I would like to offer my list of the TOP TEN BEST PLAYS and the TOP FIVE WORST PLAYS that I saw in 2017. This year I was able to take in 49 plays – 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:
Junk
Written by Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Doug Hughes
Lincoln Center Theater
Vivian Beaumont
December 31, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
Usually my first criteria in looking at a play is to see if I cared for any of the characters on stage. I want to be able to identify with at least someone and follow them through some struggles. I want to see them suffer and learn/feel something from their suffering. However in Junk, I could care less about any of the character on stage – and this play had well over a dozen characters on stage. Usually that would be the end of the story for me when it comes to a play. But Junk is different – Continue reading Junk→
Mankind
Written by Robert O’Hara
Directed by Robert O’Hara
Playwrights Horizons
December 30, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Mankind was a most unexpected treat. The advert for it mentioned that it was a satire about a world in which there were no more women, and men were left to give birth to babies without them. Ouch! I thought this was going to be a cheap – woman hating – even gay celebration play – but I was wrong! Nothing in this play was gay and nothing in this play was about hating women – far, far from that. Continue reading Mankind→
Afterglow
Written by S. Asher Gelman
Directed by S. Asher Gelman
The Loft at the Davenport Theatre
December 29, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I need to apologize to The Afterglow. As I walked up the three long flights of staircases, I just knew this was going to be a thin, exploitive gay “event” that was going to pretend to be a play – but ultimately just be gay for gay’s sake. BUT, I had a great time. it was a fun story. It had a cast or three young men that were just having good ol’ infectious fun! Continue reading Afterglow→
The Pariasian Woman
Written by Bill Willimon
Directed by Pam McKinnon
Hudson Theatre
December 27, 2017 Production website
💉💉 out of 5.
Kill Bill does a bit of a political thriller – or so I thought. . . . well, a bit more of Kill Bill would have helped. The Parisian Woman is based 19th-century French farce by Henry Becque. They obviously took this political farce and “updated” it with as many pseudo-Trump references as they could. “Let’s say everything we can about Trump without saying his name.” And clearly this was the response of the audience. From “locker room talk” to “fake news”, the audience giggled with delight every time they could make the connection. Continue reading The Pariasian Woman→
THE BEST OF 2017
