EDGE Best of 2006 :: A Baker’s Dozen of Boston Theatre
Usually this would be a Ten Best List, but the year in Boston theater was so memorable that there ends up being a baker’s dozen.
Here is the list, in no particular order, of the year’s best culled from the more than 100 reviews published on EDGE this year.
No Exit
Hell in the startling new interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit was like a funhouse attraction: a tilted, elevated platform that moves up and down determined by the weight and spatial arrangement of the actors. It was certainly a daring concept, and one that made unusual demands on its cast in the American Repertory Theatre production, which originated at the Imago Theatre Company in Portland, Oregon a few seasons ago. Under the sharp direction of Jerry Mouawad, the cast of local actors (Karen MacDonald, Paula Plum, Remo Airaldi, and Wil LeBow) not only balanced each other on the tilting stage, but also brought considerable fire to Sartre’s bitter comedy of manners. That they did with such assurance helped make this more than a high concept gimmick.
Frozen
With the thoughtful and moving Frozen, New Repertory Theater presented a powerful story of the necessity of forgiveness, even for unforgivable acts, and a look at serial killers far more chilling than the best of the Hollywood thrillers. Bryony Lavery’s haunting play tells the story of three damaged people: the mother of a murdered ten-year-old girl, the girl’s killer and a psychologist, who’s interviewing that killer in her study of the brain structures of serial killers but who also is grieving on her own. In Adam Zahler’s fine production, Nancy E. Carroll brought intensity to the role of the grieving mother - she was by turns dryly bitter, caustically funny and utterly heartbreaking. Make no mistake - this was not a night out of light entertainment. Frozen was heavy, but deeply rewarding.
Five By Tenn
Tennessee Williams was one of the last century’s most gifted and prolific playwrights. With Five By Tenn, the SpeakEasy Stage presented some of his little-seen shorter plays that were discovered amongst his papers at the University of Texas. Director Scott Edmiston chose five of these unproduced plays (plus a scene from the little-seen Vieux Carre) creating a dramatic arc that reflected the playwright’s journey from young adulthood to death. Edmiston’s careful direction of his actors (especially Allyn Burrows as an aging drag queen) and his commitment to unify these plays made Five by Tenn quite remarkable. At first the plays seemed like disparate, pale echoes of other works; but as the program continued, they fell together into a resonant experience.
Death of a Saleslady
Death of a Salesman is the quintessential American tragedy - not the stuff of parody; but Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans pay homage to Arthur Miller’s great play with Death of a Saleslady. As he did with Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee before, Landry distilled the essence of the play while dressing it up with his brash, twisted sensibility. In his version Willy Loman was a saleslady for Mary K cosmetics who has lost her grip. Haunted by visions of a go-go boy, and battling her over-the-hill daughter, Wilma collapsed with a mixture of laughter and pathos, distinguished by a touching portrayal by Larry Coen (in the season’s best performance by an actor) as the deluded Wilma.
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
Edward Albee has long pushed the envelope, but he may not have done it as daringly as in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? In a terse 100-minutes, he took his audience on a roller-coaster of emotions in what has to be considered one of the most original plays of recent years. His protagonist is a successful architect with a model life; the only blemish is his attraction to a goat, whom he has named Sylvia. When this is revealed, his life, naturally, falls apart; but in the witty, barbed, and hugely imaginative manner that has distinguished Albee’s best work. The Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s production, under the tight direction of Spiro Veloudos, exploded with wit and pertinence; and was graced with a splendid, comic turn by Paula Plum as the cuckolded wife and a surprisingly touching one Stephen Schnetzer as the architect. Albee has long taken risks, and The Goat may be his biggest to date.
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
Matthew Bourne’s spectacular reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s most famous ballet won Tony Awards for the visionary choreographer when it played New York in 1999. It was, simply, breathtaking theater - a highly Freudian (and decidedly gay) staging that was both thought-provoking and mesmerizing to watch. Swan Lake’s brief stopover at the Colonial left audiences wanting more of Bourne’s inventive ballets - could Edward Scissorhands be coming this way any time soon?
Wicked
Is wickedness caused by nature or nurture? That’s the question that drives Wicked, the megahit musical that actually lived up to its hype. There’s much revisionism of The Wizard of Oz in Winnie Holzman’s adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1996 novel, which pretty much offers the back-story of Baum’s story, creating its own mythology in the process. Holzman lightens the political tone of the novel considerably, and Stephen Schwartz provides a melodious, often soaring score, especially in the hands of the touring production’s Elphaba Julia Murney. Add to this the superb design elements, especially the dazzling set by Eugene Lee, and Wicked offered a state-of-the-art Broadway spectacle that proved to be irresistible.
The Pillowman
"No children are harmed in the performance of The Pillowman", should have been the reassuring disclaimer greeting patrons at performances of British playwright Martin McDonagh’s very black comedy at the New Repertory Theatre. Child torture and mutilation are only part of what made this play - a hit in London and New York - so disturbing; at the heart of the play, though, is an achingly realized story of two brothers - one an author of very grim children’s stories, the other his mentally-challenged brother, who are brought to a police station in an unnamed Eastern European country to undergo interrogation. Rick Lombardo’s production was a marvel of technical expertise and fine acting - the fluidity of the action was seamless, only adding to the haunting power of McDonagh’s text. Stephen Barkhimer was quite effective as a cool cop, and John Kuntz was quite brilliant as the writer with more than a touch of the perverse.
1776
You can make an argument that 1776 is the quintessential American musical. Not just because it’s blessed with a toe-tapping score (yes, American history can set toes tapping), and a script that’s by turns witty and dramatic, but it’s about the birth of American itself. And it would be pretty easy to also make the argument that the Lyric Stage’s production of 1776 was a pretty near perfect interpretation of this rousing show. The show is ideally suited to the Lyric’s intimate space, and director Spiro Veloudos’s expertly staging takes the audience directly into the heat of the debates, maximizing the show’s dramatic impact and bringing an immediacy to the somewhat ancient history. Veloudos assembled one of the strongest ensembles in recent memory, which help make this musical something of a occasion.
bobrauschen-bergamerica
The wildly original and delirious bobrauschenbergamerica took its cues from the work of artist Robert Rauschenberg in celebrating the diversity and exuberance of American life. As conceived by Charles L. Mee, this theatrical collage offered a a loopy and boisterously good-natured landscape populated by a diverse set of individuals. In bringing to life Rauschenberg’s art, Mee celebrated the great optimistic spirit that defines America he sees in the artist’s work. What made bobrauschenbergamerica such a remarkable theater experience was the high level of acting by the ensemble under the direction of Ann Bogart. This was pretty much the company who premiered the piece at the Brooklyn Academy of Music two years ago, and their rapport was a joy to watch.
Mauritius
Who would have thought that a pair of stamps would yield such theatrical fireworks? Yet in Mauritius, Theresa Rebeck’s thrilling new drama, they were merely an excuse for a gritty, suspenseful drama about a pair of sisters battling over the ownership of a stamp collection.This play, commissioned and developed by the Huntington Theatre Company, recalls David Mamet in its terse, idiosyncratic dialogue and the intrigue amongst its scheming characters. Under the expert direction of Rebecca Bayla Taichman, it would hard to imagine a production that serves Rebeck’s intentions better than this one. The actors realized their characters with superb clarity, especially Marin Ireland who played the hungrier, yet more vulnerable sister with heartbreaking vulnerability in what was the best performance by an actress this year.
Stuff Happens
There wasn’t a more timely play this fall season than Stuff Happens, David Hare’s searing docudrama that methodically chronicled the build up to the War in Iraq. All the usual suspects were present - President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Prime Minister Blair, and Secretary of State Rice (to name a few) - in Hare’s fanciful treatment of history. But what he did so extraordinarily well is make the play seem like a history out of Shakespeare. The Zeitgeist Stage Company production, under the astute direction of David Miller, staged the piece in the intimate manner with the audience flanking the stage. The result was an immediate and compelling theatrical conceit that was well served by the ensemble.
The Taming of the Shrew
In the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s production on the Boston Common last summer, Shakespeare’s broad, sexist The Taming of the Shrew was reset in Boston’s North End and given the look of a 1960s Hollywood comedy. The result was a delicious romp buoyed by a pair of delightful performances in the leads: Darren Pettie as Petruchio and Jennifer Dundas as Katherine. With his matinee-idol looks (think Pierce Bronson,) Pettie offered a wonderfully comic take on this swaggering, macho Petruchio; and he hac strong chemistry with the fiery Dundas. A strong supporting cast of comic actors, a handsomely-realized storefront set, and, most significantly, riotously colorful costume design (by Clint Ramos) only contributed to a splendid midsummer evening’s entertainment.
