Shining stars: Our theater reviewers pick their 2022 favorites on Cape stages

Sue Mellen, Contributing writer
·8 min read

In 2022, Cape theater-goers were treated to a fabulous feast of searing drama, raucous comedy, soaring musical numbers and — above all — some truly award-winning acting. Here are our reviewers' takes on the Best of the Best over the past year. (Note: 2023 promises to be another stunning year, with theater companies already scheduling a varied list of soon-to-be masterpieces.)

From Reviewer Sue Mellen

The cast of "From the Heart of the Wreck," based on the story behind the pirate ship Whydah and the love between pirate Samuel Bellamy and Goody Hallett (the Witch of Wellfleet) are, from left, Coleman Churchill, Nick Nudler, BT Hayes (crouching), Ari Lew and Kirsten Peacock.
The cast of "From the Heart of the Wreck," based on the story behind the pirate ship Whydah and the love between pirate Samuel Bellamy and Goody Hallett (the Witch of Wellfleet) are, from left, Coleman Churchill, Nick Nudler, BT Hayes (crouching), Ari Lew and Kirsten Peacock.

Best Show: “An American in Paris,” Cape Playhouse: In a summer of stunning theater here on Cape Cod, this stage version of the classic film was a stand-out masterpiece. It’s impossible to imagine a more perfect melding of incomparable orchestration, brilliant lyrics (givens from the Gershwin brothers), touching and complex romance, and glorious and soaring dance numbers. In fact, thanks to the stunning choreography of director and choreographer Al Blackstone, dance became the visual language and underlying story of this show.

Best Actress: Ann Vohs as Adelaide, “Guys and Dolls,” Academy of Performing Arts: While the show was filled with competent vocalists, Vohs stood out as the sweet and long-suffering chorus girl Adelaide. She had a powerful vocal delivery that sent her voice up to the rafters of the venerable Academy Playhouse in songs like “Adelaide’s Lament” and “Take Back Your Mink.”

Best Actor(s): #1: Joseph MacDougall, “Black Eye/Quickies,” Provincetown Dramatic Arts and Mark Cortale Productions: In this knock-out punch of a quartet of one-acts, MacDougall plays an aging gay man tightly packed in black leather and cruising along the highway, where he picks up a couple of young guys staggering along the road after a night at the local gin joint. The audience was in the driver’s head as he made eye contact via the rearview mirror with his prey, delivering a powerful meditation on how desire and danger blend to create an explosive mixture.

#2: Anthony Teixeira as Gomez, “The Addams Family, The Musical,” Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre: Teixeira was perfect as the ever-debonair Latin (if a bit charmingly wacky) leader of the kooky clan. His deadpan delivery of riotous one-liners alone (“I’m trapped like the moderate wing of the right”) were worth the price of admission.

Best Theater Moments: Gershwin orchestral numbers in “An American in Paris,” Cape Playhouse. The musical pieces, including the 17-minute ballet at the show’s finale, were incomparable. Voices were universally trained and strong, filling songs with the same level of emotion so obvious in dance and movement.

From Reviewer Jay Pateakos

Best Show: "School of Rock" from Cape Cod Theatre Company: The show was filled with heart-stopping laughter for the whole family.

Best Actress: Kirsten Peacock as the Witch of Wellfleet in Cape Rep Theater's "From the Heart of the Wreck." Her performance was truly haunting!

Kirsten Peacock is a co-creator and actress in "From the Heart of the Wreck," having its world premiere at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster.
Kirsten Peacock is a co-creator and actress in "From the Heart of the Wreck," having its world premiere at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster.

Best Actor: Jason Edelstein as John Wilkes Booth in the College Light Opera Company's "Assassins" Edelstein almost single-handedly kept the show flowing toward great heights.

Best Theater Moment(s): #1: Any time show narrator Michael McCartney was on the stage in "A Christmas Story" from Cape Cod Theater Company. He was the most perfect narrator ever, matching his boyhood expressions with the lead Jack Baumrind, who played an excellent Ralphie.

#2: Musical moments in "Piano Men II: A Musical Tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John" from Cotuit Center for the Arts and featuring Anthony Teixeira and John Connelly, along with pianist Misao Koyama with The All Star Band. This was an amazing performance of all the best Billy Joel and Elton John songs. Here's hoping for a sequel next year!

From Reviewer Paul Babin

Best Show: "Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus," written by Taylor Mac, directed by RJ Tolan, presented by Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. The hilarious performances and Mac's wickedly funny script made this a must-see. Mac drew upon the raw material of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy to create an uproarious, sophisticated comedy.

Starring in the area premiere of "Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus" at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater were, from left, A.J. Clauss, Lacy Allen and Layla Khoshnoudi.
Starring in the area premiere of "Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus" at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater were, from left, A.J. Clauss, Lacy Allen and Layla Khoshnoudi.

Best Actress: Layla Khoshnoudi was wickedly funny as the eponymous clown in "Gary, a Sequel to Titus Andronicus." Her performance was so affecting because she delivered Mac's droll dialogue without being condescending.

Robert Kropf, left, plays a psychopathic killer and Stacey Fischer plays an academic studying his case in the area premiere of "Frozen" at Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet.
Robert Kropf, left, plays a psychopathic killer and Stacey Fischer plays an academic studying his case in the area premiere of "Frozen" at Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet.

Best Actor: Robert Kropf gave an eerily convincing performance as a child killer in the Harbor Stage Company's production of "Frozen.” Kropf's performance humanized the monstrous behavior of Ralph, who was plagued by memories of his abusive father.

Best Theater Moment: The prologue to "Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus," was bloody hilarious ... literally. It started with Carol championing the virtues of violence: "So double up on savagery and war: To satisfy you multiply the gore." Then, seemingly out of nowhere, blood squirted out of her neck.

From Reviewer Barbara Clark

Best Show: The remarkable staging of Thornton Wilder’s drama “Our Town” by Eventide Theater Company makes it my choice for best show. The play’s timelessness, simplicity and genius still deliver the same power and resonance that  brought the 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama its fame, and the Eventide repertory cast came together to offer an evening of extraordinary theater.

Brittany Rolfs, left, and Leanne McLaughlin play young artists who join a resistance group against the Nazis in World War II Berlin in the new play "Red Swans," which premiered at Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre.
Brittany Rolfs, left, and Leanne McLaughlin play young artists who join a resistance group against the Nazis in World War II Berlin in the new play "Red Swans," which premiered at Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre.

Best Actress: Dual kudos belong to an inseparable pair, without whose enduring friendship there would have been no drama. In the true story “Red Swans” at the Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre, Brittany Rolfs and Leanne McLaughlin play the real-life Lisa Egler and Katja Caselles, young Jewish women recruited to a resistance network as couriers during World War II, delivering vital information across Germany’s borders. CCTC/HJT former director, Nina Schuessler, who directed the drama, is Egler’s real-life daughter.

A historical photo of Katja Caselles, left, and Lisa Gervai Egler, Nina Schuessler's mother, the WWII resistance fighters who are the subjects of the world premiere play "Red Swans."
A historical photo of Katja Caselles, left, and Lisa Gervai Egler, Nina Schuessler's mother, the WWII resistance fighters who are the subjects of the world premiere play "Red Swans."

Best Actor(s): #1: Both of the winners in this category performed in shows at Eventide Theater. In his role as the Stage Manager in “Our Town,” Stephen Rourke perfectly embodied the characteristics and garrulous charm of a master storyteller. He delivered many of the show’s iconic lines, and his performance pierced to the heart of the deceptively easygoing characters and scenes that defined and illuminated life in Grover’s Corners.

#2: Cleo Zani’s spectacular performance was much more than just a “container” for Neil Simon’s classic one-liners in Simon’s famed “The Sunshine Boys.” To his role as fading comedic star Al Lewis, Zani brought a wistful consciousness of the aging actor’s persona and just what it’s like to be an old man, from the touchstone of a longtime friendship with his former partner to the hilarious antics of a long-gone vaudeville set piece.

The ensemble cast in the Cape Playhouse 50th anniversary production of the musical "Grease."
The ensemble cast in the Cape Playhouse 50th anniversary production of the musical "Grease."

Best Theater Moment: A moment during a Cape Playhouse on-your-feet performance of “Grease,” a highlight of its 2022 season. Broadway/New York singer-actor J. Daughtry brought down the house in the show’s famous “Teen Angel” scene, descending from a cloud to the counter at Burger Palace, backed by a girl-group of waitresses, to offer advice and savvy from on-high to awestruck teen dropout Frenchy.

Reviewer Carol Panasci

Best Show: “The Ballad of Bobby Botswain,” Harbor Stage Company: This was one of the most interesting evenings of theater I have seen in a long time. Like a buddy comedy on hallucinogenics, the unconventional plot revolved around the search for the notorious Bobby Botswain, a combination pharmaceutical Robin Hood and magical mystic. The two main characters (played by Jonathan Fielding and Jason Lambert, who also wrote the play) navigated morals, ethics and unlikely friendship on their journey. The rapid-fire engrossing, script is engaging and surprising, and the acting and physicality are seamlessly calibrated. The show offered philosophy and pathos dolloped out with outrageous, laugh-out-loud humor.

Best Actress: Dian Hamilton in Provincetown Theater’s production of “The Humans” was credible, convincing and somehow even clever as the fragile and failing grandmother. She managed an astounding performance without uttering a single intelligible word.

Robert Kropf starts in the one-man show "Stand Up If You're Here Tonight" by John Kolvenbach, produced by Harbor Stage Company.
Robert Kropf starts in the one-man show "Stand Up If You're Here Tonight" by John Kolvenbach, produced by Harbor Stage Company.

Best Actor: The Harbor Stage Company’s world premiere of John Kolvenbach’s “Stand Up if You’re Here Tonight” provided a perfect vehicle for one of the company’s founding members and its artistic director, Robert Kropf.

Best Theater Moment: The one-man show “Stand Up” was inspirational in a surprising, funny, poignant and totally unexpected way. Kropf played a character who is at once a shaman, a psychoanalyst, comedian and savant who leads the audience on a healing journey. His performance made an intriguing script come alive and bite, moving the audience to hilarious laughter and the verge of tears.

From Reviewer Shannon Goheen

Best Play: “Jerker,” Provincetown Theater. It was a fascinating and poignant elegy to the men who went through the tragedy of AIDS before the medical world was prepared to handle it.

Best Actress: Kristin Stewart in “Shirley Valentine,” Cotuit Center for the Arts. Stewart delivered a moving monologue that kept us spellbound for two solid hours, while wishing for a third.

Best Actor: Dennis Cunningham as Dodge in “Buried Child” at Harbor Stage Company. He was convincingly pathetic and repulsive, while delivering a steady stream of humor.

The cast of "Tiny Beautiful Things" in the Cape premiere of Cheryl Strayed's play.
The cast of "Tiny Beautiful Things" in the Cape premiere of Cheryl Strayed's play.

Best Theater Moment: “Tiny Beautiful Things” at Provincetown Theater was a true story that demonstrated how a flawed human being could open her heart to answer advice column letters with love and respect for both herself and the questioner. In so doing, it moved beyond comforting to thrilling.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Shining stars: Reviewers pick their 2022 favorites on Cape stages