The Wall Street Journal is running its end-of-the-year critical summings-up early because of the way the holidays fall, which is why I hold forth in this morning’s paper on the best–and worst–shows and performances that I saw in 2009.
Regular readers of my drama column won’t be surprised to learn that David Cromer, the director of the extraordinary off-Broadway revival of Our Town, is prominently featured therein:
All of which brings us to the best shows of 2009, both of which were revivals that opened out of town and were staged by the same man. On Broadway, David Cromer is currently known as the victim-in-chief of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” which he directed (and very well, too) in his Broadway debut. Fortunately, he will be remembered far longer for the Off Broadway revival of “Our Town,” which originated in Chicago, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s staging of “The Glass Menagerie.” The first of these shows has already made theatrical history: on December 16 it became the longest-running production of “Our Town” in history. I wish “The Glass Menagerie” had transferred to New York and run at least as long. Mr. Cromer has the uncanny ability to take a familiar script and make it seem wholly new–yet it is his great gift to serve the plays that he directs, rather than bending them out of shape. Such, I believe, is the essence of recreative genius, and David Cromer has it in spades….
Also singled out for praise in my column are a couple of dozen other shows and performers, including Kenneth Lonergan’s The Starry Messenger, Paper Mill Playhouse’s On the Town, Shakespeare & Company’s Twelfth Night, The History Boys at Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre…but why not just go here and read the whole thing?