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The
year in review 2006
Best
Productions of 2006
Critic: Ralph Hammann
1. The Heidi Chronicles
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
Wendy
Wasserstein’s early work spoke truly through a formidable
cast that featured an eloquent Kate Jennings Grant in the
best performance by an actress this season.
2.
Wonder of the World
Barrington
Stage Company
David
Lindsay-Abaire is one funny guy, and this go-for-broke production
featured Keira Naughton leading a cast who went to the necessary
limits providing nonstop laughter.
3.
Coastal Disturbances
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
A
smartly directed production of Tina Howe’s beachside meditation
brought Annie Parrise a role made for her irrepressible talent.
4.
Urinetown
The
Weston Playhouse Theatre Company
A
savvy production of this sardonic look at the future imperfect
through musical impasto was a genuine thrill.
5.
The Burnt Part Boys
Barrington
Stage Company
An
exciting new musical that even in this workshop production
offered hope beyond the unmelodic stuff that passes for musicals
in these days of Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LeChuisa.
6.
The Night of the Iguana
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
The
difficult play by Tennessee Williams was searingly directed
by Anders Cato, suggesting that Williams has a new home in
the Berkshires.
7.
Via Dolorosa
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
What
to do when you want to produce David Hare’s autobiographical
one-man play and you don’t have Hare to perform? You give
Jonathan Epstein the most challenging material in his distinguished
career. And you have Anders Cato direct.
8.
Ring Round the Moon
Barrington
Stage Company
Who
does Jean Anouilh these days except colleges? Barrington Stage,
with stunning production values in its smart new home in Pittsfield.
9.
Amadeus
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
Jonathan
Epstein was good enough as Salieri, but it was Randy Harrison’s
Mozart that made Eric Hill’s production fresh and significant.
10.
A Nervous Smile
Williamstown
Theatre Festival
Not
a very believable script, but great performances by Amy Brenneman
and Gloria Ruben went a long way to keep our minds off the
unlikeliness of the plotting.
Worst
Productions of 2006
1. Anything Goes
Williamstown
Theatre Festival
Director
Roger Rees’ reeking, inept direction of his ship of fools
in a production that never left port—and with production values
that were strictly steerage class. Embarrassing, risible and
insulting.
 |
| One
of the best and worst: WTF’s Sweet Bird of Youth. |
2.
Sweet Bird of Youth
Williamstown
Theatre Festival
Miscast,
misread, and miserable, this attempt to do Tennessee Williams
by the theater company that was once known for its association
with the Southern gentleman was an insufferable, charmless
hustle.
3.
Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
Answer:
not far enough away.
4.
The Pilgrim Papers
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
This
deflowering of the Mayflower crowd was labored and desperately
unfunny.
5.
Dracula
Oldcastle
Theatre Company
Ludicrous
effects, ham-handed acting and inattentive direction made
this seem hopelessly dated, clichéd and naïve.
Best
Productions of 2006
Critic: James Yeara
1. Tiny Ninja Theater’s Hamlet
Woodstock
Fringe Festival
So
good, that the production’s next performance was at the Royal
Shakespeare Company. “To be,” indeed.
2.
Play by Play—Choices!?
StageWorks/Hudson
Annual
one-act play festival is the best new theater in the region:
bold, brave, and ballsy, always.
3.
The Bomb-itty of Errors
Adirondack
Theatre Festival
Off-off-Broadway
smash hit the summer’s funniest Shakespeare riff.
4.
The Night of the Iguana
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
Surprisingly
full of laughter and heart, in addition to the usual heat
of a Tennessee Williams play.
5.
The Lark
New
York State Theatre Institute
Occasionally
NYSTI does a play suitable for adults, and this French masterpiece
about Joan of Arc was sublime.
6.
Enchanted April
Shakespeare
and Company
Redemptive,
restorative, and sexy, this Normi Noel-directed production
shows other area theaters how to find some substance in light
fare.
7.
Wonder of the World
Barrington
Stage Company
A
play about a peripatetic pair of women receives the perfect
production in BSC’s penultimate show of the summer season.
8.
Sweet Bird of Youth
Williamstown
Theatre Festival
Who’d
believe a 1959 play highlighting the hypocrisy of a ruling
conservative politician campaigning on TV about the “Northern
radical press”misrepresenting his moral “crusade” while his
mistress waits for him in a bar; or that the politician would
attack dissent “because the Voice of God called me to execute
this mission?”
9.
I Am My Own Wife
StageWorks/Hudson
Pulitzer
Prize-winning polemic is another trenchant offering by the
region’s boldest theater troupe.
10.
Intimate Apparel
Capital
Repertory Company
“Intimate
and moving” sums up this excellent production, capping a stellar
year by Albany’s finest theater company.
Best
Acting of 2006
1. Jacqueline Raposo as Bird in “Thin Air,” part of
Play by Play-Choices!?
StageWorks/Hudson
2.
Rochelle Hogue as Esther Mills in Intimate Apparel
Capital
Repertory Theatre
3.
Jason Babinsky as Luciana in The Bomb-itty of Errors
Adirondack
Theatre Festival
4.
Linda Hamilton as Maxine in The Night of the Iguana
Berkshire
Theatre Festival
5.
Mary Jane Hansen as Joan in The Lark
New
York State Theatre Institute
 |
| Fine
acting: Shakespeare and Company’s Diane Prusha. |
6.
Diane Prusha as Lotty Wilton in Enchanted April
Shakespeare
and Company
7.
Susan Louise O’Connor as several characters in Wonder of
the WorldBarrington
Stage Company
8.
Dov Weinstein as all the characters in Tiny Ninja Theatre
presents Hamlet
Woodstock
Fringe Festival
9.
Jeffrey Kurn as 37 different characters in I Am My Own
Wife
StageWorks/Hudson
10.
Erica Kreutz as various characters in Metamorphoses
Capital
Repertory Theatre
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Classifieds
