You never know what the year might bring.
The Alliance Theatre began 2015 with the world premiere of “Tuck Everlasting,” a musical based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (“Book of Mormon”), the show transfers to Broadway this spring.
As the year unspooled, Atlanta natives Lauren Gunderson and Steve Yockey unveiled exciting new plays at Theatrical Outfit and Actor's Express, while Atlanta playwright Topher Payne's "Perfect Arrangement," first seen at Onstage Atlanta, enjoyed a well-received staging by New York's Primary Stages.
In October, the Alliance announced a $22 million overhaul of its Woodruff Arts Center mainstage. And as the curtain fell on 2015, NBC broadcast a live performance of "The Wiz," directed by True Colors Theatre artistic director and Tony Award winner Kenny Leon.
And now, allow us to present our theater reviewers’ top five shows of the year:
Wendell Brock’s picks
"Tuck Everlasting." This astonishingly beautiful musical by Claudia Shear, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen featured Atlanta actor Sarah Charles Lewis as Winnie Foster. Lewis is now Broadway-bound — at 12.
"Silent Sky." Directed by David Crowe at Theatrical Outfit and starring Elizabeth Diane Wells as astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Lauren Gunderson's history-based play cast a telescopic eye on unrequited love, sexism and science.
"Blues for an Alabama Sky." Pearl Cleage's masterpiece got a splendid 20th-anniversary production at the Alliance Theatre, where Susan V. Booth coaxed a poker-hot performance from Crystal Fox in the role originated by Phylicia Rashad.
"A Streetcar Named Desire." Serenbe Playhouse's Brian Clowdus turned the Tennessee Williams classic on edge as a glamorous vehicle for Deb Bowman (Blanche) and Hollywood actor Matthew Davis (Stanley).
"Fetch Clay, Make Man." Stepping in for director Jasmine Guy, Eric Little dealt a powerful punch to Will Power's imagining of the friendship between Stepin Fetchit (Brad Raymond) and Muhammad Ali (Rob Demery). Chalk up another triumph for True Colors.
Bert Osborne’s picks
"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." Sharply directed by Justin Anderson, this Horizon Theatre/Aurora Theatre co-production of Christopher Durang's delightfully entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful comedy featured a uniformly excellent cast, led by William S. Murphey, LaLa Cochran and Tess Malis Kincaid.
"Marcus, or: The Secret of Sweet." Director Karen Robinson's mesmerizing Actor's Express staging of a mystical drama by Tarell Alvin McCraney followed a young black man (movingly portrayed by Terry Guest) who weathers storms both literal (as in hurricane Katrina) and figurative (as in coming out as gay).
"Memphis." A rousing '50s-era rock'n'roll musical, co-produced by Theatrical Outfit and Aurora and directed by Tom Key, starred the sensational Travis Smith as a defiant white radio DJ who discovers, and falls in love with, an aspiring black singer (Naima Carter Russell).
"4000 Miles." Aurora's generational comedy-drama (by Amy Herzog) was bolstered by the superb performances of Mary Lynn Owen and Barrett Doyle as a willful grandmother and her wayward grandson, under the inventive direction of Alexander Greenfield.
"Edward Foote." Set in a remote Appalachian village during the Depression, Atlanta writer Phillip DePoy's hauntingly evocative Southern Gothic mystery (with traditional music) was moodily directed for the Alliance Theatre by former Atlantan Chris Coleman.
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