Your Year In Theatre - 2010

Since the year 2010 is winding down, (and a distraction from the latest Spider-Man fiasco is necessary), I thought I'd make a thread so everyone can briefly summarize their year in theatregoing. (Feel free to use this outline.

I have seen: 11 Shows

My Top 5 (in order): LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, AMERICAN IDIOT, SOUTH PACIFIC, BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, and LEND ME A TENOR.

Hall of Shame: A LIFE IN THE THEATRE

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Les Miserables, Legally Blonde (x7), Never Forget, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Six Degrees of Separation, Jerusalem, Red, Waiting for Godot, Really Old, Like Forty Five, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Dreamboats and Petticoats, A Man of No Importance, Ghosts, Sister Act (x3), The Little Dog Laughed, The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies (x6), Serenading Louie, Billy Elliot, The Misanthrope, Hairspray (x2), Katya Kabanova, Shirley Jones in Concert, Naked Boys Singing, Dirty Dancing, Enron, Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi, Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, Polar Bears, Beyond the Horizon, Bedroom Farce, Women Beware Women, Sweet Charity (x3), London Assurance, Hair (x2), The Pirates of Penzance, Holding the Man, The Habit of Art, Carmen, The White Guard, tick...tick...BOOM!, Whistle down the Wind, Love the Sinner, After the Dance, The Fantasticks, Leona Lewis@02 Welcome to Thebes, All My Sons, Bon Jovi@02, Confessions of a Dancewhore, Tap Dogs, All the Fun of the Fair, Assassins, Spring Storm, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, After the Tone, Educating Rita, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Into the Woods, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, State Fair, American Idiot, The Addams Family, Promises, Promises, Memphis, In the Heights, A Little Night Music, next to normal, Rock of Ages, Chess, Deathtrap (x2), Shirley Valentine, Earthquakes in London, The Drowsy Chaperone, Departure Lounge, Closer than Ever, Caroline O'Connor: The Showgirl Within, Avenue Q, Danton's Death, Or You Could Kiss Me, Tomorrow Morning, Onassis, La bohème, Men Should Weep, Bright Lights, Big City, Blood and Gifts, FELA!, Passion, Hamlet, Flashdance, Season's Greetings, Love Story, End of the Rainbow, White Christmas



Top 5 Musicals - Memphis, Departure Lounge, Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi, A Little Night Music, Love Never Dies

Low Point - Elegies for Angels, Punks an Raging Queens (bad production where the singers couldn't sing well at all!)

Top 5 Plays - Red, Jerusalem, After the Dance, All My Sons, End of the Rainbow

Low Points - Ghosts, Welcome to Thebes, Danton's Death

Opera - La Boheme (Wow!) and Katya Kabanova (so-so)

Other Hightlights - Bon Jovi, Leona Lewis and Les Miserables all at the 02 arena - Fabulous!!!

Updated On: 12/23/10 at 04:29 PM

I went to New York for the first time this year, on May. I loved it so much that I came back on October.

Top 3: next to normal, La Cage Aux Folles and American Idiot.

Runner-ups: A Little Night Music (with CZJ and Mrs. Lansbury), Promises, Promises and Wicked.

Guilty Pleasure: Naked Boys Singing!

Wonderland
Ragtime
Encores – Fanny, Anyone Can Whistle, Bells Are Ringing
Looped
101 Dalmatians
The Pride
The Singing Forest
La Cage
Yank
The Fantasticks
The Temperamentals
Lend Me A Tenor
Banana Shpeel
The Addams Family
Promises, Promises
Sondheim On Sondheim
Next Fall
American Idiot
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
A Life In The Theatre
The Pee Wee Herman Show
The Pitmen Painters
The Scottsboro Boys
Elf
Donny & Marie
Spiderman

I think that's it...

Updated On: 12/21/10 at 04:49 PM

Good golly, how do you guys remember all this stuff?

I can't remember what I've seen in the past three months :-/

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Better than '09, but not as good as '08, which I don't think I'll ever surpass in number, and will be hard to beat in quality.

01/06/10 Fela!
01/09/10 Altar Boyz
02/16/10 Race
02/23/10 Memphis
03/02/10 A Little Night Music
03/09/10 Next Fall
03/16/10 Sondheim: The Birthday Concert
03/23/10 Time Stands Still
03/29/10 American Idiot
04/21/10 La Cage aux Folles
04/26/10 Sondheim Birthday Celebration CC Gala
04/27/10 Sondheim on Sondheim
04/28/10 Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
05/09/10 Enron
05/11/10 Everyday Rapture
05/12/10 Red
05/26/10 Oliver Parker!
06/01/10 Promises, Promises
06/08/10 Fences
06/13/10 Tony Awards Dress Rehearsal
06/13/10 Next to Normal
06/26/10 Sunday in the Park with George (Philly)
06/30/10 American Idiot
07/06/10 Savion Glover's Sole Power
07/27/10 A Little Night Music
08/03/10 Lend Me a Tenor
09/21/10 Addams Family
10/12/10 A Brief Encounter
10/27/10 Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
11/08/10 Merchant of Venice
11/09/10 La Bete
11/20/10 Bells are Ringing
11/23/10 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
12/06/10 Broadway Talks: Elaine Stritch
12/08/10 Lombardi

Favorites, of the things I saw for the first time in 2010:
1) A Little Night Music (with Bernadette)
2) Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
3) Red
4) American Idiot
5) Bells are Ringing
6) Sondheim on Sondheim
7) Next Fall
Time Stands Still
9) Fences
10) Lend Me a Tenor

Though my favorite experience in a theater was undoubtedly the Sondheim concert at Lincoln Center.

Adding up shows, readings, concerts, etc., I've seen over 100 productions this year. Which explains why I'm broke and behind on work!

I won't bore anyone with a full list, so I'll just run through some highlights. Overall, I thought it was an amazing year for plays, and an...okay one for musicals.

Favorite moments:
--The diner scene between Louis and Belize in Millennium Approaches was my favorite few minutes in a theater this year. Except for...
--A few hundred broadway performers singing "Sunday" at Sondheim's 80th at Avery Fisher.
--The extraordinarily strange/delightful experience of seeing Patti LuPone play a teenager in Annie Get Your Gun at Ravinia.
--Bernadette sending in the clowns.
--Colman Domingo celebrating John Cullum's 50th anniversary on Broadway during a curtail call at The Scottsboro Boys.
--Arachne's "Deeply Furious" in Spider-Man (for most deliciously awful-we all need some unintentional humor now and again).
--Molina and Redmayne painting a canvas in Red.
--Laura Benanti's "Model Behavior" in Women on the Verge. Say what you will about the show, but that number is inspired.

Favorite performances:
Lily Rabe in The Merchant of Venice
Nina Arianda in Venus in Fur
Zachary Quinto in Angels in America
Deidre O'Connell in In the Wake
Michael Chernus in The Aliens, In the Wake, and SPF's reading of Man Boobs (find him more work!)
Andrew Garman in A Bright New Boise
Bobby Steigert in Yank!
Raul Esparza, Donna Murphy, and Sutton Foster in Anyone Can Whistle
Joshua Henry, Colman Domingo, Forest McClendon, and the ensemble of The Scottsboro Boys
Eddie Redmayne in Red
Douglas Hodge in La Cage
Brian Bedford and Santino Fontana in The Importance of Being Earnest


Favorite plays:
The Aliens
Fences
Venus in Fur
Bachelorette
A Bright New Boise
The Merchant of Venice
Red
Angels in America
The Little Foxes
One new play and one revival that opinion was mixed on but I adored: In the Wake and The Glass Menagerie
Less a play than an experience: PS 122's Hotel Savoy


Favorite musicals:
La Cage
The Scottsboro Boys
Brief Encounter (however you may wish to categorize it)

And not to dwell, but a quick recap of the worst of the year:
The New York Musical Festival--I saw four shows, each worst than the last.
Spider-Man. Why pile on? Because it's actually as bad as everyone says.
A Free Man of Color, or What Was John Guare Smoking?
Million Dollar Quartet. Period.

Updated On: 12/21/10 at 09:47 PM

Sunday in the Park With George (college)
The Last 5 Years (college)
The Marriage of Figaro (college)
Hair (college)
Mamma Mia! (national tour)
Anything Goes (high school)
Memphis (Broadway)
American Idiot (Broadway)
Mary Poppins (national tour)
South Pacific (Broadway)
A Chorus Line (national tour)
The Coronation of Poppea (college)
Sunset Boulevard (regional)

and later today: The Pee-Wee Herman Show (Broadway)

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New York: la Cage Aux Folles, Everyday Rapture
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale: Young Frankenstein, Spring Awakening
Toronto: Priscilla- Queen of the Desert

The Light In The Piazza
Hair
Legally Blonde (National Tour)
Jersey Boys (Toronto Production)
Rock of Ages (Toronto Production)
South Pacific (National Tour)
Kiss Me, Kate (Stratford)
Evita (Stratford)
Priscilla (Pre-Broadway)
Wicked (National Tour)

2010 was a very good year for me; I think it may have been my best yet. I saw nearly 50 shows, 19 of which were on Broadway.

Broadway:
Hair (third time, after 2 in '09)
A Little Night Music
Next Fall
Sondheim on Sondheim
West Side Story (second time, after 1 in '09)
American Idiot (3x)
La Cage aux Folles
Fences
Everyday Rapture
Promises, Promises
Lend Me a Tenor
The Addams Family
Memphis
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Next to Normal (fourth time, after 3 in '09)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
The Scottsboro Boys
Elf
Time Stands Still

Off-Broadway:
Yank!
Anyone Can Whistle (Encores!)

Regional (Philadelphia):
Medea
Rooms: A Rock Romance
Fiddler on the Roof

College:
String Theory
Dear Brutus
Dear Charlotte
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Miss Julie
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead
Oleanna
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Stage Door
Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika
The Adding Machine
The Actor's Nightmare/After Magritte
The Wild Party (Lippa)
The Mystery of Irma Vep

Community/High School:
Gypsy
All Shook Up
Into the Woods
Hair
Grease
Beauty and the Beast
Urinetown
Alice in Wonderland

Other:
The 64th Annual Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall)
Gavin Creel: Back to New York (Birdland)

Updated On: 12/29/10 at 10:28 AM

Unless listed, all the shows were on Broadway. I saw a lot this year, but surprisingly, it was still less than last year.

1. In The Heights (National Tour)- January 5, 7:30 pm [Hartford, CT]
2. Les Miserables (London)- January 9, 2:30 pm
3. Billy Elliot (London)- January 9, 7:30 pm
4. Legally Blonde (London)- January 11, 7:30 pm
5. Blood Brothers (London)- January 12, 7:45 pm
6. Sister Act (London)- January 13, 3:00 pm
7. The Little Dog Laughed (London)- January 13, 7:45 pm
8. Next to Normal- January 17, 7:30 pm
9. Rock of Ages- February 6, 8 pm
10. Billy Elliot- February 7, 7:30 pm
11. Billy Elliot- February 15, 8 pm
12. Spring Awakening (National Tour)- February 27, 2 pm [Hartford, CT]
13. Spring Awakening (National Tour)- February 27, 8 pm [Hartford, CT]
14. Hair- March 6, 2 pm
15. Memphis- March 12, 8 pm
16. Hair- March 13, 2 pm
17. Race- March 13, 8 pm
18. Next to Normal- March 21, 3 pm
19. God of Carnage- March 25, 8 pm
20. Lend Me A Tenor- April 10, 2 pm
21. West Side Story- April 11, 3 pm
22. American Idiot- April 17, 2 pm
23. American Idiot- April 24, 2 pm
24. Everyday Rapture- April 24, 8 pm
25. American Idiot- May 1, 2 pm
26. La Cage Aux Folles- May 4, 8 pm
27. Legally Blonde (National Tour)- June 3, 7:30 pm [Newark, NJ]
28. The Addams Family- June 5, 8 pm
29. American Idiot- June 6, 2 pm
30. Fela!- June 6, 7:30 pm
31. Next Fall- June 9, 3 pm
32. Titanic (Benefit Concert)- June 21, 7:30 pm
33. I’ll Be Damned (Off-Broadway Jaradoa)- July 13, 7 pm
34. Wicked- July 14, 2 pm
35. American Idiot- July 14, 8 pm
36. American Idiot- July 28, 2 pm
37. American Idiot- August 11, 8 pm
38. Billy Elliot- August 20, 8 pm
39. In The Heights- August 21, 8 pm
40. Next to Normal- August 30, 8 pm
41. American Idiot- September 4, 2 pm
42. American Idiot- September 14, 8 pm
43. Rock of Ages- September 18, 2 pm
44. Billy Elliot- September 18, 7:30 pm
45. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson- September 20, 7 pm
46. A Little Night Music- October 3, 3 pm
47. American Idiot- October 3, 7:30 pm
48. The Scottsboro Boys- October 9, 3 pm
49. Brief Encounter- October 16, 2 pm
50. Hair (National Tour)- October 22, 8 pm [New Haven, CT]
51. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson- October 29, 8 pm
52. American Idiot- October 29, 10 pm
53. Next To Normal- October 30, 2 pm
54. Billy Elliot- November 7, 2 pm
55. American Idiot- November 21, 7:30 pm
56. Promises, Promises- December 11, 2 pm
57. Elf- December 21, 7 pm
58. Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown- December 23, 8 pm
59. American Idiot- December 27, 8 pm

Updated On: 12/28/10 at 11:39 AM

Okay, all of you who see a lot of shows, how the heck do you afford it? I live in LA and I've officially decided that I would be destitute if I lived in NYC.

My list:

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People who Love Them)-play by Christopher Durang @The Blank Theater, LA
New York Animals (play by Steven Sater) @Rogue Machine Theater, LA
[title of show] @Celebration Theater, LA
A Little Night Music Broadway (Peters/Stritch) - Broadway
American Idiot - Broadway
Mary Poppins - Broadway
Mrs. Warren's Profession - Roundabout Theater, NYC
Wicked - Broadway
Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin - @La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego
The Glass Menagerie - @Mark Taper Forum, LA
Rock 'n Roll (play by Tom Stoppard) - @Open Fist Theater, LA
Next to Normal - Ahmanson Theater (x2), LA
Every Tongue Confess - @Arena Stage, DC (12/24))