
Of course, the best thing about any of these lists—including this one—isn’t that they tell you what was worth seeing and worth skipping last year but that they help you figure out how much you want to rely on the recommendations of the person who made the list when you’re deciding what to see in this new year.
Because what these lists—we should call them 10 favorites rather than 10 bests—really reflect are the current interests and tastes of the person making them. As regular readers know, I'm usually interested in shows that deal with big political issues and I have a soft spot for ones that use highly theatrical stagecraft but, as you’ll see, what got to me in 2012 were intimate dramas, simply staged, that made me really think about the ways in which we struggle to connect with one another. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 10 shows that most connected with me:

THE BIG MEAL Using a series of landmark meals, from first dates to funeral receptions, playwright Dan LeFranc and director Sam Gold chronicled a couple’s life over six decades. To quote from my review of that one, “it’s packed with lots of laughs and some tear-inducing moments as well. I dare anyone to see it without identifying with the joys and disappointments of at least one of those meals.”
COCK British playwright Mike Bartlett used the metaphor of a sporting event for his drama about a gay man torn between his male lover and a woman for whom he unexpectedly falls. He and director James Macdonald also stripped away the usual theatrical conventions—sets, props, even comfortable seating—leaving only the text, four sensational actors and, as that review said, “the essence of theater in its most elemental form.”

HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE This was the first New York revival of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the complex relationship between a pedophile and the niece he abuses since its original 1997 production. Kate Whoriskey’s rendering of it showed how truly powerful a work it is and, as I said in my review, confirms its status as a masterpiece that deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of great American plays.


TRIBES On the surface, British playwright Nina Raine’s drama is about a young deaf man, torn between the family that loves but patronizes him and the deaf community which embraces but isolates him from the wider world. But under David Cromer’s inventive direction, it was also a sensitive look at the ways in which we all define ourselves, align ourselves and choose our own tribes. Nearly everyone who saw this production loved it and appropriately so because it was, as I wrote back then, “a tribe to which anyone who loves smart theater should want to belong.”
UNCLE VANYA Two productions of Chekhov’s tragic comedy about unrequited love played in the city last summer. One came from the Sydney Theatre Company and starred Cate Blanchett. But I actually preferred the Soho Rep’s version, which was adapted by playwright Annie Baker, directed by the ubiquitous Sam Gold and starred a trove of terrific stage actors lead by Reed Birney in the title role. Like Cock, Soho’s Vanya opted for a no-frills approach (including the uncomfortable seating) but it cut to the bone for me. As I said in my review, “I was not only riveted by it, but moved as well.”

But wait there’s more. Click the orange button below to hear my theatergoing buddy Bill and me discuss some of our favorite performances from last year:
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