Los Angeles Theatre 2011: A Bitter Lemons Perspective

I saw more shows this year than I think I did in any year I’ve lived in Los Angeles, coming up on 16 years in January (gasp). Overall I’d give Los Angeles a 70% Bittersweet for its quality this year. I saw some serious clunkers, but I’d say about 15% were excellent, 15% were okay, and the final 70% of the productions I saw were mixed or just bad.

I thank you all for the many gracious invites and I apologize to those whose shows I could not see. I will try to do better in 2012.

Below are a list of my favorite shows as well as a list of poignant moments and events that stood out for me when it came to Los Angeles Theatre 2011. And finally, I’m offering my wishes for 2012.

As I said, I didn’t see as many shows as I wanted to and missed many that I heard were top quality, so please bear that in mind when digesting my list. This is simply one man’s opinion. I will be offering the Bitter Lemons Top Rated Shows of 2011 a little bit later and that list will be drawn directly from our LemonMeter and will single out those shows that received the best critical acclaim. To simplify: this post, subjective, the coming post, objective. Clear?

So here it is, Los Angeles Theatre 2011: A Bitter Lemons Perspective in a somewhat random list form with even more random blurbs for each.

My Personal Favorite Shows (in order):

1. Cyclops: A Rock Opera: hands down the most original show of the year. Saw it twice, it just got better.

2. Urban Death: Zombie Joe’s nightmarish masterpiece, one of the creepiest pieces of theatre I’ve ever seen.

3. D is for Dog: The best production design of the year, big or small theatre, the dying dog puppet at the end was so surprisingly moving and disturbing it still stays with me.

4. Fear Factor: Canine Edition: John Grady’s one man show at the Fringe, the most moving piece of theatre I saw this year, incredibly prescient as I lost my cat and best buddy, Otis, of nine years just a mere two months after I saw the show. Thanks for the emotional prep work, Mr. Grady, it was most helpful.

5. Short Eyes: This Latino Theatre Company and Urban Theatre Movement’s production down at LATC of Pinero’s 1970′s hit still crackles, the acting was so good it was dangerous.

6. Small Engine Repair: John Pollono and Rogue Machine had this engine humming for most of the year, well deserved.

7. Porter’s MacBeth: The best show from the Fringe and winner of our BLOAT (Bitter Lemons Outrageous Award for Theatre), imaginative retelling of the Scottish play through the drunken eyes of the Porter. Incredible ensemble work.

8. House of the Rising Son: From LA’s most prolific and probably best playwright of the moment, Tom Jacobson, this EST-LA production boasted incredible acting and some of the smartest writing of the year.

9. The Trouble with Words: Though I tend to stay away from musicals (it’s me not you!), I caught the abbreviated version of this show at the Fringe and it was some of the most original new music and lyrics I’ve seen in a long time. Kudos to Couerage Theatre and Gregory Nabours. Keep an eye on these people, LemonHeads, I expect big things in 2012.

10. 100 Saints You Should Know: Surprisingly moving and very well acted, this show from the Elephant packed a punch that still stays with me.

Honorable Mention (in no particular order):

Gospel According to First Squad: Riveting first hour, overly long first act, tremendous acting and direction, but a play that never full coalesced for me.

Bakersfield Mist: Long running hit at the Fountain Theatre, written and directed by Stephen Sachs, slightly on the corny side for my tastes, but may turn out to be one of the most successful shows to come out of the small theatre scene in Los Angeles in a very long time, starring my pals Nick Ullett and Jenny O’Hara.

Blackbird: Tremendous acting and bold, risky writing that just completely went off the rails in the final third of the play. Still deserves praise for their efforts.

Caught: A little too on the nose and overly-sentimental in nature for my tastes, nevertheless, this long running hit at the Zephyr boasted an incredible performance from Deborah Puette and certainly hit home on the question of gay marriage.

House of Gold: A play with pretty much no story still effectively disturbed me on several occasions and deserves plaudits for director Gates McFadden and lead Jaqueline Wright, without whom this sucker would have imploded within its opening minutes.

Pulp Shakespeare: One of the most entertaining shows from the Fringe and now getting a nice life afterwards, something every Pulp Fiction fan should see before they die.

Let Me Down Easy: Anna Deveare Smith’s one woman show, an acting master class that just never came together to make a salient point for me.

2011 Events and Moments that Stood Out:

The Geffen Fail: Their shows were mediocre-to-bad in my opinion, almost across the board, except for Extraordinary Chambers, losing beloved and charismatic leader Gil Cates was a great sorrow for many but it might open the door to some more bold scheduling. We’ll see. And finally, their inability to bring the hit show Hoboken to Hollywood into the fold – over what I heard from a reliable source was a ridiculously unfair contract dispute – is just a travesty. This theatre needs to take a closer look at its own backyard if it wants to connect with the community. Yes, you have an elderly subscriber base to keep in mind, but you will continue to lose your relevancy if your reputation as a star-fucking, risk free, beautiful-theatre-gone-to-waste philosophy continues.

The Hollywood Fringe Festival Tent: The Fringe was a blast, quality of shows was uneven, which was to be expected, but a few gems emerged. But that freakin’ Tent, that was something special. We as a community should find a way to make it a permanent fixture down there on Theatre Row. Looking forward to Fringe 2012.

The Fringe Critics Panel: Harvey Perr stuck his foot in his mouth, but from that came much that was constructive. Next year our panel will probably be smaller (I know!) and encompass publicists, producers, artistic directors as well as critics. The subject will be the Business of Theatre in Los Angeles.

Frankel Rejected by LADCC: Absurd, simply absurd. The LADCC’s self-imposed irrelevance continues.

Rogue Machine Theatre churning out a top quality, risky, not always successful, but always envelope-pushing season. And that is a success in itself.

Video Trailers: They will become a major marketing tool in 2012, that is my prediction, and we here at the Lemon will be leading the way. Give us a shout if you’d like to get on the ground floor: contact@bitter-lemons.com.

The LA Times Theatre Panel Brou-Ha-Ha: The day the Times became officially irrelevant. Sad. Perhaps McNulty will wise up and realize how much he could do for the Los Angeles Theatre Community at large.

The Clown Car Chronicles: Some of the funnest and funniest memoirs of the summer. Thanks for playing, you freakin’ clowns!

Our Contributors: We added the fine talents of Amy Tofte and Jason Rohrer and you, the reader, responded, making them some of our most widely read writers. And as always a special thanks to Kat Primeau our AdvoK@ for her brilliant articles on Theatres with a Cause, the always poignant Jay McAdams, the Professor of Lemonology, Trevor Thomas and our other contributions ranging from the fabulous Channing Sargent to the tireless Gedaly Guberek – please bring back BLT! Please! Thank you all!

The LemonMeter 1000: We offered 435 LemonMeter ratings this year, almost half of the 1000 that we have delivered over our three year existence. And on December 14, 2011, we hit number 1000. Pretty damn cool. Here’s to the next 1000.

Tweet Seats: A fine marketing tool, but please, people, it has no place in the actual art of theatre. At some point, this will become evidently clear.

Flash Theatre: Yeah, what happened to that second show? I think I missed the tweet?

Mike Daisy vs. a Yelp Reviewer: Kind of a bizarre thing that got people all riled up and to top it all off I actually got a date out of it. Oh, NOW you’re interested! Hee hee hee.

The Scenie Awards: Not to pile it on during this Holiday Season, but Steven Stanley’s “awards” took the meaning of the word to the land of bizarro. 279 shows seen, 973 awards given. Nuff said.

Defending Your M$%#ther F&*%$#ing Arts Degree: Amy Tofte’s excellent essay defending the merits of her CalArts MFA, one of the best read articles of the year.

The Month That Was: June, 2011, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Radar LA, TCG Conference, Asian American Conference, Directors Lab West, panels, controversy, it was a grand time for American Theatre ala Los Angeles Theatre. Well done, people!

Long Running Shows: Caught, Re-Animator, Small Engine Repair, La Razon Blindada, Bakersfield Mist, I Love Lucy, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Urban Death, and many, many more shows that I’m not mentioning here that ran for 6+ months or more in a town that’s not supposed to be able to sustain such an insignificant art form as live theatre.  Pretty damn cool.

Some 2012 Wishes and Predictions:

That the Los Angeles critics will continue to challenge themselves to hone their craft, remain curious and humble and bold and be more demanding of themselves and the theatre that they see, and that they take their role in the legitimization of our theatre more seriously and stop giving mediocre shows passes.

That Los Angeles Theatre Makers focus more on the work and make an effort to work with the community within which they reside and do their best to defy the logistical challenges of our city.

That LA Stage Alliance continues to pursue endeavors that benefit the entire community rather than just focusing on throwing a nice awards ceremony.

That more and more Los Angeles Theatre Producers continue to emerge and see the potential for commercially viable theatre in this town, a first step being a professional alliance that focuses on the business of theatre.

That CTG and the other larger theatre organizations look in their own backyard for that next great play, namely the smaller theatre community, the one’s doing at least 75% of the actual work that makes up Los Angeles Theatre.

That Charles McNulty and the LA Times finally realize how their engagement with the community that makes most of the theatre in this town would benefit them and American Theatre in general.

Cross promotion, cross promotion, cross promotion.

Atwater Village Theatre. The next theatre destination hot spot.

Hollywood Fringe Festival 2012, kicking it up a notch and continuing to create a showcase for up and coming LA Theatre Artists and beyond.

Bitter Lemons Awards for Theatre. Hey, everybody else is doing it.

A permanent Hollywood cabaret/variety show/space where popular artists and up and coming artists can strut their stuff and cut their teeth.

And finally, Off-Hollywood, a pie in the sky dream that ties the Hollywood Studios with the Los Angeles Theatre Community that creates capital for a burgeoning professional theatre community while offering a farm system for the Studios that will create the next generation of filmmakers. Hey, one can dream.