FROM SHAKESPEARE TO SNOWBALLS ... MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN L.A. THEATER.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

The city's theatrical year began with a high-profile visit from Billy Crystal (yeah, I know he already lives here) restaging his hit Broadway solo show ``700 Sundays'' at the Wilshire Theatre. By year's end, Carrie Fisher's ``Wishful Drinking'' was packing in audiences at the Geffen Playhouse.

In between those two starry solo acts, the city's various producing companies and presenters gave us numerous reasons to sample stage offerings in '06. Rather than try to cobble together some kind of a Top 10 list -- in which I try to persuade you that magician Ricky Jay belongs in the same hemisphere as snow-loving clown Slava Polunin -- here's a list of this theater-goer's memorable moments of 2006.

TALK ABOUT A TROUPER: Adriana Sevan blew out her knee during the opening performance of her post-9/11-themed ``Solomania'' show, ``Taking Flight.'' After consulting a doctor, and with an ambulance on the way, Sevan finished the arresting play from her chair.

MAYHEM: The ``snow'' gets all the play, but what those clowns pull off during the intermission of ``Slava's Snowshow'' is rather outrageous as well. Ditto the flying balls at the end.

TWIN KILLINGS: We've heard the bellyaching of actresses who say there's nothing left for them on screen once they hit the big 40 (or is it now the big 35?). All the more reason to go live, as both Laurie Metcalf, 51, and Judy Kaye, 58, did twice in L.A. this year.

Metcalf jumped from a scene-stealing reprise of the character she created in Justin Tanner's ``Pot Mom'' directly to the remarkable revival of Arthur Miller's ``All My Sons'' at the Geffen Playhouse. Kaye shone as a lovelorn innkeeper in Reprise's ``Zorba'' and then restaged her Tony-nominated turn as vocally challenged Florence Foster Jenkins in ``Souvenir'' at the Brentwood.

EQUAL TIME FOR THE DOUBLE DIPPING MEN: ... particularly Laurence Fishburne (in ``Without Walls'' at the Mark Taper Forum and ``Fences'' at the Pasadena Playhouse) and Dakin Matthews (the Taper's ``Water and Power'' and South Coast Repertory's ``Hitchcock Blonde.'')

AUGUST ALL YEAR: Two strong productions of ``Fences,'' and stunning renditions of ``Joe Turner's Come and Gone'' (Fountain Theatre) and ``Jitney'' (Lillian Theatre) ensured that playwright August Wilson's flame burned white hot in L.A. in '06.

TO THE GREAT WHITE WAY VIA THE 5: Broadway's two top Tony Award-winning musicals in 2006 played the Southland first. Best Book and Best Original Score winner ``The Drowsy Chaperone'' started at the Ahmanson in the fall of 2005, and Best Musical ``Jersey Boys'' had its world premiere run at the La Jolla Playhouse in late 2004.

Reviewing the La Jolla production, this critic proclaimed that the show would be in trouble if their Frankie Valli, played by David Norona, didn't travel with the show to Broadway. Good thing the producers didn't listen to me: Replacement Valli John Lloyd Young took the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.

SOME GREAT SHAKES: Unlike August Wilson, the Bard is never in short supply. Still, '06 was a particularly strong year for Shakespearean productions, courtesy of A Noise Within (``As You Like It''), the Actors' Gang (``Love's Labour's Lost'') and San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, the latter producing a comic and highly decadent rendition of Shakespeare's tragedy ``Titus Andronicus.''

WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION: Whatever else needed to be fixed in Pasadena Playhouse's ``Sister Act: The Musical,'' the show-stopping, ``I know how to seduce a nun'' song titled ``The Lady in the Long Black Dress'' must remain untouched.

NOW, HERE'S THE PLAN: Equally as gut-busting as the ``Sister Act'' song was a visual diagram explaining convoluted Shakespearean trickery in the Troubadour Theater Company's ``Much Adoobie Brothers About Nothing.'' Beth Kennedy did the explaining. Matt Walker did the listening. The audience did the roaring.

HEARTY THANKS FOR VISITING: They've played these roles before and had no great incentive to return to the same well again. Kudos, then, to Norbert Leo Butz (of ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels''), Cherry Jones (``Doubt''), Eve Ensler (``The Good Body'') and the aforementioned Judy Kaye (``Souvenir'') for touring.

Oh, Al Pacino was here, too, in ``Salome,'' even though he was thoroughly upstaged by Jessica Chastain's smoldering, veil-dropping princess.

YOU RUHL!: Playwright Sarah Ruhl enchanted both in her interpretation of the Demeter-Persephone myth (Cornerstone's ``Demeter in the City'') and in tackling Orpheus and Eurydice (Circle X's ``Eurydice.'') Now, if L.A. can land a local production of her play ``The Clean House,'' we'll really be in business.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: To the Valley Musical Theatre, whose first attempt at a musical in the El Portal Theatre, ``Beehive,'' was largely delightful.

To the Interact Theatre Company, for crafting a production of ``Urinetown'' that was great fun to watch and didn't get anybody sued.

To Theatre Tribe, for producing Craig Wright's ``Recent Tragic Events,'' one of the better post-9/11 plays to be seen.

To Center Theatre Group, for electing to restage the Robey Theatre Company's production of ``Permanent Collection'' at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Now that was a production that decidedly needed a bigger audience.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) ``FENCES''

(2) ``DEMETER IN THE CITY''

(3) ``DOUBT''