Your Top 10 Productions of the Decade (2000-2009)

It's easy for me to know what shows I have seen in the past decade. I save my ticket stubs and playbills for EVERY piece of theatre that I see. It has been an ongoing project of mine to catalog my theatre-attending, which I have finally completed. So I will now open my Excel spreadsheet and put it to use, since I don't plan on seeing any more productions between now and January 1.

MY TOP 10 PRODUCTIONS OF 2000-2009
[this is not a "favorites" list, but a compilation of productions that I thought best excelled in presenting its material through a blend of acting, direction, and design]

Honorable Mention (Musical): RAGTIME (North Carolina Theatre - Raleigh, NC)
Honorable Mention (Play): THE SEAFARER (Steppenwolf Theatre Company - Chicago, IL)
10] THE HISTORY BOYS (Broadhurst Theatre - New York, NY)
9] SPRING AWAKENING (Eugene O'Neill Theatre - New York, NY)
8] ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (Berkshire Theatre Festival - Stockbridge, MA)
7] THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE (Lyceum Theatre - New York, NY)
6] AVENUE Q (Golden Theatre - New York, NY)
5] GYPSY (St. James Theatre - New York, NY)
4] GREY GARDENS (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York, NY)
3] BILLY ELLIOT (Imperial Theatre - New York, NY)
2] AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Imperial Theatre - New York, NY)
1] FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA (Triad Stage - Greensboro, NC)

---

Updated On: 12/12/09 at 09:53 PM

I don't keep ticket stubs and programs, so I'll go for the ones that stick out in my mind

Les Miserables (Original Broadway. I never saw the show until 2001, so for me it counts)
Haphestus (Lookinglass Theatre, Chicago)
Next to Normal (Broadway)
August: Osage County (Broadway)
Metamorphoses (Western Michigan University)
Sunday in the Park with George (Broadway)
Rent (2005 Tour. Again, didn't see it until then)
Hair (Broadway)
The Drowsy Chaperone (Broadway)
The Light in the Piazza (Broadway)

---

Wicked
Brooklyn
Good Vibrations
All Shook Up
The Story of My Life
In My Life
Lennon
Hot Feet
Glory Days
Blonde In The Thunderbird

ljay, you didn't put Bobbi Boland on your list?? It was AH-MAZING!

The Light in the Piazza
Nine
Cabaret
Urinetown
The Pillowman
Dreamgirls (Prince Theatre, PA)
Our Town
August: Osage County
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Why Torture is Wrong and Those Who Love Them (The Public)

Ones with Songs:

Caroline, Or Change
Hairspray
Spring Awakening
Passing Strange
HAIR
Avenue Q
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Producers
Gypsti (that's Gypsy crossed with Patti)
The Full Monty

Extra Two: Assassins, Urinetown

Ones without Songs:

Homebody, Kabul
Well
The Long Christmas Ride Home (Trinity Rep)
Entertaining Mr. Sloane
Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
Summer & Smoke (Hartford Stage)
I Am My Own Wife
Present Laughter (Huntington Stage)
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
Punchdrunk's Sleep No More (American Repertory Theater)

---

A brief disclaimer: my list features only musicals (haven't sorted through the plays yet), which were chosen based on the merits of the ENTIRE production. Therefore, even though I consider SPRING AWAKENING and THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA to be among the best scores of the decade, other aspects of these shows left me cold and so they are not included on the overall best-of list. In alphabetical order:

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
AVENUE Q
CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY
GYPSY (2003 revival)
HAIRSPRAY
THE PAJAMA GAME (2006 revival)
THE PRODUCERS
SOUTH PACIFIC (2008 revival)
SWEENEY TODD (2005 revival)

Special mention: THE FIRST WIVES CLUB

Updated On: 12/13/09 at 05:16 AM

MUSICALS
The Wild Party (LaChiusa - Broadway)
Sunday in the Park With George (Revival - London/Broadway)
Caroline, or Change
Bernarda Alba
Gypsy (LuPone)
Spring Awakening
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Off Broadway revival)
The Light in the Piazza
Passing Strange
The Glorious Ones

PLAYS
Proof
Blackbird
The Coast of Utopia
Happy Days (BAM)
A Streetcar Named Desire (BAM)
Landscape of the Body (Signature Theatre)
The Pillowman
August: Osage County
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare in the Park - 2007)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (Broadway revival)

---

Updated On: 12/13/09 at 08:59 AM

No Particular order:

"Caroline or Change"
"August: OC"
"The Seafarer"
"Next To Normal"
"Ruined"
"110 In The Shade"
"Avenue Q"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Doubt"
"Hairspray"

August: Osage County (Broadway)
Caroline, or Change (Broadway)
Doubt (Broadway)
Eurydice (Second Stage)
Follies (Encores!)
Movin' Out (Broadway)
Ruined (Broadway)
The Pillowman (Broadway)
Ragtime (Broadway)
The Seagull (Shakespeare in the Park)

---

Updated On: 12/13/09 at 12:05 PM

In no real order.

1. In The Heights
2. Hair
3. Ragtime
4. The Norman Conquests
5. Brighton Beach Memoirs
6. August: Osage County
7. [title of show]
8. The Last Five Years
9. Company
10. The Drowsy Chaperone