Well, I sat through a grand total of 228 shows in 2009. And here were the ten best and the ten worst, based on the ratings on my handy dandy spreadsheet – every single A+ plus a selection of A shows on the Best list, and every single F and a selection of D- shows on the Worst list. For completeness sake, I've stuck in the date I saw each show next to the title.
BEST
1. A Streetcar Named Desire (BAM) – 12/11/2009
The best production of the play I've seen (and I suspect I will ever see). A standing ovation for Cate Blanchett's Blanche seemed almost not good enough – we should have all just fallen to our knees and bowed to her brilliance.
2. Liza's At The Palace (Broadway) – 1/03/2009
I waited on line for something like 8 or 9 hours in the freezing cold lobby of the Palace Theatre to get front row rush seats. And it was worth every second.
3. Spring Awakening (West End) – 3/25/2009
Yes, I'm a bit of a “Spring Awakening” junkie, having seen the show 21 times – contributions from this year were the final two Broadway performances, the production in Vienna (in German) and in London, and the tour in Philadelphia. But the one that stuck out the most was the oh so young London cast that delivered a performance that was on par with the NY original (that being the highest praise one can give a production of "Spring Awakening").
4. Next To Normal (Broadway) – 5/22/2009
The best new musical of 2009. After a frankly lousy production off-Broadway at Second Stage, the creative team had the good fortune to be allowed to take the show to DC where they made all the necessary changes, and made a triumphant return to NY.
5. The Winter's Tale (BAM) – 2/21/2009
Part of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project, an absolutely joyous production of the play.
6. Exit The King (Broadway) – 4/24/2009
I know I'm in the vast minority on this, but the moment that clinched this for the list was the long scene in the second act where the Queen (Susan Sarandon) led the King (Geoffrey Rush) to death. Everyone seemed to think that it was long and boring and the one weak point in the otherwise fabulous play. Well it was kind of the opposite for me – that scene had me clutching my armrests and shaking. Obviously it touched a nerve.
7. Mary Stuart (Broadway) – 5/15/2009
Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter deliver a master class in acting.
8. The Late Christopher Bean (The Actors Company Theatre) - 12/07/2009
I had no expectations for this and kept putting it off and putting it off, until finally getting around to it the final week of its extended run. And darn if it wasn't funny and moving and wonderfully acted.
9. East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House (Axis Theatre) – 2/26/2009
How have I missed Edgar Oliver all of these years? The East Village legend delivered a riveting account of his life in an apartment building on E 10th St. My only criticism was that I wanted it to be longer. But I won't hold that against him.
10. Viral (NY Fringe Festival) – 8/24/2009
It's plays like this that make suffering through garbage at the Fringe Festival worth it. Both disturbing and touching, with top-notch acting, I wonder why this hasn't been given a commercial production yet. Am I to understand that a play about people who are turned on by watching people commit suicide is not an audience-friendly topic?
WORST
1. Othello (Public Theater/NYU) – 9/12/2009
Pity the poor people who went to see this sold out before it started production that starred Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz, and was directed by Peter Sellars. It was incomprehensible. A crime against Shakespeare.
2. Hedda Gabler (Roundabout) – 2/14/2009
Roundabout, Roundabout, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. I like Mary-Louise Parker in theory, though she was ghastly in her last two theatre outings (the other being “Dead Man's Cell Phone”). Not blame for this travesty rests solely on her shoulders. The direction and the rest of the cast were also terrible.
3. The Philanthropist (Roundabout) – 6/06/2009
More theatrical horror from Roundabout. The first scene wasn't bad. At least until Matthew Broderick started talking. For some reason I didn't leave at intermission, though I sorely regretted that decision when Broderick started on his interminable second act monologue. This was the play that finally made me realize that Matthew Broderick has absolutely zero acting ability, and convinced me to try as hard as I can to never see another production with him in the cast.
4. Wildflower (Second Stage Uptown) – 7/13/2009
Another in a long line of plays about socially inept teenage boys. Except this was worse than the others with a jaw-dropping bad twist ending.
5. Desire Under the Elms (Broadway) – 5/09/2009
I have no idea if this play is actually good or not, but based on this production it seems like Eugene O'Neill's worst. With the entire cast delivering awful over-the-top performances, and a bizarre and hideous set, well the only question is how anyone who saw this production in Chicago thought it was worthy of transferring to Broadway?
6. The Soul of Shaolin (Broadway) – 1/13/2009
A boring display of martial arts, shoe-horned into a thin plot. I fled at intermission.
7. Shipwrecked: An Entertainment (Primary Stages) – 1/27/2009
This was one of those plays with those plays that tries to use a tiny budget to its advantage by having two actors play a whole pile of different characters, assuming the audience will ooh, ah and giggle over how hard the actors work. I was bored, not charmed.
8. The Wiz (Encores Summer Stars) – 6/15/2009
You know that saying about not working with children or animals? I enjoyed Nigel (the dog)'s performance as Toto. That was about it.
9. Coraline (MCC) – 5/13/2009
About the most pretentious musical you could imagine based on a Neil Gaiman novel. And this one had the added displeasure of having the supremely untalented David Greenspan giving the same exact performance he gives in every show he does – he's Off-Broadway's answer to Matthew Broderick, I suppose.
10. 9 to 5 (Broadway) – 4/13/2009
Shear torture. Dreadful music, boring story. I used to like the title song. Not so much anymore, now that it's connected in my head to this travesty.
And there you go. Happy New Year everyone.
