The Best Shows of 2014: Part I

As 2014 draws to a close and the internet is inundated with "Best of the Year" lists, its time to add my humble voice to the cacophony with my annual "Best Shows of the Year" list. For those of you not familiar with how this list works, know that it is not meant to be a comprehensive or definitive list. It is limited to productions I have actually seen, so certain popular shows will be omitted. I have yet to see Beautiful, for instance, although all of the promotional performances make me think it wouldn't make my personal list anyway.

2014 was an interesting year for New York theatre. There were a lot of show I liked, but less I unabashedly loved than in 2013. There was still plenty of commendable work throughout the year, and part of the reason fewer shows felt like unqualified successes is because they tackled less conventional subject matter and storytelling methods (which I'll take over a safe, traditional production any day of the week). Below is the first half of my annual Top 10, with the remainder of the list to follow soon. 

Honorable Mention: Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Audra McDonald truly disappeared into the role of jazz singer Billie Holiday, winning the acclaimed actress a well deserved and record breaking sixth Tony Award.

Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Lanie Robertson's exploration of famed jazz singer Billie Holiday's life and career, is not a great play. The show is interesting because Holiday's life was interesting, but nothing about the play's writing contributes to more than a cursory understanding of the troubled vocalist's final days, performing in obscurity at rundown clubs. That said, Audra McDonald was a revelation in the work's recent Broadway revival, an utterly transformative performance that deservedly won the acclaimed actress her record breaking 6th Tony Award. As usual, McDonald somehow managed to exceed overwhelmingly high expectations to deliver a performance for the ages, one of the single best of I have ever seen. While the show's pedestrian writing keeps it from being Top Ten material, McDonald's performance was one of the most nuanced and entrancing of the year, and deserving of mention.

10) Pageant

The beautiful contestants of the Miss Galmouresse pageant at the center of Pageant.

In the pursuit of high art and a better understanding of the human condition, it can sometimes be easy to forget that theatre is primarily a form of entertainment. The Off-Broadway review Pageant, about a fictional beauty contest where all of the contestants are men dressed in drag, may not have been the most intellectual of evenings, but it was one of the most enjoyable 90 minutes I spent in a theatre last year. The extremely talented and versatile performers milked every bit of campy humor possible out of the premise, somehow making a spoof of beauty pageants feel relevant even when the format is long past its prime. The loose structure allowed the contestants plenty of chances to ham it up, but beneath all the shtick and broad caricatures they remained recognizably human, which only added to the show's appeal. Definitely an underrated gem of the summer/fall months.

9) If/Then

While there were plenty of strong performances in If/Then, let's be honest: Idina Menzel is the reason people are interested in this show, and the Tony winner delivers with what may be the performance of her career.

I can't understand why If/Then has gotten so much flack from the theatrical community. While the show is by no means perfect, it is one of the increasingly rare musicals not based on any pre-existing property that furthermore dares to ask big questions about life (as opposed to most of the successful musicals of the past few seasons, which are primarily meant to entertain). Perhaps the show suffered in comparison to Next to Normal, the groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize winner by the same creative team. And while If/Then doesn't match that show's emotional wallop, the concurrent narratives of Liz and Beth raise a lot of interesting questions about choice versus fate. Idina Menzel has never been better, easily topping her Tony-winning work in the megamusical Wicked 10 years ago and proving that she is one of the most formidable singing-actresses of her generation. The show's sagging box office numbers and Menzel's impending departure probably mean this show is on its last legs, so everyone who claims to support originality in the theatre really owes it to themselves to see this thought provoking new work before its gone. It may be flawed, but its heart is 110% in the right place, and I will take an ambitiously flawed show over a safely conventional one any day of the week.

8) Heathers

Off Broadway's New World Stages is generally where older shows go to extend their runs, but occasional the complex will birth exciting new works like the hilarious and inventive Heathers the Musial.

A darkly comic coming of age tale set in perhaps the worst high school of all time, Heathers proved to be a highlight of the crowded spring theatre season. Featuring a top notch score by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy ("Candy Store" is one of the catchiest musical numbers of the year), Heathers' endlessly inventive writing was brought to life by an excellent cast of mostly unknowns. A vast improvement upon the film that inspired it, the musical managed to resolve most of the tonal issues that plague the source material without losing the story's edge, and somehow uncovered an emotional core underneath all the 80s slang and teen melodrama. Although the Off-Broadway production has long since shuttered, the show is already well on its way to achieving the kind of cult status shows like Rocky Horror and Reefer Madness enjoy.

7) Aladdin

Courtney Reed and Adam Jacobs appear to have literally leapt off the screen in Disney's Aladdin, one of the most sumptuous spectacles to grace Broadway this year.

20 years after Beauty and the Beast, Disney Theatricals finally got around to tackling the last major film from the company's early 90s animation renaissance, the Oscar winning 1992 comedy Aladdin. Recovering nicely from their last animated adaptation (the less than successful Little Mermaid), the company brought their trademark high production values and slick presentation to this story of a street rat who dreams of something more. Featuring a game cast (lead by James Monroe Inglehart's Tony-winning Genie) and fantastic direction/choreography by Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin is one of the most magically entertaining shows currently running on Broadway. Genuine showstopper "Friend Like Me" is one of the most elaborate, thrilling production numbers around, and the famed magic carpet ride is every bit as magical onstage as it was on film. An excellent option for families and the young at heart, tickets have been hard to come by, but are definitely worth the effort.
 

6) Much Ado About Nothing

Recovering from an uneven couple of years, the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park presented a top notch (and free!) production of Much Ado About Nothing this past summer.

After a couple of less than stellar seasons (2012's Into the Woods was divisive to say the least, and 2013's Comedy of Errors and Love's Labors Lost were less than memorable), the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park returned in top form with a fantastic production of one of the Bard's best comedies, Much Ado About Nothing. The always excellent Lily Rabe was perfectly cast as the tart-tongued Beatrice, and Hamish Linklater's Benedict made for a perfect comic foil. But while Rabe and Linklater were definitely the star attractions, the entire supporting cast was filled with excellent actors under superb direction by Tony winner Jack O'Brien. A truly magical evening that successfully ran the full gamut of human emotion in just two and a half hours, this production was an unadulterated delight from beginning to end. The lack of a marquee star or available theatre precluded a Broadway transfer, but this mounting of Shakespeare's comedy was as deserving of that honor as anything Shakespeare in the Park has produced.


And that's Part I of my list. Keep an eye out for Part II in the coming days, where I'll list my Top 5 favorite theatrical experiences of the year.

If Every Show Were This Daring, Then Broadway Would Be a Truly Magical Place

Review: If/Then

Idina Menzel returns to Broadway in the central role of If/Then, possibly the finest piece of stage acting she has ever done.

Let's get this out of the way: If/Then is not as good as Next to Normal.  But expecting Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's follow-up to that near-perfect Pulitzer Prize-winner to reach such lofty heights is an unreasonable standard to have, and makes the brazenly ambitious If/Then sound like a much bigger failure than it actually is.  While no means perfect, this entirely original musical is one of the most intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying new works of the season, provided you're willing to stick with it through a sometimes muddled first act.  And just as they did for Alice Ripley, Kitt and Yorkey have written an absolute gift of a role for the immensely talented Idina Menzel, arguably having the biggest year of her career thanks to this and her work in Disney's smash-hit Frozen.

If/Then follows Elizabeth (Idina Menzel), a woman in her late 30s who has returned to New York following the end of her marriage.  She agrees to meet two friends in the park: Lucas (Rent star Anthony Rapp), her activist best friend and occasional lover from college, and Kate (Tony-winner LaChanze), the outgoing neighbor she just met while moving into her new apartment.  She is presented with a seemingly inconsequential choice - go with Lucas to a protest or spend the afternoon in the park with Kate - that sends her life in two entirely different directions, one career-oriented and one focused on her personal life.  The show cuts back and forth between her parallel potential lives (both timelines include an emotionally charged 39th birthday party and an unplanned pregnancy), ultimately asking the audience to consider such weighty issues as fate-versus-chance and career-versus-home-life.

While fascinating (and the very crux of the show), these parallel stories do present narrative challenges that bookwriter Yorkey and director Michael Greif don't entirely solve.  They've named the career-oriented persona Beth and dressed her in power suits and business attire, while the family-oriented Liz favors glasses and cardigans.  There are generally (but not always) color-coordinated lighting cues to help distinguish the two.  Yorkey's book works extra hard to weave in pertinent reminders of which set of circumstances applies to the current scene, and actually succeeds more often than not in making the references seem natural rather than forced.  Nevertheless, the first act in particular is hard to follow, and you are bound to miss some plot points the first time through despite Greif's fluid direction and Menzel's incredibly assured performance.

But just when you're ready to write the show off, something miraculous happens after intermission.  Suddenly the show clicks, and you realize that despite the confusion you gleaned all the information needed from the plot-heavy first act to set you up for the engrossing character study of the second.  With the necessary exposition out of the way, the show is free to explore the notion of regret and the road not taken, along with the often conflicting emotions of adult contemporary life.  Liz loves her family but is clearly frustrated she put her career on the back burner, while Beth feels validated and fulfilled by her job as a prominent urban planner but has precious few people to share in her success.  The show thankfully avoids portraying one choice as inherently better than the other; they are simply choices, both with major pros and cons, and as the show wisely argues it is ultimately up to the individual to decide what is best for him or her.

Kitt's score is intricate and expressive, although it mostly avoids the catchy melodic hooks that defined a good portion of his Next to Normal score; in fact, the show's weaker numbers are the ones that adhere to the more conventional verse-chorus-verse structure of musical theatre.  Yorkey's excellent lyrics are simultaneously conversational and profound, capturing the rhythms of contemporary New York speech (the show is, among other things, a love letter to the island of Manhattan).  The writing of If/Then is not perfect, but it does a large number of things remarkable well, a feat even more impressive considering there is no source material providing a roadmap for how to tell this story.

As previously mentioned, Menzel is sensational in the central role.  Her ten years away from Broadway haven't in any way diminished her considerable stage chops; if anything, her skills have only grown.  Menzel's performance is several steps above her Tony-winning turn as the misunderstood Elphaba in Wicked, demonstrating an unexpected emotional breadth and depth.  Yes, she sounds fantastic with her seemingly inexhaustible belt, but the true beauty of Menzel's work is the complex emotional shading she brings to each lyric and phrase.  She is charming, unexpectedly funny, and occasionally heartbreaking in a performance carried out with such warmth, intelligence, and charisma that is appears almost effortless despite the fact she rarely leaves the stage.  Her characters in Wicked and Rent will likely remain Menzel's signature roles, but If/Then represents the artistic pinnacle of her career as a stage actress thus far.

Although they don't get nicknames to distinguish their two personas, both Rapp and LaChanze do great work portraying Elizabeth's best friends in both timelines.  Rapp, with a voice seemingly unchanged from his days in Rent, is endearingly snarky as the crusading Lucas, and his rapport with Menzel clearly benefits from the pair's long off-stage history.  Lucas, established early on as bisexual, gets a boyfriend named David (Jason Tam) in one storyline, allowing Rapp to show a more vulnerable, playful side that results in some of the show's most heartwarming moments.  LaChanze, all sass and gutso as the out and proud lesbian Kate, wins the audience over by the sheer force of her personality in the same way her character does (Kate is constantly referring to her "dear friends who she just met").  LaChanze also has a dynamite duet with Jenn Colella as Kate's partner Anne, with Colella providing the most unexpectedly thrilling vocal pyrotechnics of the night.  There is also strong support provided by James Snyder as Josh and Jerry Dixon as Stephen, the main love interests for Liz and Beth respectively.

Michael Greif's staging keeps the show moving at a brisk pace, helping to cram a remarkable amount of story into the two and a half hour runtime.  Greif isn't always successful at clarifying the busy narrative, but it certainly isn't from lack of trying, and he does as well as anyone could be expected to do given the same material.  He makes continually interesting use of Mark Wendland's multi-faceted set (which includes several catwalks, a mirrored ceiling, AND a turntable), and guides the entire cast through the mazelike plot with aplomb.  Emily Rebholz's costumes provide subtle but crucial hints as to which timeline any particular scene is set in, while remaining stylish and pleasing to the eye (something often taken for granted in contemporary-set shows that can all too quickly go awry in the wrong hands).

Ultimately, If/Then is the most artistically daring show to open on Broadway this spring, and although its ambition causes it to occasionally stumble, the show is more successful than many would have you believe.  Brian Yorkey's book tackles a lot of big issues with intelligence and humor, while still maintaining the depth of character needed to keep the show emotionally engaging.  Idina Menzel is positively radiant in the gargantuan dual roles of Beth and Liz (Broadway hasn't seen a star vehicle of this caliber in years), returning after a ten-year absence with a performance so assuranced it feels as if she never left.  Menzel has repeatedly stated in interviews she was waiting for a piece she felt strongly about for her Broadway return, and her belief in If/Then is certainly validated.  Rarely is a show this emotionally involving and intellectually stimulating, and anyone who claims to want originality on Broadway owes it to themselves to see this remarkable piece.

Most Anticipated of Spring 2014

Idina Menzel and the cast of If/Then.  You just *know* she's belting her face off.

Now that we are officially in 2014, it is time to start looking forward rather than back (which I did in my two Best Of 2013 posts as well as my Worst Of list).  There are 20 new productions opening on Broadway this coming spring, and somewhat surprisingly they are evenly divided between plays and musicals.  Any new Broadway show is cause for celebration, but naturally there are some shows that I'm looking forward to more than others.  So here, in no particular order, are the productions I'm most excited to see in the coming months.

Aladdin

Full disclosure:  Aladdin has always been my favorite Disney film.  I have been hoping for a stage adaptation for the last 10 years, and I will finally get my wish when the show arrives on Broadway in March.  I'm not sure exactly how they'll translate the film's magic to the stage (the Genie's mile-a-minute dialogue and transformations seem like a particular challenge), but 16 years ago no one thought they could make The Lion King work and that show has gone on to gross $1 billion on Broadway alone.  I have full faith in the technical prowess Disney's money can buy, and I also have supreme confidence in the musical comedy chops of director Casey Nicholaw, whose work on The Book of Mormon remains the greatest example of sustained hilarity in the new millennium.  Final bit of disclosure: I bought my orchestra tickets to this show last month. :-D

The Bridges of Madison County

I have zero knowledge or particular interest in either The Bridges of Madison County novel or the film version starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.  But I do have extensive knowledge and admiration for the musical career of composer Jason Robert Brown, who is scoring the musical adaptation set to begin previews on Broadway in a couple of weeks.  Brown is one of the smartest pop-influenced composers working in the theatre, and I have no doubt his score will be a marvel to behold.  The fact that he has enlisted Kelli O'Hara to take on the lead female role makes the entire enterprise even more exciting, as she is one of the most gifted singing actresses of her generation.  Add in the fact that Tony-winner Barlett Sher is at the helm and has described the score as the best one he's ever worked with (remember the Sher introduced the world to Adam Guettel's rapturous Light in the Piazza) and you have the makings of a theatrical event.

If/Then

10 years after her Tony-winning turn in the smash-hit Wicked, Idina Menzel finally returns to the Broadway stage in If/Then.  That information alone would be enough to pique my interest; the fact that the show is written by Next to Normal's Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, who crafted one of the most fascinating musical dramas of the past decade and wrote an incredible diva role for eventual Tony-winner Alice Ripley, shoots this towards the top of my must see list.  Menzel has some able-bodied support in costars like LaChanze (whom I adored in The Color Purple) and fellow Rent alum Anthony Rapp, and the incredibly talented Michael Grief directing her.  All the ingredients for theatrical magic are there, and I cannot wait to see what this team has come up with.

Violet

Two words:  Sutton Foster.  Foster is one of the select few performers who can prompt me to buy a ticket based on her name alone, as she has never been anything less than stellar in every show I've been privileged enough to see her in (even when the actual shows left me cold, as was the case with Little Women).  She has one of the purest belts in the contemporary theatre, along with the acting chops and sheer charisma to hold your attention even when she isn't singing.  And while I know almost nothing about Violet, which had a very brief Off-Broadway run in the 1990s, everyone I know who has actually heard the music raves about it.  Composer Jeanine Tesori also has the distinction of having written Thoroughly Modern Millie, the show that shot Foster to stardom and her first Tony Award, so seeing the two reteam on this new project is doubly exciting.

Rocky

I am in no way, shape, or form convinced that this adaptation of the Oscar-winning film will actually work as a musical.  In fact, it could be a disaster of epic proportions.  But Stephen Flaherty and Lynne Ahrens wrote one of the greatest musicals of all time (if not THE greatest) in Ragtime, and the rest of their catalogue is equally lovely.  The pair are also famous perfectionists, constantly rewriting and revising their shows in an effort to make them as good as they can possibly be, so I have to believe that there was something about Rocky that drew them to the project.  Good or bad, I think Rocky will be one show the entire industry is talking about come spring, and I want to see it firsthand.  Whether I leave praising its triumphs or deconstructing its missteps remains to be seen.


I wish I could say I was excited about the plays that are opening this spring on Broadway, but the truth of the matter is none of them grab me the way the above musicals do.  Like everyone else, I was blown away by Bryan Cranston's performance on Breaking Bad, and I fully believe he will make an excellent stage actor, but the out-of-town reviews for All The Way were lukewarm (many critics felt the play was too long and unfocused).  I personally thought Denzel Washington was overrated in Fences a couple of seasons back, so the idea of him doing A Raisin in the Sun doesn't thrill me.  And while I find the idea of Debra Messing starring in a comedy by Pulitzer-winner John Patrick Shanely appealing, it isn't a must see for me.  I *am* excited to see Alan Cumming reprise his Emcee in the Roundabout's remounting of their Tony-winning Cabaret (since I missed it the first time around), but at the end of the day they are just dusting off a production from 15 years ago that may or may not still feel relevant.

What are you most looking forward to for the coming spring season?  Feel free to let me know in the comments.  And look for reviews of as many of the spring shows as I can get to in the coming months.