BACKSTAGE: Theatrical highs, lows of 2008

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, December 31, 2008 3:09 PM PST ∞

In "Hamlet," William Shakespeare described the purpose of theater is "to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature," meaning that it should accurately reflect the world around it.

If that were indeed so in recession-wracked 2008, then local stages should have overflowed with dark and gloomy work reflecting the follies of man's greed and the desperation caused by poverty. Well, one theater actually did deliver that ---- La Jolla Playhouse, with its weirdly engrossing revival of the Depression-era comedy "Tobacco Road" ---- but most local theaters opted for classics and escapist fare designed to entice ticket-buyers rather than challenge them.

The result was a pleasant year of theater with some notable highlights, a few disappointing lowlights, and a lot of middle-of-the-road fare programmed to please subscribers and lure new customers. Here are my picks for the good, the bad and the ugly of 2008.

The Top 10 (er, 12):

OK, so I couldn't choose just 10. Here were my favorite shows of the year:

-- "The Women," The Old Globe. The funny and lavish revival of this biting 1936 comedy directed by Globe artistic chief Darko Tresnjak had it all ---- great visual tableaux, gorgeous costumes, winking humor, snappy pacing and a strong cast of 15 women (playing 33 roles).

-- "Fences," Cygnet Theatre. For the second year in a row, Cygnet scored with a black-issues drama (it was "Yellowman" in 2007). August Wilson's moving play was beautifully directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and perfectly cast. Produced last February, it held fast in my memory all year.

-- "Water and Power," San Diego Repertory Theatre. Richard Montoya's spellbinding cops-and-politics drama set in urban L.A. was stylishly staged by Rep artistic chief Sam Woodhouse, making it the high point of the Rep's 2008 season.

-- "Golden Boy," New Village Arts Theatre. Reviving Clifford Odets' dated 1937 ensemble drama was a big risk (huge casting demands, a long, dated, misogynistic script and stereotyped characters) but smart staging and direction and some fine performance made this show a knockout.

-- "Les Miserables," Moonlight Stage Productions. The closing act for the old Moonlight Amphitheatre (now in the midst of a major renovation), this lavish, well-directed and well-cast musical was as good as, if not better than, any touring version of the show that I've seen.

-- "33 Variations" & "Xanadu," La Jolla Playhouse. Talk about your diversity. Moises Kaufman's "33 Variations" was a deeply felt and thoughtful probing of a Beethoven masterpiece that was both subtly directed and beautifully designed, while the Chris Ashley-directed cream puff "Xanadu" reveled in its joyously fizzy insignificance.

-- "Don't Dress for Dinner," North Coast Repertory Theatre. Getting farce right isn't easy, but director Rosina Reynolds had it down cold with this fast-paced, well-cast sex comedy.

-- "In This Corner," The Old Globe. Steven Drukman's world premiere boxing-ring drama, perfectly staged in the Globe's Cassius Carter in-the-round space, re-created the sights, sounds and peppery language of the 1930s sports world.

-- "A Little Night Music," Cygnet Theatre. This sparkling, elegant and sophisticated production of the Stephen Sondheim operetta gave a promising preview of things to come at the newly reopened Old Town Theatre.

-- "Spring Awakening," Broadway/San Diego. This vibrant new rock opera, which updates a dark 1891 German play with edgy staging and karaoke-style microphones, had sass, sex appeal and a superb setting in the newly renovated Balboa Theater.

-- "The Pillowman," Ion Theatre. Martin McDonagh's grim serial killer fairy tale was inventively staged by Claudio Raygoza with a storybook set and a sinister central performance by Jeffrey Jones.

The best performances:

There were many, but here were some of my faves:

-- Oceanside's Joshua Everett Johnson gave a career-defining performance as the hyper, motor-mouthed drug dealer "Dennis" in New Village Arts' "This Is Our Youth." (His spats-wearing, wiseguy Eddie in New Village's "Golden Boy" was just as quirky and unpredictable).

-- Deborah Gilmour-Smyth was born to play the role of Margaret in Lamb's Players Theatre's "Light in the Piazza." The near-operatic, Southern society-matron role was a perfect showcase of her vocal and acting skills.

-- Chad Kimball's eccentric, loose-limbed transformation into hillbilly DJ "Huey Calhoun" in La Jolla Playhouse's "Memphis" was riveting.

-- Linda Libby was haunting as the doomed, lonely spinster Mrs. Rausch in the 65-minute wordless solo play "Request Programme" at Ion Theatre.

-- Richard Bermudez had just the right look, voice and personality for the part of Marius in Moonlight's "Les Miserables."

-- Beth Leavel and Patrick Page in the Old Globe's "Dancing in the Dark." Leavel was 100 percent authentic as a Broadway songwriter, and Page was a swishy scream as a vain British stage star.

-- Antonio "T.J." Johnson and Sylvia M'Lafi Thompson in Cygnet's "Fences." The duo first played Troy and Rose Maxson together in 1990 and returned to these roles older, wiser and completely in sync. (Johnson also reprised the role of Hoke in "Driving Miss Daisy" at Vista's Avo Playhouse, and it was even better the second time.)

-- Melinda Gilb and Jo Anne Glover played off each other beautifully in Cygnet's creepy office drama "The Receptionist." (Glover was also wonderfully multilayered in Moxie Theatre's "Bleeding Kansas.")

-- Bobby Plasencia was hypnotic as the mysterious wheelchair-using Norte/Sur in San Diego Repertory Theatre's "Water & Power."

-- Amanda Sitton and Christopher M. Williams were hilariously caught up in North Coast Repertory Theatre's zany farce "Don't Dress for Dinner."

-- John Fleck, as the disillusioned farmer Jeeter, brought honesty and humanity to La Jolla Playhouse's "Tobacco Road."

-- Tom Andrew was noble, heroic and reserved as polar explorer Robert Scott in Inukshuk Production Company's impressive debut production of "Terra Nova."

-- Mary Tarantino-Relator isn't a native German, but you'd never have known it from her authentic performance as Berta in MiraCosta College's "Heartland."

The disappointments:

Not every show hit the mark in 2008. Most of the duds were new works that needed a rewrite. Here are my picks for the theatrical lowlights of last year:

-- Canadian playwright/actor/pianist Hershey Felder is a ticket-selling phenomenon at the Old Globe, but his latest musical solo play, "Beethoven as I Knew Him," was static, gloomy and melodramatic. It left me cold.

-- Itamar Moses' "Back Back Back," a world premiere play at the Old Globe about steroids in baseball, struck out with me. If you're a serious baseball nut, maybe this ripped-from-the-headlines drama had some appeal, but for the casual game-goer, it was dull.

-- Charles Busch's world premiere, "The Third Story" at La Jolla Playhouse, had a ripping first act, but the play's three interwoven stories unraveled in the over-the-top conclusion.

-- North Coast Rep's "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" was a personal favorite of director David Ellenstein, but it wasn't mine. The French-themed musical didn't feel very French, and it suffered from awkward stage business and a low-budget set.

-- Lamb's Players Theatre "Light in the Piazza" wasn't really bad, but it could have been better. Casting was spotty (only one of the actors playing an Italian seemed Italian) and the musical direction needed work. Granted, Adam Guettel's operatic score is tough to sing, but there were too many moments of flat, off-key and poorly modulated singing at the performance I attended to excuse.

-- Ion Theatre's "A Streetcar Named Desire" had a fabulous sound design, but its lighting was dark as molasses and virtually every role seemed miscast. The Blanche was too young, pretty and strong; the Stanley was too smart and cliched; and the Mitch was too slim and young.

-- The Old Globe's "The Glass Menagerie" misfired in two ways ---- miscasting (in the central narrator role of Tom) and a bad set. Scenic designer Michael Fagin's high-concept, bi-level apartment set (built to resemble the octagon-shaped, statuary-filled curio cabinet of the title) cut the action in two and made for awkward entrances, exits and conversations (when a character asks another to join her by sitting on the "floor," the actor had to climb 3 feet up onto a raised platform to get there).

Pam Kragen is the arts editor and theater critic for the North County Times.