The Best and the Worst From ’89 : Neil Young’s concert, SCR’s ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ were among the top treats for Orange County’s arts audiences

Today, the Calendar staff of The Times Orange County Edition offers its assessment of the best and worst in the county’s arts scene during 1989. The picks are from Mike Boehm (pop music), Cathy Curtis (art), Jan Herman and Mark Chalon Smith (theater), Chris Pasles (classical music and dance), and Max Jacobson (restaurants).

POP MUSIC / MIKE BOEHM BEST CONCERTS

Neil Young (Pacific Amphitheatre, August)

Elvis Costello (Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, September)

The Byrds reunion (Coach House, January)

Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson (Coach House, June)

Doc Watson and John Hammond (Coach House, May)

WORST CONCERTS

2 Live Crew (Celebrity Theatre, September)

Rick Astley (Pacific Amphitheatre, September)

Queensryche (Irvine Meadows, May)

BEST ALBUMS BY O.C. BANDS

Eggplant, “Monkeybars” (Dr. Dream)

Walter Trout Band, “Life in the Jungle” (Bozz of Electra--import only)

National People’s Gang, “Orange” (Dr. Dream)

NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN

GREAT DIPLOMACY AWARD

To Club Postnuclear. The day before it was scheduled to go before the Laguna Beach City Council for a beer permit, Postnuclear staged a free noontime concert by the Dead Milkmen. The show attracted a rowdy, overflow crowd that disrupted neighboring businesses and ensured a strong dose of ill will at the council hearing. The beer permit was shot down, hobbling the brewless Postnuclear in its attempt to become a regular concert venue.

FELIX UNGER AWARD

To Timbuk3’s fastidious road manager. Opening for Timbuk3 at the Coach House, the Swamp Zombies found themselves yanked off stage in mid-set for the crime of spilling some beer on a stage rug laid out for headliner Timbuk3. The spill was the accidental result of using a beer bottle as a percussion instrument.

CHILD WELFARE AWARD

To Rod Stewart. At the Pacific Amphitheatre, Rod the Mod had a small boy brought out of the audience to lend atmosphere to the father-son benediction, “Forever Young.” When the kid’s bit was over, Stewart went on with his show without first seeing to the youngster’s safety. The untended tot teetered until his father gathered him down from the stage.

ART / CATHY CURTIS BEST MUSEUM EXHIBITS

(unranked, grouped by institution)

“American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove” (Newport Harbor Art Museum)

“Erik Bulatov: Paintings 1971-1988” (Newport Harbor)

“L.A. Pop in the ‘60s” (Newport Harbor)

“Barry Le Va: 1966-1968” (Newport Harbor)

“New California Artist XV: Erika Rothenberg” (Newport Harbor)

“David Park: Paintings and Drawings of the 1950s” (Laguna Art Museum)

“Mathieu Gregoire: Sculpture” (Laguna Art Museum)

“Stephen de Staebler: The Figure” (Laguna Art Museum and Saddleback College Art Gallery)

“The Kelton Collection of Aboriginal Art” (Modern Museum of Art)

BEST GALLERY EXHIBITS (unranked)

Work by Connie Fitzsimons and Bruce Meisner (Saddleback College Art Gallery)

“Media Talk” (Security Pacific Gallery, Costa Mesa)

“Art in the Public Eye: Selected Developments” (Security Pacific Gallery)

Jim Turrell’s installations, “Alien Exam” and “Night Light” (Security Pacific Gallery)

“Wayne Thiebaud: Works on Paper, 1947-1987” (UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery)

“David Ireland: A Decade Documented” (UC Irvine Fine Arts Gallery)

BEST COMMUNITY ART CENTER EXHIBITS

(unranked)

“Organic Abstractions” (Irvine Fine Arts Center)

“The Traveling Show: Art Influenced by Transportation” (Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton)

“Orange County Collects” (Muckenthaler)

BEST PUBLIC ART (unranked)

“Disappearing Path” at Inspiration Point, Corona del Mar (redesigned by team of: David R. Black, Robert L. Cunningham, Helen and Newton Harrison, Paul Hobson, Marcello Petrocelli and Susan van Atta, commissioned by City of Newport Beach Arts Commission)

“The Tell” in Laguna Beach (community project led by Mark Chamberlain and Jerry Burchfield)

George Sugarman’s sculpture garden at Koll Center Irvine

THEATER / JAN HERMAN BEST MUSICAL

“Sunday in the Park With George” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa)

BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL

Chuck Wagner (doubling as the Wolf and one of Cinderella’s Princes) in “Into the Woods” (Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa)

BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL

Sally Spencer (doubling as Dot and Marie) in “Sunday in the Park With George” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST DIRECTOR, MUSICAL

Barbara Damashek, “Sunday in the Park With George”

BEST MUSICAL DIRECTION

Dennis Castellano, “Sunday in the Park With George” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST SCENIC DESIGN, MUSICAL

Cliff Faulkner, “Sunday in the Park With George” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST LIGHTING

Tom Ruzika, “Sunday in the Park With George” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST COSTUMES, MUSICAL

Shigeru Yaji, “Sunday in the Park With George” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST PLAY

“King Lear” by William Shakespeare (UC Irvine Fine Arts Village Theatre)

BEST ACTOR, PLAY

Ron Kuhlman (as Starns) in “Heathen Valley” (Gem Theatre, Garden Grove)

BEST ACTRESS, PLAY

Belita Moreno (as Macon Hill) in “Abundance” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST DIRECTOR, PLAY

Robert Cohen, “King Lear” (UCI)

BEST SCENIC DESIGN, PLAY

John Iacovelli, “Talley’s Folly” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST COSTUMES, PLAY

Shigeru Yaji, “You Never Can Tell” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST LIGHTING, PLAY

Peter Maradudin, “You Never Can Tell,” “Hard Times” and “Breaking the Code” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST INCIDENTAL MUSIC, PLAY

Joel Kabakov, “You Never Can Tell” (South Coast Repertory)

BEST SOUND DESIGN, PLAY

Chuck Estes, “Talley’s Folly”

WORST MUSICAL

“Cats” (Orange County Performing Arts Center)

WORST PERFORMANCE, MUSICAL

Rudolf Nureyev in “The King and I” (Performing Arts Center). He didn’t sing; he gargled.

THEATER / MARK CHALON SMITH It wasn’t the greatest year for local theater, with only a handful of productions standing out as memorable. With that qualifier, here are my best picks for 1989.

PROFESSIONAL

“You Never Can Tell”: South Coast Repertory’s handling of this early Shaw play had a tartly comic sway that served it well.

“Gypsy”: This traveling show starring Tyne Daly brought some rousing energy to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Daly put her own signature on the role created by Ethel Merman. “Hard Times”: Five actors played 19 characters in this imaginative, technically fine SCR stage version of Charles Dickens’ 1854 novel.

SMALL AND COMMUNITY

“Ain’t Misbehavin’ ”: The Orange County Black Actors Theatre played this tribute to Fats Waller with plenty of sass.

“The Glass Menagerie”: A muted and sensitive treatment of Tennessee Williams’ classic was offered by director Marla Gam-Hudson at the La Habra Depot Playhouse.

“Showboat”: Director Rob Barron found the right current, brisk but not turbulent, in Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s production of the Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical.

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

“A Streetcar Named Desire”: UC Irvine, under William Woodman’s able direction, did justice to Tennessee Williams’ masterwork of erotic vulnerability.

“Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”: This Rancho Santiago College production lagged at times, but the strong cast was still able to tap into its moodiness and dark humor.

“The Bald Soprano”: The Rancho Santiago College Professional Actors Conservatory’s approach to this seminal “theater of the absurd” play had its flaws but was still clever enough to satisfy. Besides, it was refreshing to see Eugene Ionesco for a change.

WORTH MENTIONING,

IF FOR THE WRONG REASONS

“Heat”: Way Off Broadway in Santa Ana has a reputation for quirkiness, even when it presents something of merit. But the tiny playhouse outdid itself with this jaw-droppingly bad play about a Charlie Manson-style murderer who writes a novel called “The Guitar That Tortured Women”--in his free time.

“Night of January 16th”: Ayn Rand took time off from postulating her “objectivism” philosophy to pen this hopelessly muddled courtroom whodunit. It’s not clear why the L.P. Repertory Dinner Theatre decided to revive it. This was a mistrial all the way.

CLASSICAL MUSIC AND DANCE / CHRIS PASLES

BEST PERFORMANCES

Guest conductor Vakhtang Jordania conducting the Pacific Symphony in Shostakovich’s monumental Fifth Symphony at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa in March.

The Vienna Chamber Ensemble setting standards in chamber music playing in an Orange County Philharmonic Society-sponsored program at the Center in April.

Riccardo Muti leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in a pair of concerts sponsored by the Philharmonic Society at the Center in May.

The Kirov Ballet in a reconstruction of Petipa’s “Le Corsaire” at the Center in August.

Lawrence Foster, first of this season’s guest conductors vying for the open music director’s position with the Pacific Symphony, at the Center in October.

San Francisco Ballet in Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations,” Jerome Robbins’ “Interplay” and Jiri Kylian’s “Forgotten Land,” at the Center in October.

The Lewitzky Dance Company bringing the first modern dance to be presented on the Segerstrom Hall stage, Lewitzky’s “Nos Duraturi” (to Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms”), with the Master Chorale of Orange County led by William Hall, at the Center in October.

WORST PERFORMANCES

The Johann Strauss Orchestra of Vienna offering flat-footed three-quarter-times playing in an Orange County Philharmonic Society-sponsored program at the Center in January.

New York City Opera’s numbing production of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote” at the Center in January.

Keith Clark leading the Pacific Symphony in a conjectural “reconstruction” of Beethoven’s “Tenth” Symphony, from the composer’s sketches and fragments by Scottish musicologist Barry Cooper, at the Center in February.

Clark leading a stupendously dull account of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony in a curious substitute program for the originally announced--but cut for cost reasons--Verdi Requiem that also enlisted soprano Aprile Millo in several arias by Verdi, at the Center in April.

The Imperial Bells of China offering a Valentine-sweet, quasi-folk culture program on the very day that Chinese troops moved in to massacre the democracy-movement supporters in Tien An Men Square, at the Center in June.

RESTAURANTS / MAX JACOBSON Here are my first ever Oranges and Lemons award winners for the local dining scene, and boy, was 1989 ever busy.

BEST MEAL

To the Robert Mondavi Food and Wine Center in Costa Mesa and guest chef Jean-Pierre Vigato of Apicius Restaurant in Paris, for a November dinner of leek terrine, lamb, and a carmelized apple dessert to die for. If this is representative of what the center has in store, I’m pitching a tent on their grounds. One loud bravo and four oranges.

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

Kachina, in Laguna Beach, is the hands down winner here. Oh, the ambience may be self-consciously trendy (Santa Fe crossed with Melrose Avenue) and some dishes may be a little too precious for their own good (grilled quail salad with papaya chutney), but I still love the place. Owner David Wilhelm is a real creator. Let’s hope he doesn’t get wanderlust. Three and a half oranges.

MOST WELCOME ADDITION

Kitayama of Newport Beach. As an authentic gaijin in Tokyo, I came to love seasonal Japanese specialties such as stews, casseroles and finger foods. At long last we have Kitayama, a Japanese restaurant where sushi is not the featured player. Three oranges.

BEST CAREER MOVE

Early in the year, chef Andrea Rogantini (of Rex in Los Angeles and Milan’s Marchesi) was an unhappy camper, a corporate leash around him in the kitchens of Tuttomare. Today he is doing it his way at Bagatta, and nobody does it better. Three oranges.

MOST CONSISTENT

If quality and consistency are the cornerstones of the restaurant business, Hans Prager understands the masonry. The Ritz is one restaurant where you can depend on the kitchen, the service staff, even the parking attendant. Prager, an old-fashioned Viennese taskmaster, never forgets a face. Two and a half oranges.

MOST DISAPPOINTING

Gustav Anders was one of the best restaurants in San Diego County before relocating to South Coast Plaza, but a restaurant cannot live in the past. No one doubts chef Ulf Strandberg’s ability to cook (a delightful bar menu, wonderful smoked fish) but the diffident service, erratic main courses and high prices are making many of the restaurant’s fans impatient. Two lemons.

MOST OVERPRICED

Five Feet Too in Fashion Island is the sequel to Five Feet, a Laguna Beach Chinese restaurant where the high prices seem more justifiable. Owner Michael Kang has plenty of good ideas, but an inexperienced team of cooks makes it virtually impossible for him to deliver. Three lemons.

WRETCHED EXCESS

This is a special award given to the many investors who backed the astronomical number of new Italian restaurants in the area. Some of them aren’t bad but, hey fellas, they can’t all make money. I’m awarding four lemons because you may need them to cut down food costs before next year is out.

WORST NEW FLAVOR

The chowder cook-off at the San Clemente Pier looked like great fun for the crowds who showed up, but they didn’t have to judge it. I haven’t had a bowl of chowder since. Twenty south county restaurants participated, and I’m not naming names. So if it’s chowder you want, try Kennebunkport, or opening a can. Four lemons.

MOST DISTURBING TREND

The explosion of franchises. What ever happened to the mom-and-pop restaurant?