31st ANNUAL TICKETHOLDER AWARDS 2022 

Over the last two years, although my 29th and 30th annual TicketHolder Award winners were all extremely worthy of the recognition, the pickins’ were mighty slim since the pandemic so totally devastated theatre in LA—and everywhere else, for that matter. The list of shows and performances from which to choose was extremely limited. This year, it’s the opposite; the abundance of exceptional live performances presented in our reclaimed desert climes has been staggering.

For me, the standout category for consideration in 2022 has been the plethora of brilliant ensemble casts. Aside from my ultimate winner, Antaeus’ knockout Everybody where six actors had to learn six parts and who played which role was decided by onstage lottery as the performance began, I have also posted 11 runners-up for the top prize and truly, all of them were equally impressive.

The other conundrum this year has been something rattling around in my brain for several weeks now. Each year, I award a TicketHolder to one Los Angeles theatre company I consider to have mounted the most impressive season. This year, I simply cannot single out one organization that has worked harder than any other—and all our hardworking and financially devastated theatre companies, from the largest to the tiniest, are struggling to get butts back in the seats.

For this reason, instead of awarding one award for Best Season, I am presenting it to our entire community as a whole. The amount of unstoppable energy and inventiveness generated, as everyone trying to create art in a vacuum has been met with even more obstacles than usual, is beyond contemplation. I am so proud of our stalwart producers of theatrical wonder in our city at every level. Each and every one of them deserves our gratitude—and our help.

BEST SEASON OF 2022: THE ENTIRE LA THEATRE COMMUNITY

BEST PRODUCTION of 2022

If I Forget, Fountain Theatre

The Inheritance, Geffen Playhouse

The Lehman Trilogy, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

The Play You Want, Road Theatre Company

Lavender Men, Playwrights’ Arena / Skylight Theatre Company

Trayf, Geffen Playhouse

Beloved, Road Theatre Company

Everybody, Antaeus Theatre Company

Little Theatre, Rogue Machine

To Kill a Mockingbird, Pantages Theatre

RUNNERS-UP: Ann, Pasadena Playhouse; The Beautiful People, Rogue Machine; Clyde’s, CTG/Taper; King James, CTG/Taper; Power of Sail, Geffen; Slave Play, CTG/Taper; 2:22 - A Ghost Story, CTG/Ahmanson

BEST REVIVAL PRODUCTION

Uncle Vanya, Pasadena Playhouse

Metamorphoses, A Noise Within

Chopin in Paris, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Ubu the King, Actors’ Gang

Radio Golf, A Noise Within

Anna in the Tropics, A Noise Within 

Annie, Dolby Theatre

Assassins, East West Players

Cats, Pantages Theatre 

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Geffen Playhouse

BEST MUSICAL PRODUCTION

Hadestown, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre / Segerstrom Center

Jagged Little Pill, Pantages Theatre

St. Matthew Passion, Los Angeles Opera and the Hamburg Ballet

Animal Farm, A Noise Within

Lucia di Lammermoor, Los Angeles Opera

The Prom, Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Pantages Theatre

Die Heart, Troubadour Theater Company at the Colony Theatre 

Invincible, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 

Shambles, Actors’ Gang

SPECIAL EVENTS

 The Empire Strips Back, Ricardo Montalban Theatre

The “hyper-staged” reading of Lisa Loomer’s Roe, Fountain Theatre

Snatched from the Edge / Star Dust, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

SPECIAL MOST DRIVEN AND PROLIFIC MAN OF OUR TIME AWARD

Hershey Felder and his New Musical Films 2022:

The Assembly, Parts One & Two

Chopin & Liszt in Paris

Mozart and Figaro in Venice

Musical Tales of the Venetian Jewish Ghetto

The Verdi Traviata

THE WHAT-WERE-THEY-THINKING AWARD for 2022

King Lear, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts