10. Bridge and Tunnel at the Women’s Theatre Project
The one-actor, multi-character play is a theatrical gimmick that usually rubs me the wrong way; transforming from one character to another in an eyeblink is a skill that always felt secondary to building one fully dimensional, complex character over a lengthy running time. But the Women’s Theatre Project production of Sarah Jones’ “Bridge and Tunnel” finally cemented my appreciation for the form, with an outstanding performance by Karen Stephens playing 14 characters – male and female — inhabiting New York’s melting pot of ethnicities during an eventful open-mike night.
9. Anything Goes at Maltz Jupiter Theatre
Maltz dusted off this ancient Cole Porter musical for a night of sharp and bubbly entertainment. I’m a sucker for this period of Broadway musicals, and Maltz employed its lavish productions values to recreate the era with perk and gusto. Tari Kelley gave one of many exceptional female lead performances this year as the vivacious Reno Sweeney.
8. Motherhood: The Musical at Alfred and Rose Miniaci Center at Nova Southeastern University
I went into this world-premiere musical about the pains and joys of motherhood expecting to hate it, and while the script could use some polishing, there’s no doubt that this was the single most crowd-pleasing work of the calendar year, a polished production sure to tour the country and do just as well as its extended run did here. It was fluff, but it had some of the year’s best production values, acted with passion and love from its all-female quartet.
7. Unreasonable Doubt at Actor’s Playhouse
The best new work of 2010, Michael McKeever’s world-premiere legal drama received a superb staging at Actor’s Playhouse’s second-level black box theater. A wonderful ensemble, including Barbara Bradshaw, Terry Hardcastle and Gordon McConnell, enlivened a bracing play about grief and justice.
6. Collected Stories at Mosaic Theatre
As the cliche goes, actress Barbara Bradshaw could read the phone book and make it compelling. Luckily, she was given plenty more to work with in Donald Marguilies’ complex literary screed, one of many incredible two-person plays this year. As always at Mosaic, it was complemented by a wonderful scenic design.
5. American Buffalo at Palm Beach Dramaworks
This classic by David Mamet plays out like a tragicomic opera, only without all the singing. Set in a dusty old junk shop — evoked in Dramaworks’ small but lovingly detailed assemblage of knick-knacks – three men curse, fight and break down over a lot more than a buffalo nickel. John Leonard Thompson, as Teacher, provided a memorably volatile performance.
4. Miss Saigon at Actor’s Playhouse
When Actor’s Playhouse puts everything into a production, the results can be stunning, as this Broadway-ready mounting of “Miss Saigon” proved. Flawless singing, moving performances, superb sound design and an appropriately ostentatious set design all exceeded this musical’s challenges.
3. Dying City at Mosaic Theatre
The Iraq War took center stage in this two-faced domestic melodrama, booked at Mosaic shortly after it finished on Broadway. Ricky Waugh gave the performance of the year as both a shell-shocked Marine and his gay actor brother in this time-shifting narrative. Erin Joy Schmidt was equally revelatory as the Marine’s grieving widow.
2. Blasted at GableStage
This sadistic social indictment from controversial playwright Sarah Kane made for the bravest production of 2010 in GableStage executive director Joe Adler’s more than capable hands. Creating a lovely hotel-room set only to artfully demolish it night after night, “Blasted” was a herculean technical achievement. Its shocking messages and suggestions of abuse, anal rape and infant cannibalism were rendered ever more effectively by extraordinary acting from Todd Allen Durkin and Erik Fabregat.
1. 50 Words at GableStage
There was no evening of theater more riveting in 2010 than this caustically astute play about middle-aged married life, another two-person play in a season full of terrific ones. Erin Joy Schmidt and Gregg Weiner gave it their all and then some, creating beautiful emotional wreckage together. And the set design was model-home extravagant.
