ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S ten best shows (and five worst) of the year

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 11:25am

The Best:
1) Billy Elliot
2) South Pacific
3) Black Watch
4) In The Heights
5) Happy Days
6) Port Authority
7) The Understudy
Next to Normal
9) Rafta, Rafta...
10) What's That Smell

The Worst:
1) To Be Or Not To Be
2) The Country Girl
3) Glory Days
4) Les Liasons Dangereuses
5) Blasted

This is just the list...this week's issue has blurbs about each selection.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 12:41pm

As an avid EW subscriber/reader-- their theatre section/critcs are all over the map. Last year their critic gave Xanadu a negative review (a C), BUT listed it pretty close to the top of the year end best list.

It's nice to see Next 2 Normal on there though.

[logan0215]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 12:48pm

They're Theater section is so sparce and few and far between that it almost renders it useless.

The last time it was actually in the magazine, it was one page and covered about 4 shows, one of which wasn't even on Broadway.

It was followed by a 3 page "Technology" spread about Wii games.

lame.

(and not [title of show]? double lame)

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 12:58pm

i agree with it being almost useless. they have to wait a couple of months for enough new/noteworthy shows to open to warrent putting the section in the magazine. not enough opens week to week to devote a whole page to (to them/america, anyway). this same thing happened when they trashed the sweeney revival but then made it number one.

i think where [title of show] opened off broadway a few years ago it doesn't count for this year's best of. i think they only count new things that opened that year. that's just a guess though.

[logan0215]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 1:15pm

I agree that a weekly page may not be warranted (even though I think it wouldn't be too hard to put together), but they go for gaps of months without the section in and when it is finally in, it covers very few shows.

Its supposed to be a review section, that doesn't necessarily mean that they all have to be good reviews.

Oh, and I'm not sure if that theory for [tos]'s exclusion works. Couldn't the same be said for Billy Elliot, which is a carbon copy of the show that opened in London (not in the past year)?

[jennyish]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 3:30pm

Um, Gypsy?

[bandit964]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 3:35pm

I'm pretty sure Gypsy was included in last year's edition, as it was playing at City Center last summer. I think it was listed in their top 10 though if I'm not mistaken.

[fbueller]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 4:59pm

Will there even be 10 shows to rank in 2009?

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 5:07pm

They can be inconsistent, but I like this list much better than Time's, which included The Little Mermaid and a few other perplexing picks.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 7:00pm

BLASTED? Worst?
What the fck?

Blasted was absolutely incredible. I'm not saying it was the kind of show that everyone has to love, but anyone who would put that on a Worst Of list is a complete and total moron. And that's no hyperbole.

[commasplice]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 7:02pm

Happy Days as in the musical based on the TV show?

If so...what.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 7:27pm

The Understudy? As in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production? Really wish I could have caught that...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 7:53pm

HAPPY DAYS is the Beckett play that had an engagement at BAM in February with Fiona Shaw starring.

BLASTED, I've heard, is an extraordinary production. I absolutely detest the play, I've seen it before and I vowed to myself that I'll never see it again. I consider it to be torture porn.

[commasplice]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 8:00pm

Ah, thank you. What's sad is that I should have known that; I know I read it about the production earlier this year when I was looking up information on Shaw's performance in Footfalls.

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 8:26pm

Does anyone know which cover to look out for with this article in it? I flipped through one with Kate and Leo on the front, but couldn't find it.

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 8:29pm

Glad to see Port Authority acknowledged. One of the best experiences I had all year, Jim Norton was a gem.

[skander2]

Posted: 12/19/08 at 8:31pm

assuming it's the best and worst of 2008 issue, a special double issue with a collage of important figures like tina fey, obama, the SATC cast.

[Broadway Baby 2]

Posted: 12/20/08 at 1:18am

I disagree totally with this list.