2005: Ten Memorable Moments You May Have Missed

Was Doubt one of the Top 10 Broadway shows of 2005? You bet it was. The Pillowman? Terrific! Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? The Light in The Piazza? I'm always recommending them. It's the time of the year when theatre-goers are all comparing their lists of favorite plays and musicals of the past year.

But instead of listing 10 great achievements that would be familiar to most of BroadwayWorld.com's readers, I'd like to take a moment and share some of my favorite memories from the year in theatre that you may have missed.

There are always plenty of memorable moments when Scott and Barbara Siegel put up a show at Town Hall, but my favorite from one of this year's Siegel one-nighters came at Broadway Unplugged, when Sutton Foster and Marc Kudisch half-giggled their way through an admittedly under-rehearsed "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better", having to stop and start several times before a thoroughly delighted audience. But the moment that really stuck with me was when Kudisch bellowed a hearty, "Anything you can sing, I can sing louder / I can sing anything louder than you", and instead of following up with, "No you can't", Foster just gave him a long, cold deadpan stare before waving her hands in defeat. It was the best piece of comic timing of the year.

BroadwayWorld.com puts on some pretty awesome concerts too, of course. But being an admirer of musical theatre's "living history", the performer I'll remember most is D'Jamin Bartlett, who made her Broadway debut originating the role of Petra in A Little Night Music and, aside from one fast-closing flop, has not been seen on The Great White Way since. Coming out thirty-two years later at Standing Ovations IV to sing "The Miller's Son" (in the original key!) she was given a rock star welcome by screaming and cheering fans at Joe's Pub; an ovation that was only topped by the reaction once she completed the demanding Sondheim number with the same intense sexuality she poured into the role back in 1973. Maybe she thought people had forgotten her by now, but the joy she brought to musical theatre fans that evening was immeasurable.

Unless you attended the same performance, you probably missed the night I was sitting in the front row of New York City Opera's production of Candide when John Cullum, as part of the show, handed me his wig to hold for him as he made a costume change. The things that go through your head when things like that happen. I could have stuffed that wig into my backpack as a souvenir. Or tossed it into the crowd like it were a beach ball and we were watching the finale of Good Vibrations. But no, I just handed it back to Mr. Cullum when he asked for it. The same feeling came over me during the final scene, when many of the actors were walking through the audience and for about a minute it would have been very easy for me to find out if Judy Kaye's character really did have only one buttock. Of course, if I tried that I'm sure I would have left the theatre with only one testicle.

My most memorable moment in a new musical this year -- three minutes when story, song, acting and staging achieved what millions of dollars worth of production values could never match -- took place in nor'mal:, Yvonne Adrian, Cheryl Stern and Tom Kochan's musical about a mother dealing with her daughter's eating disorder. As I wrote in my review, "Erin Leigh Peck, toning down her singing technique to effective portray a suburban teenager, rocks out across her bedroom, celebrating the loss of another pound as she experiences the opening stages of anorexia. Like an amateur Britney, she shakes her thin body, barely noticeable under baggy clothes, to her pop anthem, 'Pretty to the Bone', singing sophomoric imagery comparing herself to a tiny bird who can fly higher as she gets smaller. 'Nothing will ever taste as good as I feel', she sings, caressing her flat chest and striking what she thinks is a sexy pose as she feels how small her butt has become. We already know she's stopped having her period and has been avoiding food entirely. The irrepressible joy she exudes as she shows off her severely flattening tummy and feels her ribcage is horrifying."

Marin Ireland... Marin Ireland... Marin Ireland. 2005 was the year I first got to see the extraordinary young actress Marin Ireland, who provided many memorable moments as she displayed fascinating versatility in three multi-detailed performances. In Sabina, she was a dementia-inflicted refugee of the pogroms who becomes the wedge between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. In Manuscript she was a self-centered literary flavor-of-the-month; overtly perky and sophomorically dimwitted, giving an intelligent portrayal of a hate-inspiring character. You'd hardly recognize her in The Ruby Sunrise, where she played a scruffy, rural farmgirl who nearly invents television, later appearing as the blacklisted actress who would have played her in a TV special. My advice to playgoers in 2006: look for the name Marin Ireland and go see whatever she's in.

And speaking of The Ruby Sunrise, Rinne Groff's engrossing and entertaining drama, which was given a sublime production by The Public Theatre's new artistic director Oskar Eustis, had far too brief a run. A simple, but positively thrilling moment occurred midway through Act I, just as the audience was settled in comfortably watching a homespun story set in a 1927 Indiana barn, Eugene Lee's set suddenly bursts open to reveal a 1952 television studio, and the fast-paced world of this fledgling medium takes over.

The proud papa moment of the year came from legendary dancer and choreographer Jacques d'Amboise, who acted as the unofficial host of the first week of Sweet Charity's Broadway previews. Christina Applegate would eventually receive much critical and popular praise, as well as a Tony nomination, for playing the title role, but while her foot was healing it was the season's eventual Astaire Award winner, Charlotte d'Amboise, who previewed as the beloved dance hall hostess. Daddy Jacques could be found at every performance greeting well-wishers and waving to fans, making audiences feel like they were attending a limited run special event. "Christina will be terrific in the role", he assured us. "She'll bring her own special things to the part, just like Charlotte will bring her own special things to the part." During a controversial time for Broadway, watching the charming Jacques d'Amboise beaming with pride, never at the expense of the show's above-the-title star, was a happy reminder that Broadway theatre is fun.

When Michael Cumpsty played the title role in CSC's Hamlet, he wasn't no indecisive, melancholy Dane. Uh-uh. This was a sarcastic, sexually aggressive, Machiavellian prince, climaxing in a "To be or not to be..." soliloquy that was clearly all about sticking it to Claudius.

The enormously entertaining cabaret performer Mark Nadler always comes up with wonderfully inventive ways of interpreting old standards, but during Something Wonderful, a one-night Town Hall tribute to Richard Rodgers, the imaginative showman sent a special tingle up my spine. In discussing the man's relationship with his composer-daughter Mary Rodgers, Nadler sang a tender "Many Moons Ago" from her score of Once Upon a Mattress. It beautifully blended into Heather MacRae singing the "My Little Girl" section of "Soliloquy". I still break into a big smile whenever thinking of it.

My final memorable moment can still be seen, and I urge you to attend the Signature Theatre Company's production of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful and experience for yourself the beautiful performance of Lois Smith as an elderly woman wishing for one last chance to see her childhood home of Bountiful, Texas. There is a scene where she is just a short drive away from her destination, but a police officer is duty-bound to have her stay in custody until her son can pick her up and drive her back to their Houston home. In a pathetic plea to the officer, she grovels on her knees crying out, "Bountiful! Bountiful... Bountiful." It's a moment so real, so sad, that I felt embarrassed watching it. I was no longer in a theatre. I was watching a moment of real life.

New York is filled with such wonderful theatre that often gets overlooked. I invite readers to please leave a comment naming some of your most memorable theatre moments of 2005 that some of us may have missed.

Photo Credits, Top to Bottom
D'Jamin Bartlett in Standing Ovations IV by Ben Strothmann
Marin Ireland in Sabina by James Leynse
Michael Cumpsty in Hamlet by Joan Marcus
Lois Smith in The Trip to Bountiful by Carol Rosegg