12/31/2024 ONE LAST END-OF-YEAR RECAP
2024 will be forever enshrined in my memory as the year I abandoned the excellence of Atlanta Theatre (down to the High School Level) for the mediocrity (thus far) of Florida Theatre. Sure it was done in the name of love for my wander-lust-laden, sky-dancing spouse, but still… And yet, I hold out hope that live theatre will not be a thing of the past. I may just have to commute to Orlando or Tampa or even back to Atlanta for it. For now, though, my writings will be limited to script thumbnails and movie/video adaptations.
Still, my nine 2024 months in Atlanta were filled to bursting with excellence and memorable days and nights in darkened theatres. My actual participation in lighting any shows has been relegated to memory (which will make this year’s taxes so much easier, Railroad Retirement notwithstanding), and my excuses for staying home compounded exponentially. This is only my 54th column (as opposed to my 100+ year-end count), but there were many productions to celebrate for one reason or another.
Let’s start with the best of the best – Theatrical Outfit’s dueling-Suzi productions of Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the first, a singular character is on stage alone recounting his experiencing the worst of the Holocaust only to then experience the worst of London and Washington bureaucracy. In essence, he brought eyewitness accounts of the atrocities to the West in time for the West to act, which, of course, the West failed to do. More importantly, the West failed to learn from this failure, as evidenced every day in the hate-filled rants of social media. Andrew Benator gave the finest performance of the year as Karski and all with whom he interacts, and the entire production left me breathless with appreciation. And anger.
Virginia Woolf was a Class-A production of an oft-seen classic, boasting the best ensemble of the year. Tess Malis Kincaid and Steve Coulter imbued George and Martha with enough charm and elegance that their sketched-in-bourbon “party games” were endurable, even a little fun to watch. To paraphrase a classic witticism about Wagner’s music being “not as bad as it sounds,” these characters are not as unpleasant as they behave. The entire production was an extraordinary achievement.
Also memorable were Mercury at Actor’s Express, Wild With Happy at Horizon Theatre, Anna in the Tropics at Merely Players Presents, Babble Lab and A Tale of Two Cities at the Alliance, The Other Part of the Picture and The Rock & The Hard Place from this year’s Essential Festival of New Plays, The Wash at Synchronicity Theatre, and the remount of the Lady-Shakes Merchant of Venice at the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse (not to mention the Tavern’s productions of Pericles and As You Like It).
This year did mark what will probably be my final on-stage appearance in Pumphouse Players’ The Book of Will, an immensely satisfying “Swan Song” until a bout with Transient Global Amnesia ( * ) led to me making a dog’s breakfast of the final performance. It’s bad enough (and common enough) to “go up” on a line or two, but to forget ALL lines and not recognize them in the script is a (shorts-staining and) potent reminder of the limits of this 71- year-old brain I’m carrying. I have resolved to never audition again. For the record, I have always been a bit wobbly on keeping my resolutions.
( * ) If you didn’t know, TGA affects the short-term memory centers of the brain and has no known cause – I could remember the “To Be or Not Be” part of Burbage’s monologue that has resided in long-term memory since High School, and I did remember of the name of a cast-mate whom I’ve known for over ten years. Mine lasted for almost 24 hours, which I’m told is longer than usual (10-12 hours being the average). But I digress …
On the Musicals front, my favorite was the remount of 2023’s Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Horizon), which not only “held up” on second viewing, but became more enjoyable, more compelling, more moving. Take note that it is being revived again later in January. Try not to miss it this time. I also enjoyed the Alliance’s premiere of The Preacher’s Wife and Marietta Theatre Company’s smaller scale Honeymoon in Vegas and Hands on a Hardbody. Broadway in Atlanta gave us exciting National Tours of Beetlejuice and Hamilton that stood out, and City Springs Theatre made Jersey Boys and Music Man glow with excitement and energy, contrary to the “Meh” reactions I typically have with those shows.
As to Stage works adapted for the screen, The Piano Lesson (Netflix) is still fresh in my mind, but I am also second-to-none in my appreciation for Wicked (in spite of my reservations about the original show). I also liked the movie of the Mean Girls musical. Next year, I am looking forward to the movies of Once on This Island, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Shucked, Merrily We Roll Along, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Bare, Beautiful, Girl From the North Country (how will it compare to A Complete Unknown? That bar is high), and especially Follies. We may not see some of these until after 2025, but the anticipation makes me giddy.
I could (and probably should) take the time to filter through all my columns and cite favorite performances, favorite ensembles, favorite choreography, favorite sets (anything by Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay, no doubt), favorite Sound and Lighting designs. Not to mention the always-hard-to-describe Direction and Musical Direction successes and stand-outs. But it’ll soon be a new year in a new home in a new state in a new neighborhood (that’s still NOT on GPS), so I choose this moment to look to the future and relegate my Atlanta memories to my long-term memory, where, presumably, they’ll be safe from any future bout of Transient Global Amnesia.
Happy New Year, Friends!
-- Brad Rudy (BK Rudy@aol.com #2024 in Review)