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the year in review Alright, these shows were hot. Some were in Hollywood, some were down in Orange County, some elsewhere -- proof that good theater is now all over Southern California. People were taking chances, and getting paid, and hopefully getting laid as well. In order of magnificence, then ... 1). Metamorphoses at the Mark Taper Forum, LA (May): Mary Zimmerman's inventive, playful staging of Greek and Roman myths was a real tonic for a smoggy, stressed-out city: theater opening up hearts and minds with inventive possibilities, ambitious and fun, classic but never pedantic. Zimmerman and her large cast created a series of sights and images that will live in my head for a lifetime. A show with a child's heart and a sage's mind. 2). Death of a Salesman at the Ahmanson, LA (October): Brian Dennehy is a big man with a lot of stamina, and he needed all of it for his remarkable performance as the doomed Willy Loman -- a performance so grand that even the thought of comparison became pointless. Ron Eldard and Elizabeth Franz kept up with him, and Robert Falls' revival acknowledged the play's legend while returning us to its core power. It was drama the way the Greeks dreamed of it -- a draining, exhausting, wrenching experience that left me free and clear. 3). The Babysitter at the McCadden Place Theater, Hollywood (January): Robert Coover's landmark short story, performed in its entirety by the Parallax Theatre Co., made perfect dramatic sense and was as unsettling as ever. John Eric Montana and Winifred Freedman were especially randy as Coover's repressed parents. A graceful, fluid tribute to a land of rape and honey. Sex -- it's the real hard drive booting up our resolute America. 4). References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa (May): How amazing it would be to live in Jose Rivera's world -- a world of constant love, enchanting surprise, and immediate truth. This play had all those characteristics. What a great love story. 5). Medeatext: Despoiled Shore at City Garage, Santa Monica (July): Heiner Müller -- not for children. Not for romantics, either, and definitely not for R---------s. This full-frontal assault of sex, violence, and violently sexy intellect was like a Rage Against the Machine gig: no letup, no answers, no easy questions. 6). Sakina's Restaurant at the Odyssey, WLA (February): I can't stand one-man shows. I loved this one. Aasif Mandvi's beautiful, lyrical solo journey through America, India and back took me not into an immigrant's romanticized experience, but into his very life. Masterful acting, direction and a fine lighting design made for an engrossing experience. Thank you, Aasif, for letting me into a special family born outside America, but truly American. 7). Accidental Dancers at Long Beach Playhouse (July): A huge field trip forward in adventure and quality for a previously moribund theater, Stephen Ludwig's drama was intimate in the best sense of the word. A proudly gay play, touching and affecting, and written to last. 8). A Murder of Crows at Stages in Fullerton (November): Michael Brainard's four-person drama felt like good Shepard, but marched to a more literary drummer. Haunted, poetic, witty and American, it was one of those unexpected intellectual and emotional pleasures that this Orange County theater often surprises me with. Brian Kojac's magnetic performance as a man angry at the loss of his personal wilderness was matched by the colorfully named Spider Madison's turn as a ragged leftover from the Old West. 9). The Lower Depths at the Empire Theater, Santa Ana(May): You went there when you walked into this Rude Guerrilla Theater Co. staging, which replicated a dirty alley and its homeless community to frightening degree. But that wasn't the achievement. Director Dave Barton and company punched Gorky in the mouth, seized his overlong script, and cut out the fat from his agitprop as his pal Chekhov once instructed. The result: hard-edged, unsentimental drama, a wake-up call to remind privileged theatergoers that poverty isn't a condition -- it's a tragedy. 10). The Beauty Queen of Leenane at South Coast Repertory (March): Martin McDonagh's utterly mainstream, utterly affecting play was the kind some critics (not me) refer to as a potboiler, with plot twists, old grudges, and unrequited love pulsing in its blood. SCR did a good job capturing the Irish essence of this exquisitely plotted and written tale, tied tight to a pair of intense performances by Heather Ehlers and Anne Gee Byrd. It's 2001. Go see some theater -- especially the relentless kind. I certainly will. |