J. Kelly Nestruck: A Personal Top-Ten

(photo credit: Catherine Farquharson, documentographer.com)

Top ten theatre productions of 2012: A personal list

by J. Kelly Nestruck (reprinted by permission from Off The Fence)

This end-of-year list-making season, for the Globe and Mail, I put together an idiosyncratic top ten - strangest circus act, biggest Broadway bust, etc - and an article about the theatre newsmakers of 2012 (boards behaving badly). 

But a few folks have asked me: OK, but what were your favourite shows of the year?  So, here, on my semi-defunct personal blog, a personal list that includes shows I saw while off duty.

NB: In 2012, I saw theatre in Chicago, New York, Avignon, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Stratford, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Gananoque, Winnipeg, Calgary and Fredericton - but I spent most of my year in Toronto, so that's why it's so Torontocentric.

1. Maybe if You Choreograph Me, You'll Feel Better - at SummerWorks in Toronto

"Who is really in control when a woman says to a man: Tell me what to do, tell me what you want?" 

2. The Iceman Cometh - at Goodman Theatre in Chicago

I never got around to writing a review, but here's the Chicago Trib's rave. O'Neill is the greatest American playwright, and this is his greatest play. At least that's what I felt certain was the case when I came out of director Robert Falls' five-hour-ish, operatic production of The Iceman Cometh. The ensemble was to die for and included Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane and the Stratford Festival's Stephen Ouimette (as if they own him; he is a natural resource owned by us all). Best of all was John Douglas Thompson as Joe Mott. Google just told me JDT is Canadian-American and grew up in Montreal - we gotta get him back here PRONTO.

3. The Matchmaker at the Stratford Festival

Happiest night at the theatre this year. Didn't sell super well, probably a bad idea to program in the Festival Theatre - I don't give a darn; so much joy.

First-Person: J. Kelly Nestruck on revivals

(Nestruck and Baby, credit: Gillian Goerz, www.gilliang.com)

Canadian revivals on the rise.

Starting from Soulpepper's White Biting Dog...

by J. Kelly Nestruck

Judith Thompson's White Biting Dog won a Governor General's Award for drama in 1984, but does that actually mean it's any good? A new revival at Soulpepper Theatre Company has allowed Toronto critics to argue the question.

In his review of Nancy Palk's production for the website Stage Door, critic Christopher Hoile - who lost his mainstream regular outlet when Toronto weekly Eye recently morphed into critic-less The Grid - wondered how such an "absolute mess" could have ever won the G-G. "It was certainly not Soulpepper’s intention, but this revival of Thompson’s play with a cast who give it their all only demonstrates that it really is not 'the great Toronto play' that people have claimed it is," he wrote.