Yes, dear reader, it's time once again for "The Greenies," this reviewer's yearly salute to those performances, good and bad, that have made 1994 such an action-packed year in Anne Arundel County arts.
* Best Performance by an Actress: CeCe Newbrough in "Dancing at Lughnasa" at Colonial Players. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the play, a talk-fest detailing the lives of five dysfunctional sisters in Depression-wracked Ireland.
But when Ms. Newbrough took the stage as the feisty, furiously loyal Maggie, I was completely drawn in by her power and energy. When she got her four repressed sisters to dance with her in a cathartic jig -- the only moment of pure freedom most of them would ever know -- I was positively stunned.
* Best Performance by an Actor: Bill Cookson in the Pasadena Theatre Company's production of "Me and My Gal." The program said the leading man hailed from Ellicott City. The planet Krypton would have been more like it. This guy can sing, dance, play for laughs, pick up an entire cast and carry it to the finish line. What a joyful, electrifying performance he gave.
* Best Performance in a Historical Drama: Vivian Gist as Harriet Tubman in "Sweet Chariot," the Margaret Barton Driggs one-woman play about the abolitionist and founder of the Underground Railroad. Ms. Gist gets this one hands down. She gave us Harriet as a 5-year-old, as a love-sick teen-ager and as the aging heroine whose courage hammered so many nails in the coffin of slavery.
* Best Concert of the Year: the Annapolis Symphony's October concerts featuring Boston-based pianist Virginia Eskin in the Piano Concerto of Amy Beach, America's first female symphonic composer.
There were several to choose from, but this concert had a sense of discovery as Maestro Gisele Ben-Dor and her soloist took us through this Romantic concerto that contains references to other composers but remains fresh and altogether worth hearing on its own. Add a delightful pair of Brahms Hungarian Dances and a sturdy reading of the Dvorak 6th Symphony, and you've got a winner.
* Biggest Move Toward the Top: Gisele Ben-Dor made her debut with the New York Philharmonic last spring, filling in on short notice for the ailing Kurt Masur. She also conducted the Boston Pops for the first time and is to debut with the London Symphony in 1995. She also was named music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in California in June.
With Ms. Ben-Dor having so many irons in the fire, it makes one wonder if the next ASO conductor search isn't just around the corner.
* Biggest Dud: the Annapolis Summer Garden's vapid, colorless "Little Shop of Horrors." This production was a disgrace. What's worse, it came on the heels of a prettily sung but basically anemic "Guys and Dolls." You have to wonder what's going on over there by the City Dock. Is new blood needed? Nice people all, but what gives?
* Biggest Disappointment: the cancellation of an Annapolis Symphony Orchestra concert that held so much promise. An engaging young Belgian, Walter Proost, was in town to conduct the orchestra, and Suzanne Orban, the orchestra's principal cellist, was getting a long overdue chance to solo. Enter the ice and snow of 1994 and the concert was history.
* Most Ambitious Challenge Met: Bobbi Smith's Talent Machine pulled off a spectacular "Singin' in the Rain" in August that still has me scratching my head in wonder. As her teens and pre-teens danced like pros, pipes pumped a zillion gallons of water on them and they didn't miss a step. How did they do that?
* Most Incredible Cast: Without a doubt, it was the Annapolis Dinner Theatre's cast of "1776." I know. I was in it. Management bounced more checks than Congress. The air conditioning broke down more than once. (In a summer show where the men wear wigs and tights, that's a problem). Power failures and in-house histrionics disrupted the run too many times. Yet the show opened on May 17th and closed, as scheduled and in fine style, Aug. 20. My colleagues of the 2nd Continental Congress, I salute you.