My recap thus far of the 2018-2019 theatre season:
Today: random categories of my own invention (some inventive, others…not so much), open to plays and musicals alike, that the Tonys — and other theatre awards — should add.
CHORUS
- Octet
- Antigone in Ferguson
- Twelfth Night
- Variations on the Main
DRONE
- Thunderbodies
- Eat the Devil
- Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes
ENSEMBLE
(The first four reconfigure the definition of an “ensemble”)
- Forced Entertainment’s Table Top Shakespeare: The Complete Works
- Nassim
- The Cold Record
- Ashes
- What to Send Up When It Goes Down
- Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie
- Uncle Vanya
- Ain’t No Mo’
- Hurricane Diane
- Fairview
- Catch As Catch Can
- Is This a Room
- PLANO
- “Daddy”
- Lewiston/Clarkston
- Do You Feel Anger?
- Marjana and the Forty Thieves
- Bonnie’s Last Flight
- The Jungle
- Suicide Forest
- Thunderbodies
"NO SMALL PARTS" ENSEMBLE MEMBER
Stephen Carrasco, Skintight
FOG
(This season saw a noticeably-inordinate number of noticeably-effective uses of…fog!)
- Midnight at the Never Get
- Good Grief
- Is This a Room
- Thunderbodies
- Hurricane Diane
FUNNIEST
- Ain’t No Mo’
- Hurricane Diane
- Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie
- Ryan Raftery: The Obsession of Calvin Klein
- Fairview
- Do You Feel Anger?
- Bonnie’s Last Flight
JUKEBOX MUSICAL
- Holiday Sauce
- Antigone in Ferguson
- The B-Side
ONE-PERSON SHOW
- The Cold Record
- My Name Is Gideon: I’m Probably Going to Die, Eventually
- The Pumpkin Pie Show Presents: One-on-Ones
- Fleabag
PROJECTIONS
- Luke Halls, The Lehman Trilogy
- Davonte Johnson, Frankenstein
- Will Duke, Grief is the Thing With Feathers
- Wladimiro A. Woyno R., This American Wife
- Nassim
- Robert Wuss, The B-Side
- David Pym, Bonnie’s Last Flight
- David Lejard-Ruffe & Antony Aubert, Chambre Noire
- Austin Switser, Strange Window: The Turn of the Screw
- Hana S. Kim, Eve’s Song
- Matt Romein, [50/50] old school animation
- Tal Yarden, The Damned
SITE-SPECIFIC
(The following is not a list of my favorite shows that happened to be site-specific; rather, it’s a ranking that qualitatively evaluates HOW the shows used the sites)
- Variations on the Main
- Confection
- Oasis
- The Courtroom
- INK: A Piece for Museums
TRANSITIONS
- Marys Seacole
- Usual Girls
- Emma and Max
- Recent Alien Abductions
- Eve’s Song
- Good Grief
SNIFFLER
- What to Send Up When It Goes Down
- Something Clean
- Uncle Vanya
- Nassim
- Octet
TEARJERKER
(Again, the following is not a list of my favorite shows that happened to make me cry; rather, it ranks the shows according to how forcibly they jerked tears from these ducts)
- God Said This
- About Alice
- Accidentally Brave
SOUNDTRACK
- Fairview
- Usual Girls
- Slave Play
- Southern Promises
- Bernie and Mikey’s Trip to the Moon
PRE-SHOW SOUNDTRACK
- Wedding Appropriation — Fairview
- Alternative Pop — Uncle Vanya
- Rave — Trainspotting
- Gospel Chorus — Antigone in Ferguson
- Kacey Musgraves — PLANO
- Cooling Down Poolside — “Daddy”
- Jimmy Buffet — Sehnsucht
- Beyoncé — The House That Will Not Stand
- Ain’t No Mo’
- Perfect Playlist — The Light
- Get This Party Started — Infinite Love Party
- Usual Girls
- Loud — Thunderbodies
- Non-Top 40, Deep(er) Cut Popular Music — Seared
HALLEY FEIFFER AWARD FOR MY FAVORITE TITLE
A breakdown of the three subcategories below:
- Titles In Themselves
- No matter their relation to the actual content of the art, these titles immediately catch the eye.
- Titles in Elucidating Meaning
- These titles aren’t impressive on their own, but they converse with — and thereby deepen, and thus become a part of — the substance of the art, inspiring ideas that audiences may have not considered otherwise.
- A Title that Does Both
- Pretty straightforward. These are the titles that, on their appealing faces, make you want to engage with the art, AND they add meaning to the art not found elsewhere.
Not-new titles — be they an adaptation and/or a revival — aren’t eligible.
Oh, and as for why the award’s named in Halley’s honor: I mean, c’mon.
In Themselves
- If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka
- Anything That Gives Off Light
- Actually, We’re Fucked
In Elucidating Meaning
- Is This a Room
- Pass Over
- Fairview
- Good Grief
- Holiday Sauce
- Hurricane Diane
- Slave Play
- “Daddy”
- Do You Feel Anger?
- Something Clean
- Marjana and the Forty Thieves
- Bonnie’s Last Flight
- Chambre Noire
- Log Cabin
- Lewiston/Clarkston
- Fire in Dreamland
- I Hear You and Rejoice
- Girls & Boys
- Skintight
- you & me
Both
- [50/50] old school animation
- What to Send Up When It Goes Down
- The Pain of My Belligerence
- This American Wife
- Ain’t No Mo’
- Variations on the Main
- Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties; In Essence, A Queer and Occasionally Hazardous Exploration; Do You Remember When You Were in Middle School and You Read About Shackleton and How He Explored the Antarctic?; Imagine the Antarctic as a Pussy and It’s Sort of Like That
- My Name Is Gideon: I’m Probably Going to Die, Eventually
- Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future
- Everyone’s Fine With Virginia Woolf
- Catch as Catch Can
- Eat the Devil
- The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d
- As Far As My Fingertips Take Me
- Hatef**k
- Thunderbodies
- Sugar in Our Wounds
- Midnight at the Never Get
- Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie
- The House That Will Not Stand
- Wonders at Dusk
TWO-HANDER
- [50/50] old school animation
- Nassim
- A two-hander of a different color.
- This American Wife
- Chambre Noire
- Ditto.
- The Chinese Lady
- Plot Points in Our Sexual Development
- The Light
- Spaceman
YEAR OF THE YEAR
Performer
- Pete Simpson — Is This A Room / Gatz
- Michael C. Hall — Thom Pain (based on nothing) / Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical
- Heather Alicia Simms — Fairview / Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine / By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
- Megan Hill — Do You Feel Anger? / Eddie and Dave
- Greg Keller — The Thanksgiving Play / Do You Feel Anger?
- Brooks Ashmanskas — The Closet / The Prom
- Margo Seibert — The Thanksgiving Play / Octet
- Cesar J. Rosado — PLANO / Nylon / The Things That Were There
- Tiffany Villarin — Do You Feel Anger? / Teenage Dick
- Patrice Johnson Chevannes — Mies Julie / Good Grief
- Mykal Kilgore — Songs for a New World / The Who’s Tommy
- Jeffrey Bean — The Thanksgiving Play / About Alice
- Sheldon Best — Sugar in Our Wounds / Travisville
- Heather Lind — Othello; The Nap
- Lynda Gravátt — The House That Will Not Stand / The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll’d
Playwright
- Jeremy O. Harris — “Daddy” / Slave Play
- Taylor Mac — Holiday Sauce / Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
- Jackie Sibblies Drury — Fairview / Marys Seacole
- Theresa Rebeck — Seared / Bernhardt/Hamlet / Downstairs
- Jen Silverman — Collective Rage / Dangerous House
- Donja R. Love — Sugar in Our Wounds / Fireflies