With Ben Brantley’s picks for the Best Theatre of 2011 out and about…here are mine!…(in no particular order)

The oh so humble Best of Theatre 2011 list :)

King Lear (played at BAM with the excellent Derek Jacobi in the title role and is by far the best production of this tragedy I have seen thus far)

Room 17B (played at 59E59 Theatres,…clowning at its best)

Angels in America, Pt. 1 & 2 (played at PlayMakers Repertory Company…a thrilling production of Tony Kushner’s epic play)

Master Class (played at the Friedman Theatre on Broadway and starring the incomparable Tyne Daly as Maria Callas)

Angels in America, Pt. 1 (played off-broadway at the Signature Theatre…had the pleasure of seeing both parts with two different casts,…Part 1 with Michael Urie, however, made for the stronger production)

The Normal Heart (played at the Golden Theatre on Broadway…there are no words to describe the sheer power of this play and this production that marked Joe Mantello’s triumphant return to the stage)

Jerusalem (played at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway…Mark Rylance was riveting in an epic Falstaffian role)

The Book of Mormon (currently playing at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway…the best musical to come along in a while, crafted in the classic musical theatre language of the Golden Age, but with content filled with the most gloriously offensive lyrics and songs from the creators of South Park & Avenue Q…and it all still manages to be heart warming and touching…)

Love Song (played at 59E59 Theatres,..a new quirky play that exploited the imagination of a man in love)

War Horse (currently playing at Lincoln Center on Broadway…a familiar tale told with the breath taking staging and puppetry)

compare with last year’s!

"I am better than thou art now; I’m a fool, thou art nothing."

— William Shakespeare, King Lear (I, iv)

…saw King Lear @ BAM starring Sir Derek Jacobi…in the mood for one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies starring one of Shakespeare’s greatest interpreters?…check it out quick…it closes June 5th…

…saw King Lear @ BAM starring Sir Derek Jacobi…in the mood for one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies starring one of Shakespeare’s greatest interpreters?…check it out quick…it closes June 5th…

"‘ll speak a prophecy ere I go:
When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors’ tutors;
No heretics burn’d, but wenches’ suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i’ the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion:
Then comes the time, who lives to see’t,
That going shall be used with feet.
This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time."

— William Shakespeare, King Lear (III, ii)