Remembering things magical and madcap over the past season

BY PETER FILICHIA
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Will it ever happen?  Will New Jersey ever premiere a musical that’s something wonderful?  We get plenty of new homegrown, serious plays, and many amusing, freshly minted comedies, too. When it comes to song and dance, we stumble.

The best new plays of 2006-2007 reflected diversity.  Two African-Americans were represented: “Radio Golf” by August Wilson and “The Brothers Size” by 26-year-old Tarell Alvin McCraney, a highly produced up-and-comer. Two women landed scripts on the list of five best plays as well.

Then came the painful new musicals. “Don’t Hug Me” at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch; “Island” at 12 Miles West Theatre Company in Bloomfield; “Hot ’n Cole” at the Bickford Theatre in Morris Township — one worse than the other. We won’t even count “The Rat Pack Live at the Sands” because it was a glorified nightclub act. As for “The Kid From Brooklyn”: It was a rehash of last season’s “Danny (Kaye) and Sylvia (Fine),” with its star Brian Childers back again.

So the best “new” musicals were all Broadway hand-me-downs, the most recent of which is 5 years old. Still, these musty musicals are included in this list of the best that New Jersey stages had to offer this past season.

Best Play:
“The Brothers Size” by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Berlind Theatre, Princeton); “Letters From the Inside” by Robert Armin (Blairstown Theater Festival, Blairstown); “My Sister Underground” by Jewel Seehaus-Fisher (Women’s Theater Company, Parsippany); “October 1962” by D.W. Gregory (New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch); “Radio Golf” by August Wilson (McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton).
Winner: “Radio Golf.” Should upwardly mobile blacks forget where they came from and obliterate their landmarks? Wilson’s final play was a fitting conclusion to his 10-play cycle of 20th century African-American life.

Best Leading Play Actress:
Kelli Ambrose (“Letters From the Inside”); Mikaela Kafka (“The Maids,” Garage Theatre Group, Teaneck); Amanda Plummer (“Summer and Smoke”); Laila Robins (“The Cherry Orchard”); Jenny Vallancourt (“October 1962”).
Winner: Plummer. Alma Winemiller is usually played as a receding, let alone shrinking violet, but Plummer instead made her the smartest citizen in town, demanding respect from others. The risky approach worked beautifully, thanks to this gifted actress.

Complete article (pdf)