As we all know, this year was strange. Every part of our lives was upended, and for those whose work involves live performances, this was an understatement. Collectively, we have lost so much during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with epic loss of life and livelihoods, we have lost intimate connections with friends and loved ones. We have also lost the experience of being an audience — united in a time and place, attention rapt, heartbeats in sync, inhaling a singular performance and exhaling applause.
That said, there were still many notable performances in 2020, whether live and in-person, livestreamed, or recorded. And every single theater company that worked to adapt its art to fit unprecedented conditions — to keep connected with audiences through emails, interviews, podcasts, and glitchy Zoom readings — should be recognized for the relentless stubbornness and extraordinary commitment to the single greatest storytelling medium in history: theater in all its forms.
So here are my personal highlights from the performing arts world in 2020. Before the crash at the end of March, I saw shows in Madison, Milwaukee and even Iowa City. I list them here, along with my fervent wish that we will all be gathering together for live performances at this time next year. Part I focuses on the live performances I saw. Part II explores the virtual theater I enjoyed.
Act I: Live performances during the Before Times
Best musical: Indecent, Music Theatre of Madison
With Paula Vogel’s Tony Award-winning play Indecent, director Meghan Randolph and MTM bested every theater in the state by performing this shimmering gem first. Their production in the Play Circle Theater in the Wisconsin Union was simply magnificent.
With a bare, wooden stage flanked with footlights; sets and props made entirely of vintage suitcases; a three-person klezmer band (violin, clarinet and accordion) that blended into the cast; and a nimble ensemble of seven extraordinary actors, Indecent told an expansive story about the Polish/Jewish playwright Sholem Asch and members of a theater troupe whose lives were irrevocably changed by their experience of producing his play, God of Vengeance. Exceptional choreography by Brian Cowing and one of the most touching love scenes I’ve ever seen onstage, complete with a real rain shower, made this a bright spot in an extraordinarily challenging year.
Best audience interaction: Every Brilliant Thing, Forward Theater Company
During a giddy moment about half way through Every Brilliant Thing, solo performer David Daniel tried to high-five every single person in the Playhouse at Overture. He scooted through rows of audience members, he ran up and down the aisles, and he finally collapsed in the middle of the stage, sweaty, breathless and ecstatic. It was a beautiful moment in an evening full of heartfelt reasons to be alive and grateful for both the dramatic and the quotidian miracles that surround us. It is hard to imagine being part of such a performance now. Though it’s billed as a solo show, Every Brilliant Thing is really a community event, relying on audience members to play characters, to improvise, and to read lines that carry the story forward. It’s the most baldly collaborative play I’ve ever been part of, and with Daniel leading the way, it was an extraordinary experience.
Best production concept: Ruddigore, Milwaukee Opera Theatre/Skylight Music Theatre
How does one make a lesser-known 19th century Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera fresh to 21st century audiences and also make it, well, funny? Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s artistic director Jill Anna Ponasik’s answer is almost always to turn convention on its head. That’s exactly what she did with a bold reimagining of the operetta Ruddigore, along with co-director Catie O’Donnell. That is how the production ended up in a small, black-box theater with no orchestra, performed largely a cappella by a cast of only 11. A study in black and white, the cast appeared like an Edward Gorey illustration brought to life in an early silent film. And since Ruddigore was written as a parody of Victorian melodramas, it turned out that the stock characters and general silliness were a great fit for the flickering, black and white world of early cinema. I can’t wait to see another unlikely mash-up of genres from this team.
Best production for young audiences/Best costumes: The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, First Stage, Milwaukee
What do you get when you combine a singing bag of trail mix, dancing chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, an incredibly sharp pair of sewing scissors with hot Latin dance moves, and a rock that moves like a background singer from the last Kiss tour? First Stage’s amazing world premiere musical, The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, about a series of epic battles between inanimate objects for backyard domination. Adapted from the children’s book of the same name, the simple story was transformed into a ’70s-style musical that contained equal parts dance-off and professional wrestling tournament. Kelly Doherty’s clever, energetic direction kept the fun front and center, aided by catchy songs, killer choreography by Molly Rhode, and some of the best costumes and puppets I’ve ever seen, created by Brandon Kirkham. Unfortunately the initial run was cut short when COVID-19 hit. But hopefully the show will be back at the Todd Wehr Theater next year. I am, let me assure you, still ready to rock.
Best foreshadowing of our virtual lives during lockdown: The Nether, The Constructivists, Milwaukee
There are a lot of disturbing elements of Jennifer Haley’s play The Nether, a very on-brand production by The Constructivists. Part detective procedural and part dystopian nightmare about escapism, fantasy and morality, it contrasted a seemingly ideal world in a computer simulation with a potentially messy and dangerous real life. Unfortunately the creepy, often sadistic production was cut short by COVID, and we were all forced to retreat into our houses and use computers to do our jobs, shop, maintain our friendships, and find entertainment. Echoes from the play’s central question have bounced around my brain and all over my computer screen for months now, as we are all urged to venture carefully into both the virtual and the outside worlds in this time of crisis.
Best (mostly solo) performance: Laura Gordon in Happy Days, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee
In another unfortunately prophetic piece for 2020, I will treasure the image of Laura Gordon’s perky 1950s housewife, going through her morning routine and adjusting her makeup as if everything is fine, while buried up to her chest in an enormous prison of mud and debris. Samuel Beckett’s characteristically dark and absurd tale, Happy Days, was a brave programming choice for Renaissance Theaterworks and an absolute triumph for Gordon. Stripped of blocking and most movement, Gordon communicated volumes in the smallest gestures and captivated with the tiniest changes in her facial expressions. Her moments of panic and fear were horrifying, mostly because she’d been able to overcome so much isolation and pain. It was a stunning tribute to just how much we can endure.
Eric Schabla
Most estrogen onstage: The How and the Why, Two Crows Theatre Company, Spring Green
In The How and the Why, the two main characters talk about ovulation, menses and uteruses (uteri?), for hours. That’s because Zelda (Brenda DeVita) and Rachel (Kelsey Brennan) are both scientists, working in the field of evolutionary biology. Zelda, in her mid-50s, is an established academic with prizes, publications, and considerable professional stature due to her groundbreaking “grandmother hypothesis,” which attempts to explain “the how and the why” of human menopause. Rachel, a 28 year-old graduate student at NYU, also has a revolutionary theory about “how and why” women menstruate, postulating that it’s a defense mechanism against the toxicity of sperm. Not only does The How and the Why contain more unflinching references to the female reproductive system than a sex ed class, it features two strong, smart women who are emotionally complex and intellectually bold, played by equally fierce actors. Could we see more like this, please? More pure estrogen onstage, and backstage, and in the director’s chair, and as playwrights? Human biology diagrams are optional.
Last event I saw: Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
To celebrate a friend’s 50th birthday, I bought a pair of tickets to see Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the glorious Hancher Auditorium on the campus of our alma mater, the University of Iowa. Along with 1,800 other theater-goers, we were fascinated, moved and astonished by the artistry of the company, the inventiveness of the pieces, and the beautiful athleticism of the individual dancers. The program ended with the company’s signature work “Revelations,” which simultaneously took my breath away and filled me with joy. But sitting in the second balcony of the grand auditorium in early March, I kept sneaking glances at the audience in between pieces. As random members of the crowd covered coughs with their programs, I wondered with a sinking feeling if this would be the last such gathering for a while. Even though only a handful of COVID-19 cases had been reported in Iowa and Wisconsin at the time, I was sadly correct.
Act II: My favorite virtual performances during quarantine
Best virtual play that virtually no one saw: The Mountaintop, American Players Theatre
All summer it was a treat to see Gavin Lawrence, one of American Players Theatre’s newest core company members, tearing up the screen in the “Out of the Woods” staged reading series. Most of the plays were recorded live via Zoom, then made available for free viewing on PBS Wisconsin for several weeks or months. But due to a rights issue, APT’s reading of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop was only available for one night, which is heartbreaking since the production was so compelling.
The fictionalized story takes place on the night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. After delivering his sermon, “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” Dr. King (Lawrence) is trying to unwind in his hotel room when he strikes up a conversation with Camae (Sola Thompson), a maid who brings him room service. Over the course of the evening the two flirt, argue about politics, and discuss religion. Finally Camae reveals her real reason for visiting — she is the angel who has been assigned to escort the civil rights leader to heaven.
Lawrence and Thompson had undeniable chemistry in the roles, and brought such polish and depth to the characters that I wasn’t surprised to learn they had played them previously in a production at the Ensemble Theater in Cincinnati in 2014. Hopefully, many more audience members can see these two reprise these fascinating parts again, onstage at APT in an upcoming season.
Best play about race: three-way tie:
Pass Over, original play by Antoinette Nwandu (2017), adapted and directed by Spike Lee. (Available on Amazon Prime).
When the world premiere of Antoinette Nwandu’s play Pass Over opened at Steppenwolf in 2017, it caused a stir for all the wrong reasons. Although the play was partly inspired by the wrongful death of Trayvon Martin, a white critic dismissed the production’s premise that young Black men live in constant danger from gun violence by white men and white cops. It is imperative that we are not distracted from the work by a critic who is clearly out of touch. To ensure that larger audiences find the play, and the stellar cast’s gobsmacking performances, Spike Lee filmed the performance.
Nwandu’s script is loosely based on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It centers on two Black men, Moses and Kitch (Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker), passing time on the street with nothing in particular to do. They play. They fight. They wrestle. They wait. And when two different white men show up, they are on their guard. One of these interlopers is full of empty promises, and the other is a cop.
Anyone familiar with the source material or the chain of events that led to explosive Black Lives Matter protests this year will have a disturbing feeling from the start that this story will not end well. And it doesn’t. But watching it play out is captivating, if also harrowing. Miserably timely, it is a genius production that Lee frames beautifully.
Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau (available on BroadwayHD)
Filmed in 2017 at a performance in Lincoln Center, Dominique Morisseau’s play, Pipeline, grabs you like a panic attack and will not let you breathe until the closing bows. The title refers to the historic, shameful pipeline that funnels young Black men from public school to incarceration, and it is a fate that Nya (Karen Pittman) is desperately trying to save her son from. But Nya’s opportunities to “be the change she wants to see in the world” seem to be slipping away one by one. Her job as a public school teacher is so fraught, it feels like a battleground: Violence threatens her and her students every day. Nya’s relationship with her ex-husband is strained at best as they argue about what’s the best way out of this cycle of failure for their 18-year-old son, Omari (Namir Smallwood). Communications with Omari are at a breaking point after he’s expelled from his private high school for attacking a racist teacher. And Nya is also struggling, just to get through each day.
Pipeline is relentless in illustrating the impact of systemic racism on young Black men and those who love them. But it also has plenty of humor, from Nya’s colleagues at the school and from Omari’s ridiculous girlfriend, Jasmine (Heather Velazquez). The play raises many more questions than it answers; but more important, it urges the audience to seek solutions.
Nat Turner in Jerusalem, American Players Theatre
Another one of APT’s “Out of the Woods” play reading series, Nathan Alan Davis’s Nat Turner in Jerusalem was an ideal choice for a virtual performance, since it focused on three characters created by two actors; La Shawn Banks played the jailed and condemned leader of an 1831 uprising of enslaved people, and Nate Burger played both the prisoner’s guard and a lawyer named Thomas Gray, who was hoping for a juicy, eleventh-hour confession that he could include in a tell-all book, to be published after Turner’s execution. Directed by Gavin Lawrence, the somewhat static play was aided by a cappella men’s voices providing interstitial music and pen-and-ink drawings that brutally illustrated the context of the story.
In the wrong hands this could have been a talky play about a crazed preacher who heard voices telling him to lead a bloody insurrection against slave owners that ultimately killed 65 people. But Banks drew a deeply spiritual, intelligent, measured and complex picture of Turner, who wields most of the power in the conversations the night before his hanging. Burger’s characters have a long way to travel emotionally over the course of the night — they are both fascinated and frustrated with Turner. Men from very different backgrounds who desperately want to understand the prisoner’s actions are left only with his prophecy: “This country will cease its injustice or it will fall to ruin.”
Best thing to happen in 2020, hands down: Hamilton (Available on Disney+)
It’s no secret that I am a Hamilton super fan and worshipper at the altar of Lin-Manuel Miranda. I saw this incredible show the night after it opened on Broadway (with the original and largely unknown cast, at the time) before the cast album was out, before the internet knew about it, and before it became a phenomenon. Since then, I’ve seen it once in Chicago and twice on tour. I’ve read the Hamiltome cover to cover. I know the songs by heart. I own several LMM-designed T-shirts. I have lived and breathed the show since it debuted.
So yes, I was excited to see a filmed version of the musical, and doubly excited that it was being released online early, due to the pandemic. And I think it was actually helpful to see quite a few low-quality recordings of performances before soaking up the brilliance and joy that was the filmed Hamilton, because I could appreciate how hard their task was and how well they accomplished it. The camera work was simply extraordinary. Instead of sanitizing the experience or flattening it, the movie version actually allows audiences to appreciate the production in greater depth and detail.
While there are plenty of “big picture” shots to remind us of the scale of the production and the unbelievable choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, there are also camera angles from upstage, and zooms on the amazing chorus of dancers, with plenty of moves we may have missed the first time.
Shot at the end of the original cast’s year-long contract, it’s also fascinating to see and hear how performances evolved over time. This is not the Hamilton gang lip synching to the soundtrack. It’s them reinventing their characters for every performance and letting us in on what the show looked like on one specific night.
The other obviously awesome thing about the Hamilton movie is how accessible it is. Yes, it’s on Disney+ and there is a cost for that, but it erased geographical barriers. Now people in Butte, Montana, and Big Spring, Texas, and Crabapple Cove, Maine, all had the opportunity to see one of the greatest Broadway shows of all time. The fact that sales of the cast album soared in July meant a lot of people new to the show did just that — and that’s thrilling to me.
Best one-person show: tie
Fleabag, written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Millions of people have fallen in love with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s slightly off-center, horny and damaged titular character in two seasons of the BBC series Fleabag. But before there was a hot priest, a full cast or a big budget, there was simply an actor trying her hand at writing a ten-minute play. Waller-Bridge developed her initial idea into a 75-minute, one-woman show that she performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013 to great acclaim — and some wringing of hands at all the frank sexual content. In 2019, after the TV series wrapped, and before she cleaned up at every awards on both sides of the Atlantic, Waller-Bridge went back to the character’s roots and performed the original script solo once again, in sold-out runs in London and New York.
As a writer, it was fascinating to see the evolution of characters and story as Fleabag was translated from one medium to another. But as an audience member, the play was a revelation about just how talented Waller-Bridge is. With only a chair and a spotlight accompanying her onstage, her physical comedy skills were on full display, as was her ability to mime dozens of props and assume a generous handful of distinct characters in between narrating directly to the audience. There were plot twists and relationships not included in the TV show; some relationships were simpler, some are more complex. But it was remarkable to witness how large a story one woman can tell.
Sea Wall, written by Simon Stephens, performed by Andrew Scott (Available for streaming here, from $5)
“There’s a hole running through the center of my story, through the center of me. You can see it, can’t you?”
Shortly before the pandemic hit, Tom Sturridge was performing this monologue on Broadway, packaged with another one-person play called A Life, featuring Jake Gyllenhaal. They both got stunning reviews, and I’m sure Sturridge was great, but the piece was written specifically for Andrew Scott. As part of an odd commission, Stephens was tasked with creating a 30-minute play for one actor, using only natural light. The result was a story about a father who struggles with a sudden death in his family, and the fact that he could see the event unfolding, but was so far away he could do nothing to intervene.
Now you may have been intrigued by Andrew Scott’s devious Moriarty in the BBC’s Sherlock. You may have lusted after him in Fleabag as the charming, rough-around-the-edges, hot priest. (No judgment.) But you’ve never seen him like this: simultaneously poetic and raw, introspective and incredulous, fascinated with all that is both broken and beautiful. It is a delicate tour de force that will split you open, and while I envy everyone who had the good fortune to see it live, I treasure the simply shot film version so we can see the “hole running through” the main character too. It is staggering.
Best locally produced virtual holiday show: This Wonderful Life, American Players Theatre
Created wholly by core company member Nate Burger and longtime APT director William Brown, This Wonderful Life was a pure (online) delight. In this version, we are led through the streets of Bedford Falls by the most enthusiastic fan of It’s a Wonderful Life that there has ever been. He doesn’t just know the film, he feels it. He revels in it. He actually re-lives it as he plays all the characters in each scene. And he’s also thought about it — frequently stepping out of character to comment on the filmmaking, the setting, the characters and the storyline of the original.
So why watch someone act out parts of one of the greatest movies of all time, instead of just watching the film? Because as the narrator, Burger’s unbridled enthusiasm for the piece was infectious. He made the funny parts funnier. He also made the poignant moments somehow more heartfelt. His conversation between George and his father, proposing that the son take over the family business after college, was even more wrenching than the original, perhaps because all the other elements of the scene were stripped away. The performance was a triumph, and the story was nothing short of a holiday miracle.
Best pivot into virtual programming by a professional theater: The Old Vic, London
As we all know, the performing arts have been in a free fall for nine months, due to COVID-19 and restrictions on public gatherings. In response, some theaters have shut their doors. Some panicked and hurriedly posted low-quality archival performances online. Some hosted non-stop Zoom readings. Then there’s London’s Old Vic and its “In Camera” series.
Under the artistic direction of Matthew Warchus, the 200+ year-old theater invested immediately in multi-camera broadcasting of live performances of small cast plays. Created with socially distant blocking and expert editing, notable actors turned their focus upstage for their performances, with rows of empty theater seats receding into the background. The work looks and feels extraordinary.
Each of the shows allows thousands of people from all over the world to log in and attend the virtual performance in real time. With a mix of new work, classics and seasonal chestnuts the Old Vic has consistently captured the playgoing experience better than any other company I’ve seen. Recordings of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer and Stephen Beresford’s Three Kings, starring Andrew Scott, will be available to view in January. Don’t miss them.
Best Broadway show, recorded in front of an audience: Indecent (Available on Broadway HD)
I have already praised Music Theatre of Madison’s production of this Paula Vogel musical about a traveling group of Jewish actors performing the scandalous play God of Vengeance, both in Europe and America, from the 1920s through the 1940s. For those who missed it, (or would like to revisit the stunning story) there is an excellent filmed version of the Broadway cast, performing at the Cort Theatre in 2017. With exquisite production values and award-winning actors in front of a packed house of 1,000, the New York production feels, rightly, like it’s executed on a very different scale. But the story’s core is exactly the same. It is haunting and harrowing and beautiful, and the tragedy of the true story it is based on is palpable.
Best pirated Broadway show recording: Spring Awakening, Deaf West
This groundbreaking production got a lot of attention when it transferred to Broadway in 2015. A complete re-imagination of the original version, this Spring Awakening included deaf and hearing actors who signed the entire show in ASL, sometimes splitting roles, while the musicians performed onstage and were often part of the action. In this gorgeous musical about the chasm between generations and a wrenching lack of communication that proves fatal for several struggling youth, juxtaposing the hearing and deaf worlds gives the story another dimension. The cast features award-winning actor Ali Stroker along with members of the ridiculously talented Deaf West company, who bring an additional layer of storytelling to an already beautiful show. (The recording on YouTube isn’t perfect, but it was sanctioned by the theater. Viewers are invited to make a donation to Deaf West after they view the show.)
