10 Best New York Theater Productions of 2019, From ‘The Sound Inside’ to ‘Halfway Bitches’ (Photos)
10. “Do You Feel Anger?,” by Mara Nelson-Greenberg (Off Broadway, Vineyard Theatre). Female employees of a debt collection agency endure harassment from the boss and other male clowns. The author’s hilarious dialogue subverts our expectations at every plot twist, as well as several times in between. Nelson-Greenberg brings a great new voice to the theater. Directed by Margot Bordelon.
9. “Grief Is the Thing with Feathers,” by Enda Walsh (Off Broadway, St. Ann’s Warehouse). The playwright adapts Max Porter’s novel about a young widower grieving his dead wife. Cillian Murphy took flight through the nightmare of the character’s pain, in the year’s most technically dazzling production, directed by Walsh.
8. “Ain’t No Mo,” by Jordan E. Cooper (Off Broadway, Public Theater). The U.S. government makes an offer that black people aren’t supposed to refuse in this ultra-sharp and scary satire. Cooper not only wrote the play but delivered one of the year’s most unforgettable performances, playing an airline employee from hell. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
7. “The Sound Inside,” by Adam Rapp (Broadway). Mary-Louise Parker writes up a storm in a riveting new drama that explores the creative process. Will Hochman is equally fine as her troubled student, in his Broadway debut. Directed by David Cromer.
6. “Daddy,” by Jeremy O. Harris (Off Broadway, Vineyard Theater and the New Group). Regression and mutual exploitation are the hallmarks of an art-world affair between two men (Alan Cumming and Ronald Peet) of completely different backgrounds. “Daddy” is the play that got the “Slave Play” author into the Yale School of Drama. Directed by the gifted Danya Taymor.
5. “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus,” by Taylor Mac (Broadway). Nathan Lane cleaned up a big, bloody, and inspired mess of a political disaster. Mac’s demented comedy manages to improve mightily on Shakespeare’s worst play. Directed with total irreverence by George. C. Wolfe.
4. “Marys Seacole,” by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Off Broadway, LCT3). Two Jamaican nurses speak across a century and a half to bring comfort to people who don’t care about them. This drama is the arresting follow-up to the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fairview.” Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, and the battle scene was harrowing.
3. “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven,” by Stephen Adly Guirgis (Off Broadway, Atlantic Theater Company). It’s a female “Iceman Cometh” for the 21st Century and a lot more fun than anything written by Eugene O’Neill. The play is replete with big issues, none of which Guirgis ever turns into a sermon. John Ortiz directs the mammoth, talented cast.
2. “Make Believe,” by Bess Wohl (Off Broadway, Second Stage). Childhood traumas continue to haunt a family in their adult years. Wohl child-proofed her amazing play by making the kids’ overacting an asset. Michael Greif directed them with assurance, and their grown-up counterparts were terrific too.
“A Strange Loop,” by Michael R. Jackson (Off Broadway, Playwrights Horizons and Page 73). The writer defies the musical jinx of wearing three hats: book writer, lyricist, and composer. Jackson is superb at all three tasks in this musical about writing a musical. In a lousy year for new original tuners, “Loop” is the real thing. Stephen Brackett directed the stream-of-conscious story like a master helmer.
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