From the staging of a classic Cuban album to the realization of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, TheWrap critic Robert Hofler ranks the 10 best New York theater production of 2023.
10. “Scene Partners” at the Vineyard Theatre
Dianne Wiest plays at 75-year-old widow who wants to be a movie star in “Scene Partners.” Her name is Meryl, and that is the least of her megalomaniac dreams. John J. Caswell Jr.’s new play provides the rollercoaster tour of a most unique brain as it unravels.
9. “Here We Are” at The Shed
Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, “Here We Are,” is half wonderful, with a book by David Ives. Based on two Luis Bunuel movies, the show’s first act, about people who can’t get a decent meal (“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”), is a comic delight. The second half, about people who can’t leave a room (“The Exterminating Angel”), ends prematurely, about 10 minutes into the act when the Sondheim songs mysteriously stop.
8. “The Light in the Piazza” at Encores!
Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s masterpiece “The Light in the Piazza” looked and sounded better than ever in the year’s best revival of a musical. Playing the concerned mother and her challenged daughter, Ruthie Ann Miles and newcomer Anna Zavelson made a parent’s difficult decision make perfect sense.
7. “Stereophonic” at Playwrights Horizons
A rock band takes way too long to make an album in the 1970s in “Stereophonic.” As Joan Didion wrote about The Doors, “There was a sense no one was going to leave the room, ever.” Playwright David Admji turns the audience into a fly on the recording-studio wall as a group of musicians, who don’t make much progress on their record, undergo major changes.
6. “Buena Vista Social Club” at The Atlantic Theater Company
The landmark 1996 album “Buena Vista Social Club” is a testament to the survival of the people of Cuba, an island under constant assault. Marco Ramirez’s book for the new musical of the same name, the best for a musical this year, effortlessly jumps between the album’s unlikely recording and its glorious genesis 40 years earlier, in 1956. The show also features this year’s best direction of a musical, by Saheem Ali, and best choreography, by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck.
5. “Appropriate” on Broadway
Brandon Jacob-Jenkins’ great family comedy “Appropriate,” first seen in 2014, receives a much-deserved revival, its first engagement on Broadway. In this scathing portrait of a family, two generations are forced to confront the bigotry of their recently departed patriarch. To paraphrase an old saying, the rotten apples don’t fall very far from the dead tree. With Sarah Paulson, Corey Stoll and Elle Fanning.
4. “Purlie Victorious” on Broadway
Ossie Davis’ 1961 scorching comedy about a scheming preacher (Leslie Odom Jr., being absolutely delightful) who knows how to handle bigots returns to Broadway in the year’s best revival of a play, “Purlie Victorious.” As the appointed dupe who won’t be duped, Kara Young fully embodies the crazed Lutiebele Gussie Mae Jenkins, giving the year’s best performance by a female actor in a play. Much of the inspired insanity comes courtesy of Kenny Leon, the year’s best director of a play.
3. “Days of Wine and Roses” at The Atlantic Theater Company
Two decades ago, composer Adam Guettel and book writer Craig Lucas gave us this century’s best musical, “The Light in the Piazza.” Their long-awaited reunion with “Days of Wine and Roses” brings the year’s best score and musical, a riveting stage adaptation of the well-known teleplay and screenplay about two alcoholics. Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James play the doomed couple, giving the year’s best lead performances in a musical. Now it’s on its way to Broadway with a transfer in January.
2. “The Comeuppance” at the Signature Theatre
Branden Jacob-Jenkins’s high-school reunion play, “The Comeuppance,” has shades of “Return of the Secaucus Seven” and “The Big Chill,” but can best be described as “The Final Freeze.” Led by Caleb Eberhardt and under the direction of Eric Ting, the ensemble of actors here was the year’s best. Then again, what other actors got to play two roles each: an old friend at the reunion and Death itself?
1. “Primary Trust” at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre
A man approaching middle age finally says goodbye to his imaginary best friend, in the year’s best play, “Primary Trust,” by Eboni Booth. Playing that unlikely hero, whose childhood made that fictitious character absolutely necessary for his survival, William Jackson Harper gave not only the year’s best performance but its most heartbreaking.
