The Great Work Continues....

June 24, 2018 9:23 PM

The 25 Best American Plays Since ‘Angels in America. (SLNYT)
posted by storybored (20 comments total)

Was going to be very mad if The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety wasn't on the list. That show is so so good. Not a bad list overall.
posted by Uncle at 10:21 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've put all of these on my reading list. How awful is it that I've seen none of them?
posted by xammerboy at 3:26 AM on June 25, 2018

Yeah, pretty much the same here. I'm familiar with a few, but have only seen one. The place I live now just doesn't have much of a theater community so I'm happy to get lists like this so I can at least try to read some of the plays I missed.
posted by gusottertrout at 3:39 AM on June 25, 2018

I had missed that Wallace Shawn was a playwright! I need to check some of his stuff out. In general, I think I am tragically unaware of a lot of these - definitely a sign I need to get out and see more plays and read more plays. My past few trips to NYC for theater have focused on musicals (I barely managed to see Allegiance before it closed).

I am slightly conflicted about the Vagina Monologues - not the work but the cultural place it's made for itself. It's a brilliant piece, and I really enjoyed both reading and seeing it. I find that V-Day and other associated stuff skews more towards awareness of violence against women rather than celebration of women's sexuality than I would like, though.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:50 AM on June 25, 2018

I have two and a half theatre degrees. I've been performing in amateur and academic drama since around 2000 or so. I am way into theatre, is my general gist here.

I...I don't really care for Angels in America all that much.

This has been my periodic shameful cultural confession.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:21 AM on June 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

I've seen about eight or nine of them here in London and have tickets for upcoming performances of a couple more. Which makes me realise again what a GREAT city this is for theatre.
posted by Paul Slade at 5:26 AM on June 25, 2018

I honestly can't think of any plays I'd take off of or add to this list, and I'm usually pretty opinionated in my theater thoughts. I'm sure I'll come up with some, but this is a very good list of modern stage plays to read and watch.
posted by xingcat at 5:27 AM on June 25, 2018

I really feel like Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar should be on the list. Its centerpiece is four multicultural, reasonably "woke" characters, sit down to a dinner where the conversation slowly and steadily escalates from reasoned debate, to disagreement, rage and violence, leaving you dizzily wondering how the hell it got so out of hand.
posted by dnash at 6:17 AM on June 25, 2018

"Are you kidding, these assholes aren't even going to put The Wolves on the . . . oh, wait. OK. Good list."
posted by The Bellman at 7:10 AM on June 25, 2018

Glad to see Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play on this list. For me that was on a pretty rarified level of works which made me go through a series of mental "holy SHIT!"s as a re-evaluated what an art form was capable of.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:25 AM on June 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is a good list.

(Though, full disclosure, I loved "Angels in America")

I'd love to see the UK companion list.
posted by thivaia at 8:41 AM on June 25, 2018

I'm sort of sorry to see one of my favorites, Other Desert Cities, not on that list. Oh well. Glad to see The Humans on there, though.
posted by holborne at 8:45 AM on June 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Here's a followup: ‘Surprised and Dismayed’: Readers Respond to Our Best 25 Plays List'
posted by storybored at 8:57 AM on June 25, 2018

How awful is it that I've seen none of them?

Don't beat yourself up. It is hard to see theater in the US. The UK has a long tradition of popular theater; it's been part of their culture for hundreds of years; conversely, here in the US theater is seen as something for the cultural elites. If you don't live in a city with a major theater scene -- which is basically New York -- then your opportunities are pretty limited. And when a show does come to town, or if your local professional company puts on a production, then tickets are $20-$40 or more. If you're not already a person who is interested in theater (which is a small population), why would you want to pay $40 to see people you've never heard of perform a story you've never heard of on stage, when you can pay $10 to go see Chris Pratt blow up a bunch of CGI googaws.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:49 AM on June 25, 2018

Proof and Doubt are not on the list.
posted by brujita at 11:37 AM on June 25, 2018

This was an odd list for me because nothing at the top of it was familiar to me and I knew quite a few of the ones further down the list.

(By "knew" I mean, I'd heard of them, recognized the name of the play, and even knew something about its plot and the media splash it made during its run. I've seen a couple of the older ones but only community theater productions.)
posted by hippybear at 7:38 PM on June 25, 2018

I'm familiar with just over half on the list, and the only one I object to is Clybourne Park which I feel is some highly overrated hipster-racist/sexist banter.
posted by TwoStride at 3:24 PM on June 26, 2018

It is hard to see theater in the US.

I agree. I've seen a lot of really superb plays in Seattle, but it involves a lot of work keeping track of a zillion different theater companies in town.

I mean, to use some examples from the list:

ACT Theatre: Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play was there in 2015. The Wolves just finished a run there a few months ago.

Arts West: An Octoroon was there in April and May.

Seattle Repertory Theater: The Humans was was staged there at the end of 2017. Clybourne Park was staged there in 2012. August: Osage County was staged there back in 2009. Topdog Underdog was staged there way back in 2003.

Strawberry Theater Workshop: How I Learned to Drive is playing there right now.

ReAct Theatre: Yellow Face played there in 2011.

And since I can't see everything that every theater company puts out, it's a guessing game of which ones I might like to see. I'm getting better at (I loved everything I picked at Seattle Rep this year), but it still can be kind of a letdown when a play turns out to be much less interesting than the blurb made it sound.

My two cents about the article: I'm delighted to see Mr. Burns on the list. I'm a fan of both The Simpsons and the way stories evolve over time, and it somehow exceeded my sky-high expectations. I also really loved Yellow Face, which managed to convey a lot of nuanced thoughts about race and casting, while also being entertaining as hell. I really appreciate that in the section about Topdog Underdog, the article mentioned one of Parks' other works, Fucking A. UW Drama did a production of it right after the election in 2016, and it was utterly heart-breaking and topical.
posted by creepygirl at 9:39 PM on June 26, 2018

I'd love to see the UK companion list.

The Guardian's just done one.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:51 AM on June 27, 2018

(Forgive me; I've been on vacation.)

It is hard to see theater in the US.

Not in cities, I don't think, but my city (Houston) has perhaps a greater theater presence than most. I've heard it said we have more theater seats per capita than any US city other than New York, and I believe it. My wife and I see a bunch every year.

That said, I'm kinda sad I've only seen 4 of these, but I'm proud they were all local productions:

• The Vagina Monologues (Ensler), at the Alley Theatre, which is the big equity theater here;
• How I Learned to Drive (Vogel), also at the Alley;
• The Designated Mourner (Shawn), by local avant-garde leaders The Catastrophic Theatre; and
• This Is Our Youth (Lonergan), as more or less a one-off production in a warehouse space downtown in 2000.

I'm nearly certain that these others were produced here, but missed by me.

• Top Dog/Underdog (Parks), by the Alley
• Three Tall Women (Albee), also at the Alley
• Eurydice (Ruhl), Alley
• The Laramie Project (Kaufman, et. al.), Stages Rep
• August: Osage County (Letts), Alley

and that's just what I remember off the top of my head.

Since I'm rambling on an old thread, I'll add that Suzan-Lori Parks did the world premier of "Fucking A" here, with Catastrophic ancestor Infernal Bridegroom Productions, and that Ed Albee used to live here, so maybe we are a bit of a theater town. Heh.

Oh, and The Humans is on the slate for March of '19 at the Alley.
posted by uberchet at 1:16 PM on July 6, 2018