Positively Operatic
The Year in Austin Culture
By Robert Faires, Fri., Jan. 7, 2000
The Longer View
In honor of this milestone year, the Arts team has decided to look back further than just the past year and come up with some critical observations on the past decade, the century, and even the millennium. On the traditional end are my choices for the top theatrical productions in Austin during the Nineties, as well as a list of the 25 Significant American Plays and 25 Significant American Musicals of the past century, as voted by the members of the American Theatre Critics Association. (For what it's worth, I'm not only a voting member, but I tabulated the votes for the organization.) On the what-the-hell-is-this end is the Millennial Musical, a collaboration by myself and Arts writers Ada Calhoun, Dawn Davis, Sarah Hepola, and Robi Polgar. Using the tried-and-true structure of the classic American musical Boy meets Girl, Boy gets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Dream Ballet, Boy gets Girl back we imagined a work that would speak for the past 1,000 years, with contributions from our favorite artists of the past millennium. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's fun in its own artsy way. And now, forward into the past ....
Top 10 Austin Theatre Productions of the Nineties
1. Our Town (Big State Productions, 1990)
2. The Bacchae: Torn to Pieces (Hopeful Monsters/Frontera@Hyde Park, 1996)
3. The Gospel at Colonus (Zachary Scott Theatre Center, 1996)
4. Stuff as Dreams Are Made On (Fred Curchack, 1993)
5. The Three Cuckolds (UT Department of Theatre & Dance)
6. Weldon Rising (Frontera@Hyde Park, 1994)
7. The Billy-Club Puppets (Tongue & Groove Theatre, 1995)
8. The Cost of Living Trilogy: Free Trade, Managed Care, Millennium Bug (Frontera@Hyde Park, 1994-99)
9. Red White & Tuna (Greater Tuna Corporation/Paramount Theatre, 1998)
10. Ruthless! The Musical (Zachary Scott Theatre Center, 1997)
The 25 Significant American Plays of the 20th Century
1. A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
2. Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
3. Long Day's Journey Into Night, by Eugene O'Neill
4. Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
5. The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
6. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, by Edward Albee
7. (tie) Angels in America, by Tony Kushner; A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
9. You Can't Take It With You, by Moss Hart &
George S. Kaufman
10. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
11. The Little Foxes, by Lillian Hellman
12. (tie) Fences, by August Wilson; The Iceman Cometh, by Eugene O'Neill
14. The Odd Couple, by Neil Simon
15. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams
16. Waiting for Lefty, by Clifford Odets
17. (tie) American Buffalo, by David Mamet; Inherit the Wind, by Jerome S. Lawrence & Robert E. Lee
19. The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder
20. Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet
21. (tie) The Front Page, by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur; Picnic, by William Inge
23. The Boys in the Band, by Matt Crowley
24. (tie) Buried Child, by Sam Shepard; The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee
1. Oklahoma!, by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
2. West Side Story, by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, & Arthur Laurents
3. (tie) Guys and Dolls, by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling, & Abe Burrows; Show Boat, by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II,& P.G. Wodehouse
5. A Chorus Line, by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood, & Nicholas Dante
6. Cabaret, by John Kander, Fred Ebb & Joe Masteroff
7. My Fair Lady, by Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe
8. Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, & Du Bose Heyward
9. Fiddler on the Roof, by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick & Joseph Stein
10. (tie) Gypsy, by Jules Styne, Stephen Sondheim, & Arthur Laurents; Hair, by Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni, & James Rado; South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II & Josh Logan
13. Carousel, by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
14. (tie) Company, by Stephen Sondheim & George Furth; Sweeney Todd, by Stephen Sondheim & Hugh Wheeler
16. The Fantasticks, by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt
17. Kiss Me, Kate, by Cole Porter, Sam Spewack, & Bella Spewack
18. Pal Joey, by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart & John O'Hara
19. (tie) Follies, by Stephen Sondheim & James Goldman; The King and I, by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II
21. Hello, Dolly!, by Jerry Herman & Michael Stewart
22. Chicago, by John Kander, Fred Ebb, & Bob Fosse
23. The Music Man, by Meredith Willson
24. (tie) Anything Goes, by Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay, & Russel Crouse; A Little Night Music, by Stephen Sondheim & Hugh Wheeler