2012 Rogue's Gallery, part 4

Supporting Actor (Comedy)

Dax Anderson, Oh, Hell!, The Abreact
•Sean McGettigan, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Planet Ant Theatre
•Scott Norman, Taking Care of Mimi, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Wayne David Parker, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Purple Rose Theatre Co.
•Tom Whalen, On Golden Pond, Purple Rose Theatre Co.

To nominate Parker for reprising the role of a lifetime is like rooting for the Yankees, but every beat of his fresh, imaginative, wild-eyed, thrilling performance handily staked its ground here. Norman was a grandson, son, nephew, unemployed slacker, full-time caretaker, mildly rebellious drug user, and unswerving take-charge guy: in other words, the ultimate balancing act. A pulsing vein of unsullied wholesomeness made McGettigan’s patient, mannerly young man of carefully chosen words a suitor to remember. Whalen peppered his respectful meet-the-parents act with notes of strength and confidence that made awkward exchanges abundantly funny without crossing over into excruciating discomfort. But the nod goes to Anderson’s subservient, arrogant demon: burned to a crisp with antipathy, obeying with reluctant relish, staring with impotent eternal fury.

Supporting Actress (Comedy)

Terry Heck, The Importance of Being Earnest, Tipping Point Theatre
•Margaret Edwartowski, The Do-Over, Planet Ant Theatre
•Katie Galazka, Oh, Hell!, The Abreact
•Leslie Hull, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Performance Network Theatre
•Sonja Marquis, Beyond Therapy, Detroit Ensemble Theatre

Hull’s inclusion here was guaranteed on the strength of reactions alone, a breakthrough of unconscionable faces and noises usually kept behind closed doors. Seen-it disaffectedness and pointed straight talk were great raw materials for an interfering hotel maid, but the timing and the accordant mirth were all Edwartowski. Not content to answer questions, Galazka ardently grabbed the narrative with both hands and talked circles of blistering logic around those trying to contain her. Marquis teetered glibly at the edge of control, delighting with frenzied verbal tussling and infectiously unsettling laughter. Yet Heck’s richly haughty naysayer takes it by virtue of innumerable exceptional little choices: the word handbag may never be the same.

Lead Actor (Comedy)

Dave Toomey, Cyrano, Hilberry Theatre
•Jonathan Davidson, Burn the Red Banner, or, Let the Rebels Have Their Fun, The Abreact
•Joel Mitchell, A Behanding in Spokane, Breathe Art Theatre Project
•John Peakes, On Golden Pond, Purple Rose Theatre Co.
•Marke Sobolewski, Suddenly, Last Summer, Ringwald Theatre

The incessantly gobsmacked soft-spoken banker was Davidson’s pièce de résistance in an uproarious display of malarkey. Mitchell made hay with an obstacle of a character, pushing him to petulant heights of missing the point. Clipped, poison-tipped barbs and a frightened vulnerable streak flowed believably through Peakes’s cantankerous old grump. Sobolewski guided his campy, crazy hysteric over the top with riveting control — not a gesture or a word wasted. Still, Toomey’s Cyrano was so good-naturedly funny, so generously tender, there was no prosthetic nose big enough to suppress his enchanting appeal.

Lead Actress (Comedy)

Inga Wilson, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Planet Ant Theatre
•Barbie Amann Weisserman, Sylvia, Two Muses Theatre
•Sandra Birch, The Cemetery Club, Tipping Point Theatre
•Barbara Jacobs-Smith, Taking Care of Mimi, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Tara Rase, Séance 4, Planet Ant Theatre

Jacobs-Smith disappeared into a character beset by unpredictable, lamentable dementia, lending a sense of real danger while remaining a reliable source of laughter. Rase’s hilarious mouth-breathing performance showed frightening commitment to unconcerned slobbery and confident promiscuity — a human freak flag at full mast. Sprightly and frank, with well-honed physicality, Weisserman was the very picture of an anthropomorphized pet turned full-fledged family member. Birch hid the chips in her character’s sassy-brassy veneer in plain sight, but no matter how expected, the touchstone of honesty in her promised admissions made them revelatory. However, the layered depths of Wilson’s painful meekness stood their ground amid a clamor of oversized personalities, an insistently subtle performance that outstripped the rest.

Best Comedy

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Planet Ant Theatre (director Annette Madias)
•The Altruists, Magenta Giraffe Theatre Co. (director Molly McMahon)
•The Dead Guy, Williamston Theatre (director Tony Caselli)
•God of Carnage, Jewish Ensemble Theatre/Performance Network Theatre (director David J. Magidson)
•The Love List, Tipping Point Theatre (director Lynn Lammers)

The Altruists fed our best intentions to our worst self-interest, in screeching hypocrisy polished to a glaring shine. Although The Dead Guy earned laughs from its hastily sketched reality TV characters, its effectiveness hid in the hurtling certainty of its countdown to the inevitable. As visually refined as it was emotionally repugnant, God of Carnage furiously drilled down its purportedly evolved discourse into a riot of howling hurling (insults or otherwise). The Love List used honest reactions and strong connections to ground its gleefully zany premise, setting the stage for a galloping rubberneck of game changes. But the winner is a bright and shining Little Voice, sliding from hilarity to heartbreak and bounding back again on the strength of a sterling, keenly directed cast.