Favorite Theatre of 2010

I wish I had seen more theatre this year. And I said the same thing in 2009... and 2008... But I'm not going to dwell too much on it. Because even though I saw about a couple dozen shows this year (including festivals, collegiate, commercial, downtown, etc...) there was still a handful of shows that moved me, made me laugh, think, be emotional, and have a good time. And there was a group that inspired me. Here are just a few of the shows I saw in 2010 that definitely had a big impact on me in one way or another. This list is in no particular order.

1. Trails (by Christy Hall, Jeff Thomson, and Jordan Mann) I didn't see many shows this year at the New York Music Theatre Festival, but this one was a standout nonetheless. Pushing three hours in length, the musical about two long lost best friends pioneering across the Appalachian Trail was a beautifully moving folk/pop musical that let cheesy music and sentimental text prove how some emotional cliches can work, extremely well.

2. Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play (by... Sarah Ruhl) This was epic in every sense of the word. Again, another 3 hour production, Passion Play had an extremely complicated conversation with the audience about religion in relation to politics and human nature. Hefty stuff. Beautifully designed in an enormous church in Brooklyn with a stellar cast that played multiple characters over the course of three hours. It's easy to question religion based on the facts. But when you attach that to the emotional burden of Ruhl's characters, it's an unforgettable experience.

3. This Must Be the Place (by Gemma Kaneko) The lovely Miss Kaneko created a piece that talked about Americana and the joy and euphoria of exploration through gorgeous folk music and poetic language. I'm a sucker for stories of pioneering towards the westward expansion, but I think it's hard for anyone to resist how charming this show was (and ending the show with the song "Home is Wherever I'm With You" was just pitch perfect in every way).

4. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (By Alex Timbres and Michael Friedman) While I didn't get to see the show after it moved uptown, I saw this bad-ass punk rock musical while it was at the Public and was completely blown away. I love nonfiction musical theatre. And this was the most distorted nonfiction musical theatre can get. Not only was it absurdly hilarious, outrageously designed (in the best way possible; the moment you stepped into the theatre, you knew you were in for a wild ride), and politically fascinating, but it was one fuck of a good time.

5. American Idiot (By Green Day and Michael Mayer) While on this train of rock shows, I had to mention the explosive rock opera that is taking place right now at the St. James theater. With visuals and music that overwhelm the senses, the imagination is expanded and soars as you watch three young men battle with suburbia, not to mention hookers, heroine, and homelessness that ultimately leads them to the realization of their own self-righteousness. There's a reason why the show opens with the line, "I jerked off to oblivion last night." It's not just meant for laughs, as funny as it may be. With numerous television sets, a suspended car, aerial acrobatics, architecture that transforms in an instant, and a cellist playing in a moving ladder, it's unlike anything you've ever seen. Or anything I've ever seen.

6. Brief Encounter (By Noel Coward) Is it safe to say that the most romantic play I've seen in a long time is also one of the most devastating, and ultimately uplifting? Brief Encounter shows Laura and Alec, two already married individuals, who meet under unexpected circumstances. The story of Laura and Alec is seductive, heartbreaking, and surprisingly inspirational. Almost as if it was saying, "Look at us. Look at what we could have had. Look at what you could have." Thus the wondrous experience that exists in Brief Encounter. If you thought waving goodbye from the train station and passionately kissing in the ocean were romantic, I hope you took a trip to Studio 54 this past fall.

7. Anyone Can Whistle (By Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents) I need to stop writing about this show. Three incredible performances from Sutton Foster, Raul Esparza, and Donna Murphy. Encores! City Center pulled off a magical production/concert reading of this absurd, and experimental, musical. Watching the actors make sense of a deliberately nonsensical score was thrilling (not to mention the massive symphony playing behind them). A crooked mayoress, a fake miracle, an asylum of nutjobs gone loose, a nurse in disguise, multiple mistaken identities all added up to the idea of living in each moment as yourself, and that is the only person you should ever try to be.

8. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (By Thornton Wilder) It's a seemingly simple story. The Kirby family is taking a road trip to visit the oldest daughter. That's all we know, and that the daughter experienced a recent problem. However, by the end of the play, an emotional catharsis erupted in the theatre that celebrated the joys of family, connections, relationships, and emotional support for the people you love. The production left many audience members in tears, and left myself spending much time reflecting how grateful I am for my own family. Will Detlefsen's direction utilized the White Box theater in a way I've never seen before, using experimental staging, design, and media that aesthetically made an enormously impactful theatrical experience. Even with some heartache and struggle, it truly was a happy journey. A beautiful one.

9. A Little Night Music (By Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler) Again, this was discussed in my last blog post, but it was one of the best things I saw last year. I saw two theater legends giving perfect performances in a celebrated masterpiece of musical theater, (and when I saw it, I knew nothing about the show). Bernadette Peters is, to me, the greatest musical theatre actor living or dead. With a career like none other, she has an acting and vocal range that is incomparable and yet always adds who she is as a person into the role. This being her first broadway show since the passing of her husband was a big deal, and I am eternally grateful to have been a part of it, even if it was just by being one of the hundreds of people in the audience for one night.



And in case you were wondering (which I know you were), I tried to make a list of my least favorite theatre in 2010. But instead I'm just going to list the following:

1. The Addam's Family (by Andrew Lippa, Rick Elice, and Marshall Brickman) Thank you Jerry Zaks for two and a half laugh-free hours. Watching the cast desperately try to get a laugh from the audience was depressing. It got to the point where the actors were laughing throughout the show, even at jokes that weren't funny to begin with. Nathan Lane even said to one of his co-stars who was laughing uncontrolably, "Do you want to sit out there? I'm the one who needs help!" And Andrew Lippa's score couldn't have sounded more... well... like a wave of predictable chords that washes into one ear and out the other.

And I'll just leave it at that. I've realized that I saw a lot of good theatre in 2010, now that I've finished writing this blog post. And there's a lot of really exciting stuff happening in the upcoming year. Some of the shows that I'm definitely looking forward to include "The Book of Mormon", "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark", "Arcadia", "War Hourse", and many others.

  

I mean... just LOOK at the poster for "The Book of Mormon". How could I not be excited?