New England Entertainment Digest - Online
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Best Theater of 2007
(See the Worst)

Small Stages

1. The Bluest Eye - Company One - Taut evocation of an African-American childhood.

2. The Kentucky Cycle - Zeitgeist Stage and Way Artists - Greg Maraio memorable as labor organizer Abe Steinman in the most ambitious effort of the year- six hours and two hundred years of three American families.

3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Wheelock Family Theatre - Will Lyman towers as Atticus Finch and Kippy Goldfarb quietly amazes Maudie Atkinson..

4. Kindertransport-West End Theatre- Diane Samuels' incisive play about the rescue of thousands of Jewish children before the war and the trauma of separation from their familiies.

5. Parade - SpeakEasy Stage - Stunning ensemble performance of the powerful two-Tony musical about the Georgia lynching of scapegoated Jewish factory manager Leo Frank on Eric Levenson's multi-area scenic design.

6. [sic] - Devanaugh Theatre - stylish staging of an Obie-winning play.

7. Titus Andronicus - Actors' Shakespeare Project- the blood, the violence and the sadness of this lesser Shakespeare with sublime inventiveness.

8. The Wild Party - New Repertory Theatre- sizzling staging of Andrew Lippa's Off-Broadway hit musical adaptation of the famous March poem.

9. A Young Lady from Rwanda - Stoneham Theatre- artistic director Weslin Symes' stunning effort with a candle ceremony that calls to mind the Shoah.

10. Man of La Mancha - Lyric Stage Company of Boston - Leave it to gifted director Spiro Veloudos and a top notch cast to transform what this critic used to regard as a so-so musical into a very compelling one.

Special Addition 11. Solo work- Lindsay Crouse in A Belle of Amherst (Gloucester Stage Company); Steven Fales in Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Boston Theatre Works at BCA) Daniel John in Undressing Fear (Family Beef Truth Serum at Boston Playwrights' Theatre); This Wonderful Life (Lyric Stage) Neil A. Casey's 32 character stage tour de force performance of the Frank Capra classic

Honorable Mention. Beckett at 100 (New College Theatre, Harvard University); Design for Living (Publick Theatre at BCA), Dying City and Souvenir (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Boston Theatre Works); Valhalla (Zeitgeist); Mr. Marmalade (Company One)

Standout short play performance - The Parade - New Provincetown Players' sensitive production of the recently discovered Tennessee Williams autobiographical look at relationships, especially between a Williams alter ego and a Jewish New Yorker patterned on his loving friend Ethel Elkovsky.

Large Stages

1. Britannicus - American Repertory Theatre. Outgoing artistic director Robert Woodruff's inspired reading of Racine.

2. Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (Colonial Theatre tour) - the fiery, graceful legend.

3. Doubt - (Colonial tour) Boston native Cherry Jones reprising her Tony-winning performance.

4. Figaro -A.R.T. and Theatre de la Jeune Lune- Beaumarchais and Mozart in rich harmony.

5. Kiki & Herb Alive from Broadway - Justin Bond as fictional diva Kiki and Kenny Mellman as her Jewish piano accompanist Herb in riotous duo..

6. Les Miserables - North Shore Music Theatre-Artistic director Barry Ivan's company triumph.

7. Light in the Piazza - (Colonial tour) - Adam Guettel's lush score and much of the six-Tony musical's romance

8. No Man's Land - A.R.T.- Max Wright commanding as a lost soul in this Pinter chestnut.

9. Present Laughter - Huntington Theatre Company- Victor Garber, born to play Coward, as artistic director Nicholas Martin's inspired staging demonstrates.

10. Streamers - Huntington- Broadway veteran Scott Ellis guest directing a visceral revival of David Rabe's Vietnam-era but Iraq -timely play.

11. Secret Order - Merrimack Repertory Theatre - Bob Clyman's gripping medical research-centered play was good enough to take it to Off-Broadway. David Rogers sparkles as pivotal chief of surgery Saul Roth.

Special addition 11. Solo work - No Child... (A.R.T.). R.F.K. (at Stuart Street Playhouse)

Honorable Mention. Sweeney Todd (Colonial tour), The 39 Steps (Huntington; now on Broadway at American Airlines Theatre), Rain (Cirque Eloize at Cutler Majestic Theatre), Our Town (Trinity Repertory)

Broadway

Company (revival)
Frost/Nixon
Journey's End (revival)
Legally Blonde - lively Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin score and a fast-paced edition with a Jewish confidante (Palace Theatre, open-ended run)
Spring Awakening - the breakthrough musical adaptation of Wedekind's study of puberty and generational misunderstanding (Eugene O'Neill Theatre, open-ended run)

Off-Broadway

The Accomplices - disturbing but powerful
Be by Mayumana - Israeli multimedia magic
Dai (47th Street Theatre, through March 2)
In the Heights (Broadway previews begin February 14)
My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy (Westside Theatre, open-ended run)