Playbill On-Line asked readers to name what they feel have been the five best plays of the 20th century, so we could compile a list of the audience's favorite plays overall.
Here are the standings as of July 21. The poll will remain live for submissions through July 24. Here is your chance to make sure your favorite is on the list.
The results so far have been weighted toward shows from the latter part of the century, and toward musicals, especially recent musicals and musicals that have had recent revivals. However, the three top-rated dramas were all written before 1950. The overwhelming majority of plays on the list are American or British and written in naturalistic style.
Here are the top 30 vote-getters; those with the most votes are listed first:
A Streetcar Named Desire
Les Miserables
A Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Phantom of the Opera
Death of a Salesman
Angels in America (both parts)
West Side Story
Rent
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Ragtime Our Town
The Glass Menagerie
A Chorus Line
Chicago
Show Boat
Waiting for Godot
Miss Saigon
Cabaret
Arcadia
My Fair Lady
Sunset Boulevard
Dancin'
Evita
The Life
Jesus Christ Superstar
Equus
Sunday in the Park With George
Pygmalion
Oklahoma!
The Diary of Anne Frank
You can peruse the complete results (as of July 17), distributed over seven files. The poll asked respondents to list five choices and to explain each choice. Though more choices were sometimes posted, only the top five were counted. :
Part 7
Part 6
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
Send your five choices. Lists of plays submitted without explanation will not be posted
-- By Robert Viagas