The Best New York Theater of 2014

1. ‘Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’

Suzan-Lori Parks’ auspicious sampler from her ongoing nine-part historical cycle may be set during the Civil War, but this forward-reaching work boldly considers the legacy of slavery in relation to questions of African-American identity that still blister in a nation newly inflamed over racial injustice. Jo Bonney’s supple production was also thrilling theater — by turns raw, humorous, heartsick and lyrical — that pulsated with a truly unique vitality.
2. ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’

No mere scrappy stepchild of the tradition-bound Broadway musical, the rock odyssey crowned a defiant queen as the alt-cabaret freak baby created by writer John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask strutted out of the cult margins into the spotlight. Staged with raucous intimacy by Michael Mayer, this quasi-one-woman-show about a transgender East Berliner’s search for completeness provided a kickass vehicle for Neil Patrick Harris but proves equally electrifying with current star Michael C. Hall’s butch-bitch take on the role.
3. ‘Violet’

Anyone who saw her lead the explosive tap numbers of Anything Goes knows Sutton Foster is a nonpareil triple-threat. But her piercing performance as the facially disfigured North Carolina farm girl seeking a miracle makeover in this 1997 show by Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley confirmed Foster as one of our finest musical-theater dramatic actors. Leigh Silverman’s optimally small-scaled production brought out both the tenderness and the resilient spirit in the 1964-set story, its resonance amplified by today’s pervasive obsession with physical perfection.
4. ‘The Fortress of Solitude’

Critics were divided on this ambitious musical retelling of Jonathan Lethem’s generational coming-of-age novel about a Jewish kid growing up in a black Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1970s. But I couldn’t get enough of Michael Friedman’s soaring period-evocative score, woven into the bones of characters redrawn with aching vulnerability by writer Itamar Moses, director Daniel Aukin and a terrific cast. Rarely has a show so exquisitely captured the role that music plays in both our cultural education and our personal histories.
5. ‘Straight White Men’

Playwright-director Young Jean Lee has a knack for completely reinventing her theatrical vernacular to fit the subject matter of each new work. This deceptively conventional play about three adult brothers reunited for Christmas at the home of their widowed father brought disarming compassion to its view of the planet’s most privileged species. And via a performance of wrenching self-exposure from James Stanley, it went beyond the familiar “loser” portrait to consider one man’s rejection of societal expectations as a harshly isolating personal and political statement.
6. ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’

Just five years after an outstanding off-Broadway revival of Martin McDonagh’s 1996 play, director Michael Grandage uncovered a whole new spectrum of colors, dark and light, in this mordant tragicomedy about a remote Aran Island community in 1934, gripped by the excitement of a major film shoot. Daniel Radcliffe’s wonderful performance as an orphaned local, deformed in body if not in spirit, was the anchor for a flawless ensemble in which every character was etched with spiky idiosyncrasies.
7. ‘Macbeth’

A colleague dismissed this as "Game of Thrones in Vegas." Like that’s a bad thing? Co-directed by Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh, this was a bloody, muddy take on Shakespeare’s tale of corrupting power. The battles were uncommonly vigorous, the pagan rituals chilling, and the performances, led by Branagh in the title role and Alex Kingston as the murderous thane’s conniving wife, were both expertly spoken and charged with pinball energy. The tournament-style environmental staging also made perhaps the most dynamic use yet of the massive Park Avenue Armory performance space.
8. ‘Side Show’

A musical about conjoined twins breaking into the Depression-era vaudeville circuit was never going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Its swift closing notice was a sad replay of the original commercial fate of this 1997 show by Dreamgirls composer Henry Krieger and writer-lyricist Bill Russell. But theatergoers who skipped director Bill Condon’s emotionally rich and visually alluring reimagining did themselves a disservice. As played by Erin Davie and Emily Padgett, the bond between real-life sisters Violet and Daisy Hilton was the most poignant love story depicted on a New York stage all year.
9. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’

Marianne Elliott’s production of War Horse was a recent high point in theatrical storytelling, arguably equaled by her kinetic staging of this dizzying mix of detective story and bildungsroman, about a 15-year-old boy with behavioral difficulties. Playwright Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s awards-laden book may remain somewhat cool in emotional intensity, but it succeeds spectacularly at accessing the peculiar wiring of the protagonist’s brain. That role provides a dazzling showcase for fresh-out-of-Juilliard newcomer Alex Sharp.
10. ‘On the Town’

What a joy to hear Leonard Bernstein’s glorious jazzy score played by a 28-piece orchestra. Tipping its hat to original choreographer and co-creator Jerome Robbins, John Rando’s exuberant revival nailed the screwy comedy, the bluesy romance and the transporting sense of adventure in this account of three World War II American sailors on a frolicsome 24-hour shore leave in New York City. Every song is a delight, but “Lonely Town” and “Some Other Time” have both got to rank high on the list of the most beautiful musical-theater numbers in the canon.

1. ‘Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)’

2. ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’

3. ‘Violet’

4. ‘The Fortress of Solitude’

5. ‘Straight White Men’

6. ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’

7. ‘Macbeth’

8. ‘Side Show’

9. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’

10. ‘On the Town’