By far, the best world-premiere musical of 2015 was La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s “Come from Away,” in which a large ensemble cast (helmed by Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley) related a largely forgotten 9/11 story – the fate of the other planes and their passengers and crews in international airspace when terrorists struck. Diverted, they landed in Newfoundland. The Playhouse has also received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund the 2016 DNA New Works Series, which takes place Feb. 15 through 27. Repertoire is soon to be announced. The classics lover’s highlights of the 2015 San Diego Fringe Festival were Bodhi Tree Concerts’ production of Bohuslav Martinu’s Dadaist opera “Tears of the Knife” and Blythe Barton Dance Company’s production of “Reverberate,” with the Naeve Trio. I’d seen the Martinu only once, at Long Beach Opera, and my introduction to the Naeve Trio, in residence at San Diego State University, was a revelation. Late in the year, we were informed (with no explanation) of the departure of Mo’olelo Theatre Company’s new artistic director, Lydia Fort. Then came an eleventh-hour announcement that the remainder of the company’s season is cancelled while a leadership search progresses. Keep your fingers crossed. This does not bode well. The elusive ion theatre company production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” had what appeared to be firm opening dates at San Diego Museum of Art, but those now appear to be elusive. Ion powers that be say dates are soon to be announced for the musical, to be directed by Kim Strassburger. Speaking of which: San Diego was rife with musicals in 2015. As always, my favorites were not everyone’s, and everyone’s were not mine. The best musical revivals in my observation were San Diego Repertory Theatre’s 40th-anniversary opener, Jeanine Tesori’s “Violet,” directed by Sam Woodhouse, and San Diego Musical Theatre’s “La Cage aux Folles,” starring Robert Townsend, David Engel and James Vasquez. Also impossible to forget is the Old Globe Theatre’s ravishingly beautiful dance musical, “In Your Arms,” for which ten major playwrights provided vignettes. Christopher Gattelli directed. The outstanding play of the season was Intrepid Theatre Company’s “The Quality of Life,” produced in a Carlsbad former movie theatre and featuring a fine ensemble directed by Intrepid co-founder Christy Yael-Cox. Jeffrey Jones turned in a jaw-dropping performance as the male protagonist. Yael-Cox also staged a fine-tuned “End of the Rainbow” late in the year at San Diego Repertory Theatre, starring Eileen Bowman as Judy Garland. Also laudable (in no particular order) were the Playhouse’s “Healing Wars,” MOXIE Theatre’s “The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence,” Diversionary Theatre’s “A New Brain,” Cygnet Theatre’s Noel Coward repertory, the Globe’s “The Twenty-Seventh Man” and Lamb’s Players Theatre’s “Freud’s Last Session,” with Francis Gercke and Robert Smyth. Meanwhile, Broadway San Diego brings in Idina Menzel in “If/Then” at the Civic Theatre Jan. 5 to 10, and San Diego Repertory Theatre fields John Patrick Shanley’s “Outside Mullingar” Jan. 14 through Feb. 21. Coming Jan. 30 at the Globe is a co-production of David Ives’ “Metromaniacs,” an adaptation of an 18th-century French farce about poets high on rhyme, meter and love. Michael Kahn, of the Washington, D.C. Shakespeare Theatre, directs. Lamb’s Players Theatre hosts Intrepid Theatre in a guest residency at the Horton Grand Theatre Jan. 30 through Feb. 28. Yael-Cox directs Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” starring Deborah Gilmour Smyth and Robert Smyth as Martha and George. That’s just a glimmer of the 2016 theatrical riches coming soon.
