What Kind of Year Has It Been? Theatre: 2021
This will not go down as one of my favorite theater seasons. The first half of the year, performances were confined to computer screens, if they happened at all. And while the theater-starved among us were thankful for any new content, we all soon learned that recorded theater is a different animal than the live version. It’s not communal. It’s not an emotional conversation between performer and audience. It’s not spontaneous or ethereal. It’s not a unique shared experience that can never be replicated. Like film, it can certainly be impactful and sometimes even beautiful. But it is not the same.
However, there were some surprising upsides to experiencing theater via screen in one’s own home, beyond the necessity for safety. There was no need to fight traffic to get to the theater, pay parking fees, or worry about being late for a curtain. No paying $7 for wine in plastic cups from theater lobby concessions. No one sitting behind you, kicking your seat, or talking during the show. If a cell phone goes off during the performance, it’s yours. Did you miss something? Simply rewind and rewatch. Need a snack? Hit pause for an ice cream break. Wanna watch Hamlet in your pajamas? Totally fine.
And after a few months of lockdown, theaters were getting much better at putting their shows online. Production values improved dramatically from the first clumsy attempts at recordings. Zoom delays between remote actors’ lines were eliminated. Digital hiccups were increasingly rare. And suddenly the entire virtual theater world was open to anyone with a computer. It was just as easy to see a show from London’s Old Vic, as it was to see a play from Milwaukee Chamber Theatre or Forward Theater.
Beginning in June, in-person events came back tentatively, and theaters have been navigating completely new territory ever since. Companies learned how to comply with local regulations and enhanced union guidelines, while struggling to meet or exceed ticket buyers’ expectations for safety, as we tried to gather together once more. There were a lot of false starts as infection rates fluctuated and audiences hesitated. The fall ushered in an era of touchless ticketing, tiny casts, online program books, distanced seating, compulsory masks, inspection of vaccination cards, and copious amounts of hand sanitizer. And a lot of fingers crossed.
Then the variants emerged. Now, as omicron spreads at record speeds, shows in New York and the West End are being canceled due to COVID outbreaks in the casts. Tourists who normally flock to Broadway still can’t travel confidently. So we’re back in limbo, unable to predict what will happen weeks from now and how the world will change once again.
But in all the chaos of the last year, there has also been ingenuity, resilience, determination, and creativity, and that should be celebrated. There has been tenacity and stubbornness and innovation. All of this is to say that theaters have been shuttered before. They always reopened. They will do so again, because art will always find a way.
So here are a few observations and musings about the last year, in addition to some memorable moments which gave me life during lockdown and give me hope for the future.
A Year of Revisions
After an 18-month pause, including a national reckoning about race through the Black Lives Matter movement, many theater-makers reconsidered the language and
portrayals in their productions. They sought out the work of playwrights and actors of color in order to tell more diverse stories. Others made changes to existing work, to be more sensitive about the depictions of women, indigenous people, and people of color, which is long overdue.
And the tradition continues of trying to update classic musicals so they aren’t so at odds with modern sensibilities. In some cases, herculean efforts have been made so audiences can continue to enjoy familiar melodies without being confronted with dated stereotypes. While I applaud and endorse updating language to be more inclusive, after seeing “newly sensitive” versions of Miss Saigon, The King and I, Carousel, My Fair Lady, and South Pacific, I’m tired of producers trying to fix them. Small changes aren’t enough and large changes frequently undermine the structure of the story. I think the answer is more new musicals, written by a diverse array of people who are aware that representation and language matters. This is one of the reasons Music Theatre of Madison is doing such important work — commissioning new pieces and performing somewhat obscure works from modern artists.
Online Only
For those of you who are uncomfortable leaving the house for exceptional theater experiences, be sure to watch The National Theatre at Home’s Romeo and Juliet with Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor. This classic that would seem to have exhausted every possible permutation is made gorgeous, urgent, and stunningly relevant to the moment by its topnotch cast and imaginative director Simon Godwin. Recent Broadway hits Come from Away and What the Constitution Means to Me are also available online.
The Year of the Revival
Easing back into in-person theater, many local arts organizations decided to re- mount productions that had either been successful in previous years, or had been performed digitally during the pandemic. Milwaukee Chamber Theatre brought back The Thanksgiving Play. American Players Theatre mounted a full production of James DeVita’s An Improbable Fiction, which they performed digitally last year. Renaissance Theaterworks brought back the one-person show Neat from its archives and APT rebooted its critically acclaimed tour-de-force An Iliad to lure audiences back to the indoor Touchstone Theatre. Children’s Theater of Madison came back to life, performing its annual production of A Christmas Carol and Next Act remounted the film noir satire Red Herring. Just in time for the holidays, Four Seasons also brought back its unlikely pre-pandemic hit All is Calm, a unique story about soldiers fighting in World War I combined with the music of the time. Some of these productions felt like coming home. Some felt like too-safe choices from organizations that were (understandably) terrified to invest in something new.
Broadway Comes Back to Madison
The first touring Broadway production to take the stage at Overture Center was Fiddler on the Roof, an old favorite done in a refreshingly new, successful way. The exuberant celebration of Tevye and his five daughters made coming back to the theater seem exciting again. It was less exciting when I got a notification on my phone the next day that one of the 2,200 people in the audience had tested positive for COVID, even though vaccinations were required for entry.
Memorable Moments
Even in these turbulent times, there were stage pictures, performances, and productions that stand out as true accomplishments. Here are some of my favorites from 2021.
Best multi-media finale: The Mountaintop at American Players Theatre
This amazing two-hander chronicles what might have conspired between Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Gavin Lawrence) and hotel maid Camae (Sola Thompson), on the night before the civil rights leader’s assassination. When Camae granted Dr. King his wish to know what the future held, the explosion of information and images that filled the stage was absolutely stunning. The exceptional video montage, created by Mike Tutaj, chronicled a half century of struggle for racial equality. It was painful and revelatory and overwhelming, and it was the moment that tipped the scales of the play from merely fictional to truly magical. Coupled with hearing Dr. King preaching directly to the audience to “pick up the baton,” the effect was breathtaking.
Outstanding performance as a small furry animal: Elyse Edelman, 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies at Forward Theater Company
A history lesson with a liberal conscience, this inventive, comical, poignant, episodic variety show focused on the women behind the men who have led our country over the past 200-plus years. Though there were many highlights in this behind-the-scenes look at governing, my favorite story of the 46 was Grace Coolidge and her unlikely pet — a timid, confused raccoon, played by Elyse Edelman. It was hands-down the funniest sketch of the evening, thanks to her portrayal of the poor animal, complete with wide eyes, worried voice, and incredibly expressive face. Hopefully Edelman’s resume now includes the special skill, “can impersonate wildlife.”
Best aquatic-themed entrance: David Daniel, Rough Crossing at American Players Theatre
David Daniel had many funny moments playing the ship’s porter Dvornichek, in this frothy, 1930s era comedy of errors via ocean liner. He provided the punchline to several running jokes, including being physically unable to bring a beleaguered movie maker the cognac he ordered. Daniel made his most extraordinary entrance stripped down to his underwear and soaked in water from head to toe, as he had just arrived from rescuing one of the other characters from drowning. A master of the sputtering spit take, Daniel captured the ridiculous tone of the show perfectly, and like a good English butler, resolved to carry on no matter what. At that moment he was an inspiration to us all.
Most harrowing theater experience: 9 Circles at Next Act Theatre
This online production was a devastating look at one soldier’s journey through Dante’s mythical nine levels of hell. Deftly directed by Michael Cotey and featuring an extraordinary cast led by Casey Hoekstra, the play is composed of nine scenes that chronicle the destruction, resurrection, and ultimate murder of one man’s soul. Difficult to watch, it was even more difficult to stomach that the play was based on a true story of an American soldier in the Middle East who committed unthinkable atrocities. Hoekstra is consistently impressive onstage, but this performance showed off his talent at an entirely new level. Unflinching, relentless, and painful, it is a story and a theatrical event that will haunt me indefinitely.
Exceptional performance by hats: The Taming of the Shrew at American Players Theatre
When director Shana Cooper decided to reimagine one of Shakespeare’s thorniest chestnuts, she left no possibility unexplored. Amongst a plethora of bold choices for a new Taming of the Shrew, she decided to pare the cast down to only five actors, for a show that usually requires a dozen or more. That meant lots of lightning fast, hilarious doubling that sometimes required the actors to talk to a costume piece, as a placeholder for a character. Once the audience understood the convention, it was astounding to watch. Jim Ridge showed off his too-rarely-seen comic side by portraying coquettish ingénue Bianca, her put-upon father, and one of her calculating suitors all in the same scene. Not to be outdone, the whirling dervish Casey Hoekstra played the too-slick suitor Hortensio in dark glasses, a too-quickly smitten student impersonating Bianca’s tutor with a pair of nerdy glasses, and a too-slow servant with the flick a baseball cap. And thank goodness for the hats — they frequently stood in for silent characters as the actors switched back-and-forth on opposite sides of an argument. It was astonishing.
Most meta set: The Amateurs at Forward Theater Company
The set piece that dominated the stage in Forward’s production of The Amateurs was, in fact, a medieval stage. The theater in a theater was a monstrously large, elaborate wagon that was transported from town to town by a ragtag band of actors. They performed morality plays on it in the midst of the plague that was ravaging Europe. Watching the shows within the show, the audience marvelled at the wagon’s cleverly painted drops and scrolling sets, special effects made by sound boxes, and puppetry that was, in turn, both clumsy and brilliant. But there were times when this meta set, designed by Nathan Stuber, became the whole show.
Best jump scares: Ripcord at Strollers Theater
In this strange, funny, and poignant play by David Lindsay-Abaire, two senior citizens in a retirement home square off against each other, trying to elicit fear and anger from the other one in an elaborate bet. The lengths they go to are alarming, amusing, and also occasionally very scary. Director Sean Langenecker leaned into all of the play’s bizarre production requirements fulfilling every jump scare and wacky gag included in the script. These included a trip to a genuinely frightening haunted house and one of the main characters apparently hanging herself in the bathroom. The fact that the show ran around Halloween only added to the moments of terror.
Outstanding actor and cinematographer: Jennifer Vosters in Natural Shocks, recorded for Third Avenue Playhouse/Next Act Theatre
Performing in the Covid-era has been incredibly demanding for actors, but one brave thespian appears to have taken on these ridiculous challenges with ease. Jennifer Vosters not only performed a one-woman show in her basement, she also filmed the entire thing on her iPhone. What started out as a reading morphed into a full-fledged, recorded performance and although the script wasn’t worthy of Vosters’ talent, the multi-tasking actress shone as her own solo production company.
Special dude-bro award: Colleen Madden at American Players Theatre
One of Wisconsin’s favorite classical actresses spent a lot of time playing pants roles this season, and doing an amazing job. In Cymbeline, Madden slid easily between a pair of male roles with the flick of her cape; she was both Imogen’s (sometimes) devoted husband Posthumus and her hamfisted dude-bro stepbrother Cloten. Leaning in to both the enraged, heartbroken love who believed he had been betrayed and the testosterone supercharged dolt who warbled terrible love songs under a window, she was magnificent. This pair of portrayals was only outdone by her own performance as a female servant disguised as her male master in Taming of the Shrew. Dressed in a smooth fedora, fake mustache, and shiny suit in a garish orange, Madden paraded around the stage like a playboy drunk on his own machismo. As a woman putting on a ridiculous swagger in an attempt to fit in, her portrayal of over-the-top masculinity was both hysterical and enlightening.
The show that got people talking: Genealogy at Broom Street Theatre
This eloquent but talky play was part history lesson, part tag-team wrestling match, and part multi-faceted debate that explored race, the ramifications of slavery, the impact of repressive Jim Crow laws on Black Americans, and what responsibility white Americans have to right these wrongs. Dana Pellebon directed the new piece with a light touch, to allow plenty of room for the difficult arguments to resonate – which they did. At a time when the topic of race in this country is so fraught and incendiary that people are afraid to engage with it, this play was successful in encouraging conversation after the lights came back up. That is a real accomplishment. Kudos to authors T.J Elliott and Joe Queenan and the entire production for creating space for thoughtful exchanges to happen.
Looking ahead to the theater season in 2022
If omicron passes and there is a theater season in 2022, there are a few performances I am particularly keen to catch, including Paula Vogel’s extraordinary musical Indecent, produced by Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and featuring Elyse Edelman and Rachael Zientek; Dominique Morriseau’s searing Pipeline at Next Act; and Forward Theater’s Russian Troll Farm. Madison Theatre Guild’s The Realistic Joneses and Stage Q’s musical Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, are also on my radar. Most of all I am looking forward to being at ease in large groups of people – all masked, vaccinated, and safe – to enjoy one of the best reasons we have for gathering together.