Live shows are always better than movies. Movies can't BLEED.

[albadger]

I may not have read much last year, but I saw a ton of shows, here broken down into 5 of the 6 categories that all performing arts fit into. Category 6 is still awaiting its comeback. It will come back. It WILL.

1. "Straight" theater, non-Shakespeare:
   
   
   • #therevolution (Aurora Theatre GAP project)
   
   
   • Breakfast with Mugabe (Aurora Theater)
   
   
   • Death by Design (Chanticleers, Castro Valley)
   
   
   • FSM (Stagebridge at the Berkeley Rep Thrust Stage, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Jitney (Custom Made Theater, Gough Street, SF)
   
   
   • Lovebirds (Marga Gomez at the Marsh, SF)
   
   
   • Mother Courage (Arena Stage, DC)
   
   
   • New Electric Ballroom (Shotgun Players, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Obscura (Aurora Theatre, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Old Times (Anton's Well, Berkeley City Club)
   
   
   • Penthilesea, Queen of the Amazons (Actors Ensemble/Inferno, John Hinkle Park, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Pride & Prejudice (Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, Hinkle Park)
   
   
   • Proof (Chanticleers Theatre, Castro Valley)
   
   
   • Puppetsploitation (reading) (Hypnodrome, SF)
   
   
   • Rapture, Blister, Burn (Aurora Theater, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Relatively Speaking (Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, Live Oak Theater)
   
   
   • Ripple Effect (SF Mime Troupe, Dolores Park, SF)
   
   
   • Sondheim's Road Show (Theater Rhino at the Eureka)
   
   
   • Southbound & Hughie (Waterfront Playhouse & Conservatory Program, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Splathouse Double Feature: the Sadist and Eegah! (Impact Theater, Berkeley)
   
   
   • the Battle of Midway Live! Onstage! (Theater Rhino, the Costume Shop, SF)
   
   
   • the Bloody Debutante (Thrillpeddlers, the Hypnodrome, SF)
   
   
   • the Dragon Play (Impact Theatre)
   
   
   • the Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Flight Deck, Oakland)
   
   
   • the Letters (Aurora Theatre, Berkeley)
   
   
   • the Mystery of Irma Vep (the Vortex, Albuquerque)
   
   
   • the Orphan of Zhao (ACT, Geary Theatre, SF)
   
   
   • the Provoked Wife (Fort Mason)
   
   
   • the Quality of Life (Pear Avenue Theater, Mountain View)
   
   
   • the Radicalization of Bradley Manning & Grounded (Ubuntu Theater Project)
   
   
   • We Are Proud to Present... (Wooly Mammoth Theater, DC)
   
   
   • Wonder of the World (Douglas Morrisson Theatre, Hayward)
   
   
   • Year of the Rooster (Impact Theater, Berkeley)
   
   
   • Pygmalion (California Shakespeare Theatre, Orinda)
   
   


2. Shakespeare: The least Shakespeare I've seen in years. Am I getting tired of him, or just pickier? Midsummer Night's Dream (twice), Richard III (twice), Comedy of Errors (twice), Tempest (twice), Two Gentlemen of Verona (only once, I mean, really).


3. Opera: Agrippina, Amleto (the Faccio one), Aroldo, un Ballo in Maschera, Bluebeard's Castle, la Boheme, la Cenerentola, il Corsaro, the Death of Klinghoffer, Dido and Aneas, Elisabetta Regina di'Inghilterra, the End of the Affair, Florencia en el Amazonas, Hydrogen Jukebox, Jerusalem, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Region, Madama Butterfly, the Mikado (twice), Moby Dick, Norma, Partenope, Patience, the Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore, Susannah, il Trovatore, Utopia Limited.


4. Musicals:
   
   
   • Catch Me if You Can (Woodminster Amphitheatre)
   
   
   • Company (Los Altos Stage Company, Bus Barn Theatre, Los Altos CA)
   
   
   • Marry Me a Little (Theatreworks, Mountain View CA)
   
   
   • Merrily We Roll Along (Pinole Community Players, Pinole CA)
   
   
   • Show Boat (SF Opera. For shame, SF Opera, for shame)
   
   
   • Side Show (Altarena Theatre, Alameda, Ca.)
   
   
   • the Threepenny Opera (twice, once at San Jose Stage, once by Waffle Opera in SF)
   
   
   • Yeast Nation (Ray of Light Theater, Victoria Theatre, SF)
   
   
   • Little Shop of Horrors (Altarena Theater, Alameda)
   
   
   • ...also a Revue called "the Best of Broadway" in Fair Oaks, near Sacramento. Too much Andrew Lloyd Weber to actually be the Best of Broadway, but a delightful evening nonetheless.
   
   


5. Rap, Hip-Hop or Folk Act:
   
   
   • Ben Folds and Elvis Costello with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl
   
   
   • Erasure (Fox Theater, Oakland)
   
   
   • Two SF Symphony concerts, both including Sibelius pieces, a fave of mine
   
   
   • the Queenie Moon Conspiracy, a benefit for Joan Mankin at the Geary Theater in SF
   
   
   • Laserium: Pink Floyd at Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland
   
   
   • Champions of Magic, at the Victoria Theater in SF
   
   
   • Trolley Dances in San Francisco; always great fun, and on the J-Church line this year
   
   

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Best & Worsts?

1. Best non-Shakes non-singing was clearly the Ubuntu Theater Project's double bill, truly thrilling work, on site at the Air Museum in Oakland. I look forward to seeing more by this new group. Great work by Marga, Impact Theater, Anton's Well (another new group). Worst thing I saw was called "Southbound," good actors stuck in a dreadful script, but I can forgive that since it was paired with Eugene O'Neil's "Hughie," wonderfully done, and ya gotta put something with it...


2. As for Shakespeare, I wasn't really happy with any of the productions I saw this year. The worst Shakespeare wasn't a production but a product: the new amplification system at the Elizabethan Theater in Ashland. It's unnecessary and intrusive; good actors could always be heard in that space, and the echoes from the speakers made me feel I was in a high school gymnasium. No, worse than that.. an indoor swimming pool.


3. No overseas opera this year, but I did get to Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Sarasota, Washington DC and New York City for great shows. Favorite is a 3-way tie, "Bluebeard's Castle" in LA, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" at the Met, and the 140-year overdue revival of Faccio's "Amleto" in Albuquerque. My least favorite was, oddly, on a double with with a favorite; the "Dido & Aneas" that LA Opera paired with the Bartok was well-sung, but stupidly staged and listlessly conducted.


4. Loved all the musicals. No bad, all good. Oh, except "Show Boat," which does have 4 of the greatest songs ever written, but has no business on the stage of an opera house... or anywhere else until somebody can cobble together an Act 2 that doesn't just poop and die halfway through.


5. Everything in Category 5 was as always great. Ben Folds was a wonderful surprise, and at the Joan Mankin benefit I ended up sitting next to the guest of honor. Woot dang!

That was long-winded. Next: all the cool places I went to and some things I did that I wasn't proud of.