The NYTimes List of the Top 25 Plays since Angels- Page 2

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 3:34pm

Now that I've read the whole section rather than just surveying the list of top 25 plays, I understand they were really out to pick the top 25 American playwrights of the last quarter century and chose a single favorite play for each one. That certainly explains some omissions, though overlooking OSLO is still inexplicable to me.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 5:37pm

So happy to see Topdog/Underdog on this list. One of my favorite theatre memories is seeing a production at Trinity Rep in Providence when I was a teenager that just blew everything I had seen or read before out of the water.

August: Osage County is one of my top 3 plays. A theatrical experience that has yet to really be topped. That movie is such a mistake, but I agree with TotallyEffed that the fault rests almost entirely on the direction (though Tracy Letts made some questionable choices in adapting the script and the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch was odd at best).

John is, to me, far superior in writing, plot, character work, and - at least based on the original productions - design than The Flick. Hands down.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 5:44pm

Hours, I agree re: John. It is simply a master piece. Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I’m still struck with distaste remembering the line “risk being overrun by a medley of Annie Bakers or Suzan-Lori Parkses.” It’s not Parks’ or Barker’s faults that everything they have written is far superior to anything that Bruce Norris could dream of. So why not rename the article, “The 25 Best American Playwrights Since 1994 (according to The New York Times Theatre Department)”? The last part is facetious, but it would be a more honest title. Some playwrights should certainly be represented more than once, just like an article about the best plays of the 20th century should include “The Glass Menagerie”, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, and “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof”.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 6/2/18 at 7:11pm

TotallyEffed said: "adamgreer said: "I would have placed August: Osage County higher on the list (I found it to be a much better play than Clybourne Park, which is ranked rather high).

Also surprised to see that Doubt didn’t make the cut. "



I’venoticed that as the years have gone on, more and more August: Osage County gets written off as soapy melodrama. I think this is a shame because the original production was so utterly gripping, entertaining, shocking and quite moving. I’m still a bit obsessed with it, especially Amy Morton’s jaw-dropping performance. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an audience that engaged at a new play.

It’s a shame the film was so disappointingly lackluster."

Worth noting that Onsage County was loved by Charles Isherwood, who declared it, The best American play ever - Ben Brantley was tepid towards it.