Let's Discuss ... The Best Theater of the Year

Sara Holdren and Jackson McHenry saw a lot of excellent pandemic-adjacent plays-but also exhilarating productions about a fractious 1970s rock band, a six-foot vagina, and the awfulness of test prep.

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SARA HOLDREN: I came back to this job in August, moving up from Virginia, and feel a little bit like Thomas Jefferson-"What'd I miss?"

JACKSON MCHENRY: In the spring, because of the Tony season, there were a lot of Broadway musical revivals-Parade, Sweeney Todd, Camelot-with a "We're back from the pandemic, we're going big" bent. With Camelot, I guess we learned that Aaron Sorkin's maybe not the one to revise your musical. I did like Parade and Sweeney a lot. But the show that hit me hardest was the Encores! revival of The Light in the Piazza with Ruthie Ann Miles. It was relatively straightforward, except cast with an Asian American mother and daughter, which adds a new tension to a story about encountering all these European depictions of beauty. But there was a simple clarity to Miles's performance that was heartbreaking.

SARA: I do feel like I've noticed quite a few "modern classics" reappearing, like Brian Friel's Translations at the Irish Rep. It was like you're describing with Piazza: straightforward, beautifully acted, deeply felt but not schmaltzy. Really, it's been a great season for Irish playwrights overall.

JACKSON: You really liked the new Waiting for Godot, too.

SARA: And Druido'Casey! Both felt like exciting opportunities to revisit brilliant plays that aren't ancient and being torn apart or heavily riffed on and that also aren't brand new and attempting to speak exclusively to this moment. Absurdist comedy as a response to violence, to fascism, to fear: It's always confused me that we don't write more of this kind of material in America, given our own horror show.

JACKSON: