Let’s get right to it, shall we? A drum roll, if you please, for one critic’s traditional Top 10 list, honoring the very best that Atlanta’s theater companies put on display throughout 2022.
Take a bow, one and all:
1. “Everybody” (Alliance Theatre). Before departing to take the helm at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre after more than 20 years as artistic director of the Alliance, Susan Booth left a singularly sensational lasting impression with her brilliant and breathtaking rendition of a contemporary retelling of the classic 15th-century morality tale “Everyman” (co-directed with Tinashe Kajese-Bolden). Bolstered by an estimable ensemble of Atlanta actors (Courtney Patterson, Andrew Benator and Chris Kayser among them) and an awesome design team, the show was a supreme tribute to Booth’s sheer talent.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford Photography
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford Photography
2. “Bootycandy” (Actor’s Express). Uproariously funny and unexpectedly contemplative in fairly equal measure, this acerbic satire offered a refreshing reprieve from so many other politically purposeful or culturally conscious plays of late. Comprised of roughly a dozen vignettes, loosely connected to the coming-of-age and coming-out of a young Black gay man, director Martin Damien Wilkins’ sharply observed Express staging featured finely tuned performances by Charlie Thomas and Caleb Clark, in addition to an absolutely terrific turn from Parris Sarter in several scene-stealing parts.
Credit: Casey Ford Photography
Credit: Casey Ford Photography
3. “Bright Half Life” (Theatrical Outfit). A lesbian romance endured over decades, evolving in fantastical and time-bending fits and starts — including a number of ingenious instant replays — in a luminous and lyrical Outfit production, beautifully directed by Melissa Foulger and showcasing the sublime work of co-stars Park Krausen and Candy McLellan. Their characters’ love affair may have been on-again/off-again, and the soulful connection between them alternately down to earth and lost in the stars, but the relationship felt profoundly genuine and relatable through it all.
Credit: Greg Mooney
Credit: Greg Mooney
4. “Toni Stone” (Alliance Theatre). The Alliance scored another home run with a biographical drama about the first female player in the Negro Baseball League of the 1940s. Under the splendid direction of associate artistic director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden, out-of-towner Kedren Spencer was wonderful in the title role, assisted by a supporting team that boasted local heavy-hitters Eric J. Little, Geoffrey D. Williams and an especially resourceful Enoch King, who skillfully transcended the gimmick of cross-dressing as the owner of a backwoods brothel who takes Toni under her wing.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
5. “Alabama Story” (Georgia Ensemble Theatre). Subduing his customary spirit and flair, the gifted director Thomas W. Jones II guided a nuanced true story, set during the segregated 1950s, in which a children’s book about the marriage of white and black rabbits sparked an ideological clash, pitting a free-thinking state librarian against a narrow-minded state senator. Co-starring were Ensemble veterans Shannon Eubanks (excellent, as usual) and Don Farrell (in a remarkable departure from his more frequent musical undertakings). The drama was a plain and simple gem.
6. “Bright Star” (Legacy Theatre). Likewise, however modest or economical its production values, Legacy artistic director Mark Smith’s rendering of a folkloric Appalachian musical resonated no less clearly. Moving to and from the 1920s and the 1940s, the plot involved a lonely literary editor, her new bond with an aspiring young writer, and a failed romance from her past. Kelli Dodd and Truman Griffin portrayed the leads, and Bradley Bergeron’s evocative projection design was a real benefit.
Credit: Ken Howard
Credit: Ken Howard
7. “Cabaret” (Atlanta Opera). In this lavish mounting of a landmark show, conversely, the pretentious projections were overwhelming in the worst way, while the rest of artistic director Tomer Zvulun’s Atlanta Opera musical was highly stylized to much greater effect. From a warehouse space at Pullman Yards, Curt Olds dominated the proceedings as the ghoulish host of a decadent Nazi-era nightclub.
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Casey Gardner Ford
8. “The Turn of the Screw” (Georgia Ensemble Theatre). Conceived for two actors, Ensemble artistic director James Donadio’s atmospheric chamber piece based on the famous Gothic ghost story elicited exquisite performances from Christina Leidel as the ill-fated governess at an isolated mansion, and, in a belated theatrical comeback, the ever-versatile Daniel Thomas May as an array of other characters.
9. “The Light” (Horizon Theatre). Horizon associate producer Marguerite Hannah and Lydia Fort co-directed another challenging but more topical two-hander, enacted with astonishing clarity by Cynthia D. Barker and Enoch King. The play dissected the conflicting dynamics that beset a loving couple, with a keen precision which was mutually fair and balanced — until, in the end, alas, it eventually wasn’t.
10. “Sunset Baby” (Actor’s Express). A decidedly downbeat domestic drama that intertwined the desperate struggles of a recently paroled father (Eddie Bradley, Jr.), his estranged streetwise daughter (Brittany Deneen) and her amiable boyfriend and partner in crime (Sariel Toribio, standing out in the superb cast). As staged for the Express by Amanda Washington, it was by turns grim and galvanizing.
