Sometimes the most magical moments in a work of theater are the ones that are unplanned — the audience suddenly singing along with Cicely Tyson as her character hums a spiritual in The Trip to Bountiful. Sometimes, the moment is a calculated shock: The naked man and woman who’ve been sitting in the bathtub together in The Spider, a play from Bulgaria that was at the Fringe Festival this year, stood up and revealed they were conjoined twins.

Often, a show’s beginning moments, or a character’s entrance, are the most memorable: Nathan Lane’s sad, cynical expression in the opening scene of The Nance; Ian McKellen’s climb from behind the rock at the start of Waiting for Godot; Fantasia’s luscious rendition of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” in After Midnight.

It can be a purely visual moment — William Ivey Long’s costumes enabling Cinderella somehow to turn right before our eyes from a mistreated stepdaughter in rags into a beautiful (future) princess in white finery. It can just be sound — the first, familiar, thrilling guitar riffs in A Night With Janis Joplin

Even when the show as a whole is disappointing, there can be startling memories to take home.

Below are 10 of the moments on stage that struck me as magical in 2013, in no particular order. (Obviously, since they are different from the ones I just mentioned, there were way more than 10 magical moments in 2013.) Click on any of the photographs; each has an extensive caption that explains the captivating stage moment that the picture represents (sometimes not all that accurately.)

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike: The day after Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) attends a costume party as Maggie Smith, complete with British accent, she receives a telephone call from a gentleman who was at the party. Up to that point, Nielsen has been playing Sonia for laughs and getting them. Suddenly, the conversation, although we hear just her side of it, is one of the most touching moments I’ve ever witnessed on stage. Fun Home: When the adult Alison (Beth Malone) rummages through a box full of an antique teapot and other belongings of her long-dead father – and her father (Michael Cerveris) is looking through an identical box with the identical items with “Small Alison” – another actress (Sydney Lucas) playing Alison as a child. A neighbor threw out these items thinking they were junk, but Alison’s father realizes they are treasures – that old piece of cloth is gorgeous Irish linen; that tarnished teapot is silver: Motown: Valisia LeKae portrayed Diana Ross in Motown, in dozens of wigs and dresses. In the scene that recreates Diana’s first solo concert, apart from the Supremes, LeKae invited members of the audience to come sing “Reach Out and Touch” with her, and a magical fusion took place: Diana Ross was there but so was LeKae, graceful and gracious, funny and charismatic. Hands on a Hardbody: Keala Settle began with a giddy laugh. It grew into in a guffaw…then grew into a belly laugh….then grew…and grew…and was transformed into an exuberant gospel number “Joy of the Lord”—soon joined by the rest of the cast using the truck like a big drum. Twelfth Night: Although it is not an official part of Shakespeare’s play (and so there are no photographs available of it), a truly magical moment in Twelfth Night (and ok, in Richard III also) occurs when the players get dressed on the stage in costumes made only from fabrics that existed in England during the Elizabethan era. They do this in front of us, put on their makeup and then light the candles on the chandelier – all before the show has begun; all thrilling. The Assembled Parties: There are inexplicable moments in Richard Greenberg’s play that make you fall in love with the character played by Jessica Hecht – near the end, when she comes out in the dress of her mother the dressmaker; and near the beginning when, now a middle-aged housewife, she explains her experience as a movie star: “ My main talent was not looking like Sandra Dee. Or whoever was being Sandra Dee that year. It was only four movies, isn’t that something? Just a phase, really. I love that it happened to me but it was nothing to give up. And I’ve loved everything that’s happened to me since just as much.” Hecht managed to make such modesty, sincerity and optimism not just believable, but possible. What’s It All About: Kyle Riabko sandwiches Laura Dreyfuss between his body and his guitar, so that they are embracing, dancing and singing a song, all at the same time. Pippin: Andrea Martin as Berthe the grandmother sang “No Time At All,” which was lively, but what was magical is that half of the time she was singing it upside down from a trapeze. Martin, 66, stripped off granny outfit you see here, revealing the skimpy, sexy circus performer’s get-up underneath , and in mid-air slithered athletically and seductively around a muscular trapeze artist easily half her age. She also led the audience in a sing-along. The Glass Menagerie: There is one magical moment in The Glass Menagerie that I don’t want to talk about since the surprise of it is part of what makes it magical. (For those of you who’ve seen the show – the couch moment.) The rapport between Laura and the gentleman caller is a sustained magical moment, thanks to the performances of Celia Keenan-Bolger and Brian J. Smith. Midsummer Night’s Dream. There are so many magical visual moments in Julie Taymor’s production, but among the most memorable is the eerie start. The play begins with a luminously-lit unmade bed. Enter Puck, portrayed by the British actress and director Kathryn Hunter, looking like a diminutive Cirque de Soleil clown, in white-face and red hair, wearing a too-tight plaid three-piece suit and occasional bowler hat. She lies on the bed. The bed slowly levitates, supported by what look like tree branches, and accompanied by eerie original music by Elliot Goldenthal. A construction worker with a chainsaw arrives to cut through the branches, freeing Puck to float further up in the air, disappearing into a huge sheet that rises 35 feet to the top of the theater and suddenly becomes a blue sky with white clouds, embedded magically with the words “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Not a single word has been uttered. Later, she seems to pour from the ceiling.

Doesn’t count, but magical:

Most moving lyrics in that song (by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda):

There’s a kid in the middle of nowhere sitting there, living for Tony performances singin’ and flippin’ along with the Pippins and Wickeds andKinkys, Matildas and Mormonses.

So we might reassure that kid and do something to spur that kid.

Cause I promise you all of us up here tonight.

We were that kid….

These were my magical moments. What were yours?

@NewYorkTheater Performing @Lin_Manuel's Hamilton Mixtape at NYSF this summer was thrilling beyond words! — Anika Noni Rose (@AnikaNoniRose) December 31, 2013

@NewYorkTheater and playing Mabel in PiratesOfPenzance in the park, was pretty fantastic too. #HighEflatisNotForTheFaintOfHeart — Anika Noni Rose (@AnikaNoniRose) December 31, 2013

LInks to my reviews of the shows in which I pictured magical moments:

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Fun Home

Motown The Musical

Hands on a Hardbody

Twelfth Night

The Assembled Parties

What’s It All About?

Pippin

The Glass Menagerie

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Reddit

Email

Print



Like this: Like Loading...