1988 THE YEAR IN REVIEW : Theater

W as 1988 the year of the dead in the Orange County arts scene? Well, it was the year Pacific Symphony conductor Keith Clark was termed “a dead fish,” the year William Shakespeare was nearly a dead duck in Garden Grove and the year the rock zanies in Oingo Boingo held yet another “Dead Man’s Party” at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Jokes notwithstanding, there were encouraging signs of life locally. South Coast Repertory Theatre won major national recognition with the 1988 Tony Award as best regional theater in the country. The Grove Theatre Co. triumphed over considerable civic adversity that threatened for a time to shut down the county’s only annual Shakespeare festival. The Pacific Symphony demonstrated new enthusiasm , with concerts led by guest conductors vying for the soon-to-be-vacated music director post.

Local rock bands seemed to flourish, live and on record, despite a paucity of clubs in the county that would book them or radio stations that would air their music. The Improv in Irvine paved the way for a significant increase in the quantity and quality of stand-up comedy in the county.

With that in mind, in the following four pages critics for The Times Orange County Edition offer compendiums of the best--and in some cases, the worst and the silliest--that the county had to offer during the year in art, music, dance, theater, pop and comedy.

DRAMATIC PRODUCTION

--Play: “The Crucible,” by Arthur Miller, at South Coast Repertory

--Director: Martin Benson (“The Crucible”)

--Actor: Benjamin Stewart (“Venus and Adonis” at the Grove Shakespeare Festival)

--Actress: Kandis Chappell (“The Crucible”)

--Featured actor: Joe Spano (“The School for Scandal” at SCR)

--Featured Actress: Fran Bennett (“The Crucible”)

--Set designer: Cliff Faulkner (“The School for Scandal”)

--Costume designer: Shigeru Yaji (“The School for Scandal”)

--Lighting designer: Peter Maradudin (“Golden Girls” and “At Long Last Leo” at SCR)

--Incidental music: Richard Jennings (“The School for Scandal”)

MUSICAL PRODUCTION

--Musical: “Me and My Girl” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (with book and lyrics by L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber; book revisions by Stephen Fry; music by Noel Gay)

--Director: Mike Ockrent (“Me and My Girl”)

--Actor: Tim Curry (“Me and My Girl”)

--Actress: Donna Bullock (“Me and My Girl”)

--Featured actor: John Huntington (“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” at the Moulton Theatre)

--Featured actress: Faye DeWitt (“Strike Up the Band”)

--Set designer: Martin Jones (“Me and My Girl”)

--Lighting designer: David Hersey (“Cats”)

--Costume designer: John Napier (“Cats”)