Year in Review: Theater sought to shatter status quo and elevate perspective

During a key moment in Toni Stone, one of Atlanta’s best plays this year, the focus of the characters shifts toward the audience, and the stadium lights on the stage turn brighter to expose us, asking us to reconsider ourselves and our roles in society.

Many of the year’s works concentrated upon that, bringing light to new, diverse perspectives while challenging the audience to think differently about the issues that surround and divide us, the history that made us and the commonality that connects us to each other.

Here is our list of shows that stood out to our this year, curated by theater critics Benjamin Carr, Jim Farmer, Kelundra Smith, Alexis Hauk and Luke Evans. 

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Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Aurora Theatre 

India Tyree may have been born to play the title character in Aurora Theatre’s production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella Tyree’s fluttery, silky voice hit just the right pitch for this musical, which opened the new Lawrenceville Arts Center. Candy McLellan and Galen Crawley carried their own charms as the desperate stepsisters, and the colorful storybook set design was imaginative and fun. Cinderella reminds us all of our better angels and that where we start isn’t where we have to finish.  — KS 

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The Light, Horizon Theatre 

The Light by Loy A. Webb is quite possibly one of the most moving plays Horizon Theatre has staged in the last decade. Enoch King and Cynthia D. Barker portrayed a couple, Genesis and Rashad, whose love bubble is burst by their differences in perspective about a rapper, a sexual assault and healing their own wounds. This is the type of play that keeps the audience on pins and needles wondering if this couple is going to make up or break up right until the last second. It also brings up questions about vulnerability, intimacy and what it really means to let the right one in. Those Suzi Bass Awards for Barker and directors Marguerite Hannah and Lydia Forte were well-earned. — KS 

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The Color Purple, City Springs Theatre

The Color Purple will always have a special place in the Atlanta theater. Based on Alice Walker’s acclaimed novel, the Tony Award-winning musical premiered at the Alliance Theatre in 2004 and had a run at Actor’s Express in 2018. This year, City Springs brought together an ensemble of powerhouse vocalists to bring this Georgia-born story back home. The chemistry between Felicia Boswell, who played Celie, and Safiya Fredericks, who played Shug Avery, was especially beautiful to watch in this production. It’s clear that City Springs Theatre has emerged as a new musical theater destination in Atlanta. — KS

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Chicken & Biscuits, Dominion Entertainment Group

Douglas Lyons’ raucous comedy Chicken & Biscuits was one of the first plays to reopen Broadway after its 18-month hiatus during the pandemic. The play follows the Jenkins family as sibling rivalries come to a boil at their father’s funeral. The Dominion Entertainment Group production in August proved to be just as funny as the original, with local favorites Enoch King, Tonia Jackson and Brittani Minnieweather in rare form. The church hats were as high as the melodrama in this one. — KS

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A Chorus Line, City Springs Theatre

Baayork Lee starred as Connie in the original Broadway version of this musical and is still involved with it here and there at the age of 76. The City Springs version she directed this spring is one of the most defining regional productions I’ve seen, with a deep understanding of the show and what its characters are going through. Even without an intermission, A Chorus Line moved swiftly and energetically. — JF 

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In the Heights, City Springs Theatre 

Most theatergoers regard Hamilton as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece, but I’ve always enjoyed In the Heights just as much. Directed by Natalie Caruncho, this fall’s City Springs version was pretty flawless, with a joyous ensemble headlined by Marcello Audino as Usnavi in what he has called his dream role. This is bound to be one of 2022-2023’s best musicals — and, sadly, one of the least heralded. City Springs has not submitted productions to the Suzi Bass awards this year after the changes in eligibility, so trophies will land in the hands of others next fall.  — JF

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Toni Stone, Alliance Theatre

This bravura drama — penned by playwright Lydia R. Diamond — centers around  the titular character, who played in the Negro Leagues of the 1940s and ‘50s, an arena dominated by men. Tinashe Kajese-Bolden directed this knockout work, a co-production with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and brought out beautiful performances from its cast, including Kedren Spencer as Toni and scene stealer Enoch King as a prostitute who takes Toni under her wing. Arguably 2022’s best local Atlanta play. — JF 

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Bina’s Six Apples, Alliance Theatre

The Alliance got out of its comfort zone a lot this year, staging multiple world premieres, the best of which — by far — was Lloyd Suh’s haunting and gorgeous tale of one child’s search for her family during the Korean War. Suh said the piece emerged when he imagined his 10-year-old daughter in the circumstances that his parents had lived through. The resulting piece is a surreal, sometimes funny/sometimes terrifying portrait of regular people enduring the unthinkable. Add to that a strong undercurrent of mythology, and an ending that leaves the characters’ fate in the viewers’ hands, and this didn’t need to be half as good as it was to succeed. But everything, including the costumes, lighting, acting and direction, was peak live theater. — AH

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Intimate Apparel, Actor’s Express

Originally slated to open in mid-January, Actor’s Express’ postponed spring production of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s 2003 piece about Esther, a seamstress of fine undergarments in 1900s New York City, was well worth the wait. Under the assured direction of Ibi Owolabi and anchored by a quietly enthralling lead performance by Vallea E. Woodbury, it explored themes of loneliness and longing; ambition and love; and race, class and gender. Like the finely crafted clothing of its protagonist, the resulting art, in all its yearning and heartache, remained wrapped around you long after exiting the theater. — AH

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Legacy of Light, Synchronicity Theatre

Synchronicity doesn’t shy away from a good challenge. That was evident in their standout staging of Karen Zacarias’ rich meditation on motherhood and mortality, physics and ethics, light and love. Some smart and inventive direction from Rachel May harnessed the complexity and ambition of the script — which jumps from fact to fantasy, spans two completely disparate timelines and has actors embodying multiple characters — by grounding it in the shared humanity of each storyline. With strong performances from the cast, especially from Haliyah Roberts as a fictional modern-day astrophysicist, the show left you with an appreciation for how exciting and imperfect science can often be. — AH

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Kinky Boots, Out Front Theatre

These Boots were made for walking . . . and talking . . . and singing . . . and delighting! Out Front Theatre’s go-for-broke production not only marked the first time that this Tony-winning show had been staged in the state of Georgia, but it firmly established this relative newcomer to the scene as a major player in Atlanta theater writ large. From beginning to end, we got a nonstop beam of sequin-stitched stiletto sunshine, in no small part thanks to a luminous turn from Wendell Scott as the show-stopping Lola. Adapted from the hit 2005 movie starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, you’ve also got a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. What’s not to love? — AH

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Caroline, or Change, Jennie T. Anderson Theatre

The most stunning, special musical production staged this year ran only September 24 and 25 in Marietta, breaking the hearts of the audiences that saw it with spectacular music, a dynamite cast, beautiful design and costumes. Kayce Denise commanded the stage in the title role, delivering work of profound vocal power and tremendous emotion. Set in 1963 Louisiana, the Candy McLellan-directed “concert version” of the Jeanine Tesori/Tony Kushner collaboration addresses the civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, racism and anti-Semitism in a way that resonates from that time to this one. Additionally, the show remained compelling, even funny on occasion, as it tackled difficult, necessary topics. Frankly, the show needs to come back. — BC

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Ulysses, Aris Theatre

 It’s a shame more people didn’t get to celebrate Bloomsday at 7 Stages in June alongside the characters of James Joyce’s confounding Irish novel, brought to strange life in this premiere of the play. Using its cast in multiple roles to fill out the population of 1922 Dublin and the design to accentuate the oddity of the story, Ulysses was a masterpiece of atmosphere. And at its center were the wandering Leopold Bloom (Jeffery Zwartjes) and his wife Molly (Kara Cantrell). Throughout the show, Molly never gets out of bed, yet, as the play concluded, Cantrell delivered the novel’s closing monologue with a passion that soared. It was brilliant. — BC

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Hurricane Season, Vernal & Sere Theatre 

Vernal & Sere’s tale of a disconnected married couple who rediscover how to love through finding younger, pornographic versions of themselves was a strange, uncomfortably erotic and fascinating show at Windmill Arts Center in October. Written and directed by Sawyer Estes, Hurricane Season dealt frankly with kink and taboo in a way intended to alienate and titillate the audience, often at the same time. Cast members Melissa Rainey, Erin Boswell, Sam Ross and Pascal Portney stretched themselves physically and emotionally for the sake of the storytelling, often going in deeply weird directions. — BC

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The Merchant of Venice, Atlanta Shakespeare Company 

The LadyShakes summer shows at Shakespeare Tavern give the company’s talented roster of female-identifying performers the chance to collaborate on classic texts, finding new and different interpretations of those 17th century plays with very dated ideas about gender, privilege, justice and religion. With The Merchant of Venice in July, the cast tackled the controversial comedy with relish, exploring its problems and its flaws in ways that were surprising. And actress Rivka Levin delivered a tour-de-force performance as Shylock, using the opportunity to explore the humanity of the supposed “villain.” — BC

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The Turn of the Screw, Georgia Ensemble Theatre

Georgia Ensemble Theatre served up a delectable Halloween treat this year with a chilling adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, Henry James’ classic horror novella about a young governess who squares off against a duo of vengeful ghosts. The design aspects of the production worked hand in hand with Jeffrey Hatcher’s script to create a tangible sense of foreboding and uncertainty. However, it was the show-stopping performances of Christina Leidel and Daniel Thomas May that really made this production sing. Their commitment to their roles brought an intensity that gave each moment a sharpness and kept the audience leaning in, waiting to see what was going to happen. Fans of the original novella found even more to enjoy, as the script masterfully plays with our expectations. — LE