Theasy's Best of 2013 Round-Up!
The end of the year is reflection time, when critics near and far pick their "best-of" lists. While we could tell you our favorites of 2013, our say doesn’t count for much (and you can always check our Best Bets page to find our current faves). Instead, here’s a round-up of picks from the most influential theatre critics* (you know, the ones who get quoted on ads and whatnot). The number next to the show indicates how many "best-of" lists the show ended up on (we looked at 9 best-of lists total...)
Twelfth Night (Broadway) - 8
The Glass Menagerie (Broadway) - 7
Here Lies Love (Public Theater) - 6
Fun Home (Public Theater) - 5
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Ars Nova/Kazino) - 4
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Broadway) - 4
Matilda (Broadway) - 4
Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Playwrights Horizons) - 3
The Flick (Playwrights Horizons) - 3
Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick/Barrow Street Theatre) - 3
After Midnight (Broadway) - 3
Pippin (Broadway) - 3
Waiting for Godot (Broadway) - 3
Apple Family Plays (Public Theater - 3
Belleville (New York Theater Workshop) - 3
Domesticated (Lincoln Center Theater) - 3
Good Person of Szechwan (Public Theater) - 2
Life and Times: Episodes 1-4 (Nature Theatre of Oklahoma/Public Theater) - 2
Passion (Classic Stage Company) - 2
Richard III (Broadway) - 2
The Assembled Parties (Broadway/Manhattan Theatre Club) - 2
The Designated Mourner (Public Theater) - 2
The Model Apartment (Primary Stages) - 2
No Man’s Land (Broadway) - 2
Julius Caesar (St. Ann’s Warehouse) - 2
Shows with 1 vote: The Explorer’s Club (Manhattan Theatre Club); A Kid Like Jake (LCT3); A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep); All That Fall (59E59 Theatres); Grasses of a Thousand Colors (Public Theater); Grimly Handsome (Incubator Arts Project); Kinky Boots (Broadway); The Last Five Years (Second Stage); Macbeth (Broadway, with Alan Cumming); Macbeth (Broadway/Lincoln Center Theater, with Ethan Hawke); Nikolai and the Others (Lincoln Center Theater); On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God (Philadelphia Fringe Arts); RoosevElvis (The TEAM); Saint Joan (Bedlam); Small Engine Repair (MCC); The Comedy of Errors (The Public/Shakespeare in the Park); The Jacksonian (New Group); What’s It All About? (New York Theatre Workshop); The Winslow Boy (Broadway/Roundabout)
OTHER FUN FACTS!
Of the 45 shows listed...
6 are Shakespeare
11 are musicals
16 are revivals
A whopping 31 are off Broadway
*THE CRITICS IN QUESTION
Ben Brantley (New York Times); Charles Isherwood (New York Times); David Cote (Time Out New York); Adam Feldman (Time Out New York); Jesse Green (New York Magazine); Thom Geier (Entertainment Weekly); Mark Kennedy (AP); Richard Zoglin (Time Magazine); Stephen Suskin (Huffington Post)
NOTES
As with all arts criticism, subjectivity is the name of the game. And not all critics see every show (though they tend to see the ones with buzz). The lists above do not include any shows designated on the critics' lists as "honorable mention" or the like.
PHOTOS
Twelfth Night, Buyer and Cellar, After Midnight