By my count, I’ve attended 234 performances of theatre, dance, music, opera, and cabaret during 2019. Out of a field that large, it’s hard to pick just ten, but nevertheless, here are my top ten (ok, eleven) favorite shows I saw:
“Soft Power” (The Public Theater)
David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s new “musical-within-a-play” premiered in New York following two west coast engagements in 2018. This clever examination of the “disaster” of American democracy following the 2016 presidential election is a reverse version of “The King and I”, in which a Chinese film executive falls in love with a post-election Hillary Clinton, teaching her lessons from China’s perspective. A successful experiment in dramatic convention—what starts as a play becomes a musical dream—this smart and poignant show is notable for the economy of its storytelling, the tautness of its writing, its incisive interrogation of American politics and culture, and its nearly all-Asian cast. Read my review. Listen to my podcast episode. (closed 11/17)