BroadwayWorld correspondent Michael Lawrence Quintos highlights his picks for the best in Orange County/Los Angeles-area theater for 2010.
Between the Southern California arrivals of Lincoln Center Theatre's impressive SOUTH PACIFIC revival and the Tony-winning NEXT TO NORMAL tour starring Alice Ripley, to the incredibly entertaining offerings from regional and smaller theaters in the area, 2010 was a banner year in musicals and plays.
Los Angeles and Orange County both enjoyed a slew of recent direct-from-Broadway hits that finally made their way to the area, and many more will be gracing their stages as the rest of the 2010-2011 Season rolls along. Stand-alone productions from regional and smaller "black-box" theaters also provided some wonderful new visions of revered properties, and even some debuted some fresh productions straight from their buzzworthy New York debuts. And hovering somewhere in between, a high-tech, high-flying classic British play reignited the child in all of us.
There were plenty of surprises which made my list this year, including a memorable theater-star-making turn by a pop diva (and Dancing with the Stars champ) and the Southern California concert tour stop of a Broadway superstar that, in 2010, made a splash on the small screen's hit musical series Glee.
I tried my best to narrow down my choices...a difficult task considering there was so much terrific theater in the area this year (it's certainly a good problem to have) and there were also many individuals who stood out significantly with amazing performances that deserve to be recognized.
Thank you to all of you for entertaining us this past year.
(You can read the full reviews of many of the shows listed below here).
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BEST NATIONAL TOUR PRODUCTION
Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific
Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa
This incredible Lincoln Center Theatre revival directed thoughtfully by Bartlett Sher—winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical revival—is the embodiment of what great musical theater can accomplish: a wonderful, brilliantly-designed stage amalgam that combines a deeply rich story, a still soaringly beautiful score, inventively fresh creative staging, and a spot-on cast. This show, in my opinion, is unequivocally the absolute best revival of a classic musical in decades.
BEST REGIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION
1776, The Musical
Musical Theatre West, Long Beach
MTW's truly impressive revival turns out to be one engaging, eye-opening history lesson. An unexpected surprise, the show, that tells the story of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, is a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with plenty of heart and soul and a generous amount of genuinely comical moments. It's unquestionably brilliant, intensely affecting, and deeply moving—from its rousing beginning to its glorious end.
BEST PLAY
In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play
South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa
Hands down one of the funniest new plays I've seen this past year, IN THE NEXT ROOM is a giddy, poignant, and often witty modern comedy that was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize. Fresh off its recent Tony Award-nominated production at the Lincoln Center Theatre, this new production of Sarah Ruhl's charming play is an intellectually satisfying comedy that's surprisingly classy and sophisticated, yet wholly sweet and approachable. It's also a heartfelt drama about (inadvertent) sexual stimulation, expressive freedom, and the clarity that such startling pleasures can cause among the mannered, yet wonderfully quirky denizens of this affluent spa town, circa 1880's.
BEST INTIMATE THEATER PRODUCTION
Bent
Theatre Out, Santa Ana
Martin Sherman's BENT is a provocative, thought-provoking piece of theater. Using their small theater space effectively, Theatre Out's production is emotionally searing and effectively performed. With each tragic turn, there are moments of genuine wit, only to be followed by soul-baring heartbreak and an ending that is so overwhelming, it sticks with you long after you've left the theater.
BEST SPECIAL THEATRICAL EVENT
Peter Pan, Presented by threeSixty
Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa [Continues on Page 2]
