A demonic hand puppet. Levitating beds. A live rat. Scandi angst rotating on a giant turntable.
Theater didn’t need big-name stars to blow your mind in 2014 — though it also had them: Hugh Jackman! Ewan McGregor! James Franco! And that “How I Met Your Mother” guy who hosts every other awards show!
Yet Hollywood credits often paled next to the heart and staging ingenuity found in scrappier offerings.
Below are my favorite shows of the year, in alphabetical order, because ranking them would be like trying to decide which is better of apples, oranges or spoons.
“A Doll’s House” (BAM)
Ibsen’s Nora, the original desperate housewife, received a thrilling makeover in a kinetic production that created suspense worthy of a Hitchcock movie.
“Bullets Over Broadway” (St. James)
People complain that they don’t make musicals the way they used to anymore, then Susan Stroman and Woody Allen’s defiantly old-school fluff ball comes along and gets shunned. #TheresNoWinning
“Cabaret” (Studio 54)
Alan Cumming initially had to work overtime to power this fantastic re-revival, but balance was restored when the electric Emma Stone joined the cast in the fall. The show’s now perfect.
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” (Ethel Barrymore Theatre)
This wildly entertaining British import about a teenage boy with an Asperger’s-like condition proves that a show can be inventive, smart and deeply emotional all at once. Plus, it allowed Toby the rat to make a memorable Broadway debut.
“Dry Land” (HERE)
Set entirely in a high school locker room, this devastating story of friendship marked the auspicious debut of 21-year-old playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel.
“Hand to God” (MCC)
Steven Boyer delivered a performance for the ages in Robert Askins’ devilishly funny tale of a boy and his uncontrollable hand puppet. Don’t miss this outrageous comedy when it transfers to Broadway this spring.
“An Octoroon” (Soho Rep)
Rising playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins had not one, but two off-Broadway premieres this year — this one a whip-smart, provocatively anachronistic look at race in the antebellum South.
“Our Lady of Kibeho” (Signature)
Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett didn’t help Katori Hall’s clumsy, overwrought Broadway debut, “The Mountaintop.” But Hall’s recent transfixing drama — about the religious visions of teenage girls in 1981 Rwanda — established the power of the playwright herself.
“Tristan & Yseult” (St. Ann’s Warehouse)
After its enchanting “Brief Encounter,” Welsh company Kneehigh confirmed its expertise at weaving together tears and laughter in this intoxicating, unpredictable retelling of the famously doomed romance.
“Violet” (American Airlines Theatre)
Sutton Foster reached out of her comfort zone to play an embattled young woman journeying through the 1960s South in the Broadway premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s gorgeous 1997 musical.
And now for the bottom of the barrel …
“The Anthem”
Unsurprisingly, turning an Ayn Rand novella into a musical starring the cowboy from Village People turned out to be a bad idea.
“The Correspondent”
It was schlock-and-awe for this reincarnation flop that featured the year’s most mortifying sex scenes.
“Mothers and Sons”
Disingenuous, manipulative, moralizing — Terrence McNally’s Broadway drama were all these things.
“Phoenix”
Even the wardrobe was ugly in this godawful rom-com starring poor Julia Stiles.
“Under My Skin”
Mismatched couple trade bodies in this supernatural caper. They weren’t the only ones screaming “Get me out of here!”