The Twelve Days of Christmas

If the 2006 season could be repeated, there are the plays TIMEOFF critic Stuart Duncan would choose to see again.

By: Stuart Duncan
   It’s that wonderful time of the year when we invite our memories to catch up with all of the year’s activities. That time when we can look at the year just now closing its chapters and decide what is worth keeping. It is the time when critics turn to blank pages and list the best of what they have just experienced.
   I call my list "The Twelve Days of Christmas." By tradition those were the days when the Magi (the wise men) came from the East and followed a star to Bethlehem and a humble stable. For my 12 days I pick a dozen shows from the long 2006 season that I really would like, if circumstances permitted, to see again.
   In no particular order, they are:
‘Urinetown’ at Rider University This is the second straight year that a musical from Rider has appeared on this list — highly unusual for any college production. But once again director Pat Chmel found just the right combination of energy, laughs, a terrific ensemble and superior talent (including Judah Frank, Rachel Yucht, Ed Egan, Mike Hollinshead and Joanne Nosuchinsky) that could do it all and act as well. A complete sellout over two weekends was just the icing on a very happy theatrical event.
‘Hello, Dolly!’ at Paper Mill Playhouse There was no question as to whether or not the show would be a hit — the big question was whether Tovah Feldshuh could handle the title role. Boy did she! Terrific performances — standing enthusiastic ovations at every performance. She had plenty of help in Walter Charles as Horace Vandergelder and Kate Baldwin as Irene Molloy, plus Jonathan Rayson and Brian Sears, who made their Paper Mill debuts as Cornelius and Barnaby.
‘The Full Monty’ at The Villagers Originally set in an industrial town in England but moved by playwright Terrence McNally to Buffalo, N.Y., the musical follows a group of laid-off factory workers as they decide to go for the big bucks via a strip show. A terrific company, directed by Jim Neil, not only had talent but heart as well. And any time the evening started to sag, even a little, there was Vicky Tripodo, playing an old war horse of a piano player to pick things up and shock the audience into more laughter.
‘Betrayal’ at Princeton Summer Theater This was Harold Pinter’s 1978 offering that many would say is his most accessible work. It involves a love triangle and is told in reverse chronological order (typical Pinter). Director Andy Hoover and his cast, Ben Mains, Rob Grant and Amy Widdowson, took on Pinter’s uncompromising language with confidence and, just as importantly, made great sense of the silences as well.
‘The Rivals’ at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s brilliant comedy, written when he was only 24, was staged with extraordinary success by the company in residence on the campus of Drew University in Madison. It is a play of stereotypes and the fun proceeds from characters who lack depth and therefore act to our expectations. This is the play of Mrs. Malaprop, one of the great comic roles of all time ("She is the very pineapple of politeness" or "She is as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile"). Monique Fowler got to deliver all those lines, and Jeffrey Bender and James Michael Reilly picked up the rest.
‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ at New Jersey Opera Theater Mozart’s masterpiece was magnificently staged and sung as part of an ambitious schedule at Princeton’s Berlind Theatre. Matthew Curran, a local resident, led a superb company in the work that foundered for a century and a half before audiences accepted it. The piece frequently is "cleaned up" a little, but here was presented as written — lusty but loving; voracious but lined with velvet; comic but passionate — and sometimes deeply touching.
‘A Stone Carver’ at Passage Theatre To celebrate its 20th season, Passage reprised a generation-old William Mastrosimone play that touched the heart. The plot pitted a stubborn old man (played by Dan Lauria) against his son (Jim Iorio) and the son’s fiancée (a breath-taking performance by Elizabeth Rossa) as he fights eminent domain by the city (Trenton). The dialogue was from Mastrosimone’s immense memory storage tank. A lovely evening — powerful, heartfelt, beautifully acted and directed with obvious love.
‘Gunmetal Blues’ at George Street Playhouse This was a show different from most, inspired by the classic James M. Cain novels and the film noir black and white features of the 1940s. Amid a world of smoke and mirrors we met "the blonde," "the private eye" and "the piano player." Three actors took us on a ride through the world of Bogart and Bacall, tossing in music when they felt like it. It was new, exciting and, most of all, made you want to rent Casablanca again.
‘The Andersonville Trial’ at Actors’ NET of Bucks County Shunning the usual holiday fare, the Morrisville, Pa., troupe staged the scorching 1953 docudrama that told of the brutal conditions in a Southern prison facility during the Civil War. The plot was wrenched from the trial records and centered on the commandant of that camp. Ken Ammerman turned in an extraordinary performance, aided in no small measure by Chuck Donnelly and Marco Newton as the opposing lawyers.
‘Cats’ at Kelsey Theatre The 1981 musical hit got a rousing revival by Playful Theater on the campus of Mercer County Community College — one that rivaled any professional staging you might have seen. Director Pam Fabri Pisani is a professional dancer and her super choreography, especially for the ensemble, stood out. Lots of superior performers: Vicky Czarnik, Cathy Liebars, Michaela Tomcho, Michael Schiumo, James Petro and Tom Bessellieu among them. Another complete sellout, and well deserved.
‘The Birthday Party’ at McCarter Theatre This Pinter play was savaged by the critics when it first opened years ago, but it was given an extraordinary awakening by Emily Mann and a fine cast. You might call it "a comedy of menace" and, in typical Pinter fashion, as much was left unsaid as reached dialogue. I’m personally not certain I liked it and there certainly were sections I didn’t find revealing, but I would want to see it again anyway — if for no reason other than to see the performances of Barbara Bryne and Henry Stram once more.
‘Cymbeline’ at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey This was probably Shakespeare’s least familiar play and one of his longest. It was brilliantly cut by director Joe Discher to a very manageable two hours and 45 minutes. It also played smoothly and brought out all of Shakespeare’s delicious devices: mistaken identities; a cross-dressing maiden; long-lost sons and a banished King. It is continuing up in Madison through Dec. 31.
   There you have them, at least one critic’s opinions of the best of 2006. Remember it is only one man’s picks. For next year’s, make your own. I’ll see you on opening night — I’ll be the old guy on the aisle.