The best (and worst) of 2007

KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY Deanna Dunagan, right, offers some motherly advice in August: Osage County.

Photograph: Joan Marcus

* Still playing
THE BEST

Chosen by: David Cote, theater editor

1 August: Osage County*
For his fiendishly funny dysfunctional-family saga, Tracy Letts crafted an addictive mix of witty eloquence and droll-sick shocks. Full Review

2 Black Watch
With its nonstop theatrical bravura and searing topicality, this dynamic Scottish war drama had us ready to go over the top. Full Review

3 The Overwhelming*
Political playwright J.T. Rogers established himself with this searching, terrifying snapshot of Rwanda on the brink of genocide, seen through American eyes. Full Review

4 God’s Ear
Downtown formalism met living-room tragedy in Jenny Schwartz’s exceptional portrait of death and the family; Anne Kauffman’s staging tapped its linguistic power. Full Review

5 Blackbird
Pedophilia was (sorta) the theme of this shattering two-person drama by David Harrower, along with memory, sexuality and power. Full Review

6 The Receptionist*
Jayne Houdyshell anchored Adam Bock’s quirky-creepy thriller, which somehow married petty office politics to the war on terror. Full Review

7 Ode to the Man Who Kneels
Richard Maxwell went into darker, weirder places with his writing in this expressionistic heartbreaker about the violent Old West. Full Review

8 1001
Jason Grote wrapped tales within yarns and tucked them inside epics for this explosive, often brilliant work about America, narrative, the Middle East and identity. Full Review

9 The Coast of Utopia
Simultaneously tedious and brilliant, Tom Stoppard’s well-researched trilogy of pre-Revolutionary Russian thinkers was the high-art stage event of the year. Full Review

10 The Misanthrope
Ivo van Hove was up to his old tricks—food fights, hysterical acting and live projected video—with this brazen take on Molière’s farce. Full Review

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