1994: The Year in Review : The Year in Review: The O.C. theater scene was a pale shadow of reality : The Year in Review: : Stealing Scenes and Acting Up

Sit back, if you will; watch us resist any cheap and easy jokes linking “bankruptcy” and “Orange County theater” in the same sentence, and take in a few critics’ views of the distinctive (both good and bad) moments of 1994. Some things stayed the same: lots and lots of mediocre-to-paltry revivals, lots and lots of community and college groups way over their collective heads, lots and lots of warhorses and very few new plays.

Some things, however, were not the same.--Robert Koehler

Robert Koehler

Most Curious Example of a Conservative Christian College Trying to Be Racy: Concordia University’s production of Moliere’s “The Misanthrope,” set in the Hollywood Hills.

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One Reason Why Buena Park May Not Be the Best Place to See a Show: The impossible sight lines and seating arrangement at the Buena Park High School Performing Arts Complex, where the Buena Park Civic Theatre struggles to stage productions.

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One Reason Why Buena Park May Be the Best Place to See a Show: The Civic Theatre’s electric production of “Pippin,” which reaffirmed that the Buena Park Community Recreation Center is where this company should be.

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One Very Good Indicator That Terrence McNally May Not Be a Playwright for the Ages: Any revival of his plays, especially the Garden Grove Community Theatre’s stab at “It’s Only a Play.”

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Company Most Deserving of a Better Home: The Orange County Crazies, the area’s best comedy group, imprisoned in the totally inappropriate Pacific Symphony Center.

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Company Least Deserving of the Nice Home It’s In: The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse.

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Biggest Lost Opportunity: Shakespeare Orange County finally managing to arrange for Alan Mandell to perform his long-cherished “King Lear,” only to surround him with bad actors in a thoughtless staging.

(Editor’s note: Ah! But see Mark Chalon Smith below!)

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Biggest Lost Opportunity, Runner-Up: The Fullerton Civic Light Opera putting “Sleuth” in the awkward, cold Muckenthaler Cultural Center amphitheater and ignoring the center’s elegant, adjacent mansion--the perfect staging area.

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Biggest Opportunity Realized: The Laguna Playhouse snaring such gifted talent as Ron Campbell and harnessing post-fire community spirit to move up into the theater big leagues.

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Best Example of Why the Colleges-That-Can-Do-Musicals-Also-Can-Do-Shakespeare Theory Is Wrong: Golden West College’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

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Best Example That Most Good Theater in Orange County Is on Campus: Golden West College’s powerful “West Side Story.”

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Most Disturbing Indication That Storefront Theaters Are an Endangered Species: The closing of Costa Mesa’s Backstage Theatre.

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Best Indication That Storefront Theaters May Not Be an Endangered Species After All: American Classic Repertory in Mission Viejo.

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Indisputable Reason Why No Theater Is Doing the Most Dazzling Work: Because it’s being done by Long Beach Opera, whose recent double-bill of “Dido and Aeneas” and “Riders to the Sea” was typically distinctive and eccentric.

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Town With the Widest Choice of Theater: Fullerton. Only a few venues, but what variety--the tried-and-true Fullerton Civic Light Opera, the counterculture Tribune Theatre and the well-endowed and daring Cal State Fullerton Theater Department.

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Town With the Poorest Choice of Theater: Lots of competition, but the nod has to go to . . . Tustin. When was the last time you went to the theater in Tustin?

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Town That Should Have World-Class Theater but Doesn’t: Anaheim, considering what it already does have (and even considering the team it’s about to lose).

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Newt Gingrich’s Worst Nightmare: That one of his key political bases, Orange County, should be home to Revolving Door Productions and its Tribune Theatre, where beat poets, grunge culture and altered states of consciousness are a matter of course.

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The Just-When-You-Thought-It-Was-Impossible Award: To the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera, for a beautiful revival of “The Fantasticks” after a generally terrible season.

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The Ironman Award: To actor Richard Doyle, whose three-plus decades with South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa keep pushing him to new heights instead of slowing him down. Consider his performances this year in “Waiting for Godot,” “Playland” and “Later Life.”

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The Ironwoman Award: To actress Kandis Chappell, Doyle’s colleague at SCR. The only reason she isn’t everyone’s choice for Finest Working American Actress is that the East Coast media doesn’t know her.

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The Best-of-Luck Award: To the Grove Theatre Center, the new company gamely trying to bring Garden Grove’s Gem Theatre and Festival Amphitheatre back to life.

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The Missing Persons Award: To Latino theater artists, who lack a theater of their own since Teatro Cometa left Fullerton.

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The Georgia (Rams) Frontiere Stupid Management Award: To those with the money and resources to establish a yearlong theater operation at the area’s finest and most underused facility, the Center Stage in Long Beach. But who don’t.

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The Mike (Mighty Ducks) Ovitz Smart Management Award: To Laguna Playhouse artistic director Andrew Barnicle and executive director Richard Stein, who are showing that you can “grow a theater” financially and artistically at the same time.

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The Patience-of-Job Award: To Orange County audiences, who keep going to the theater expecting better work, and who aren’t getting it.

Mark Chalon Smith

Professional productions, in order of preference:

1. “Playland,” South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, January: SCR has been committed to bringing Athol Fugard’s work to Orange County, and this production, directed by Martin Benson, was a strong example of this dedication. Intense and powerfully acted, it helped show why the South African writer is considered the most relevant voice in the world’s theater when it comes to evoking the human consequences of apartheid.

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2. “King Lear,” Shakespeare Orange County, Orange, August: As Shakespeare’s flawed British monarch, Alan Mandell slipped into rote oratory every now and then, but this production still had the authority to impress more often than not. In a year where quality Shakespeare was hard to find, Thomas F. Bradac’s staging, while never reaching brilliance, was a needed addition.

(Editor’s note: Ah! But see Robert Koehler above!)

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3. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” South Coast Repertory, September: Tennessee Williams’ classic about brutal Stanley and broken Blanche was given an emotionally satisfying revival, pitched with detail thanks to director Benson’s careful eye and Michael Devine’s alley-dark set. Jeff Meek’s Stanley may have sounded distractingly like Bowser from Sha-Na-Na, but Kandis Chappell’s Blanche was just fine, a tattered queen going nowhere but down.

Small and community productions, in order of preference:

1. “Inspecting Carol,” the Laguna Playhouse, Laguna Beach, December: This biting, often-hilarious production of Daniel Sullivan’s Christmas farce gave a holiday goose to, among other things, political correctness, the National Endowment for the Arts and multiculturalism. Director Andrew Barnicle took risks, and they resulted in a show that was able to scrape all the seasonal goo away.

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2. “A Hatful of Rain,” the Ensemble Theatre, Orange, September: a true “small theater” offering, in that it was pulled off with a pennyweight budget and a mix of mostly amateur actors. Director Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. turned this antiquated, very ‘50s junkie melodrama by Michael V. Gazzo into more than just a curiosity. The hard-working cast, led by David Boreanaz as addict Johnny, may have been overheated, but the performances were affecting nonetheless.

College and university productions, in order of preference:

1. “Six Degrees of Separation,” Fullerton College, November: John Guare’s nibbling urban comedy about a con man who tricks a grasping New York couple while posing as Sidney Poitier’s son requires a dry touch--which it got from director Gary Krinke and his capable cast.

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2. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Irvine Valley College, February: The terrain covered by this one-woman show was painfully familiar--think of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or “Roots”--but still worthy, especially as a history lesson. Director Jon Sidoli and star Tamiko Washington leaned toward the overwrought, but they also showed the suffering of Harriet Ann Jacobs, a North Carolina slave who endured amazing hardships as a fugitive in the 1830s.

T.H. McCulloh

Outstanding productions, alphabetically:

“And a Nightingale Sang . . . ,” Cal State Fullerton, October: The effervescent performance of Eve Himmelheber as the crippled daughter of a wartime British family illuminated a charming and evocative production.

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“The Gingerbread Lady,” Theatre District, Costa Mesa, August: The message of redemption in Neil Simon’s play was strongly played out in this staging with a fierce sense of reality that almost let one forget the one-liners.

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“Glengarry Glen Ross,” Ensemble Theatre, Orange, June: The perfect timing and fluent musicality of Roosevelt Blankenship’s staging reinforced David Mamet’s powerful writing and the play’s inner strength.

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“Hair,” Curtis Theatre, Brea, October: Director Gary Krinke gave today’s audience an absolutely true picture of a past era with his buoyant and period-perfect production.

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“Hamlet,” UC Irvine, April: The right director, Stephen M. Burdman, found the right actor, Charles Huston, whose intuitive performance shed new light on Shakespeare’s confused Dane.

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“Mud,” Tribune Theatre, Fullerton, December: a mesmerizing staging of Irene Maria Fornes’ play, with an equally mesmerizing performance by Stephen Spehar.

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“The Philadelphia Story,” Vanguard Theatre, Fullerton, September: a crackling, silken staging that captured the frothy style of the play perfectly.

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“Shadowlands,” Long Beach Studio Theatre, May: made memorable by its attention to the historical setting, and by actor Bob Fimiani’s rich recreation of the character and intelligence of C.S. Lewis.

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“Strange Snow,” Laguna Playhouse, September: a powerful revival with a stunning Rob Campbell as a Vietnam vet who isn’t as crazy as he looks.

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“You Can’t Take It With You,” Cal State Fullerton, March: A thorough knowledge of the period and some offbeat, inventive performances made for an authentic and very honest staging.

Outstanding performances, alphabetically:

Ron Campbell, “Strange Snow.”

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Bob Fimiani, “Shadowlands.”

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Eve Himmelheber, “And a Nightingale Sang . . . “

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Charles Huston, “Hamlet.”

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David Alan Nelson, “Greetings,” Way Off Broadway, Santa Ana, November: Christmas was richer because of his insightful and delightful performance as a retarded man who channels a visitor from another spiritual level to straighten out his family.

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Steve Spehar, “Mud.”

Turkeys, alphabetically:

“Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, November: overacted out of every laugh, with no comprehension of the play’s strengths.

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“RIP,” Huntington Beach Playhouse, November: A musical desecration of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” this work-in-progress should not progress much further.

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“The Tempest,” Tribune Theatre, October: a production that had little to do with Shakespeare or common sense.

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“Same Time Next Year,” Theatre District, October: Unwisely, this production was rewritten to add new characters and dialogue. Bah, humbug!