Actors, revivals shine on Broadway in 2012
- Seth Numrich gets in character in 'Golden Boy'
- Musical revivals delight
- Humor and energy hit the stages
Whether your idea of high drama is a vigorous Edward Albee revival or an evening with an uncensored Mike Tyson, Broadway offered plenty of variety in 2012 — though, predictably, not much in the way of new musicals. USA TODAY's Elysa Gardner recalls some more memorable offerings, and a few questionable ones:
Best play:The Lyons
Nicky Silver's Broadway bow may have been denied a Tony nomination, but its wonderfully twisted humor and deft blend of bleakness and grace made for a uniquely compelling experience.
Best play revivals:Death of a Salesman, Golden Boy, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
A trio of top-drawer productions brought ferocious energy and fresh insights (along with due reverence) to these American classics.
Best musical revivals:Annie,The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Maybe it's just a coincidence that these irresistibly buoyant, thoroughly charming productions arrived in the wake of a savage hurricane, and just in time for the holidays. But when the sun comes out, you don't ask why.
Best musicals (by default):Newsies; A Christmas Story, The Musical
In a year with no superior originals, these brightly crafted, briskly executed distractions at least offered youthful spirit and avoided the preciousness and snark of some other entries.
Best should-have-been-Broadway musical:Giant
With its sweeping story and score and Texas-sized ambition and heart, the off-Broadway, Public Theater-produced adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel (also the source of the 1956 film) captured classic musical-theater virtues better than anything this critic has seen on the Main Stem in years.
Most rollicking good time:One Man, Two Guvnors
It seemed impossible that this British import could live up to the ecstatic anticipation; but a funnier, more raucously entertaining evening could not be had on Broadway — or anywhere, possibly.
Most overrated play:Clybourne Park
Bruce Norris's aggressively acclaimed, multiple-award-winning study of race relations drew on several generations of guilt and cynicism — cleverly, at times — but seldom had anything new to say.
Most overrated musical:Once
It's a sad day when self-conscious navel-gazing is considered as great an asset in musical theater as it is in certain indie-rock circles. The wicked Forbidden Broadway parody is dead-on, and a lot more fun.
Most revelatory performance: Tracy Letts in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In his Broadway acting debut, the trouper-turned-Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright made a role that has earned kudo for numerous great actors wholly his own — and shot to the top of the list for what's bound to be a super-tight lead-actor Tony race.
Brightest rising star: Seth Numrich in Golden Boy
The precocious young talent graduated to A-list leading man with his thrilling, devastating performance as Cliiford Odets' tortured soul.
Most curious spectacle: Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
Performance art, revenge fantasy or self-pity party? The champ's one-man reality show defied categorization, or logic. But let's hope that director Spike Lee returns to the stage, with a more, um, lucid project.