Musicals tops for 2002 at community theaters

Tom Titus

Saying it with music paid dividends for local community theater

groups in 2002. All three local community playhouses -- four if you

count the newborn Newport Beach Theater Company -- put their best

feet forward to a dancing beat this year, with the result that all

placed their musical entries at the top of this column’s

retrospective list.

The area’s senior theater group at 37 years, the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse, occupies the top perch among local nonprofessional theater

companies with its high-stepping production of “A Chorus Line,”

directed by Damien Lorton. Close behind were Michael Ross’ staging of

“Sweet Charity” at the Newport Theater Arts Center and the Trilogy’s

“Big River,” directed, as were all the Trilogy shows, by Alicia

Butler.

Other estimable offerings from community theater groups were Costa

Mesa’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” directed by Kyle Myers; “The

Sound of Music” at the Trilogy and a pair of winners from director

Jack Millis -- “Steel Magnolias” at the Civic Playhouse and a reprise

of “Driving Miss Daisy,” born at the Civic Playhouse in the previous

season and transplanted to Newport with all three of its actors.

Millis, however, has an advantage. He can call on roommate

Kristina Leach to spice up his shows -- as he did in “Magnolias” and

Newport’s “Beau Jest.” These performances earned the actress the top

spot on this column’s “best performance” list, but only by a whisker

over Kerry Vickers, who made “Sweet Charity” shine in Newport (a show

that also featured the Millis).

Other noteworthy performances on the distaff side in 2002 were

delivered by Teri Ciranna (again) in “Driving Miss Daisy”; Harriet

Whitmyer in Newport’s “Young Man From Atlanta”; Alicia Shaffner for

“The Sound of Music” and Leslie Williams for “A Little Princess,”

both at the Trilogy; Roxie Lee in Costa Mesa Civic’s “Steel

Magnolias” and Rochelle Carmony in “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” at

Newport.

Jack Messenger earns this column’s applause as the best local

community theater actor of the year for his strong performance in

“Young Man From Atlanta” at Newport. Runner-up is James Mulligan, who

shone in both “Rumors” and “Big River” at the Trilogy.

Other local actors who should be singled out were George Norment

for Newport’s “Driving Miss Daisy”; Kyle Meyers for Costa Mesa’s

“Chorus Line”; Tim Anderson in the Trilogy’s “Big River”; Mario Prado

for Costa Mesa’s “Picasso” and Ryan Mekenian in “The Wizard of Oz”

for the new Newport Beach Theater Company.

Saturday’s column will concern itself with the three undergraduate

theater programs at Orange Coast College, Vanguard University and UC

Irvine, all of which distinguished themselves during 2002. Then, as

the new year gets under way Jan. 2, we’ll unveil the Daily Pilot’s

28th annual man and woman of the year in theater.

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

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.