I've seen a good numbe of plays thus far this year. Ranking them in order of preference. Comments welcome.

Exit the King: Terrific absurdist farce about the final hours of a 400 year old king and his decaying kingdom. Excellent performances. Wonderful physical commedy. Inventively staged.

Ruined: Won this year's Pulitzer. Powerful story of the horrors of the Congo. Beautiful performances and cleverly staged and acted (several playing multiple roles). The brutal reality is leavened by humor and in charactger singing and dancing by the patrons of the bar/brothel (i.e. it's not a musical).

Pal Joey: Alway wanted to see this as it was the last Rogers collaboration with Hart and the play that "made" Gene Kelly. Too bad the lead (as replacement for the injured Christian Hoff) didn't have a strong voice. Same with the female lead. Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton were great in supporting roles. The look and choreography were very good as were many of the classic songs.

Distracted: Story of a mother dealing with her ADHD son. I'm a bit torn on the gimmicking staging and production and the reliance on humor for such a difficult subject. Could have worked as a one-act.

August, Osage County: Well acted family craziness but it felt like well trod ground (e.g. Sam Shepard). The "humor" in it was more the audience laughing when feeling discomfort. Third act not needed.

To Be or Not to Be: Staged version of the classic film. Didn't work for me although it had a few poignont moment. Love David Rasche, though. He does a theatrical ham like few others.

Romantic Poetry: Musical by John Patrick Shanley about a ill-advised marriage. Initial set-up and staging were the highlights but went far too dark and unbelievable.

The American Plan: Mercedes Ruehl as the overbearing mother in the Catskills was the only attraction here. Play went off the rails near the end of the first act when the daughter was revealed as truly crazy and her fiance as closeted gay.

Waiting for Godot: Extended treastise on the meaninglessnes of life are not my thing. Viewed as one of the most important plays of the 20th Century but I thik the emporer has no clothes. Nathan Lane seemed to be acting in a different play than the others.

Still to come, Accent on Youth and God of Carnage.

Neil

of those i have LOVED both "exit the king" & "august: osage county". i was extremely disappointed with "god of carnage", but perhaps our taste differ per your take on "osage". but i saw it last year with the original cast when it first opened, maybe that made a difference...

not on broadway(in fact, not even off broadway, this was at BAM in brooklyn ) but of interest was "the cherry orchard".

I heard great things about the Cherry Orchard but didn't get to it. I'll update when we see God of Carnage. We did like Art & Life X 3, btw.

Funny story on August: Osage County...I was seeing it with my parents when they were in town. I started talking to the woman sitting next to me who on one of her annual theater visits (multiple shows per day). She had seen and loved the original cast. So, she asks us, "Think about whether any of the characters reminds you of your relatives." I knew enough (before the show started) to say, "Are you trying to start trouble?"

Neil

i just noticed your title, fall 2008, d'oh! somehow i only mentioned from jan 1st(except for "osage county"). d'oh!
without checking, these were totally worthy as well:

"all my sons"
"speed the plow"(altho i saw the now laughed at for mercury poisoning - Jeremy Pivens )
boeing boeing

and while others laughed, i got a little from:
the marriage of betty & boo
and the off broadway disaster(but somehow, i still liked it ):
mindgame

weird, in todays ny times the two theater critics predict "god of carnage" will win the tony.

the good news is they both predicted Geoffrey Rush to win as well.

What, didn't you see "Cats"?

T-bird, we saw speed the plow too. Loved it. I though tPIven was great and it was a perfect role for him, just like Ari Gold. I did chuckle at his mercury posioning.

Back in Dec went to Rock of Ages before it hit Broadway...and then got convinced to go to Mama Mia by the wife.

my wife was "forced" to go(rock of ages) and said it wasn't half bad.
she also saw mama mia and said it wasn't bad either, altho that was years ago.
i just don't think i'll be making it to either.

quote:

Originally posted by Pinotlvr:
Back in Dec went to Rock of Ages before it hit Broadway...and then got convinced to go to Mama Mia by the wife.

looks like the ny times nailed them both correctly.

quote:

Originally posted by TBird:
weird, in todays ny times the two theater critics predict "god of carnage" will win the tony.

the good news is they both predicted Geoffrey Rush to win as well.

We saw "Jersey Boys" 8 days ago with a group of friends. I was expecting a concert of Four Seasons imitators and wasn't particularly thrilled about going. Well, was I ever wrong! It's one of the best shows I've ever seen. The music and accoustics were wonderful and the story line added a lot to total package. Highly recommended.

GF wants to see "South Pacific" for her birthday in October. I think it's playing in Lincoln Center.

Saw God of Carnage last night. I'd rank it third on the list at the start of this e-mail. The play was highly entertaining but ultimately empty. The performances were top notch. As one review noted, "Never underestimate the value of good actors behaving badly." That, more or less, sums up each of the three Reza plays that have made it to Broadway. In each, "sophisticated" characters decend to various forms and levels of cruelty and barbarism. As we aren't necessarily meant to sympathize with the characters, the scenarios are largely played for laughs and leave us feeling "superior" to the protaganists, whom we, of course, resemble more than we care to admit.

We also saw Accent on Youth a few weeks ago. I'd put that fifth on the list. Accent on Youth is an entertaining and funny time capsule from the 1930's. David Hyde Pierce stars as a sucessful playwright and the plot centers on the viability and propriety of a variety of May-December romances, none of which would raise an eyebrow now. Good performances and stylist costumes. I had the thought that plays such as this were regularly churned out in the days before television. I also was amused by the fact that the author's other credits included The Jazz Singer.

Neil

me and gigondass saw idiot savant last night. ummm. uhh.... ohhh....ummmm....send help?

all i can say is.....wow.....

Seeing Hair this Sunday

Speed the plow was enjoyable. We saw it in Coral Gables.

quote:

Originally posted by TBird:
me and gigondass saw idiot savant last night. ummm. uhh.... ohhh....ummmm....send help?

all i can say is.....wow.....

As strange as it was, and Foreman is a pretty strange playwright, Dafoe was riveting from about the seventh row.

Still shaking my head about the giant duck....