The year’s best in theater reveals a line-up of shows that challenged the conventions of the form—from the sounds of silence in not one, but two shows to finding raw resonance in what could have been dusty classics. And then there’s the impossibly talented theater artist who’s destined for epic stardom…in my humble opinion.
"Dragon Lady" and "Dragon Mama"
Sara Porkalob. Remember that name. A Seattle theater artist, Porkalob brought the two one-woman shows she’s written and performs about her Filipino family to the American Repertory Theater for evenings that moved from the depths of poignancy to the heights of hilarity. Porkalob has a genius, star quality and stage presence that can scarcely be qualified other than to say she is destined to be one of the theater greats.
"The Wolves"
A moving production that never stopped moving, this exquisitely staged drama (and 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist) delivered us into a girls’ indoor soccer team practice. With a superb and highly athletic cast, "The Wolves" scored for its naturalistic look into the secret life of teenagers.
"The Wolves" ran from January 11 through February 3, 2019 at the Lyric Stage Boston.
"A Raisin in the Sun"
It’s one of the thrills and magic of theater when a director can take a classic like Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun" and make you feel like you’ve never seen it before. That’s precisely what Robert O’Hara did this summer in a production led by the estimable S. Epatha Merkerson. In a production that belongs on Broadway, O’Hara brought us into a black 1950s family so earnestly trying to climb the next rung to the American dream, that every creak on the ladder was a lasting sucker punch to the gut. The emotion was real and raw.
"A Raisin in the Sun" ran from June 25 through July 13, 2019 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
"American Utopia"
It’s no surprise that David Byrne on stage would be anything other than conceptual, engaging and just brilliantly brilliant. Byrne opened a Broadway-bound theatrical adaptation of his album American Utopia so stripped down that the heady show’s focus had to be on the music (a mix of Byrne’s solo work and Talking Heads songs), the performance and the ideas (everything from voting to the genesis of music). And it was all garnished with mesmerizing choreography by Annie-B Parson.
"American Utopia" ran from September 11 through September 28, 2019 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre.
"The Purists"
Billy Porter knows how to grab our attention—certainly on-stage, on-screen or on the red carpet. But even when he’s not front and center, his presence looms large as we found in "The Purists," a world premiere play he launched at the Huntington Theatre Company. This dramedy about a small group of neighborhood people from all walks and backgrounds meshing and mashing on a stoop in Queens exploded with energy, hilarity and provocative questions about who we all really are.
"The Purists" ran from August 30 through October 6, 2019 at the Huntington Theatre Company.
"The End of TV"
A production that defied all the notions and preconceptions of what theater is supposed to be, "The End of TV," by Chicago-based performance collective Manual Cinema, was a jaw-dropping experience unfolding entirely in imagery and song. Through a captivating blend of live-action silhouettes, projected puppetry, and pop culture TV, the show brought us into the Rust Belt and the struggles of two people just trying to get by. With nary a word of dialogue, it was ingenious.
"The End of TV" ran from January 16 through January 27, 2019 at ArtsEmerson.
"Small Mouth Sounds"
Speaking of not speaking, this little gem of a play by Bess Wohl kicked off the year with a knock on New Year’s resolution wellness as a motley group of people gather at a silent yoga retreat. It could only take a roster of Boston’s best actors to keep us spellbound for the better part of two hours with their near-silent performances. Hugely hilarious, it was a wry dissection of the jagged path to our better selves.
"Small Mouth Sounds" ran from January 4 through February 2, 2019 at the SpeakEasy Stage Company.
"Bedlam’s Pygmalion"
A professor decides he’s going to educate a poor, wayward woman how to comport herself to be more lady-like. How would that play in the Me Too era? Really well, as it turns out when the ever-innovative New York theater company Beldam (which has practically made Boston its second home) turned its attention to Eliza Doolittle. The group upped the relevance factor even more by making George Bernard Shaw’s heroine an immigrant played by Vaishnavi Sharma. As they’re wont to do, Bedlam made this "Pygmalion" strikingly modern.
"Bedlam’s Pygmalion" ran from January 31 through March 3, 2019 at the Central Square Theatre.
"Indecent"
Broadway came to Boston for this one and we were all the better for it. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel and directed by Rebecca Taichman, who won a Tony for the play, "Indecent" was a remount of the New York production. It charted the course of Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s 1907 drama "God of Vengeance," a piece that eventually fell victim to a fevered pitch of anti-Semitism in the United States. Gorgeous in style and form, it was a beautiful rendering of the purity of the human spirit.
"Indecent" ran from April 26 through May 25, 2019 at the Huntington Theatre Company.
"Parade"
The year closed with a striking effort by Moonbox Productions, one of Boston’s smaller theater companies with a big vision. This musical about Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jew convicted for the 1913 murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, when his only real “crime” may have been that he was simply “other” in the closed South, was a beautifully conceived production. Director Jason Modica delivered a hit "Parade," balancing lush staging with a dark and deranged tone evoking Atlanta’s prejudicial society.
