Theater Talkback: The Year in Miscellany By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Richard Termine for The New York TimesKatherine Waterston, left, and Dianne Wiest in Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard” at the Classic Stage Company.
The approach of a new year brings reflections on the old. For writers about culture, this is a fancy way of saying it’s time to compile a list of the finest achievements of the year in the field you cover, preferably keeping the number to an easily digestible 10.
Accordingly my colleague Ben Brantley and I have assembled our lists. I generally prefer to keep my choices in alphabetical order. These lists are ornery things to put together in the first place, and somehow deciding which show is worthy of crowning the list feels artificial and often impossible. To begin with, comparing, say, a new musical with a Shakespeare revival, and then ranking one above the other, is an absurdity. Also I always feel that being No. 10 on someone’s ranked-in-order top 10 list must give little more joy than being left off entirely.
Inevitably there are also worthy achievements that you want to acknowledge but can’t. So as you, readers, begin calculating your own lists – yes, here’s your chance to feel the peculiar pinch of this part of the critic’s job – here are some other reflections, assessments, and fantastical fake awards that I wasn’t able to include in my ranking.
Most unexpected surprise (pleasant) The arrival of not one but two superb Chekhov productions in a single calendar year. I often feel that Chekhov’s plays are even harder to get right than the mighty Shakespeare’s. The magic of Shakespeare is multifarious and sprawling; they’ve got lots of working parts, and at least some of the parts are likely to work. They are symphonic; Chekhov’s plays are more like perfectly put-together string quartets, requiring perfect coordination among players.
I haven’t cared for any of the Classic Stage Company’s three prior forays into the Chekhov canon, finding them all disorderly and out of tune. But Andrei Belgrader’s zesty version of “The Cherry Orchard” won me over entirely with its fluid mixture of pathos and humor. And the production of “Uncle Vanya” from the Sydney Theater Company that, alas, only visited the Kennedy Center, was equally delicate, funny and assured. It’s a great pity that the Lincoln Center Festival, say, couldn’t find it a New York accommodation. Which brings us to…
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“King Lear,” with Greg Hicks, left, in the title role and Geoffrey Freshwater as Gloucester, at the Park Avenue Armory.
Most unexpected surprise (unpleasant) The Royal Shakespeare Company’s residency at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. These productions – of “As You Like It,”“Romeo and Juliet,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “King Lear” and “Julius Caesar” – were by no means inept or wrongheaded or disastrous. But the company’s reputation is such that I expected quite a bit more in the way of commanding or revelatory performances. The whole package, which included the construction of an amazing replica of the company’s Stratford home base inside the armory, turned out to be more exciting than the contents.
(Honorable mention in this category goes to the cancellation of “Funny Girl,” one of the few name-brand Broadway shows — thanks to you-know-who — that has not been seen in a major revival.)
Solo performance of the year It’s a tie! Mike Daisey’s sharp-minded inquisition into the works of Steve Jobs’s mind and the workings of the corporation he led to such renown in recent years was this distinctive monologuist’s finest work yet. It returns for an encore run at the Public Theater on Jan. 31, and all Mac-heads should lend an ear, if they can tear themselves away from their iPhone 4Ss. But favoring Mr. Daisey’s “Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” over John Hurt’s brutally funny, achingly moving performance in Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” which continues through the weekend at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is impossible.
Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesReed Birney in “A Small Fire” at Playwrights Horizons.
Hardest-working actor Reed Birney, who appeared in three significant Off Broadway shows during the year and was excellent in all. In “A Small Fire” by Adam Bock he played the husband of a woman stricken by illness; in David West Read’s “Dream of the Burning Boy” he was an English teacher whose star student suddenly dies; and in Adam Rapp’s “Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling”he was the quietly suffering husband of Christine Lahti’s rapacious social lioness. Quiet suffering seems to become this terrific actor, but if you recall his performance in Sarah Kane’s “Blasted,” you know he’s capable of much more.
Most fabulous costumes Sorry, “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” and nice try, “Sister Act,” but the prize goes to the splendidly loony work of an artist known as Machine Dazzle, who created the eye-popping costumes in Taylor Mac’s “Walk Across America for Mother Earth,” from what appeared to be the contents of several dumpsters in the fashion district, and the unsold stock left over from the Ricky’s makeup chain.
Finest company not enough people know about The Red Bull Theater Company, which specializes in the difficult plays of the Jacobean period – and for the most part, not Shakespeare’s. This year they presented a captivating production of “The Witch of Edmonton,” starring Charlayne Woodard, and earlier I caught a terrific staging of Thomas Middleton’s “Women Beware Women.” They regularly host Monday-night readings of plays that attract terrific casts. Next up: Gogol’s “Government Inspector,” featuring Stephen Spinella and Marsha Mason, on Dec. 26.
Richard Termine for The New York TimesThe playwright Young Jean Lee in her one-woman show.
Shape-shifter award Young Jean Lee, the playwright and performer whose next project is always as surprising and often as rewarding as her last. After establishing herself as a playwright to watch with “The Shipment,” a seriocomic play about black identity, and then having the temerity to rewrite “King Lear,” Ms. Lee put herself center stage this year, performing a very funny solo show, “We’re Gonna Die,” including goofy pop songs and personal reflections on life’s many perils, death very much included. In January she tears off in a new direction, with “Young Jean Lee’s Untitled Feminist Show” at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Expect the – well don’t bother with expectations. They will be confounded.
(Honorable mention in this category goes to the reliably surprising David Greenspan. This year alone he wrote a softly hued and essentially traditional comedy drama, “Go Back to Where You Are,” before resurrecting a forgotten chestnut from 1925, “The Patsy,” in which he played all the roles.)
The what-were-they-thinking award To the producers of “High,” the quick-flop drama by Matthew Lombardo starring Kathleen Turner, inexplicably imported to Broadway after a none-too-impressive staging in Hartford, Conn.
The enough-already award Ingmar Bergman movies on stage. “Autumn Sonata,” “Through a Glass Darkly” and “Cries and Whispers,” all in one year? Those hard-working people who produce the Criterion Collection DVDs have a lot to answer for. I await with fear the 27-hour stage marathon of “Scenes From a Marriage.”
Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesLaura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan in “Bonnie and Clyde.”
The chutzpah award To the indomitable Frank Wildhorn, who continues to brave Broadway despite reliable evidence that neither critics nor audiences (in sufficient numbers) have any great affection for his work. It’s notable for any composer to have two shows open on Broadway in a single year. That Mr. Wildhorn achieved the feat with the ill-received “Wonderland” and “Bonnie and Clyde” beggars belief.
Most promising out of town development The appointment of the director Les Waters to head the Actors Theater of Louisville, which hosts the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. This festival has been drifting toward obsolescence in recent years, as more and more regional theaters compete for new work from emerging playwrights. Mr. Waters has just the kind of adventurous eye (he was crucial in helping establish Sarah Ruhl as a playwright of consequence) that the theater needs at this juncture.
Most promising out of town development The appointment of the director Les Waters to head the Actors Theater of Louisville, which hosts the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. This festival has been drifting toward obsolescence in recent years, as more and more regional theaters compete for new work from emerging playwrights. Mr. Waters has just the kind of adventurous eye (he was crucial in helping establish Sarah Ruhl as a playwright of consequence) that the theater needs at this juncture.
Most overhyped show Another tie! Between two musicals of vastly different fates, and indeed qualities. “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” managed to turn turmoil and near-calamity into surprisingly robust ticket sales, although the possibility of it recouping its massive investment still seems remote. Meanwhile, the unceasing barrage of advertisements for “The Book of Mormon,” to which you cannot get a ticket for love or money (well, maybe for lots and lots of money) has begun to seem positively sadistic. I’m so tired of the television ads I’ve had to stop watching “The Daily Show” at night. Wake me when it’s over.
OK, I’ve had my fun. Time for you to append your top 10 lists, or your randomly assorted choices for outstanding achievement, good or bad.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 15, 2011
An earlier version of this post misstated the opening date of the return engagement as well as the title of the show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs." It also misidentified the theater where “Young Jean Lee’s Untitled Feminist Show” will be performed. It will be presented at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, not PS 122. It also misstated the role of the director Les Waters. He is to head the Actors Theater of Louisville, which hosts the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, not just the festival itself.
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