Seattle's band of thespians continuously reaffirms the joy of live theater. This year, we endured British health care, celebrated feminism with George Bernard Shaw, cried again over Eugene O'Neill's characters, watched a goat chew up a marriage, revisited vintage musicals and laughed at Mel Brooks' dancing and singing Nazis. With Leap Year fast approaching, let us applaud the best actors of 2003 with a special ovation.
1. There were many wonderful performances this year, but overall, the most outstanding came from Laurence Ballard, an actor for all seasons who always takes the artistic risk. He doesn't seem capable of anything but brilliance, rising above mediocre material and staging to astonish his audiences. And he does so without trouncing his fellow actors with egocentric entitlement. This year we watched Ballard's musical theater debut as Alfred P. Doolittle, the scalawag dustman in Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "My Fair Lady" (5th Avenue). To the audience's delight, Ballard even nose-dived into a pile of dancing girls' bosoms and bloomers. He followed the British romp with his feel-good turn as the Cowardly Lion in Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's "The Wizard of Oz." But Ballard also delivered several compelling dramatic performances at Intiman Theatre.
As the controversial and verbose psychiatrist Dr. Robert Smith in Joe Penhall's "Blue Orange," Ballard went from pedantic verbosity to utter poignancy and made it look easy. In Ingmar Bergman's "Nora" he became "the sympathetic and tender Dr. Rank," and later took on the distraught husband in Tony Kushner's "Homebody/Kabul."
Ballard has the right stuff. Perfect timing, Shakespearean resonance, symphonic vocal rhythms and an ability to grasp the very soul of a character - even in silence. We've called him the Anthony Hopkins of Seattle, but can see glimmers of Richard Burton in Ballard's work; also Rod Steiger and Derek Jacobi. So we've compiled a wish list of starring roles for the Seattle thespian, starting with Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra" and George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" How about the son in "I Never Sang for My Father" and Falstaff in "Henry IV" For musicals, think King Arthur in "Camelot." And in a few years, Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" and of course, "King Lear." We can almost hear Ballard rolling those "R's," lambasting Shakespeare's storm with exquisite perfection.
2. Victoria Clark amazed audiences with her beautiful portrayal as Margaret in the world première of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' musical "The Light in the Piazza" (Intiman). Clark brought humor, strength, vulnerability and a gorgeous voice to her performance, so beautifully and believably created. When Clark's spellbinding soprano soared through the theater, each song became an invitation into Margaret's soul.
3. Kristin Flanders gave a lovely, multi-dimensional performance in "Nora" (Intiman), Bergman's piercing adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece "A Doll's House." As Nora desperately tried to escape the emotional prison imposed by her chauvinistic husband, Flanders flirted, flitted, and fluttered through her role, even bounced on furniture with shocking abandon. Her timing, vocal rhythms and vivacious physicality combined to create an unforgettable portrayal.
4. As the unwanted, revenge-driven intruder in Shaw's "Misalliance" (Seattle Rep), Eric Ray Anderson delivered an irresistible comedic turn. From his ill-fitting wardrobe to his web-footed stance, no-neck posture and huff-and-puff face, everything about Anderson's performance transmitted side-splitting mirth.
5. Suzanne Bouchard gave two outstanding performances this year (Seattle Rep). One, her classy portrayal in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" as Lady Capulet, an elegant and loving mother and wife dominated by her self-entitled husband. And second, as the gorgeous, Polish daredevil Lina Szczepanowska in "Misalliance." Bouchard absolutely sparkled as Shaw's modern feminist.
6. Jennifer Erin Robert also scored two fine performances (Seattle Rep), three if you count the double role she played in Pierre Marivaux's "The Triumph of Love." Without missing a beat, Roberts kept audiences guessing as she switched between lively Princess Leonide and her cross-dressing alter ego, scholar Phocion. Then Roberts endowed Hypatia, the irrepressible chit-of-a-daughter in "Misalliance," with an audacious yen for love and adventure.
7. Now here's a lad for Shakespeare - cocky Tom Story as Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" (Seattle Rep). Story exuded panache, testosterone rage and a daredevil love-of-life in his "Gangs of Verona" face-offs.
8. Demene E. Hall's powerful performance as both the very regal Maya Angelou and her gutsy grandmother added heartwrenching simplicity to the beautiful stage adaptation of Angelou's autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (Book-It).
9. Remember the adage, "There are no small parts." As Friar Laurence in "Romeo and Juliet" (Seattle Rep), Ted D'Arms returned to the stage after a long absence and delivered the Shakespeare we know and love. The Bard's words rolled off D'Arms' tongue in glorious iambic pentameter during his splendidly believable portrayal of the well-meaning priest.
10. Jerry Lloyd and Frank Corrado tied for opposite reasons. Lloyd created such a convincing and creepy bloodsucker in "Dracula" (Book-It), the theater staff joked they wouldn't be caught "dead" in a dark alley with him. Although Seattle theatergoers expect larger-than-life bravado from Frank Corrado, he gave a wonderfully understated performance in "The Triumph of Love" (Seattle Rep) as the contemplative Hermocrate, grappling with uncontrollable passion for the first time.
Some performances seem intrinsically entwined. Actors Jeanne Paulsen and John Procaccino took on Josie and James, the lost souls in Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" (ACT Theatre). Love came too late in these emotionally scarred lives, so poignantly and tragically expressed by Paulsen and Procaccino during one long and inconsolable moonlit night.
Brian Kerwin and Cythnia Mace tussle metaphorically as Martin and Stevie in Edward Albee's startling 2002 Tony-winner, "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" (ACT Theatre). Maybe you can answer the latter. Martin's wife Stevie certainly cannot. Kerwin personified the complex Martin, an architect-husband with a midlife crisis and a dirty little secret - one that bleats. Mace endowed Stevie with woman-betrayed magnificence as she raged about the "other woman." Truthfully, you didn't know whether to laugh, cry or head for the nearest farm.
Every year, a bevy of theater tours parades through Seattle. They range from terrific to terrible. Here are our three favorites.
Although Hal Holbrook has been performing "Mark Twain Tonight" (McCaw Hall) for 50 years, he imparts so much Twainish wisdom in his bravura performance, he should play Congress on a daily basis.
As Max in the hilarious "führer" tour of Mel Brooks' Tony-winning blockbuster, "The Producers" (Paramount), Lewis J. Stadlen created a theater rascal not unlike the late David Merrick. Less portly than his Broadway predecessor Nathan Lane, what Stadlen lacked in pounds he delivered in talent with brilliant comedic timing and irresistible chutzpah.
A triumphant Mike Daisey returned to Seattle with his satirical tour de force, "21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com" (Intiman). His kiss-and-tell one-man show packed heartfelt mimicry, intelligence and wit. But most of all, it reeked of honesty.
So many fine actors, so little space to cheer. For next year, we can only add, "Break a leg."
Freelance writer Starla Smith is a Queen Anne resident. She can be reached via rtjameson@nwlink.com.[[In-content Ad]]
