[NEohioPAL] 2012 News-Herald "Best Theater" Awards

Bob Abelman r.abelman at adelphia.net
Tue Jan 1 13:19:53 PST 2013


2012 News-Herald "Best Theater" Awards

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 1/6/13

 

 

Every year, local theaters devote themselves to putting on the best shows possible. Although some theaters have deeper pockets, more equity contracts or a grander facility than others, truly superb work is created regardless and, in some cases, in spite of these things.  Talent always makes itself known and creativity rises to the surface no matter the pay scale and no matter the palace.

 

The News-Herald wishes to recognize excellent productions and excellent performances from the past year.  There was no shortage of either on our local stages.

 

Only those productions staged in the greater Cleveland area and seen by this reviewer are considered.  All performances were seen during their opening weekend.  National touring company productions are purposefully barred from consideration; they get enough attention.  

 

Best Comedy

"Ten Chimneys"

Cleveland Play House

 

Jeffrey Hatcher's "Ten Chimneys," CPH's inaugural production at the Second Stage in the Allen Theatre complex at PlayhouseSquare, is a cleverly conceived, wittily worded "backstage comedy."   It takes place just before and just after World War II at the rural Wisconsin retreat of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne-two of the most talented and revered Broadway stars of their time.  There we find the two legends and fellow cast members rehearsing for an upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's masterpiece "The Seagull."  It takes great actors to play great actors convincingly and with subtle humor, as Lunt and Fontanne, Donald Carrier and Jordan Baker were brilliant. The production elements matched the quality of the performances.  Director Michael Bloom's fluid staging took full advantage of the in-your-face intimacy of the in-the-round configuration in the new performance space.  This production set the tone (pure), the bar (high), and the expectations (huge) for future CPH productions.  

 

Best Drama

"The Whipping Man"

Cleveland Play House

 

This CPH production picked up where the promise established by "Ten Chimneys" left off.  In the opening scene of Matthew Lopez's gripping "The Whipping Man," just moments after a thunder clap transports the audience to just days after Lee's surrender to Grant in 1865, a badly wounded confederate officer (Shawn Fagan) stumbles home.  He finds his house in shambles, his family missing, and only two Black slaves-Simon and John (Russell G. Jones and Avery Glymph)-remaining.  When Simon recognizes his former master, he rushes to his side, embraces him, and says the Hebrew blessing for the revival of the dead.  From the get-go it is clear that this was no ordinary civil war saga and, from the bare-bone scenic design by Robert Mark Morgan, dramatic lighting design by Japhy Weideman and lucid direction of Giovanna Sardelli, that this is no ordinary production of it.  

 

Best Musical

"Spring Awakening"

Beck Center for the Arts 

 

With a relentless rock score set against the incompatible backdrop of a provincial 19th-century German secondary-school, "Spring Awakening" exists in the same state of contrast and tension as its young subjects.  For its production, the Beck Center struck an alliance with Baldwin-Wallace University, whose Music Theatre program is one of the nation's top repositories for young, talented performers.  Seventeen exceptionally talented B-W students comprised the cast of obedient schoolchildren biting at the bit, the seven-piece on-stage orchestra was directed by B-W senior Ryan Fielding Garrett, and faculty members Victoria Bussert and Gregory Daniels served as the show's director and choreographer, respectively.  Every performer took creative risks that paid dividends, resulting in an absolutely riveting production.

 

Best Director of a Drama

Joel Hammer, "Middletown"

Dobama Theatre

 

Will Eno's "Middletown" is about an average American community where regular people live ordinary lives and conduct their normal business in run of the mill fashion.   Much like Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," Eno allows the townsfolk to do their own talking.  But while Wilder's plainspoken New Englanders need to be occasionally coaxed into voicing their views, this population consists of impulsive, stream of conscious self-disclosers with no filter and no off-button.  This chatty community shares every random observation, nagging anxiety, and metaphysical thought that pops into their heads.  Under Joel Hammer's carefully crafted direction, everything in this Dobama production was interesting and delivered with just the right dramatic timing.

 

 Best Director of a Comedy

Laura Kepley, "In the Next Room"

Cleveland Play House

 

Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room" sheds light on the divide between women's lives and men's perceptions of them by examining the transformative power of electricity in the late 19th century.  The play takes place in a physician's home office in New York, where Dr. Givings specializes in relieving "hysteria" in nervous women with an application of a new electronic-powered invention to the nether-region to the point of "paroxysm."  The true cause of what ails these women, of course, is Victorian era neglect from their emotionally and physically distant husbands, which is brought to the surface courtesy of Laura Kepley's thoroughly engaging, theatrically adventurous direction.  She and her creative team understood, appreciated and brought to life with incredible attention to detail Ruhl's unique brand of storytelling.

 

Best Director of a Musical

Brint Learned, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Rabbit Run Theater

 

The real mystery surrounding the staging of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" at Rabbit Run Theater had nothing to do with it being a "whodunit" musical. The real mystery was why Rabbit Run saved this marvelous musical for its final production of a summer stock season filled with Charles Dickens-inspired works.  This play-within-a play fabrication serves up an array of delightfully over-the-top Victorian-era music hall actors presenting a production filled with wonderful, overly-dramatic characters.  It also includes a significant amount of comical banter and musical numbers that did not originate with Charles Dickens' unfinished novel of the same name.  Director Brint Learned masterfully brought these various and seemingly conflicting elements together, along with both professional and amateur performers, to create a wonderful evening's entertainment.  

 

Best Musical Director

Jay Alger, "Anything Goes"

PlayhouseSquare

 

Yes, this selection breeches the disclaimer that national touring company productions are barred from consideration for these awards.  However, this romantic musical comedy was one of the finest things to grace a Cleveland stage this past year and the magnificent orchestra consisted of local area musicians.  Thirteen local players-4 reeds, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, a guitar, a bass and percussion-joined the show's traveling conductor, keyboardist and drummer.  The New York-based director told the pit that he "would be honored to open on Broadway with this group."  Kudos to these musicians and their local union music contractor, Don Santa-Emma, but credit must be given to Jay Alger for blending the indigenous and touring talent and creating music worthy of Cole Porter's brilliant score.  

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Drama

Tom Woodward, "A Bright New Boise"

Dobama Theatre

 

On the surface, "A Bright New Boise" appears to be telling a simple story about Will, a disgraced Evangelical who fled his rural hometown for Boise to establish a relationship with the emotionally damaged teenage son he abandoned as a baby.  As this drama unfolds, it reveals the playwright's remarkable capacity to capture in words the intense desperation of human suffering and the many layers of complexity depicted by Tom Woodward as Will.  Woodward played Will with paralyzing vulnerability, a characteristic he has effectively displayed in previous Dobama productions but never with this degree of authenticity.  His performance was mesmerizing.

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama

Liz Conway, "Proof"

Lakeland Civic Theatre

 

David Auburn's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning "Proof" is a dramatic exploration of the fine line between genius and mental illness.  Liz Conway personified this in her truly remarkable performance as Catherine, the youngest daughter of a recently deceased mathematics icon who is left wondering whether she has inherited her father's mental aptitude or illness, or both.    Lesser actresses show their hand early in this play by tilting their character's temperament too far one way or the other, but Conway painstakingly walked that fine line.  Her look, her mannerisms, and her progressive discomfort all indicated abnormity, but never what kind or how extreme.    

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy

Tom Ford, "The Imaginary Invalid"

Great Lakes Theatre

 

Satire, noted renowned playwright and drama critic George S. Kaufman, is that thing that opens Friday night and closes on Saturday.  Yet, over 300 years later, Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid"-a rollicking send-up of the medical community-opened at Great Lakes Theatre.  Playing the featured housebound hypochondriac was the marvelous Tom Ford who, in repertory, also served as the comic relief in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale."  Ford's impeccable timing and brilliant physicality kept this re-envisioned and modernized "Imaginary Invalid" operating at break-neck speed and with sustained hilarity. 

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy

Lissy Gulick, "Miracle & Wonder"

Ensemble Theatre

 

Cleveland Heights playwright Jonathan Wilhelm's world premiere production of "Miracle & Wonder" tells a holiday tale of broken people in desperate need of repair.  The play combines the uplifting message of "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jewish mysticism, quirky charm and an abundance of humor.  At the center of all this activity was Lissy Gulick as Noreen, an ersatz mother-in-law to an obsessive-compulsive kindergarten teacher (Agnes Herrmann).  Gulick opened the show with a hilarious story about Jesus having a really bad day, served as the comic thread throughout the production, and concluded with a tender late-night disclosure with her long-lost sister (Anne McEvoy) that was so intimate and so realistic that it felt like eavesdropping.

 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical

Dan Folino, "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson"

Beck Center for the Arts

 

"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" is a raucous mix of subversive political satire, emo rock rhythm, and jello-shots of audacity.  Dan Folino played Jackson-the father of modern democracy, the man behind Manifest Destiny, and the early 19th century equivalent of a rock star.  Equipped with full-throttled swagger, tremendous pipes and punk-pink hair, Folino didn't so much play the restless, impulsive Jackson as bring to life an imagining of the man's monumental ego.  Brought to the forefront were Jackson's egregious qualities that made him both a memorable renegade and forgettable leader during a time of great change, when the nation was a doe-eyed adolescent aching for a hero.   

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical

Mary Bridget Davies, "One Night with Janis Joplin"

Cleveland Play House

 

When in the presence of great art or a great artist, there is a tendency-an irrepressible urge, really-to get as close as possible to see what genius sees, to fill the space that genius occupies, and to share the same rarified air.  This is what happened in CPH's Allen Theater during a performance of "One Night with Janis Joplin."  More concert than concerted effort to capture Janis Joplin's life and times in theatrical form, the production offered insights into Joplin's art, influences and philosophy through her music and her musings between songs.  And while there never has been and never will be another Janis Joplin, Mary Bridget Davies- Joplin understudy until an 11th hour casting change-was awfully damn close, which explains the audience's gravitational attraction to the stage during each performance.     

 

Best Choreography

Martín Céspedes

Beck Center for the Arts

 

Rather than earning recognition for singular staging in a single production, Martín Céspedes  earned his accolades by hitting Beck Center's trifecta of lightweight musical theater-"Xanadu," "Legally Blond" and "Annie"-and hitting it hard.  Adored by many for their frivolity rather than their artistry, productions of these shows amuse but consistently fail to amaze.  Céspedes cinematic vision and immense musicality translated into creative, complex and very entertaining eye candy that lifted these works well beyond expectation.  It is certainly impressive to take a great musical and make it greater, but it is particularly admirable when minor musicals are made magnificent.

 

Best Design

Gage Williams, "Romeo and Juliet"

Great Lakes Theatre

 

Written during a time of great civil unrest and sectarian hostility, the family row in "Romeo and Juliet" serves to represent the political and religious tensions occurring beyond the proscenium.  The Great Lakes Theatre chose to transport the 16th century Verona, Italy of this play to a more modern era when similar pathogens filled the air:  The late 1920s, where the war-torn city is in the midst of recovery from the first World War and engaged in a burgeoning alignment with fascism.  The set, designed by Gage Williams, consisted of a massive, 400 year-old fragment of architecture reinforced by metal scaffolding, metaphorically suggesting that the old was being supported by the new.  This metaphor was as attractive as it was functional, lending depth, layers and variety to the show's staging.  The 1920s era allowed for wonderful period costuming by Star Moxley in the place of the standard Elizabethan garb and informed Rick Martin's lighting design, affording him the opportunity to employ film noir-inspired shadowing to embellish all that is wonderfully dramatic and tragic in this classic play.  

 

Congratulations to all those recognized and to all those others who have delivered wonderful work that enriched our lives. 

 
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