Hansel and Gretel

Once the Witch has been roasted, the family reunited, and the Witch's gingerbread victims restored to humanity, the opera concludes with a lovely chorale proclaiming "When in need or dark despair, God will surely hear our prayer." But the religious patina is purely a matter of faith; the children have survived their ordeal solely because of their own quick thinking, Gretel's in particular. It's a fairy story, after all, a crusty old folk tale gathered by the Grimms from ancient sources, and the Christian God is a latecomer to this musical feast; perhaps he'll be seated during intermission, but only at the discretion of the management. A joy for all ages, this production would make a fine introduction for any opera neophyte, child or adult. Hansel and Gretel runs in repertory through Jan. 2 at the Met. Read the full review.

The Marvelous Wonderettes

When a friend had an extra ticket I realized that somehow I had never gotten to this revue show, roughly described as a female Forever Plaid. I'm not too fond of the genre - revues typically sit in some awkward space between concert and authentic musical theatre - but I did enjoy the first act of this one, set at a high school prom in 1958, for the enormously likable performers and for the string of hit parade gems such as "Lollipop" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream". But after the intermission the ole Revue Show Impatience set in when the action jumped to the gals' tenth year high school reunion performance - instead of deepening the characters or giving us the chance to enjoy seeing how the ladies have survived most of the socially turbulent 60's, the script is more of the same with diminishing results: thin, transparent set-ups for songs for each of the written-in-stone "types" in the quartet. It's a long way sociologically from "Mr. Sandman" in the first act to "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" ten years later in the second, but save for a pregnant belly here and a cursory mention of a divorce there, the gals are written to be inhumanly unchanged. Even given the feel-good, nostalgia-stirring limits of the genre, couldn't the second act have tried for some feeling of the late '60's the way the first tried for the '50's?

The Emperor Jones

photo: Carol Rosegg

I finally caught up with Irish Rep's celebrated production of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, one of only two shows to be featured on both Brantley and Isherwood's year-end best lists at the Times. It's easy to see why the production, now enjoying a commercial run at SoHo Playhouse, has been almost universally praised - Ciaran O'Reilly's directorial vision and John Douglas Thompson's raw-nerve performance fully meet the challenge of the "problematic in this day and age" dialect (be prepared to hear the "N" word regularly amid a lot of "sho' nuff"-style speeches.) Most compellingly, the production mixes puppets with actors to create a theatrical landscape that brings fresh vitality to O'Neill's depiction of the dictator's decline into powerlessness and mental deterioration.

Misalliance

George Bernard Shaw

In Bernard Shaw's riotous Misalliance, a dashing young man and an even more dashing young woman drop by the Tarleton estate (literally--their plane crashes into the greenhouse), upending the plans and assumptions of the aspiring-for-respectabilty Tarletons and providing a great deal of entertainment for the audience. Shaw's work manages to be both timeless and timely as the characters grapple with love, money, honor, socialism, feminism, and one another. In this handsome, well-directed (by Jeff Steitzer), and well-acted production, the ever-wonderful Pearl Theatre Company proves yet again that it is aptly named (pearl definition 4: something precious or choice). The wonderful cast includes Lee Stark, Dominic Cuskern, Dan Daily, Sean McNall, and the amazing Erika Rolfsrud.

Snow White

Photo: Daniel Perez

One of the most delightful hours of all-ages entertainment I have ever seen on a stage, Company XIV's Snow White is the kind of magical enterprise that could make a person of any age fall in love with dance and with theatre. The Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary troupe, who've been getting attention for bawdy, "mature audiences only" works (like Le Serpent Rouge), have made a foray into family-friendly dance theatre that is sure to mesmerize and transport all who attend. Miraculously, it holds the wee ones in rapt attention without condescending to them, surely exposing many of them for the first time to baroque-derived and classical ballet dance, to mask work, to shadow puppet theatre, to a variety of music from Louis Armstrong to Bellini's La Sonnambula. What holds them is the same thing that holds adults - the integrity of every element of the presentation conspiring to make striking stage pictures that delight the imagination while telling the oft-told story. I'm sorry I didn't have any chance to see this earlier than now; it would have made my list as one of the best shows of the year.

My Top Ten-ish

Lynn Nottage photographed
by Joan Marcus

In contrast to my fellow blogger Cameron Kelsall, I found this to be an exciting year in New York Theatre, anchored by a number of excellent shows by contemporary playwrights. I saw just over 100 shows and rated 25 of them A-, A, or A+. I managed to get my list down to 11 shows, but it wasn’t easy (I've linked each show to my original review).

The best show of the year, for me, was Ruined at the Manhattan Theatre Club. I have rarely been as affected by a work of art. Written by Lynn Nottage, directed by Kate Whoriskey, and performed brilliantly, Ruined was heartbreaking and important.

The rest of the list is in reverse alphabetical order, just for a change of pace.

• Vieux Carre (The Pearl Theatre): Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical drama in a solid, moving production.
• Universal Robots (Manhattan Theatre Source): Mac Rogers examines the meaning of being—and not being—human.
• Twelfth Night (Shakespeare in the Park): I hope Shakespeare was able to watch this evening of pure delight from the great beyond.
• Streetcar Named Desire (Barrington Stage Company, Berkshires): A fresh look at Williams’ masterpiece without all the shtick of the BAM production.
• Next to Normal (Broadway): A grown-up rock-ish musical full of naked emotion and superb performances, particularly Alice Ripley’s.
• Lizzie Borden (Off-Off Broadway):Kick-ass rock combined with a wry point of view; this show made bumping off one’s parents seem like a smart thing to do.
• Lesser Seductions of History (Flux Theatre Ensemble): August Schulenburg examines the 1960s with great compassion, insight, and humor.
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Lincoln Center Theatre): A beautiful production of August Wilson's magical and moving depiction of people searching for a place and a person to call home.
• Dollhouse (Mabou Mines, St. Ann’s Warehouse): What might sound like a gimmick in theory—casting unusually short men and unusually tall women—turned out in practice to be a stroke of brilliance, revitalizing Ibsen’s well-known play.
• Arcadia (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC): An excellent production of one of my all-time favorite plays.