Saturday, June 2, 2018

Great Plays after "Angels in America"

The NYTimes posted a list of the best plays since ANGELS IN AMERICA. It's a fun thing to do because a) everyone likes lists b) everyone wants to know who made it c) people love fighting about their favorite plays that didn't make the cut and d) then everyone makes their own list to dialogue with the paper of record.

NYTIMES LIST of TOP PLAYS (post ANGELS IN AMERICA)

Topdog/Underdog 2001
An Octoroon 2014
The Flick 2013
Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play 2013
Clybourne Park 2010
Ruined 2008
How I Learned to Drive 1997
Seven Guitars 1996
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 1994
The Designated Mourner 2000
The Humans 2015
This Is Our Youth 1996
Three Tall Women 1994
Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train 2000
Eurydice 2006
House/Lights 1999
The Laramie Project 2000
Yellow Face 2007
August: Osage County 2007
The Vagina Monologues 1996
Underground Railroad Game 2016
The Wolves 2016
The Realistic Joneses 2012
The Apple Family Plays 2010-13
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

It's a great compilation: some obvious choices, some radical ones, some plays that I almost think are there to troll my outrage (I'm not going to say which ones), and a lot of narrative experimentation. Of course, I gotta have my own list....

MY LIST OF THE BEST SINCE "ANGELS IN AMERICA"

1. Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau
2. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
3. Queens by Martyna Majok
4. Thom Pain by Will Eno
5. Dinner with Friends by Donald Marguiles
6. Hand to God by Robert Askins b/c comedies don't get enough respect.
7. The Whale by Sam Hunter
8. Betty's Summer Vacation by Chris Durang - laughed so hard I thought I was going to pass out.
9. This by Melissa James Gibson - one of the quietest and most deceptive plays that sneak up on you.
10 The Story by Tracey Scott-Wilson
11. Fabulation by Lynn Nottage
12. In the Continuum by Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira
13. No Child by Nilaja Sun
14. Vietgone by Qui Nguyen
15. The Hill Town Plays by Lucy Thurber
16. Charles Francis Chan Jr's Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery by Lloyd Suh - FAN-fucking-tastic. Funny transgressive, imaginative, epic, American.
17. Booytcandy by Robert O'Hara
18. Eclipsed by Danai Gurira
19. Indecent by Paula Vogel
20. Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman

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