Year in Review

It was a very good year for Dallas theater lovers.

Lots of our established theater artists reached new levels in production and performance. This top 10 list could easily have stretched out to 25. Even looking past the truly exciting work, you could take comfort in many more solid renditions of classic plays and musicals.

The theater community seems euphoric, as well, with the arrival of Kevin Moriarty as the artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center. His enthusiasm is contagious and he has reached out to many other theatrical groups as well as supporters and the general public. It remains to be seen what the guy can do artistically – he won't direct a Dallas show till next season.

There were some less happy developments, most notably the folding of Classical Acting Company. But in general, the scene seems stable and a lot of directors, designers and actors keep turning out top-quality work.

Rex C. Curry / Special to DMN

Left to right: Liz Mikel as Caroline Thibodeaux and Wendy Welch as Rose Stopnick Gellman in Caroline, Or Change

1 Caroline or Change by Theater Three – Liz Mikel's powerful voice and nuanced acting as the angry housekeeper in the area premiere of this ambitious musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori made for the performance of the year. The rest of Jac Alder's production conveyed the passion and innocence of this parable of life in the American South during the fight for civil rights.

2 Carousel by Lyric Stage – Here's something you won't find on Broadway: A full-scale production of a musical backed up by a 40-piece orchestra. Kimberly Whalen and Christopher Pinnella made an ideal pair of lovers as director Cheryl Denson lovingly re-created the modern equivalent of old-fashioned musical theater style.

Chris Devany

Jenny Ledel as Juliet and Montgomery Sutton as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet

3 Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare Dallas – Under Raphael Parry, the Bard's summer festival rose to new heights this year. Jenny Ledel's youthful heroine attained genuinely tragic stature, and there wasn't a weak link in the all-local cast.

4 Noh: Angels, Dreamers & Demons by Undermain Theatre –Fred Curchack has long been Dallas' most adventurous and imaginative theater artist. This time around, with Laura Jorgensen, he plumbed the depths of Japanese theatrical tradition instead of his own psyche. Attempts to transport Noh theater to Western stages are usually dull; this one was alternately fun and harrowing.

5 The Play About the Baby by WingSpan Theatre Company – Dallas and Fort Worth have more than their share of first-rate directors, and none is more impressive than Susan Sargeant, especially when she tackles works by great American playwrights like Edward Albee. This tricky little piece bubbled infectiously and terrified as the meticulous Ms. Sargeant probed and stirred things up.

Vernon Bryant / DMN

Left to right: Laura Jorgensen as Onono Komachi and Fred Curchack as a buddhist monk in Noh: Angels, Dreamers & Demons

6 The Great American Trailer Park Musical by WaterTower Theatre – James Paul Lemons' version of this hilarious, bawdy romp exemplified at least three trends: Fun, trashy shows succeed when done with finesse; the new generation of Dallas musical actors is coming on strong; and local theater festivals frequently discover things worth another look, such as Bootstraps Comedy Theater's The Boxer, which similarly got a full production after capturing attention in the Festival of Independent Theatres.

7 Stones in His Pocket by Stage West – I get teased for claiming that Texas shows are sometimes better than the New York originals, but this one, directed by Jerry Russell, proves my case. Another example: Rene Moreno's exemplary Democracy for Theatre Three. I also liked Bruce DuBose's performance as a ghost-ridden Irish businessman in Undermain Theatre's Shining City better than Oliver Platt's on Broadway.

Rex C. Curry / Special to DMN

Left to right: Cara Statham Serber as Lin, Sara Shelby-Martin as Betty, and Megan Kelly as Pickles in The Great American Trailer Park Musical

8 End Times by Kitchen Dog Theater – We're seeing lots of original work on area stages, some by out-of-state writers like Allison Moore. The play itself fell apart at the end, but Tina Parker's direction, the fabulous designs and a remarkable cast led by Sally Nystuen-Vahle made this one of the year's biggest events.

9 The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Risk Theater Initiative – Risk, with its shiny new digs just east of downtown, is the comer on the scene. It also boasts Dallas' two best directors under 40. Each did great work for Second Thought Theatre earlier in the year – Lawrence and Hollowman from Marianne Galloway and Scapino from Tom Parr IV. But Mr. Parr's season-opener in the new space stood out for the way it showed off its 15 actors.

10 Sonnets for an Old Century by FireStarter Productions – Fort Worth-trained Jaime Castaneda really came into his own as a director, too – both in this show for his own group and in This Is How It Goes for Amphibian Stage Productions.

2007 Tony Awards

Best play: The Coast of Utopia

Best actor in a play: Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Matt Mrozek

Left to right: Clara Peretz as Fern, Lee Trull as Brandon, Sally Nystuen-Vahle as Janie and Barry Nash as Gilbert in End Times

Best actress in a play: Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed

Best musical: Spring Awakening

Best actor in a musical: David Hyde Pierce, Curtains

Best actress in a musical: Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens

2007 Rabin Awards

Best play: End Times, Kitchen Dog Theater

Best actor in a play: James Crawford, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, WaterTower Theatre

Best actress in a play (tie): Kristina Baker, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, WaterTower Theatre, and Christina Vela, Fat Pig , Kitchen Dog Theater

Best musical (tie): Thoroughly Modern Millie, Garland Summer Musicals, and Thrill Me!, Uptown Players

Best actor in a musical: Joshua Doss, Tick, Tick ... Boom! , Uptown Players

Best actress in a musical: Stephanie Hall, The Pirates of Penzance, ICT Mainstage

Lawson Taitte

"What's fun about the theater is the imagination. You can take a chair and put it in the middle of the stage and call it a submarine and take the people with you. You can create anything you like." Playwright Lynne Alvarez

"More directors probably love those shows than admit to it. Get a bunch of directors out for drinks and get enough whiskey into them and they can sing every one of those lyrics from 'A Chorus Line' or, even more interesting, 'Annie.'" New Dallas Theater Center artistic director Kevin Moriarty about old-fashioned musicals

"I was working with this kid at Junior Players who said to me, 'Have you seen that movie 'Hamlet'? We should turn it into a play — the guy's uncle kills his dad in it.'." Montgomery Sutton, Romeo in Shakespeare Dallas' Romeo and Juliet