The Year In Review
The Year’s Twelve Best

Some of the best shows I saw in 2008 aren’t on this list, even though I saw each multiple times. [title of show], Gypsy, BASH’d, and Passing Strange: each of these gems has been on my Best list last year or the year before, so it seemed redundant to include them again. Also, I didn’t want to consider shows I saw regionally, but if I had The Visit would have made the Best list, along with some of the performances in Kiss of The Spider Woman, both at Signature in Virginia. One last caveat: I haven’t yet seen Liza’s At The Palace.

PLAYS
The year’s first must-see was Fabrik, from the experimental puppet troupe known as Wakka Wakka. The story, of a Noregian Jewish businessman who is captured by the Nazis, was made all the more wrenching and powerful for being told for adults with the devices of children’s theatre. The superbly realized revival of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan currently at the Atlantic is dark comedy at its most bitter, and the best production of any McDonagh I’ve yet to see. Mike Daisey’s blisteringly honest, covertly inspiring monologue How Theatre Failed America is still very much with me six months after seeing it. I was knocked out by the austere intensity of Peter Brook’s production of The Grand Inquisitor at NYTW this year. Red Bull’s bold, risk-taking queer-revisionist production of Edward The Second was both intellectually stimulating and viscerally entertaining. Craig Wright’s Lady was one of the most engaging plays to date to deal with reactions here at home to the war in Iraq. Director Ivo van Hove turned John Casavettes’ screenplay of Opening Night into a fascinating and dynamic theatrical event.

MUSICALS
The Encores! production of On The Town was a blast of vintage musical comedy pleasure thanks in part to the phenomenal dancing. Wisely staged as more like an organic happening than as a book musical, the production of Hair in Central Park turned the looseness of the show’s book to its advantage. Billy Elliot instantly joins the ranks alongside Oliver! as one of the very best British musicals ever written. At NYMF, a raunchy-ish spoof of Oklahoma! called Idaho! was unquestionably the funniest show I saw in 2008. Also at NYMF, the play with music Love Jerry ranks with Paula Vogel’s How I Learned To Drive for raw honesty about sex abuse.