131 SHOWS IN 2006
The Bad News
Patrick won our 2006 show race. Oh
the humanity! This diabolical
show-glutton overdosed, wearing down his molars chomping into 166 theatrical
productions this year. Such unconscionable
indulgence!
The
Good News
I beat my own personal goal
of 131! I ended up seeing 135 shows
which still very horn-toot-able if I do say so myself. Below you will find a list of my favorites
and anti-favorites (though bear in mind, I did not see Lestat).
(To visit the entire 2006 show-blog,
click here!)
THE FAVORITE
Not since Hedwig And
The Angry Inch have I gone so batty over a theatrical production. This
self-aware musical about creating a musical pushed 1300 of my own buttons as I
myself struggle with those soul-sucking vampires they sing about. Blogging back and forth with the cast, harboring
a gay crush on Susan Blackwell, and seeing the cast pop up right and left all
over the city were all bonus DVD extras in this brilliant, moving little show
that could.
FAVORITE MUSICAL THAT’S NOT [title of show]
Is this the
gayest musical since Dreamgirls?
Why yes. Yes, it is. The brilliant concept of a man in a chair
commenting on a 1920’s musical comedy allowed us to not only poke fun at the
mindless silliness of that era but to also revel in the sheer bliss of it all.
(and yes, Spring
Awakening was a close second)
FAVORITE PLAY
At one
point in this Irish comedic thriller I was laughing my ass off. At another I was hanging on the edge of my
seat. Yet another I was freaking out. I was so caught up in the moment to moment
action that I had absolutely no time to think about where the play would go
next. I would love to feel this way at
every production I go to.
(and yes, The
Busy World Is Hushed at Playwrights Horizons was a close second)
FAVORITE REVIVAL
Company
Is this musical really 36 years old?! If I didn’t know my Broadway history so
well I would swear that Company would be up against Spring
Awakening and Grey Gardens for best new musical. The fact
that a director can come along and completely re-imagine this musical with an
entirely fresh concept is one of the reasons why Company was so
groundbreaking in the first place.
(and yes, Awake
and Sing! on Broadway was a very close second)
FAVORITE OFF-OFF
“JANE! WE WANT TO MAKE THEATER WITH YOU!!” exclaim
the robots to this depressed pregnant housewife. And in a wild theatrical explosion brought about by the singing
of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”, BAM!
Jane is performing Hedda Gabler with robots. This show was as fun as it sounds.
(and yes,
the hyperactive movement piece The Race at 59E59 was a close
second)
FAVORITE UNIQUE THEATRICAL
EXPERIENCE
Leslie Kritzer Is Patti Lupone at Les
Mouches
This verbatim, dead-on impersonation of Patti Lupone’s 1980 cabaret act was
not only a technicolor snapshot of a future Broadway legend getting her first
taste of celebrity but a snapshot of the era from which it came. In between expertly sung numbers like “Because
the Night” and “Meadowlark” she would point out the celebrities in
the audience (“Andy Warhol is here!”) and would saucily banter all the while
giggling in a suspiciously coked-up way.
It was transporting and absolutely thrilling.
FAVORITE EVOLVING PHENOMENON
Monday Nights,
New Voices
This once a month Duplex
cabaret featuring up-n’-coming musical theater performers has become home base
for industry insiders, chorus kids and all others who like hot singers. The pre-show people watching is almost as
much fun as the performance. The shows
are filled with the future Kristin Chenoweths and Raul Esparzas of the world
and if you haven’t heard fast-talking producer Scott Alan introduce a number
then that is probably something you’ll want to check out.
FAVORITE DIRECTION
Graciella
Danielle, Bernarda Alba
An entire
world was carefully and painstakingly created stomp by stomp and snap by snap
in this flamenco-esque musical about a mother, her daughters, and their dead
father. Her hyper-theatrical concept
bent over backwards to engage the audience and I loved every second of it.
FAVORITE ACTOR
Okay, yes,
he's hot. Though, more importantly,
inhabiting this tall, slim frame is a pretty `effen bad-ass actor/singer. Replacing Matthew Morrison, he was perfect
as the hyper-charming “Fabrizio” in The Light In The Piazza being
able to wrap his vocal chords around the demanding score with greater ease than
his predecessor. Months later, he
marched into Les Miserables as “Enjolras” (the “Do You Hear
The People Sing?” guy) and infused this revival with a fresh energy and
edge. His commanding, masculine stage
presence and rich, anti-pop, traditional bari-tenor voice makes him one of the
best male leads on Broadway.
(and yes,
Justin Bond in Kiki And Herb: Alive On Broadway was a very close
second)
FAVORITE ACTRESS
Julie White
An
instinctive actor who brings more depth to a role than what is written is any
playwright’s wet dream. This is exactly
what Julie White did with her role as the ambitious talent agent in the
Broadway comedy Little Dog Laughed. She had the audience in hysterics as she nailed every punch line
and created tons of other laughs on her own.
If that weren’t enough, she looked goddamned sexy doing it. No wonder playwright Douglas Carter Beane
has been walking around with an erection the past year. (and yes, Zoe Wannamaker in Awake and
Sing! was a close second)
FAVORITE VOCALIST
Oh the
pipes! We’re talking the white Jennifer
Hudson here. Whether it’s at the
Duplex, or at a Broadway benefit, or at her own show (The Sexless Years),
Kate Pazakis with her big, bright, electric voice, makes people who like music
very happy. And when it’s 2am and you
need an “Audrey” for your “Suddenly Seymore” she always has your back.
OUTSTANDING EMERGING TALENT
Daniel Eric Gold
Playing the depressed boyfriend in both Cagelove and Suburbia this year Mr. Gold brought a clear, crisp emotional clarity to both roles. I was jealous of both of his girlfriends.
I caught
the busy Ms. Ayers in Sarah Plain and Tall, Avenue Q,
and Les Miserables this year.
She’s got a big, edgy, vivacious personality AND a voice that kicks some
ass. Don’t quit your night job!
Keep an eye out in 2007 for
this wild host of Creation Nation, the Ars Nova talk show. This machine gun of comedy is going to
explode big time. Here, watch
this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYMOQCUSP5k
Ellen Reilly
(see Julie White) This is another calculating, hysterical and brilliant performer who, in Weikel Works, made a play even better than it already was. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Karl Miller
New York
Theater Workshop wisely imported this young gentleman from DC for the role of
the teen murderer in Columbinus.
According to his blog, this very intense, thinking actor is attempting
to make this move permanent. Yay for
New York.
FAVORITE DISCOVERY
Opera
After 7½
years of New Yorkery, I finally stopped by the Met. WOW! If you have never
been to the Met, go buy yourself a suit and/or gown and get your ass over
there. The majesty of the classic
scores and the virtuosity of the talent elevated each performance to event
status. There was always something going on within the enormous 5 story
proscenium that fascinated me and that’s saying a lot considering that I have
the attention span of a gerbil.
BIGGEST SURPRISE
The Great
American Trailer Park Musical in Houston, Texas
Houstonian
David moves to New York and turns into a theater snob (it’s a natural
progression). Ex-Houstonian David
returns to Houston for Thanksgiving and goes to the thrice extended …Trailer
Park at Stages Repertory and is blown away. After productions at NYMTF and off-Broadway,
this HouTex Trailer found its true soul down there among the oil
refineries and chicken fried steak. It
reminded me that I should think twice the next time I automatically assume that
a regional production is going to be ersatz to the NY original.
FAVORITE NEW THEATER SPACE
The
renovation is complete and this wood paneled house with ultra-comfortable seats
and excellent sightlines makes for a very warm and inviting theater. Bravo!
BIGGEST LAUGH OF THE YEAR
I believe
the photo speaks for itself.
MOST THRILLING MOMENT
Kiki And Herb: Alive On Broadway
Hello, my name is David. “Hi David.” …And I am addicted to Kiki and Herb. I have been obsessively taking in their performances since 2000. I hit rock bottom this year when attended their very first preview thereby witnessing their official Broadway debut. When Kiki made her first entrance I, and a packed house of other addicts leapt to our feet in a passionate and gratuitous standing ovation that nearly shook the building down. Oh Kiki, I wish I knew how to quit you.
MOST SHOCKING MOMENT
The gay
rape in Snake In Fridge at The Producers Club.
This wildly out of control Halloween production of a wildly out of control play featured a scene that had the predominantly heterosexual audience squirming in their seats. Young hustler and his drug dealer decide to take a shower together. They get completely naked. They begin wrestling. Then fighting. Then the hustler bends the drug dealer over the table, holds him down and proceeds to fuck him in the ass. He then snaps his neck. (I hear Marian Seldes turned the role of the hustler down) This scene went on far longer than it probably should have and I was so happy I went.
FAVORITE LINE
"I'm so hungry I could eat
a baby through the bars of a crib."
-announced by “Donald Rumsfeld” (Larry Pine)
in David Hare's production of Stuff Happens.
BIGGEST REGRET
Missing
Meryl in Mother Courage…
Who’s the
asshole who refused to sit in line outside of the Public to wait for free
tickets? Who’s the asshole? That’s right, I’M the asshole! (and yes, missing Rabbit Hole
was a close second)
WORST PRODUCTION
The Property Known As Garland
I’d prefer not diss a production just because it was poorly acted/directed/written. However this poorly acted/directed/written solo play about Judy Garland backstage at her final concert before she died reeked of an added mean-spirited feature. Throughout the play Judy speaks of all the people who used her for her talent. Crap imitates life as playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt used Judy Garland’s story as a vehicle for his wife, Adrienne Barbeau. By producing this cheap gossipy snapshot of Judy Garland at her worst at the Actor’s Playhouse in the heart of the West Village I assume they thought that the gays would love it. No. We didn’t.
(and yes,
the moronic Elvis And Juliet at Abington was a very close second)
WORST DIRECTORIAL CHOICE
An American
production spoken entirely in Italian
Director Martha Clarke gave
us Kaos, a very visual play but then forced us to look upward to
the ceiling to read pages and pages of dimly lit supertitles (See above. They
were as legible in the theater as they were in this pic). It’s not like this was an imported
production from Europe. New York Theater Workshop has been cultivating Kaos,
a collection of beautifully haunting Pirandello short stories since 1994. Presumably the foreign language was there to
preserve Italian authenticity, however, if I have to choose between
authenticity and clarity I’ll choose the latter every time. Something that could have been wonderful
instead came off inaccessible, frustrating and pretentious.
WORST. SEATS. EVER.
The side
sections at Classic Stage Company
If your
seat number is between 1 and 23 then you are screwed. As hard as directors might try, the space is so wide that staging
a production that provides the entire audience an acceptable view (our right as
ticket-holders) is virtually impossible.
For the first act of The Milliner, I was seated in B10 and
became intimately acquainted with a cast of backsides. It was as though I were watching the
production from the wings.
UNACCEPTABLE. I migrated to D110
at intermish and realized happily that these backsides did in fact have
faces. I have been to many productions
at CSC and this is an ongoing problem.
PLEASE Classic Stage! Do
something about this!
WORST DRAG
Richard Defonzo
as Liza
There is
the art of good drag where a man is portraying the look and style of a
fashionable woman (Charles Busch, Lypsinka).
There is the art of bad drag where a man is playing a man dressed as a
woman (Dina Martina, Milton Berle). And
then there is this: good drag executed
badly. Unable to hit Liza’s notes or
adequately impersonate the sound of her voice or mannerisms, this sweaty mess
in sequins ironically nailed the desperation and fear that a life of alcoholism
and drug abuse can induce. It was
really quite wonderful.
OKAY! THAT’S WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE DAVID BELL IN
2006!
It is at
this point that I encourage all of you to go to more theater. Even the bad stuff is good for you. It’s all so mind-expanding and it gives you
tons to talk about over cocktails.
Racing Patrick has been
an absolute blast and the highlight of my year (Thanks P!). We’re racing again in 2007 and I won’t be so
generous as to provide him with such a healthy lead this time around.
xodavidbell