After 129 productions (yes, that number’s correct), I’ve emerged from the darkened playhouses with a head swimming in Broadway showtunes, memorable stage moments and wonderful performances. The Valley’s sprawling theater scene, taken all in, has the power to charm, and it worked its magic on me.
Not that enough theatergoers have allowed themselves to be as wooed by everything local companies have staged. Because of the Valley’s sprawl, say artistic directors, audiences have tended to stick to a favorite theater or two within a few miles’ radius of home, maybe only venturing to the Herberger in central Phoenix or Gammage Auditorium for a special production. But would a Mesan drive to Fountain Hills to see one of the community theater’s boffo shows? Would a Tempe resident drive to Sun City to see what Theater Works is offering? Did Scottsdaleans make the trek to the new Queen Creek Performing Arts Center when New York’s The Acting Company brought its amazing touring repertory of “Murder by Poe” and “Richard III” to town?
Nope. And that’s a shame. The 2003-2004 season offered its share of war horses and also-rans, but theater companies that occasionally bucked the urge to play it safe — what economic downturn? — rewarded their loyal-if-largely local audiences richly. The lesson: Oftentimes, it’s worth the drive to see theater on the fringes.
Come along as I flip through the mound of notebooks in which I charted this season’s best and brightest — and lamest, we won’t ignore those. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the first annual Spotlight Awards:
BEST MUSICAL
“Chicago,” Phoenix Theatre — PT’s season opener set the bar so high, all every other musical could do was limbo under it gracefully. A rip-roaring production bubbling with enough energy to threaten the structural integrity of PT’s playhouse, this local staging of Kander and Ebb’s “Chicago” — starring a grand Natalie Ellis (Roxie) and flashy Dennis Rowland (Billy Flynn) — dealt a dazzling death blow to the tepid national touring production that came to the Dodge Theatre five months later.
HONORABLE MENTION: “Cabaret,” Desert Stages Theatre; “Show Boat,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre; “Assassins,” Is What It Is Theatre; “A New Brain,” Theater Works.
BEST PERFORMER, ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Michael Aurit, “Cabaret,” Desert Stages Theatre — He may only be 21, but Aurit took the character of the Emcee in this Kander and Ebb dark gem and infused it with a depth, creepy style and improvisational humor that belied his young age. What I wrote in January: He’s a “leering, joker-grinning, gesticulating, bisexual bastard child of Satan and a Cirque du Soleil acrobat” whose toying with the audience between scenes is “much like being assaulted by a perverted Gallagher.” No character has haunted me this season like Aurit’s Emcee, crooning “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” from the corner of the tiny Desert Stages black box.
HONORABLE MENTION: Dennis Rowland, “Chicago,” Phoenix Theatre
BEST PERFORMER, ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Jessica Godber, “Cabaret,” Desert Stages Theatre — Like co-star Aurit, 22-year-old Godber may not have the professional edge of older Valley actresses, but her work in DST’s reprisal of “Cabaret” at the beginning of this year proved she has sass, sex appeal and a fire in her belly.
BEST DIRECTOR, MUSICAL
Michael Barnard, “Chicago,” Phoenix Theatre
WORST MUSICAL
“Catarina’s Son,” Arizona State University — It hurts to admit that this ambitious imagining of Leonardo da Vinci’s life by first-time, local playwright Tak Tarbo (and performed by ASU students) was a stinker. Alas, it was.
BEST REVUE
“Oh, Coward,” Arizona Theatre Company — What I wrote: “… A grand gala of fabulously droll ditties and witticisms from theater’s very own Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, and it practically challenges its audience to wipe the smiles off their faces long after the standing ovation.”
HONORABLE MENTION: “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues,” Arizona Theatre Company; “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” Black Theatre Troupe.
BEST MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT
Alan Ruch and company, “Swing!,” Phoenix Theatre — Hot, hot, hot. Little big band lays it down like it ain’t no thing.
BEST NATIONAL TOUR
“Hairspray,” Gammage Auditorium — Irreverent, Tony-winning musical tour stops in Tempe and, at the last minute, we get an understudy in the lead. It didn’t matter. The show still sparkled like a funky costume jewelry bracelet.
HONORABLE MENTION: “The Sound of Music,” Dodge Theatre; “Varekai,” Cirque du Soleil; “42nd Street,” Gammage.
WORST NATIONAL TOUR
“Starlight Express,” Gammage Auditorium — Andrew Lloyd Webber at his non-Equity shlockiest. Take the worst of roller derby, mix in crummy music, sprinkle with some “Captain Eo”-ish, cheap 3-D effects. Shake until annoyed.
BEST COMEDY
“Late Nite Catechism II,” Scottsdale Center for the Arts — The reigning queen of comedy in the Valley, Patti Hannon continues her work as Sister, the Don Rickles of catechism, in a sequel to the longest-running show in the Valley, this time subdubbed “Sometimes we feel guilty because we are guilty.” Long live the nun.
HONORABLE MENTION: “Comedy Tonight,” Theatre Eclectic; “Menopause — The Musical,” Scottsdale Center for the Arts; “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Fountain Hills Community Theater.
BEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Bruce Halperin and Terry Gadaire, Fountain Hills Community Theater’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” — The most over-the-top comic duo of the season proves that having a good time makes a solid foundation for great comedy. Near vaudeville.
HONORABLE MENTION: Bob Sorenson, “Over the Moon,” Arizona Theatre Company; Stephan Badgett, “Holidazzle” and “Show Boat,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre
BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Patti Hannon, “Late Nite Catechism II,” Scottsdale Center for the Arts
HONORABLE MENTION: Evelyn Brown-Gray, “Menopause — The Musical”
BEST DIRECTOR, COMEDY
David Ira Goldstein, “Over the Moon,” Arizona Theatre Company — Masterful direction (actually, more like corralling) for wacky old-time comedy keeps it from getting too hokey, instead making for a slick, tight romp.
BEST DRAMA
“Talley’s Folly,” Arizona Theatre Company — I gave this show a tepid grade when I first reviewed it, but in hindsight, it was the most charming, bittersweet and delicate dance between two characters that any Valley stage offered up this season.
HONORABLE MENTION: “The Hasty Heart,” Hale Centre Theatre; “Patty Red Pants,” Stray Cat Theatre.
BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Andres Alcala, “Richard III,” Southwest Shakespeare Company — The title’s evil hunchback is done like Kevin Spacey in “The Usual Suspects” — with disfigurement all in the acting, not in the makeup or costuming. Perfect.
HONORABLE MENTION: Benjamin Stewart, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Actors Theatre; Christopher Williams, “Shmulnik’s Waltz,” Arizona Jewish Theatre Company.
BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Natalie Messersmith, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Actors Theatre — Messersmith’s Maggie the Cat slinks her way through a first act that’s essentially a monologue, showing us in arched-back 3-D just how she uses her sexuality as a weapon of mass destruction.
HONORABLE MENTION: Janet Arnold, “Collected Stories,” Arizona Jewish Theatre Company; Tamra Mathias, “Man with the Pointed Toes” and “The Hasty Heart,” Hale Centre Theatre.
BEST DIRECTOR, DRAMA
Damon Dering, “Gilgamesh,” Nearly Naked Theatre — “The Lord of the Rings” has Peter Jackson, and on the Valley stage it’s Dering and his “Gilgamesh” — a sprawling theatrical epic that uses puppets, a Greek chorus, wild lighting and sound effects, and solid acting to tell the oldest recorded hero myth. Dering orchestrates the show beautifully, while leaving plenty of room for the actors to breathe.
HONORABLE MENTION: Jon Gentry, “Stones in His Pockets,” Actors Theatre
BEST SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTION
“Macbeth Remixed,” Actors’ Renaissance Theatre; “Shakespeare’s R&J,” Nearly Naked Theatre — True, both are liberal adaptations — Joe Calarco’s “R&J” sets the tale in a Catholic boys’ school, and “Macbeth Remixed” posits that Macbeth was a grunge rocker. Fresh and inventive, wild and tender, both shows defy the typically awkward adaptations that Shakespeare’s plays get nowadays.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Richard Trujillo, “As You Like It” — As Shakespeare’s Touchstone, the jesterly companion in this Southwest Shakespeare Company show, Trujillo overemphasizes with animated gestures and speech that not only clarifies the show for audiences but earns him its biggest laughs, too.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Bemis, “As You Like It” and “Cardenio” (Southwest Shakespeare), “The House of Yes” and “Gilgamesh” (Nearly Naked Theatre) — Simply marvelous, Bemis knows when to dominate the stage and when to hang back. From goddess to psychopath, maiden to misguided lover, Bemis does it all with aplomb, depth and fun.
OUT-OF-NOWHERE HIT
“The Woman in Black,” Fountain Hills Community Theater — A creepy treasure that offers the best suspenseful (and tasteful) frights you’ll ever get from a stage. C’mon, director Peter Hill, why isn’t Fountain Hills doing this show again this season?
BEST ORIGINAL PLAYSCRIPT
“American Latino Redux,” James Garcia — Wild, careening, comic exploration of the Americanization of the Mexican man. In which the fictional ghost of Cesar Chavez says, “I roll with the punches. They didn’t call me the Chicano Gandhi for nothing.”
HONORABLE MENTION: “Citrus Valley Playhouse — On the Air!,” Brian Nissen; “Benny and the Jetts,” Joe Marshall.
BEST COLLEGE PRODUCTION
“Noises Off,” Mesa Community College — Even when director Gary Stephens had to leave just before the show’s opening for heart bypass surgery, the cast managed to put on a solid production of a classic haywire farce.
BEST CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION
“A Christmas Carol,” Hale Centre Theatre — Community cast creates spooky, fun, delightful holiday tale on a massive scale, while feeling rather intimate. The Christmas ticket next season. HONORABLE MENTION: “The Velveteen Rabbit,” Childsplay; “Holidazzle,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre.
WORST OF THE WORST
“A Christmas Carol,” Actors Theatre’s — Rock concert lighting and big-budget effects can’t save lame disparaging of holiday classic.
DISHONORABLE MENTION: “Sweet Thunder,” Black Theatre Troupe; “Private Lives,” Phoenix Theatre; “Dearly Departed,” Scottsdale Community Players.
BEST VENUE
Hale Centre Theatre — Who would have thought an in-the-round theater in Gilbert could be the coziest venue for seeing quality community theater done in high style? Company plays it safe with family-friendly shows, but sometimes safe can be a good thing. In the hands of owner David Dietlein, it sure is. And check out those low, low ticket prices!
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Rebecca Akins (costumes and puppet design), “The Big Friendly Giant,” Childsplay
HONORABLE MENTION: Sandy Dietlein and Cindy Smith, “My Fair Lady,” Hale Centre Theatre; “A Christmas Carol,” Hale Centre Theatre.
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN
Michael Eddy, “The Big Friendly Giant,” Childsplay
HONORABLE MENTION: Dennis Parichy, “Talley’s Folly,” Arizona Theatre Company
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
Robert Kolby Harper, “Chicago,” Phoenix Theatre
HONORABLE MENTION: Marc Robin, “Cats,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre; April Monte, “Annie Get Your Gun,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre; David Barker, fight choreography for “A Clockwork Orange,” Stray Cat Theatre.
BEST SCENIC DESIGN
“The Underpants,” Arizona Theatre Company — Robert Dahlstrom’s creamy ivory and gray apartment set, its design as comically skewed as the show itself, featured Tim Burton-style doors and walls and side and overhead flats covered in New Yorker-style doodles.
HONORABLE MENTION: D. Martyn Bookwalter, Arizona Theatre Company’s “Talley’s Folly”; Gregory Jaye, Phoenix Theatre’s “Morning’s at Seven.”
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Jessica Frieling, “La Cage Aux Folles,” Desert Stages Theatre — Not a particularly good show, but enough troublesome makeup and wigs on male actors to qualify Frieling for sainthood.
HONORABLE MENTION: Dawn Rivard, “Cats,” Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre
BEST PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN
“Power Play,” Childsplay — Live actors + interactive video = theater for a new generation.
HONORABLE MENTION: “Anastasia Krupnik,” Mesa Youtheatre; “The Velveteen Rabbit,” Childsplay; “The Big Friendly Giant,” Childsplay. “Frog and Toad Together,” Great Arizona Puppet Theater.
BEST YOUTH PRODUCTION
“Oliver!,” Desert Stages Theatre
HONORABLE MENTION: “Stuart Little,” Fountain Hills Community Theater; “Winnie the Pooh,” Fountain Hills Community Theater
BEST YOUTH ACTOR
Luke Kanter, “Stuart Little,” Fountain Hills Community Theater — Dimple-grinned cutie is catwhip-smart as beloved adopted mouse.
BEST YOUTH ACTRESS
Michelle Chin, “Eleemosynary,” Theatrescape — Eighth-grader Michelle goes toe-to-toe with two more veteran actresses in adult show, only to emerge victorious. Nothing short of astounding.
WORST NEWS OF SEASON
Valley theater insiders mourned the death of Copperstate Dinner Theater musical director Loren Chamberlain earlier this year. Meanwhile, artistic director Scott Campbell left Sun City’s Theater Works and Phoenix’s spunky Is What It Is Theatre dissolved, sending the the company’s Tim Butterfield to take over artistic direction at Theatrescape.
BUT THERE’S GOOD NEWS
Delores D’Amore Goldsmith and friends in the Valley theater community have combined talents to create the Arizona Women’s Theatre Company, dedicated to staging women-centric shows. An inaugural fundraiser, “Talking With,” was a success, and a full season is expected in 2004-2005.
Looking ahead to 2004-2005
Perhaps 2004-2005’s season will see a better uniting of the Valley’s sprawling theater scene, with folks from all around coming to celebrate the opening of the $94.5 million Mesa Arts Center (so near completion I’m salivating) and theater companies considering involvement in the Maricopa Regional Arts and Culture Partnership project or other initiatives for creating a centralized ticketing agency.
It’s a safer season of shows for companies like Mesa’s Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre (hoping to turn a nice profit on “The Sound of Music” and “Guys and Dolls”), and we can expect the usual gaggle of accidentally overlapping shows (more than one “Sound of Music,” two productions of “Cabaret” in the wake of Desert Stages Theatre’s bangup show last year).
But then again, for every safe show in the Valley comes a risky one: Tim Robbins’ political piece “Embedded” will come to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in October — just before November’s elections — and the Broadway Palm’s season opener, “Miss Saigon,” should test its conservative audience just as much as the (somewhat) sexually charged “Cats” did this season.
I’m excited to see, of all things, the touring “Little Shop of Horrors” at Gammage, as well as Actors Theatre’s production of the book “Nickel and Dimed.”
Of course, there are some shows that aren’t on the season schedule but I’d like to see staged soon: Tracy Letts’ dark comedy “Bug,” “Bat Boy: The Musical” (if Nearly Naked can ever land the rights) and more collections of one-act plays (“Degas C’est Moi” by David Ives is a favorite) for attention span-challenged newbies to the wonderful world of Valley theater.
