Ferryman is O'Neill with a brogue, which is not intended as a compliment --- self-indulgently over-long with too many tears flowing from the bottle(s).
Best play I've seen this year is The Height of the Storm, a cubist drama at the Wyndham in London with Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins. It's done in translation from French playwright Florian Zeller. He presents multiple, interwoven, initially confusing and deeply poignant perspectives on the main characters' aging and deaths. Hoping it will come to New York because I would definitely see it a second time.
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Loved Dear Evan Hansen in early July 2018. The third Evan was definitely not Ben Platt, but he did a great job. We were fortunate to see many original cast members who left by summer’s end. I’m shocked no one mentionned Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, or Come from Away?
@Michelle Heym, the lack of attention to "Hamilton" especially has been noticeable. I have to assume it's so that we're not saturated before "Mary Poppins' Return."
Huge issues even with the limited selective coverage, like the matinee alternate being called the sexy Hamilton, when for so many of us, Lin-Manuel Miranda was as super-hot as any of us needed or even could deal with, and the thought of anyone being sexier than Lin-Manuel Miranda was controversial. And the clips from Mary Poppins (and Carpool Karaoke where James Corden's show had him wear almost nothing) support this view. :)
Seriously, those three shows were from other earlier years, and it feels like the critics left off some from 2018 that they really loved. (I'm guessing the "Music Man' rethinking from Cabada is not coming to NYC.) I think it's rare that replacements get a show into the Top Ten again for any critic unless the show really closed and reopened. .
@Freddie,
If you were looking for that Corden-Miranda piece for historical interest, it was Crosswalk theater, not the Carpool Karaoke segment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJd0-sRffFE
It looks even more possibly NSFW at noon than it did at half past midnight, yet you still "see a lot less than you'd see at the beach or pool," as my Mom's mom Grandma Fannie used to say.
PS "Mary Poppins' Return" should be "Mary Poppins Returns." An occupational slip, can't blame spellcheck. (But with spellcheck correcting words like "upon" these days, it didn't correct "Cabada" to "Canada")
My Fair Lady, Waverly Gallery, Come From Away (we were a little late getting to that one), Apologia, Admissions, Three Tall women...at the top of my list for the year. Elaine May and Stockard Channing gave great performances in their respective plays, and of course, Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf received deserved laurels for their work.
Of the musicals - Carousel, Fiddler Carmen Jones Oklahoma.
There was not one new musical worth mentioning.
The Ferryman and Three Tall Women are thrilling theater.
The Harold Prince Special on PBS has me in tears. Where have all the creative producers gone ? Broadway is bursting with talent yet we're allowing it to become a Mall for easy-buck musicals based on easy-buck movies.
@Jim Mc Donald, it also keeps slipping my mind that the new American musical was on life support in the 1980s and the whole 1990s, so much so that selling the Hellinger Theatre (which feels like a lamebrained horror now) was totally sensible back when it happened.. The season of "Full Monty" and "The Producers" is the year of the turnaround, and it does seem very possible that premium pricing had a lot to do with the floodgates of investor money opening. (Rich investors, who one hopes used money they wouldn't miss if lost, seemed willing to take the huge risk of a 100% loss of investment more readily when a premium hit could generate exponential returns that David Merrick or Alexander Cohen never would have imagined possible.)
Overall it felt like a sub-par year in New York. I thought "Farinelli and the King" would have got more consideration, considering the quality of the concept and the execution.
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As i live abroad i only get to New York every couple of years. This year i managed to see quite a number of shows, My Fair Lady being one of them, as I had heard it was not to be missed.
Sadly, i was hugely disappointed and would not give it a 'best' rating. (As i didn't see ten shows, i can't give you my 10 best).
The production was slick, stage well dressed but i did not think that Lauren Ambrose's voice was wonderful. She did not sound comfortable in the high registers that are required for Eliza.
The scene with Alfred Doolittle before his marriage particularly disturbed me. What should have been a colourful contrast to the all brown study of Professor Higgins, was still in dark shades of brownish-red and magenta. Viewed from high in the first circle, it looked dull and boring.
Three Tall Women on the other hand, was without doubt, the best play i've seen in years. The production could not be faltered in any category. It was superb.
That that "Uncle Vanya" should appear on any list that is not "The Year's Best Soporifics" is surprising, but typical given the men making the selections. From the shocking ineptitude of the translation to the misdirection in falling for every cliche about "how Chekhov should be played," this production misses on virtually every level. Dull and boring, with every scrap of life or humor erased (despite the playwright's intentions), this is one of the worst things I've ever endured on a stage.
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I saw the Sound Inside last summer at Williamstown--a taut, compelling drama about mortality. Great pick. It should be seen in New York, with Mary Louise Parker, of course.
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Am I really the only one who thought Ferryman was just a mash-up of Long Day's Journey into Night, August Osage County, Riverdance, and Matilda???
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I am amazed to see "My Fair Lady" in this list. Based on the rave review in the NYT it was one of the performances I chose to attend on a recent visit to NYC earlier this fall. The only high points were the moments when Norbert Leo Butz took the stage. During most of the show the ennui in the audience was palpable. Audience members could be heard grumbling while exiting the theatre. I heard the same reactions from a few friends who saw different performances. Fashioning a different ending may have been timely...and, well, fashionable, but it did not make up for tedium.
@Phyllis Tims I respect your right to your opinion and I was not at that particular performance, but the performance we saw was terrific; Lauren Ambrose was a revelation and the audience was rapt from start to finish. I also thought the revised ending was an improvement.
@DSM14 My husband and I, too, were astounded at the "Fair Lady" production at Lincoln Center, and just in wonder at Ms. Ambrose and, in fact, the entire cast. The staging was just perfect. And we had seen the "original" production. This one, we felt, was even better!
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"Audience members could be heard grumbling "
There are many reasons to grumble at the Beaumont, such as having paid full price for the two side sections (about 40% of the audience) and having been assured you're seeing the same show as in the three center sections.
I specifically bought for May 20th because it was the first time in 40 years the show was on Broadway on Liza Doolittle Day. Lauren Ambrose was out, and against better judgment, I was heard grumbling about her missing that day of all days, and was told they'd gladly exchange, but Liza Doolittle is in the show today, she just won't be played by Lauren Ambrose. (The quip came so on cue that I wonder if I was not the first one it had been delivered to that day.)
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The NYT should include all its theater critics when making this list. Even that cannot possibly cover the breadth of New York theater. But to pronounce the choices of two critics as the best of the year under the banner "The Best Theater of 2018," is patently absurd, if not arrogant. The film critics do a better job of covering their turf than the theater desk.
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"should include all its theater critics"
This is interesting, since at least anecdotally while at the Post, Ms. Vincentelli seemed to be "the critics" for quite a number of wealthy theatergoers who could not plan theatergoing ahead of time and could very easily afford premium. (Liberal vs. conservative was not the issue. the Post clearly did not expect its critic to be conservative.) A liberal but very rich writer-friend had a show at NYMF and did not have a clue that the Times was where to look for moving the show, as her collaborators told her, since all her friends in her circle kept emailing her about Ms. Vincentelli's rave, which catapulted ticket sales to SRO right away, within hours. It's arguable that at the Times, the same critic has a different kind of influence than she had in her time at the Post, where - at least from what I saw clearly - what the Post said drove a lot of premium sales. When people say these days "if Clive Barnes liked Merrily so much, why didn't it try a run?" the answer was he was at the Post in the 1980s. Frank Rich was the NY Post film critic in the 1970s; everyone under 30, even teens, read him, quoted him, but no one chose what movie to see from what he said, much like Pauline Kael. Likewise Martin Gottfried in the 1970s Post - sparked much debate, even controversy. he was the subject of 20 minutes of a 40-minute colloquy with Vanessa Redgrave and Theodore Mann at Circle in the Square; but seldom influenced a ticket sale. )
@NYTheaterGeek It's not absurd at all. It's exactly what we look for out of NYT critics. Anyone is free to start their own channel and make their own pronouncements. If you have a different list, go for it. People definitely listen to the NYT list.
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@Win,
If anyone has an hour or so to watch this from 2012, it's pretty amazing how much of this is still about where things are in 2018.
Working in the Theatre - panel includes the theater editor Scott Heller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyKBJT8SBQ
I've only recently become aware of how much the Theatre editor affects and has to put thought into the main Theater page. On this subject you mention, it seems the Times is indeed aware that based on its readers it does still have a level of unique influence in Theater, But also all on the panel keep in mind that what time of day they "drop" an article (10:30 am and L30 pm were key in 2012) can have as much effect as who the article's writer is and what the subject is. Us as raisers getting to know critics as people better as part of the the internet era was developing six years ago. ,mAnd all seem to know that people who disagree with the article are more likely to take time to comment than those who agree. Lots still seems relevant in 2018, though it feels like some of the 2012 problems have been solved.
Of course, this us way before things like the word "gypsy" as in Equity's gypsy robe becoming non-P.C. or a Caucasian actress playing Tuptim in St. Louis for one segment gets protests shouting "Yellowface."
The Ferryman is far from "Best of...." an over-hyped snore, which draws upon every over used Irish cliché ever written. I figured out the mystery in the first 20 min... sadly had to sit through another 2 & half hours. Yawn.
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These lists are a serious indictment of Broadway. Look at how few Broadway shows made it into either critic's list, and no new musicals.
I've been going to Broadway shows for over 50 years, and I've been burned enough on junk musicals the last few years to stop spending any more of my money on them. I still come to New York a couple of times a year, most recently this past April and October. Of the 8 shows we saw on those visits, only one was a new musical (Girl from North Country). We've branched out to jazz clubs, Lincoln Center and Beacon Theater music and small theaters downtown for a lot of our evening entertainment, because Broadway doesn't cut it these days. We're spending a lot less and enjoying it a lot more.
Next year I've got tickets to four shows so far, and three are off-Broadway. The fourth is a preview of Tootsie, which I'm hoping isn't a mistake. I like the Hadestown score, so I may add that one when tickets go on sale. Slim pickings on Broadway. It's a shame.
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@Amy K There are 7 Broadway shows listed here. That seems like a fair number. If you're choosing to go to Tootsie, instead of something more interesting, that's on you. Even if you only like musicals, there's Kiss Me, Kate; Be More Chill; and Moulin Rouge all announced for next year; any of these are sure to be better than brand-focused shows like Tootsie; Ain't Too Proud; or Beetlejuice.
@Amy K, there's proportionately a good amount of Broadway on the lists, and shows that at least have Broadway potential like "Oklahoma," "The Sound Inside" which Mr. Green saw at Williamstown but no seats by the time word got out; I think "Rags Parkland..." is the only new musical the list and IMHO must move for the good of humanity and could never support itself off-Broadway, but some feel the plot needs a smallish theater.
I'm surprised "The Prom" isn't doing better and I assume just missed the cut; hopefully it will move from the Longacre and that will help, downstairs is great, but once you sit upstairs at the Longacre once, you will likely never be willing to pay to sit up there again. It's painful thinking about seeing anything in that balcony, let alone applaud or laugh up there, and I was thin then.
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Actors are just people pretending to be other people. Unfortunately nobody celebrates the other people.
I’m an actor, and being other people IS celebrating them.
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@Grunchy
There's usually a script involved.
I want to second other commenters that it would be tremendously helpful to indicate which shows are closed or still running. I can find out by clicking through on - every - single - link - but it could easily be indicated on the list.
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I *love* these features, ... even as everybody recognizes their many shortcomings.
ALAS, there's the usual "very poor" editing ... which by now should be as rare as spelling mistakes. Actually, if the 2 credited authors actually did anything for this piece - other than jot down a handful of titles & pass the buck re excerpting previously written reviews - they, too, have a bit to answer for.
SPECIFY which shows are still open (at least a couple are) and how likely it is to get tickets any close-in time.
AND ... I believe lists like this should always have at least 5-10 titles without anything more ... kind of "honorable mentions" - if this really IS all "the team" is going to provide by way of reviewing the 200 (?) each that they saw in 2018.
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The substantial difference between the 2 critics' lists is a reminder of how unfair it is to producers, performers and theatergoers that only one critic reviews even major productions. Careers and millions of dollars are lost annually because one critic rather than the other reviewed the play.
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@DSM14 - so interesting to wonder about who reviews . Seeing "Oklahoma!" and "Carmen Jones" mentioned together recalls that Brooks Atkinson often didn't go for drastic innovation on first viewing, like his first exposure to the feel-bad nature of "Pal Joey." Interestingly, Mr. Atkinson was on foreign assignment when the original "Oklahoma!" opened. Lewis Nicholls reviewed both "Oklahoma!" and Hammerstein's "Carmen Jones," and who knows where musicals might have gone otherwise without that famous line around the block the morning after "Oklahoma!" opened (after half houses reported before the reviews).
(For me, "Carmen Jones" was a true highlight, but maybe it was right not to move it. Even in the 90 minute version, could the performers possibly do the show 7 or 8 times a week long enough to pay back a commercial investment; and it does no good to the legacy of the work for it to close at a financial loss. But a return engagement at a non-profit would be terrific.)
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@DSM14
I am with you in spirit, but I am not sure the impact of one theatre critic's review holds as much weight as it perhaps once did, even if it is a NYT co-chief theatre critic. Several shows that have been running for more than a year on Broadway were savaged or received poor reviews from many critics, yet they persist.
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@DSM14 Every Broadway show, and even Off Broadway, are reviewed by lots and lots of critics. Just check out show-score.com for lots of critic reviews. If you're only relying on the NYT and nothing else, that's on you.
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