The Fall Season Hubbies

Right now is one of those moments when I wonder why I bother writing this silly blog at all. I mean, I just finished reading a threatening e-mail from a drag queen. Sigh. I'm being threatened by a drag queen. And yes, somehow this does seem like a step down from the pissy insults I used to have to endure from the likes of Ronan Noone. In a word, my life couldn't get more ridiculous. I remember a few months ago I had a kind of e-mail epiphany with Brian Jewell, then arts editor of Bay Windows, and a smart and funny guy, who basically told me that yeah, my writing was great - but that didn't matter. People just didn't care whether or not the criticism they read was good or bad. I protested at the time, but even then somewhere in my heart I knew he was right - how could he be wrong, given what we read every day? So here's to not mattering, and drag queens who write e-mails that read like out-takes from The Sopranos. And to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.

And to the best performances of the fall season. Of course Brian's right, and it doesn't matter that they be singled out for praise - these people only "matter" to me - so please stop reading right now! This list is meant for my eyes only - it's just a little reminder to myself of why I do all this depressing blogging part, and why I put up with all the ugliness: so I can see actors like this doing things like this on stage.

So without further ado:

The last round of Hubbies (a virtual award you should imagine in roughly the form of Michael Phelps, sculpted in lucite) was bestowed in August. Since then I've savored the following performances:

Carson Elrod, David Pittu, A Flea in Her Ear, Williamstown Theatre Festival;

Maria Dizzia, Sarah Steele, Not Waving, Williamstown Theatre Festival;

Michael Mastro, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, North Shore Music Theatre;

Scott H. Severance, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!; Nora Theatre;

Peter A. Carey, Follies, Lyric Stage;

Amelia Broome (left), Carolynne Warren, The Light in the Piazza, SpeakEasy Stage;

Lindsey McWhorter, Ramona Lisa Alexander, In the Continuum, Up You Mighty Race;

Monica Raymund, Boleros for the Disenchanted, Huntington Theatre;

Brendan McNab, Gutenberg! The Musical!; New Repertory Theatre;

Lauren Lukacek, Hannah Jane McMurray, Follies, Boston Conservatory;

Karl Baker Olson, Lynn R. Guerra, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, New Repertory Theatre;

Richard Snee, Adrianne Krstansky, Will McGarrahan, Neil A. Casey, November, Lyric Stage;

Kelby T. Akin, Take Me Out, Worcester Foothills Theatre;

Melissa Lone, 42nd Street, North Shore Music Theatre;

Kortney Adams, Voyeurs de Venus, Company One;

Luis Negron, Saint Joan, Wheelock Family Theatre;

René Augesen, Rock 'n' Roll, Huntington Theatre;

Robert Najarian (right), Einstein's Dreams, Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT;
and
Amanda Fulks, Skylight, Merrimack Repertory Theatre.