I haven't seen Fun Home yet so that will not be on my list. Here it is! These are in no order: Pippin Kinky Boots Vanya and Sonia Murder Ballad Matilda After Midnight Glass Menagerie Lucky Guy A Christmas Story (Saw it in Boston) Book of Mormon (Saw it in April for first time)
Most disappointing- Motown Pleasantly surprised- Pippin
I loved G’s GUIDE, but I’m not sure if it would be in my Top 10 for the year. It would definitely be in my Top 3 musicals, but I saw a lot more terrific plays than musicals this year.
CHURCH DOOR TOUCAN GAY MARKETING PUPPIES MUSICAL THEATER STAPLES PERIOD OIL BITCHY SNARK HOLES
Zachary Quinto's performance in THE GLASS MENAGERIE The entire experience of NATASHA PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 TWELFTH NIGHT OLD HATS at Signature with Bill Irwin and David Shiner
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
My list looks something like this, though I can't help the nagging feeling that I'm forgetting a couple of things.
1. THE FLICK 2. NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 3. HAMLET 4. A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER 5. OLD HATS 6. VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE 7. RICHARD III 8. TWELFTH NIGHT 9. HANDS ON A HARDBODY 10. FUN HOME
CHURCH DOOR TOUCAN GAY MARKETING PUPPIES MUSICAL THEATER STAPLES PERIOD OIL BITCHY SNARK HOLES
In no particular order: 1) Fun Home 2) Julie Tayamor's Midsummer Nights Dream 3) Here Lies Love 4) Murder Ballad 5) Pippin 6) Waiting for Godot 7) Twelfth Night Matilda 9) Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 10) The Glass Menagerie
Here's my list, in order. The only show I haven't seen that I think could crack this list would be Fun Home. 1.) Pippin 2.) Vanya and Sonia et al. 3.) Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 4.) Twelfth Night 5.) Matilda 6.) The Assembled Parties - I know not well-liked but I LOVED it. 7.) The Glass Menagerie 8.) A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder 9.) Kinky Boots 10.) Murder Ballad or The Trip to Bountiful - can't decide, loved them both for very different reasons
Scratch and claw for every day you're worth!
Make them drag you screaming from life, keep dreaming
You'll live forever here on earth.
The Donmar's Julius Caesar Kinky Boots The Nance Pippin Matilda Trip to Bountiful Talley's Folley Glass Menagerie Waiting for Godot Orphans Here Lies Love Vanya Sonia Masha & Spike
Sort of in order: 1. Matilda 2. Hands on a Hardbody 3. The Other Place 4. Here Lies Love 5. Tommy (Stratford) 6. Waiting For Godot (Stratford) 7. Fun Home 8. Curious Incident (West End) 9. Rocky (das Musical, Hamburg)
We all know how cruel the theatre gods can be,--- like 40 years worth of cruel-- but they can sometimes be kind as well. They showed unusual largesse this year by allowing us to revisit some treasures from the past, and these provided the best evenings of the year. My two favorite shows both bore the word "happy" in their titles, and happy they certainly made me. Anita Loos's delightful and charming Happy Birthday, done by the always expert Tact Company, was pure ambrosia. Happy Hunting at the York was a rollicking romp that put all our current musicals to shame.
The other revivals that stood out were Donnybrook!; Juno and the Paycock; The Glass Menagerie; The Trip to Bountiful; The Film Society, with excellent performances by Euan Morton and Roberta Maxwell; and The Detour.
Among the new pieces, my favorites were Horton Foote's The Old Friends, wonderfully acted, and Martha Clarke's exquisite Chéri.
59 E 59 had several worthwhile plays: Two Point Oh, with a noteworthy performance by Jack Noseworthy; Jericho; and Ghetto Babylon.
By far the best new musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder was clever and winning. As a specialty piece, Nutcracker Rouge was amusingly outré.
Other new works I enjoyed were Nikolai and the Others, splendidly acted; A Kid Like Jake; Gorilla; and Hit the Wall.
These shows helped reaffirm the value of going to the theatre.
Then She Fell Twelfth Night Saint Joan Matilda Pippin Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Buyer and Cellar Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 The Glass Menagerie Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
1. Fun Home (Public Theater) 2. Passion (Classic Stage Company) 3. The Landing (VIneyard Theater) 4. The Nance (Lincoln Center Theater; Belasco Theater) 5. The Glass Menagerie (Booth Theater)
One commercial for-profit Broadway show (and not a musical or new play, at that) says a lot about the state of the commercial Broadway theater.
My Top 10 Favorite of 2013 (Not in a particular order): 1. Kinky Boots 2. Matilda 3. The Trip to Bountiful 4. First Date 5. Pippin 6. Evita (National Tour) 7. Disaster 8. Big Fish 9. The Glass Menagerie 10. Chaplin (Saw it at the beginning of 2013)
1. Fun Home 2. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 3. The Flick 4. Pippin 5. Passion 6. Then She Fell 7. The Last Five Years 8. Domesticated 9. The Glass Menagerie 10. Matilda
Just counting those that opened this year, here are my top 13 of 2013:
After Midnight Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays Buyer and Cellar Fun Home Matilda Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 Passion Pippin The Apple Family Plays The Glass Menagerie Twelfth Night Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Violet
"In theater, the process of it is the experience. Everyone goes through the process, and everyone has the experience together. It doesn't last - only in people's memories and in their hearts. That's the beauty and sadness of it. But that's life - beauty and the sadness. And that is why theater is life." - Sherie Rene Scott
1. TWELFTH NIGHT 2. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 3. JEKYLL & HYDE 4. THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY 5. AFTER THE FALL 6. BAD JEWS 7. THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN 8. RICHARD III 9. MARIE ANTOINETTE 10. THE NANCE
Columbinus (Boston) Fun Home The Glass Menagerie (only saw it in Cambridge) Matilda Mies Julie (Boston) The Mystery of Edwin Drood Pippin (in Cambridge and New York) Tribes (Boston) Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
My Favorites of the shows that opened this year, more or less in order:
1. Aladdin (pre-Broadway tryout in Toronto) - by far my favorite this year. Amazing dancing and choreography, singing and music and orchestrations, costumes, staging, lighting and sets, acting, book, new songs. Just all-around a pure delight.
2. Pippin - wonderful performances and great integration of show with circus theme 3. If/Then (pre-Broadway tryout in DC) - great singing and acting from entire cast with Idina Menzel a particular stand-out, lots of great songs 4. Les Miserables (pre-Broadway tryout in Toronto) - my three favorite performances in this production were from Earl Carpenter as Javert, Ramin Karimloo as Valjean, and Melissa Neill as Eponine, only 1 of whom is transferring with the show to Broadway. Earl Carpenter's gorgeous singing alone was worth the price of admission. 5. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - very funny, esp. DHP's monologue 6. Matilda - uplifting story 7. Glass Menagerie - memorable performance by Cherry Jones - first time Amanda has been likeable in any production that i have seen. 8. Far From Heaven - Kelli O'Hara singing. 'nuff said 9. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - clever and funny 10. Big Fish - heartwarming tearjerker
I saw Great Comet and Beautiful yesterday, so now I am done for the year. My Top 10 (in no particular order): Matilda, Pippin, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Murder Ballad, Here Lies Love, If/Then (DC), Fun Home, Great Comet of 1812, Glass Menagerie, and Honeymoon in Vegas (Papermill).
I'm not. It was a twee romp for the geriatric crowd. I'm all for old throwbacks, but I laughed twice-- once at Jefferson Mays in one of his ridiculous hats when he played the old British woman, and once when...oh wait, never mind. I only laughed once.