TOM TITUS -- Theater Review

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series reviewing this year’s

local theater scene.

To say South Coast Repertory had a good year this year hardly would be

news to local theatergoers. It’s been, in fact, quite a while since Costa

Mesa’s professional company actually had a bad year.

However, 2000 had particular significance for SCR. Apart from marking

its 35th year of bringing high-quality live theater to Costa Mesa and

(for its first two years) Newport Beach, the company also launched plans

to build a third theater venue -- a $19-million, 336-seat showplace

adjoining the large Mainstage and intimate Second Stage.

And, if the productions mounted in this new auditorium match or exceed

the caliber of shows SCR has presented this year, the occasion will be a

joyous one indeed.

Consider the recent comedy “Art,” one of the freshest, funniest plays

unveiled before a local audience in years. In any other year, it probably

would have headed this year-end list of top productions. This year it

ranks No. 3.

Earning highest honors for SCR’s presentations this year was the

revival of Arthur Miller’s powerful first play, “All My Sons,” under the

direction of Martin Benson. This epic of postwar trauma in Middle America

was described in this column as “a superlative and unsettling depiction

of the disintegration of an American family.”

A surprising second-ranked effort was the Irish import “The Beauty

Queen of Leenane,” a riveting mounting of a dark and compelling drama

centering on a widow in her 70s and her 40-year-old spinster daughter.

Andrew J. Robinson directed with spirited intensity.

“Art,” Yasmina Reza’s biting commentary on culture and friendship,

finishes at No. 3 but must be labeled SCR’s most watchable show of the

year. Director Mark Rucker excelled in his staging of this biting,

sophisticated comedy, centering around a huge, all-white painting, which

was laugh-out-loud funny through its brief 90-minute stint.

Richard Greenberg’s fifth SCR-spawned world premiere, “Everett

Beekin,” checks in at No. 4, a satirical comedy that balances Old World

attitudes against modern affectations. Evan Yionoulis directed with

acidic irony in both the play’s New York and California venues.

There were many candidates worthy of rounding out the top five at SCR,

but the provocative fantasy “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot”

fills that slot quite nicely. Jose Rivera’s world premiere, directed by

Juliette Carillo, was a haunting exercise in marital restlessness -- set

in nearby Barstow, but rooted in another dimension.

Among the company’s performers, there was a plethora of inspired

individual accomplishments, but two stood out above the rest -- Peter

Michael Goetz’s haunted industrialist in “All My Sons” and Heather

Ehlers’ repressed Irish spinster in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane.”

Others earning particular mention were Linda Gehringer and Simon

Billig in “All My Sons,” Mark Harelik in “The Hollow Lands,” Ana Ortiz in

“Salvador Dali,” Linda Thorson in “Amy’s View,” Geoffrey Nauffts in “The

Beginning of August,” Kandis Chappell in “Everett Beekin,” Jane Carr in

“Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” John de Lancie in “Art” and Blake Lindsley in

“The Countess.”

Productions and performances of this caliber, along with the prospect

of more to come when the company’s new theater is completed in October

2002, make this an exceptionally significant year for South Coast

Repertory.

In Saturday’s second edition of year-end accolades, the spotlight will

swing over to local community theater. Future columns will access

collegiate productions and performances, and unveil the Daily Pilot’s man

and woman of the year in theater for 2000.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Thursdays and Saturdays.