie]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:47pm

I wasn't able to experience nearly as much theatre this year as I would have liked. Fortunately I was blessed with the intelligence to seek MargoChanning's advice when I was able to go. I'll always be grateful for your recommendation of "Orson's Shadow". WONDERFUL play!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 4:53pm

I unfortunately went into the hospital with an appendicitis the same day I had tickets to see Robbie in "Fleet Week" and by the time I got out, the show's short run was over. I'm sure he was wonderful. And I saw Eric Moore in the "Day The World Went Queer" and as I mentioned in my review, thought he had a lovely singing voice. Sorry, for missing your show, jrb. It was a busy year.

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:00pm

Margo,

Thanks for the always wonderful, insightful reviews and info. Would you be willing to share what you do for a living?- I'm intrigued.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:10pm

"Margo Channing is a star of the theater. She made her stage debut at the age of four in "Midsummer Night's Dream," playing a fairy. She entered, quite unexpectedly, stark naked. She has been a star ever since."

--Addison DeWitt

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:12pm

AHHHHHH, Talent!!!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:13pm

Ha ha! Well, surely you will catch us in 2006!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:14pm

And I always thought the legend of the naked Midsummer fairy was a tall tale.

[kissmycookie]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:33pm

Wow.

Just wow, Margo....

[gettinhep]

Posted: 1/6/06 at 5:35pm

Amen!