My 10+ Most Memorable Shows of 2014

Just as I’m sure you’ve been doing, I’ve spent the holidays reading all of the year-end “Best” lists and after the usual “What were they thinking?” “Oh yeah, I forgot about that one” or “I wish I’d seen that” thoughts, the only real conclusion I’ve been able to draw is that there is no one definition of Best.

Hell, I don’t even know how to define it for myself. But as I think back over the shows I saw last year, I realize that although I really prize good acting (Machinal, The City of Conversation) and have an admitted bias towards shows that use inventive stagcraft (Love and Information, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) the ones that have stuck with me the most made me think or feel in a different way than I did before I saw them. Which I think is what great theater is supposed to do.  

So while my choices may not match up with everyone else's Bests (click here for a rundown of what some others thought) here, in alphabetical order, are 11 shows (yeah, I know it's supposed to be 10 but it didn't work out that way) that made me sit up and pay attention when I saw them, followed me home and still linger in my memory. I've also included links to my full reviews of each in case you want to read more:

1. Appropriate: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ masterfully reformulated the race card with his drama about a white family dealing with the legacy of slavery;  my review.

2. The Bridges of Madison County:  Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman turned a sappy novel about thwarted romance into a beautiful musical meditation on the rights and responsibilities of love; my review.

3. Casa Valentina: Harvey Fierstein crafted a deeply moving piece about pre-Stonewall-era men who found comfort—and distress—in dressing as women; my review.

4. Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3: Suzan-Lori Parks’ saga of a slave conscripted into the Confederate Army was a wholly original rumination on the meaning of freedom; my review.

5. Grand Concourse: Heidi Schreck’s drama about a soup kitchen was an affective exegesis of faith, hope, charity and the forgiveness of sins; my review.

6. I Remember Mama: This Transport Group revival cast all its parts with AARP-aged actresses, giving new life—and new insights—to John Van Druten’s 1944 play about a Norwegian-American family at the turn of the last century;  my review.

7. Indian Ink: Tom Stoppard’s homage to his boyhood in India and to the mysteries of the creative imagination was both intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying; my review.

8. The Invisible Hand: Ayad Akhtar's  thriller about a kidnapped American banker and his Muslim fundamentalist captors continued Akhtar's singular exploration of the tense fault lines between the Islamic and western worlds; my review.

9. Love Letters: Mia Farrow was heartbreaking as a woman who yearns to be accepted for who she is rather than how much money she has in Terrence McNally’s epistolary play about the 50-year romance between two mid-century blue bloods; my review. 

10. Our Lady Of Kibeho: Katori Hall transformed the real-life story of three Rwandan school girls who claim to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary into a haunting tale about the power of faith; my review.

11. Sex with Strangers: Laura Eason gave the sex farce a serious makeover with her sexy two-hander that explored love, work and the power of the Internet; my review.

Finally, Between Riverside and Crazy didn’t quite make even this extended list but I am glad that someone heeded the request at the end of my review (click here to read it) and is giving it an encore production that begins at Second Stage on Jan. 16, which would be a good way to start off a new year of great theatergoing.

The Hi’s and Lo’s of “Grand Concourse,” “The Oldest Boy” and “Our Lady of Kibeho”

The rush of see-worthy shows continues. 

So I’m resorting to another highlights-and-lowlights summary, focusing this time on three intriguing works that deal in varying ways with the limits of faith:

GRAND CONCOURSE. Like all good morality plays, Heidi Schreck’s drama about four people whose lives intersect at a soup kitchen deals with faith, hope, charity and the forgiveness of sins. But Grand Concourse, which is running at Playwrights Horizons through Nov. 30, is also a grand meditation on how some people today have become so obsessed with their own needs that they will undermine even the best efforts of the rest of us as we struggle to come together and help one another.

Highlight: Quincy Tyler Bernstein is the best she’s ever been (which is saying something) as Shelley, the non-habit-wearing nun who runs the kitchen, worries about her lost ability to pray, but still recognizes evil when she sees it.

 Lowlight: Only nitpicks not really worth mentioning. 

THE OLDEST BOY. The Buddhist belief in reincarnation provides the backdrop for Sarah Ruhl’s family drama about a couple—he’s Tibetan and a devout Buddhist, she a white American and a lapsed Catholic—who are told that their small son is the latest incarnation of a revered spiritual teacher and are asked to give him up to monks who want to raise the boy in their monastery. Playing at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through Dec. 28, the play combines elements of both western and eastern theatrical storytelling, from the presence of a Greek chorus to the casting of a Japanese Bunraku puppet as the boy.

 Highlight: Director Rebecca Taichman’s gorgeous staging, which uses music, dance and artful lighting, knits together the natural and the metaphysical strands of the play into an almost transcendent whole.

 Lowlight: Ruhl raises all kinds of provocative questions about the sanctity of the mother-child bond, the struggle between the individual versus the greater good and the belief in divinity but refuses to develop any of them enough to create dramatic tension, which saps the energy right out of the play.

OUR LADY OF KIBEHO. Inspired by a true story, Katori Hall tells the story of three Rwandan school girls who claimed to see visions of the Virgin Mary and the subsequent turmoil that draws in nearby villagers and even a representative from the Vatican who arrives to determine if the girls are blessed, demon-struck or perpetuating a hoax.

Highlight: The acting, especially from the lead actresses—Nneka Okafor, Mandi Masden, and Joaquina Kalukango—is so achingly authentic that it haunted me for days.

 Lowlight: Although director Michael Greif has created some unforgettable moments, including one coup d’theatre that shouldn’t be spoiled, his decision to move several scenes into the audience made it difficult to see and hear everything that was going on.