Looking back on 2006

In 2006, I saw a grand total of 104 shows - an increase of 6 over last year's total of 98. Whoever says that LA is a cultural wasteland hasn't been looking hard enough, though if you compare it to New York I must admit the prevalence of shows to pick from isn't always there. Nevertheless, I enjoyed many of the shows I saw this year.

I can't claim to have seen a comprehensive list of shows this year the way newspaper critics can - but here's what I'll remember from 2006.

THEATER

In the Continuum at Kirk Douglas Theatre in November moved me, made me cry. All My Sons at the Geffen in April reminded me that a wonderfully written classic play still packs all the punch when its done right. Robert Wilson/Tom Waitts' The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets at the Ahmanson in April was fantastically bizarre, and a thrilling adventure for the senses: surreal stage sets, hypnotic music and fabulous performances made it one of the most fascinating two hours that I've spent inside a theater. On Broadway, a new production of Sweeney Todd, where the actors also doubled as the musicians, gave me a completely new look at a show I thought I already knew. Productions of Doubt and Rabbit Hole, two recent dramas imported from Broadway for runs here in LA, packed a powerful punch for me - Doubt raised all kinds of interesting, unresolved questions while Rabbit Hole was a pretty involving evening in the theatre. I had so much fun going to see the pre-Broadway tryout of A Chorus Line at the Curan in San Francisco during August. Of course, the production was a painstaking recreation of the original Michael Bennett production, but it's a great show and I'm glad I got to see a very well done production of it.

DANCE

Diana Vishneva gave a superlative performance as Odette/Odile in the Kirov Ballet's Swan Lake at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in October, combining all the dramatic qualities she undoubtedly learned while guesting with Western ballet companies with all the beauty and lyricism that the Russians are so famous for. Over the summer, Miami City Ballet performed Jerome Robbins' plotless, 60-minute ballet Dances at a Gathering with verve, authority and charm: the ballet's inventiveness and the dancers' ease made the whole thing seem like only 6 minutes. Though the five other ballets the company performed during its three day July visit to the Music Center in Los Angeles came off rather disappointingly, this Dances at a Gathering will be remembered for a very, very long time. On the contemporary front, Batsheva Dance Company sizzled in its plotless contemporary piece at UCLA Live in November, while the Lyon Opera Ballet and Ballet Biarritz - with their superbly trained dancers and delightfully wacky/random repertories - showed us how different contemporary dance scene is in Europe.

I traveled this year for The Royal Ballet and they didn't disappoint. Tamara Rojo had me swooning in Boston with a searing performance in Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, which she danced with Carlos Acosta. Then, in Washington DC, Alina Cojocaru delivered a crystal perfect Aurora in the Royal's brand new production of The Sleeping Beauty. Cojocaru's performance was recorded in London recently and will be aired on British television - I can't wait.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, visiting Southern California in February (I caught them at the Carpenter Center at Cal State Long Beach), was thrilling in a different way. The all-male company dances in drag and on pointe, offering a hilarious send-up of classical ballet. But it wasn't just parody: they were damn good. They danced the choreography all correctly - in Les Sylphides the steps were all there - but they lovingly accentuated ballet's oddities while wowing us with their exceptional technique.

MUSIC

I went to a ton of LA Phil performances this year, now that everyone has stopped scrambling to get in to see Walt Disney Concert Hall and seats are more readily available. That's not to say exciting things have stopped happening inside: there was a fabulous Rite of Spring in May, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and recorded for posterity by Deutsch Grammophon. And to kick off the 06/07 season, there was a spectacular performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 - a massive work for gigantic orchestra and choir. Again, Salonen conducted.

And the Disappointments...

I was apathetic towards The History Boys on Broadway, even though everyone was flipping out about it. It was a very wordy, intellectual play about the nature of education - all stuff that's been bantered about before, and though the presentation was occasionally entertaining, I didn't feel it added up to much. Over at the opera, I'm disappointed in the opera I've seen in LA. I was bored at the "sexy Manon" with Anna Netrebko at LA Opera in October, and checked my watch more than once during what was by all accounts a lovely La Traviata with Rene Fleming in September. I am, however, enjoying the Meteropolitan Opera's live broadcasts over the internet - partly because I can do other things while I'm listening - and I'll be giving the live HD broadcasts to a movie theatre near me a shot in early January. Curtains, John Kander and Fred Ebb's last musical, received a pre-Broadway tryout production at the Ahmanson Theatre over the summer, and it was occasionally pleasing but the plot was wooden and the giant production just kind of lumbered along. I think my hopes for pre-Broadway tryouts got blown way out of proportion when I fell in love, love, love with The Drowsy Chaperone last year. A few other duds: The Kirov's Romeo and Juliet at OCPAC in October, the Roundabout Theatre Company production of The Threepenny Opera on Broadway, and the compromised national tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (I loved the original Broadway production at its tryout in San Diego two years ago - something went missing in the tour...).

Despite the disappointments, it was still a pretty fun year seeing shows. Here's to a year of great ones in 2007!