On Theater: Real people shone at SCR and Laguna Playhouse
For the two professional theaters on the Orange Coast, South Coast Repertory and the Laguna Playhouse, reality had a significant impact on production quality during 2016.
The top shows at both Equity establishments centered on people who actually existed — a U.S. president, a classical composer, two Hollywood-based creative artists and a pair of Las Vegas entertainers.
Without further ado, here are this column’s choices for the best productions and performances over the past 12 months. Let’s look first at South Coast Repertory.
Best production: “All the Way,” directed by Marc Masterson. Runners-up: “Amadeus,” directed by Kent Nicholson, and “Destiny of Desire,” directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela.
Regarding “All the Way,” this column remarked, the show “opens South Coast Repertory’s new season under the superb direction of Marc Masterson.” We see “Lyndon B. Johnson’s ... unsettling first year in office, from his sudden ascension upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy to his triumphant moment the following November when he crushed Sen. Barry Goldwater in the presidential election.”
Best actor and actress: Hugo Armstrong for “All the Way” and Ruth Livier for “Destiny of Desire.” Runners-up: Mark Harelik for “Red” and
Linda Gehringer for “Going to a Place Where You Already Are.”
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FOR THE RECORD
An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Lynn Milgrim for “Going to a Place Where You Already Are.” The actress is Linda Gehringer.
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Armstrong’s portrayal of LBJ was hailed as a “raging, rampaging performance ... brilliantly demonstrating the arm-twisting, butt-kicking political style that Johnson perfected as Senate majority leader.” Of Livier, this column wrote, she “captures all the stereotyped moves of characters like hers and adds a few more of her own” in “the most accomplished performance of the show.”
Moving to the Laguna Playhouse, the glitter of Las Vegas and Hollywood provided the principal backdrops for these memorable shows.
Best production: “Billy & Ray,” directed by Michael Matthews. Runners-up: “Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara,” directed by Taylor Hackford, and “Sex and Education,” directed by Andrew Barnicle.
“Billy & Ray” was about famed director Wilder and mystery novelist Chandler as they agreed to disagree emphatically while assembling the script for the movie “Double Indemnity.” This column called it “an inside look at a pair of creative geniuses airing their artistic differences ... a tasty, nostalgic morsel.”
Best actor and actress: Blake Ellis for “Billy and Ray” and Vanessa Claire Stewart for “Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara.” Runners-up: Anthony Crivello for “Louis and Keely” and Rita Rudner for “Act 3.”
Ellis was heralded as “the linchpin of the Laguna production ... commanding the stage like James Cagney in a future Wilder movie, ‘One, Two, Three’... “ with his “brilliantly self-assured attitude.” Stewart, hailed for her terrific performance as Keely Smith, “excels as a vocalist but packs an emotional wallop as well.”
That was the year that was on the local professional theater circuit. Next week we’ll turn to the best and the brightest among our community theaters.
TOM TITUS reviews local theater.
