THEATER NOTES : Winning Entries From a Full Field

So much professional theater takes place in the Los Angeles area that any “best of” list is bound to be unfair, because no one has the time to see even half of what’s available.

I saw 141 performances this year--all but a handful of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties. That may sound like a lot. But it’s not even a quarter of the shows that are offered under Actors’ Equity agreements in Southern California during an average year (final figures for 1994 are not in).

Caveats aside, I’m particularly grateful I saw these 1994 shows, in alphabetical order:

“Assassins” (Los Angeles Repertory Theatre at Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Theatre 4). This Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical-comedy about the troubled souls who try to shoot the President moves from little Theatre 4 to a larger LATC hall on Jan. 17, opening up a lot more seats (and more comfortable ones at that), all of which deserve to be filled.

“Awake and Sing!” (Odyssey Theatre). 1994 brought several remarkable revivals of brawling American work from the ‘30s (“Counsellor-at-Law,” below, and the Blank Theatre’s “The Cradle Will Rock”). But none topped the Odyssey’s rendition of Clifford Odets’ portrait of a Brooklyn family on the edge of despair. Still playing.

“The Collected Plays of Justin Tanner” (Cast Theatre). Justin Tanner emerged in 1994 as L.A.’s most currently interesting home-grown playwright, thanks to the decision by Cast producer Diana Gibson to stage all eight of his Cast-nurtured comedies in repertory. Still playing.

“Counsellor-at-Law” (Interact Theatre). In two dramas from different eras, John Rubinstein played upscale American Jews beset by personal woes in the assimilation process. In the fascinating “Sight Unseen” at the Odyssey, Rubinstein merely replaced another actor. But in Elmer Rice’s sprawling “Counsellor-at-Law,” he co-directed as well as starred. The result is fairly miraculous--24 actors create one memorable characterization after another at this small theater in a residential neighborhood in North Hollywood. Still playing.

“Everyman at the Mall” (Cornerstone Theater at Santa Monica Place). Bill Rauch and Shishir Kurup cooked up the year’s most inventive staging, using the storefronts and escalators of a shopping mall to illustrate the anti-materialist theme of this ancient English morality play. Their multicultural and ecumenical adaptation fits beautifully into the 1990s.

“The Glass Menagerie” (Theatricum Botanicum) and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (South Coast Repertory). Seeing these sterling productions within a few days of each other in the late summer more or less settled the question-- for a few weeks, at least--of whether Tennessee Williams really was America’s greatest playwright. Director Heidi Helen Davis’ decision to split the character of Tom in “Menagerie” between two actors worked magnificently.

“Green Icebergs” (South Coast Repertory). Cecilia Fannon’s comedy about the reshuffling of the marital deck for two Orange County couples during an Italian holiday wasn’t totally credible, but it was giddily entertaining throughout and ultimately made a trenchant moral comment, without being preachy.

“House of Correction” (Theatre 40). This welcome revival of Norman Lock’s biting black comedy about the impossibility of justice moved like a rocket.

“Hysteria” (Actors’ Gang). Tracy Young revised her 1992 musical comedy about women’s control over their own bodies, and her audacious split-level show was second only to “Assassins” in the provocative musicals sweepstakes.

“Life in the Trees” (Melrose Theatre). Catherine Butterfield’s three one-acts have different characters and casts, but they’re tied together in a variety of tantalizing and amusing ways to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Mary Lou Belli’s staging couldn’t be better. Still playing.

“Marvin’s Room” (Tiffany Theatre). Dennis Erdman directed a funny and heartening production of Scott McPherson’s comedy about facing death.

“Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown” (Celebration Theatre). Guillermo Reyes’ series of monologues about gay Latino immigrants was fired up by the dynamic and chameleonic performance of Felix A. Pire.

“1940’s Radio Hour” (Actors Co-op at Crossley Theatre). Alan Johnson’s staging of Walton Jones’ warmhearted slice of life is a peerless re-creation of a time and a place. Still playing.

“Old Business” (Court and Coast theaters). As a high-powered father and son, Harold Gould and Alan Rosenberg waged war on each other without ever appearing on stage together. It was a moving confrontation, guided by Joe Cacaci’s deft writing and direction.

“The School for Scandal” (A Noise Within). Director Art Manke applied a thin but stylish layer of updating to the design of this Richard Sheridan classic and assembled a wonderful gallery of comic characterizations.

“The Visit” (Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble). Friedrich Durrenmatt’s great play about the quality of justice was enormously compelling in Stephanie Shroyer’s environmental staging.

Honorable mention: There are too many autobiographical monologues in L.A. theater, so I hesitate to encourage others. But Marga Gomez’s “Memory Tricks,” Colin Martin’s “Virgins and Other Myths” and Lynn Redgrave’s “Shakespeare for My Father” momentarily managed to redeem the genre. Also here’s a nod to three grand star turns in old-fashioned musicals: Sandy Duncan in “South Pacific,” Marie Osmond in “The Sound of Music,” Karen Morrow in “Hello, Dolly!”

Finally, a tip of the bowler hat to Bill Irwin and David Shiner for “Fool Moon.” For me, this show lacked the sense of discovery that I felt during the two men’s individual earlier efforts. But for the many who had never seen them, the tonic of their post-earthquake appearance at the Doolittle certainly qualified as one of the year’s more blessed events.