Lots of great theater happened on Cincinnati stages during 2018, making it tough to single out the best shows of 2018. So Im simply offering my opinions regarding the shows that Im still thinking about as the year draws to a close.
At the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the mainstage production that keeps coming back to me is the 2018-2019 season-opener, a theatrical adaptation of Stephen Kings Misery. Truth to tell, theres not a lot of opportunity for suspense in this tale, since it was a best-selling novel as well as a much remembered 1990 movie (for which Kathy Bates won an Academy Award). But the Playhouse production was a showcase for actors, with Barbara Chisholm playing the psychopathic No. 1 Fan Annie Wilkes, and David Whalen as the unfortunate novelist who falls into her clutches after a car accident. Even while some theatergoers remembered Chisholm as funny, pragmatic Erma Bombeck from a prior season, she brought Annie to creepy, demented life and kept everyone on the edge of their seats.
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography
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Cincinnati King at the Playhouse in the Park
The Playhouses Shelterhouse is where new plays are frequently staged and this year the lineup was again all by female playwrights. Deborah Zoe Laufers Be Here Now, about an unexpected love affair, and Allyson Currins Sooner/Later, about coincidences and unsuccessful dates, were both excellent. But KJ Sanchezs Cincinnati King, chronicling the ups and downs of Cincinnatis own King Records from the 1940s to the 1960s, will stick with me. Its a great piece of local entertainment history.
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography
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His Eye is on the Sparrow at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati
Fine acting has become the hallmark of productions by Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, and it was a rare treat to have Todd Almond back in town for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which he starred in back in 2001 and 2003. But my vote for the most memorable performance goes to Torie Wiggins, who brought legendary singer Ethel Waters to life in His Eye Is on the Sparrow this spring. With simple piano accompaniment by Scot Woolley, Wiggins captivating rendition of Jazz, Pop and Gospel classics while recreating the trials and tribulations of Waters never-easy life was one to admire.
Photo: Ryan Kurtz
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1984 at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
Settling into its new Over-the-Rhine theater, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company had the chance to show off with productions that could never have happened on its former stage. Of course, works by Shakespeare were well done, but the frightening video projections for the October stage adaptation of George Orwells 1984 are surely seared into my brain in a production that felt startlingly timely in 2018. The collaboration with Brave Berlin, the creative organization that produced the BLINK art and light festival in 2017, was a stroke of genius.
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography
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The Man-Beast at Know Theatre
In addition to the annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Know Theatre keeps audiences entertained with shows by lesser known playwrights and stories that dance around the edges of our imagination. Joseph Zettelmaiers The Man-Beast in October told a two-character werewolf tale with some surprising twists and turns. Set in 18th-century France, it caught audiences unaware more than once. Jim Hopkins and Jennifer Joplin, regulars with Cincy Shakes, turned in physically demanding and gripping performances.
Photo: Dan R. Winters
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Waitress at the Aronoff Center
A few other theater productions that Ill remember kicked off with a January tour stop by Waitress at the Aronoff Center. Its the rare Broadway production (this show is still running in New York, in fact) that tells a heartfelt story about characters who create magic in everyday life through baking, in this case.
Photo: Joan Marcus
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Dreamgirls at The Carnegie
In August The Carnegie in Covington staged the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, about the rise, fall and rise of a Pop trio resembling The Supremes. Directed by Torie Wiggins (not long after playing Ethel Waters at ETC), the production featured a cast of talented, diverse performers, several of whom would be great to see more frequently.
Photo: Mikki Schaffner Photography
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The Pillowman at Falcon Theatre
Tiny Falcon Theatre (at its own 100-seat venue in Newport) gave a powerful rendering of Martin McDonoughs harrowing The Pillowman, set in a nameless police state where a man is abusively interrogated about some violent child murders that he may or may not have committed.
Photo: Falcon Theatre Facebook
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