Broadway's Best: Broadway.com Picks the Top Five Shows of 2010

With so many Broadway productions to choose from, it’s never easy to narrow the field to the five most outstanding shows of the year. Broadway.com’s 2010 list includes a new play, two starry revivals, an unusual British import and (surprisingly enough) just one musical. See if you agree with our choices.


1. Promises, Promises
Some “leading” critics found fault with this musical revival, and the Tony nominators jumped onboard to snub it in many of the major categories. Well, they were wrong. No production that opened on Broadway in 2010 is more consistently entertaining, smartly staged and winningly acted than Promises, Promises. Director/choreographer Rob Ashford’s lively production numbers work perfectly within Scott Pask’s Mad Men-esque scenic design. Bacharach & David’s delectable 60s score has never sounded better (including the added songs!) and the cast—Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes (who deserved a Tony), Tony Goldwyn, Dick Latessa and the now-departed Katie Finneran—is a Broadway theatergoer’s dream. Promises, Promises is the complete package, the most satisfying show of the year.


2. Red
All too often, biographical plays offer a simplistic rehash of a famous person’s career. A Tony-winning exception: John Logan’s Red, which gave audiences a fascinating look inside the head of celebrated modern artist Mark Rothko. Inspired by a series of crimson paintings Rothko produced on commission for the Four Seasons Restaurant, Logan had the inspired notion to show this angry, opinionated painter at work on stage as he held forth on the nature of art with a young assistant. It didn’t hurt, of course, that the actors hurling red paint onto a canvas were Alfred Molina as Rothko and Tony winner Eddie Redmayne as the assistant. Red demonstrated that a play of ideas can also be thrillingly theatrical.


3. A View from the Bridge
Classic with a twist: That’s what director Gregory Mosher brought to Broadway in his smash-hit revival of A View from the Bridge. The “classic” part was an intimate staging of Arthur Miller’s 1955 tragedy starring a tightly wound Liev Schreiber as doomed Brooklyn dockworker Eddie Carbone. The “twist” was Mosher’s decision to roll the artistic dice by casting Scarlett Johansson as Catherine, Eddie’s teenage niece and the object of his obsessive love. The gamble paid off big-time, with Johansson giving a moving performance in a tricky role, holding her own opposite Schreiber and Jessica Hecht as Eddie’s wife, Beatrice. All three leads were nominated for Tonys, and Scarlett won hers fair and square.


4. Brief Encounter
A swooningly romantic show that’s also a laugh riot? It doesn’t seem possible, but the British import Brief Encounter is anything but a typical evening of theater. This mix of drama (based on Noel Coward’s 1945 screenplay about a star-crossed couple who falls in love at first sight in a British train station) music (incorporating Coward’s clever songs), projections and even stage flight packs a wallop of emotion, with passionate performances by Hannah Yelland and Tristan Sturrock. But Brief Encounter is never maudlin, thanks to the supporting cast’s comic and musical bits. The fact that the show is so difficult to describe may have hurt it at the box office, but the bottom line is that Brief Encounter is simply thrilling.


5. The Merchant of Venice
No offense to Al Pacino, but his presence onstage as Shylock is just one of many reasons Shakespeare’s problematic play The Merchant of Venice became the must-see event of the fall season. Pacino is indeed magnetic as the vengeful Venetian moneylender, but Lily Rabe is every bit his equal as Portia, the spirited heiress who serves as Antonio’s legal advocate in the dispute over Shylock collecting that infamous “pound of flesh.” Director Daniel Sullivan's production makes the drama’s many twists clear and riveting and manages to corral actors ranging from Byron Jennings and Christopher Fitzgerald to Jesse L. Martin and Pacino into a strong, coherent ensemble. Why can’t more Shakespeare productions borrow from the success of this Merchant?