My theater habit is getting out of control. In 2012, I saw
over 100 local theater productions by over 30 theater companies (including the
16 shows I saw at the
Minnesota Fringe Festival). Comedy, drama, musical, and every
possible combination thereof. I won't claim to list the "best" or the "top" shows, because who am I to judge what's best? Truth be told, I've never had a
bad experience at the theater. But of course, there are shows that I enjoy more
than others, shows that inspire, enlighten, amuse, move, surprise, challenge, satisfy.
Shows that stay with me weeks, months, or even years after I've seen them.
These are just a few of my favorites from 2012. Agree? Disagree? Head to the
comments section below and share your favorites of 2012.
In alphabetical order, my 2012 favorites include (click on the title to read my full thoughts on the show at the time I saw it):
Ash Land, Transatlantic Love Affair: My favorite show of the
fantastic
2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival was also the last one I saw, a Sunday
night audience pick. This very loose retelling of the Cinderella story is a
totally unique creation that moved me in so many ways with its innovative and
simple way of storytelling. The company of actors embodied, in addition to the
human characters, everything in the world of the story, from the waving wheat,
to the water pump, to the long awaited rain.
Ash Land is everything theater
should be, or as I said in my original blog post: “Friends, this one really
touched me. And that's all I ask from theater - to move me in some way, whether
it's to laughter or tears, or a different way of thinking about something, or a
different way of seeing something.” It was my first show by TLA (a double
Ivey winner this year, for
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman and the Emerging Artist
Award for co-founder Isabel Nelson), and I plan to see everything they do from
now on, beginning with a reprise of their 2011 Fringe show
Red Resurrected,
playing at Illusion Theater in February.
Buzzer, Pillsbury House Theatre: Pillsbury House Theatre
does not make the kind of theater that’s nice and fun and pleasant. They make
theater that will challenge you, make you think about the world you live in,
and want to do things differently. Whether it's Tarell Alvin McCraney’s
Brother/Sister trilogy, which continued this year with
The Brothers Size, or the
new play
Buzzer, a story that explores race, gentrification, and the
complicated relationship between three friends. The trio of young actors all
gave powerhouse performances, including an
Ivey Award winning performance by
Hugh Kennedy. If you missed this show, you're in luck – the play is being
remounted at
the Guthrie'
s Studio Theater beginning in February with the original cast (which also includes Namir Smallwood and Sara Richardson).
Gruesome Playground Injuries, Peanut Butter Factory: This
funny and surprisingly moving little play about the lifelong relationship
between two childhood friends (beautifully portrayed by Adam Whisner and Leigha
Horton) was perhaps my most surprising and delightful theater find this year.
With very little idea of what I was going to see, I completely loved the
experience. As I wrote at the time, "This is why I do this, friends. To go to
an out of the way, under the radar theater with zero expectations, and be
totally surprised and delighted and touched and moved. It doesn't get much
better than that." It was far from the biggest or splashiest show (produced at
the cozy little Intermedia Arts theater), rather it was quiet, powerful, and transformative.
Into the Woods, Mu Performing Arts: It was a great year for
Sondheim in the Twin Cities. Theater Latte Da staged
Company (more on that
later), Bloomington Civic Theater did a beautiful production of
Sunday in the Park with George, and Mu tackled
Into the Woods, setting the European fairy
tales we're all familiar with in the woods of Asia. As I wrote at the time, "the shift works
beautifully, shedding a slightly different light on these archetypal stories
that are common among many diverse cultures, attempting to make sense of our
shared human experience." With beautifully simple sets and costumes, a fabulous
cast that included Mu favorites Randy Reyes, Sheena Janson, Sarah Ochs, and
Katie Bradley, and that wonderful Sondheim score perfectly executed under
Denise Prosek's music direction, it was both classic Sondheim and something
new.
My Antonia, Illusion Theater: My first Illusion show was a
remount of a successful play from a few years ago, which I regretted missing
the first time around. This beautiful adaptation of Willa Cather's pioneer
novel moved me with its sense of nostalgia for that time in our history when
everything was new, told through Cather’s wonderfully descriptive prose, a
talented cast playing many different characters (led by Joel Leistman, Dustin
Bronson, and Emily Gunyou Halaas), and beautifully evocative music. Its simple beauty unexpectedly brought tears to my eyes.
Next to Normal, Mixed Blood Theatre: Next to Normal, a gut-wrenching
look at the effects of mental illness on one typical American family, is simply
one of the best musicals written in this young century. It's one of my favorite
scores to listen to, and I saw the Broadway production three times (including
once
on tour), so needless to say I was thrilled to hear about this local
production. With its simple staging, talented and racially diverse cast, and
excellent execution of the difficult and driving rock score, Mixed Blood did
not disappoint.
Red, Park Square Theatre: It was a good year for Park
Square. They started the year with a spectacular production of another one of
my favorite musicals,
Ragtime, about early 20
th century
America and the diverse people who inhabit it, with an amazing cast full of
local talent (I'll talk more about a few of them a bit later). But if forced to
choose, I have to say that the intense two-person drama
Red was my favorite
Park Square production this year. A career performance by veteran local actor
J.C. Cutler, equally matched by the up-and-coming young actor Steven Lee
Johnson (see also
Beautiful Thing), playing a complicated teacher/student,
father/son, mentor/mentee relationship, set in the world of art in 1950s New
York City. A beautifully written play, fantastically acted by two performers
totally in the moment, a lived-in set that included life-size replicas of huge
and famous works of art, in short, "this play is an almost visceral experience,
with art, music, ideas, words, appealing to all of the senses."
Sea Marks, Gremlin Theater: The Gremlin is another fairly
new-to-me theater that I've really come to enjoy, showcasing a wide variety of
work, from the hilarious farce
An Absolute Turkey, to the dark comedy
A Behanding in Spokane, to my favorite of this year,
Sea Marks, a quiet little play about an
Irishman and a working woman from Liverpool who embark on an unlikely romance
through letters. Two of the Twin Cities' best actors Stacia Rice and Peter
Hansen played the couple, about whom I wrote, "to watch them together in this
intense, beautiful, sweet, awkward little dance of a play is a true pleasure."
Spring Awakening, Theater Latte Da: If you've read this blog
before, you know that Theater Latte Da is my favorite theater company,
specializing in what Artistic Director Peter Rothstein calls "intelligent
musical theater." I really loved their fall production of perhaps my favorite
Sondheim musical,
Company, which they managed to make modern and relevant
despite it being over 40 years old. But their spring production of
Spring
Awakening was, simply put, perfection. Along with
Next to Normal,
Spring
Awakening is one of the best musicals of this century, in which a 19
th
century German play is turned into a rock musical exploring the difficulties of
being a teenager in this world. Latte Da's superb production featured a
super-talented and energetic young cast - Cat Brindisi, David Darrow, Tyler
Michaels (more on him in a bit), and a bunch of the University of Minnesota's
best theater/dance/music students. The choreography by Carl Flink was the best
I saw all year, and took full advantage of the youthful passion and energy of
the cast. It was successful and extremely satisfying on every front – and
deservedly won an
Ivey Award for all-around excellence. As one evaluator put
it, "this is the reason the Iveys were created."
Summer and Smoke, Theater in the Round: 2012 was also a
great year for Tennessee Williams, one of my favorite playwrights. The
highlights include a beautifully sad production of
The Glass Menagerie at
Yellow Tree Theatre, the intense and bristling
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the
Guthrie, and
Autumn Song, a new piece by local composer George Maurer, in which
the poems of Williams and Rainer Maria Rilke are gorgeously set to music. The
one blight on my year of Tennessee Williams is an unfortunate and
unintentionally comedic Broadway production of
A Streetcar Named Desire (I'm
looking forward to seeing
Ten Thousand Things' production in May to see how it
should be done). But my favorite Williams experience this year was a show I
almost didn't see,
Summer and Smoke at Theatre in the Round. I'd never heard of
this play, and hadn't been to Theatre in the Round in years, so I wasn't quite
sure what to expect. I was blown away by the tragic love story and the
performances of the cast (particularly Joanna Harmon as the tortured Miss Alma)
on this intimate little stage. It was heart-breakingly lovely.
Turn of the Screw, Torch Theater: A perfectly thrilling
ghost story at one of my favorite venues, Minneapolis Theatre Garage, Torch
Theater's production of the Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation of the classic ghost
story was just in time for Halloween. Two excellent performances by Lindsay
Marcy as the governess of two troubled children at a spooky remote English
estate and Craig Johnson as every other character in the story fueled this
tense and tight drama that continued to give me chills even after I left the
theater. Watching the governess fall apart as the events unfolded was
deliciously disturbing, even more so when you realized it might all be happening
inside her head.
Werther and Lotte, The Moving Company: For the second year in
a row, a production by this new-ish theater company founded by Theatre de la
Jeune Lune artists Dominque Serrand and Steven Epp has landed on my list of
favorites. This time it's a lovely and innovative interpretation of a novel by
Goethe. Christina Baldwin (more on her in a moment) and Nathan Keepers brought
their individually unique and specific talents (hers musical, his physical) together to create a piece that
combined music, movement, images, and storytelling in a way that pushes the
boundaries of what theater can be and do. In other words, "it's truly lovely
and a breath of fresh air."
Xanadu, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres: You may have seen ads for the
Chanhassen's summer show that quoted me as saying, "
it's the most fun I've ever had at the theater!" While it's true that the Chanhassen puts on the best press
night in town, the fun mostly came from the show.
Xanadu was the perfect summer
entertainment (I saw it twice) - light and fun and hilarious, but with some
clever commentary on the state of musical theater that proves it's in on the
joke. It was a bit of a departure for the Chan, which usually does more
traditional, classic musical theater (see their current production of
Bye Bye Birdie, or next summer's production of
Joseph, the third in six years), and a
very successful one at that (to my eyes). A relatively
small cast allowed each member to shine, from the Olivia Newton John-esque Jodi
Carmelli to Kersten Rodau in a hilarious turn as an "e-evil woman!" And the cheesy 80s music featured in the show became my soundtrack of the summer.
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| The Sunshine Boys |
That completes my list of favorite shows of the year. I haven't mentioned any
Guthrie Theater shows
yet; in a way I feel like they belong in a class of their own. The Guthrie has
more resources than any other theater in town (not just money but the kind of
talent they're able to attract from around the country), they produce more
theater than any other theater, and I see more shows there (18 this year on their three
stages) than anywhere else. My favorites this year include the delightfully original dance pieces
Swimming with My Mother and
Trick Boxing in the Studio theater, the luscious summer musical
Roman Holiday, the fast and funny Raye Birk/Peter Michael Goetz buddy comedy
The Sunshine Boys, the pre-Broadway production of
End of the Rainbow featuring a fierce and fearless performance by Tony nominee and
Ivey winner Tracie Bennett,
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| Time Stands Still |
the sobering and intense war and relationship drama
Time Stands Still, the hilarious British comedy
Hay Fever,
the story of poet Langston Hughes
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (featuring
Gavin Lawrence, who brought Hughes and his poetry to life in one of the best
performances of the year), the tensely claustrophobic study of human nature
The Birds, and last but not least, the ridiculously hilarious adaptation of the 18
th
century Italian play
The Servant of Two Masters (
currently playing through January 20).
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| The Birthday Party |
Of special note this year is
The Jungle Theater because of the consistency of quality in all five of their shows this year. 2012 was my second year with a season
subscription (unlike many theaters, their season runs
concurrent with the calendar year), and I loved everything I saw. They've really grown on me as one of my favorite theaters in town (along with
the Guthrie, Theater Latte Da, and Ten Thousand Things). Firstly, they have the
best sets in town, in the sense that the sets are perfectly matched to the
story. I always feel like I'm peering into a life-sized diorama of some
fascinating and clearly drawn world. Secondly, they make smart and interesting
choices in plays, this year beginning with the thrilling mystery
Dial M forMurder, continuing with the bizarre Pinter play
The Birthday Party, the
hilarious farce
Noises Off, the beautifully absurd
Waiting for Godot, and finally,
the piece de resistance, the sublime
In the Next Room. Add some of my favorite
actors and directors, and you have a very strong year of theater.
Next year looks to continue this trend, starting with
Venus in Fur in February, and featuring
one of my favorite musicals
Urinetown this summer.
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Dieter Bierbrauer (center) with
the cast of Company |
In addition to my favorite shows and theaters, I also had a few favorite theater artists this year that are worth mentioning. I have long been a fan of
Dieter Bierbrauer’s, but
never more so than in 2012. He was featured in four of the shows mentioned
above, all wonderfully diverse performances in terms of character and musical
style. From a poor immigrant father in the turn of the century musical drama
Ragtime, to a California surfer dude singing 80s pop songs in
Xanadu, to poet
Rainer Maria Rilke singing his beautiful words (as composed by George Maurer) in
Autumn Song,
to a 35 year old single man contemplating life and marriage in
Company with its
intricate, gorgeous, and powerful score. That's quite a collection of magnificent performances.
 |
Christina Baldwin (right)
in In the Next Room |
Like Dieter, I have long admired
Christina Baldwin (remember her spectacular turn as Edie in Grey Gardens at the Ordway
a few years ago?). Watching her over the years, I have come to learn that there
is nothing she can't do - comedy, drama, any style of musical, straight plays.
She displayed that range to remarkable effect this year, including four of my
favorite shows of the year. She also began the year in
Ragtime, giving a
sensitive and understated performance as a wealthy wife and mother who yearns
for more. She co-created and co-starred in the lovely and moving
Werthe and Lotte, then played the fun and flirty Italian singer Francesca in
Roman Holiday. Last but not least was a moving performance as a neglected wife in the
Jungle's delightful
In the Next Room. And even though the latter is a play, we still were treated to her gorgeous singing voice, in addition to her tremendous acting talent.
 |
Tyler Michaels
in Spring Awakening |
Unlike the above two artists, I had never heard of
Tyler Michaels before this year. But he began to impress me in the first show I saw in 2012,
You're a Good Man Charlie Brown at Bloomington Civic Theatre. Tyler didn't just play the dog Snoopy, he physically transformed into him. He brings that physicality to every role he plays, although not many are quite as extreme as the transformation into a dog. He followed that performance with a portrayal of my favorite
Spring Awakening character Moritz that was both physical and emotional. In two days I saw Tyler in Illusion's modern day fairy tale
A Night at Olympus (part of their Fresh Ink series that focuses on new work), and
Theater Latte Da's summer variety concert. He can currently be seen in
Bye Bye Birdie at the Chan, which unfortunately does not fully utilize his talents. He's a talented young actor who's exciting to watch, and I for one am looking forward to what he has planned for 2013.
I apologize for the length of this blog post, and thank you for hanging in there if you're still reading this! I saw an incredible quantity and quality of theater this year, and hopefully this has given you a pretty good summary of the highlights. I'm extremely grateful to be a part of this amazing theater community, and I'm excited to see what 2013 has in store. Happy new year of theater to you all!
