I would like to offer my list of the TOP TEN BEST PLAYS and the TOP FIVE WORST PLAYS that I saw in 2022. This year I was able to take in 17 plays – (that damn virus finally over!) and I assure you that my list is totally unlike ANY of the various people that review NYC theatre. Please do click on the title of the following plays to read the full review:
Becky Nurse of Salem Written by Sarah Ruhl Directed by Rebecca Taichman Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse December 31, 2022 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Sarah Ruhl’s latest play is about a descendant of a tried and convicted American witch. The play was inspired by the rage that the playwright Ms. Ruhl felt after seeing a production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and how it distorted the motivation of the Salem Withc Trials to make them about young women’s desire for an older man. – ie – – Abigail was 17 in the play but in real life she was 11. That changes everything.
Ohio State Murders Written by Adrienne Kennedy Directed by Jenny Leon James Earl Jones Theatre December 29, 2022 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
I could watch Audra McDonald read the phone book and likely be moved by the whole experience. Everything she touches is full of humanity and such care. There is no wonder that she has racked up so many Tony awards. She really is that good. This play is tailored for emotional depth and vocal powers. The story is fictional and placed on the segregated campus of Ohio State University in the late 1940s. Adrienne Kennedy, the gifted playwright attended the school then, and her use of detail, from campus geography, the dorm-life racism, the day-in-day-out bias and outright hate experience makes this play one of the richest explorations of racism that Broadway has seen for awhile.
The Stakeout Written by Martin Dockery Directed by Vanessa Quesnelle Fringe Encore Series Soho Playhouse December 23, 2022 Production website 💉💉 out of 5.
I adore Fringe Festivals. No matter the city or the country they pop-up in, they are always the best and worst of theatre – often in the same evening. The Stakeout was really sharp. I was worried at the beginning with the cliche “actors sitting on the stage already in character before we arrive but that can be overlooked. The play was a most clever blending of Waiting for Godot and a family drama about an estranged father and son.
A Christmas Carol From Charles Dickens Adapted by Jefferson Mays, Susan Lyons, and Michael Arden Directed by Michael Arden Nederlander Theatre December 23, 2022 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
There is no better prep for the holidays than a good ‘ol go with Christmas Carol – and this is the best you will see in a good long time. Jefferson Mays rules the stage as the only actor for this 90 minute tour de forte. It is no wonder that he can hold the story and all of its moments and all of its characters. He proved that previously in his Tony awarded I Am My Own Wife. What was great here was to see Jefferson’s ability to snap and slide into all of the characters – – often holding conversations with himself – – each with a different vocal and physical choice.
